Neat.


I would say, "Isn't it a little late for a system revision since the Wii U is coming next year?". Then I remembered that Sony is releasing a new PSP model this fall in lieu of not having the PlayStation Vita ready for launch in North America.

This doesn't bode well for GC support in the WiiU. (How am I suppose to play SSBB/MKW on the WiiU without a wavebird?)

And besides the logo, I can't see a difference in the 'streamline' console....

Maybe its not as deep?

If it wasn't for GC BC and then Monster Hunter Tri, I probably wouldn't had touched my Wii all this year.

I thought Nintendo already confirmed Wii U is not backwards compatible with Gamecube.

Correct.

So Europe is not only getting a downgraded version of PSP but also Wii now.  ::)

No word on NA getting this though.

It's designed to lay horizontal? They're already setting up the Wii U to be confused with the Wii.

Dear Nintendo - We already have plenty of Wii hardware... we need some more games, plz.

Unless... HDMI?

Yeah, it looks SO similar to the WiiU.  WiiU already needs a redesign.

And a new name.

I'm pretty sure 90% of the Wii userbase has no idea that the Wii even plays Gamecube games and might not even know what the Gamecube is.  Anyone who cares already has a Wii, so it's not really a big deal.  Nintendo never drew much attention to the backwards compatibility in the first place.  I think they've learned that if you don't have it you can resell the old games.

Backwards compatibility serves a purpose in the first few years of a console's life by helping to win over the previous console's user base. Not that the GC had a large user base, mind you, but it was a good thing to have from the time the system launched until about let's say 2008. After that pretty much everyone who cared about that feature already owned it, so Nintendo reasonably could have removed it at that time. I'm surprised it took them this long to cut it out.

I doubt it added much to manufacturing costs, but even if it was only like $5 you figure Nintendo may sell another 20-30 million units, so that adds up to a significant chunk of money saved off manufacturing. It is also highly beneficial to reduce the size and weight of the Wii as much as possible, and taking GC compatibility out was a logical way to achieve that. Not that the Wii was a large or heavy system to begin with, but getting it even smaller is nice.

Maybe I'm missing something but why does the redesign look too similar to Wii U? It looks like the Wii to me besides the moved logo. Is it because the packaging is showing the console laying horizontally?  Back when Wii U was unveiled, I thought it looked too similar to the Wii so I suppose I'm just confused over the new emphasis on the similarities of redesigned Wii and the Wii U because the redesigned Wii looks identical to the original model. Not sure I'm explaining this well.

Agree with Chozo Ghost, also wonder why the EU Release List is discussed in this article - anyone else seeing that?

Apparently, the redesign is only officially announced for Europe. I could have sworn I read an article stating that NOA said they currently have no plans to release it but I can't find the article now.

Well, the WiiU isn't finalized yet, so there is a possibility that the final design won't look so much like a Wii.

The article's up on Destructoid.

That's because the official news of the redesign was buried at the bottom of that press release.

For every one saying that the new Wii looks even more like the Wii U now....

http://i.imgur.com/d6IDp.jpg

I have to say, how? It looks identical to the Wii other than the logo.
(agreeing with Adrock)

The Wii U shared a similar look with the Wii, but there is no way you can say that the revised Wii looks more like the Wii U when nothing (immediately obvious) about it's appearance has changed other than the position of the logo and the fact that it's not being sat up vertically.

It makes sense that this is a revision Nintendo wouldn't really want to draw much attention to, because its not the sort of revision that adds anything new. Its taking something away. Not a big deal, but to some people it looks bad I guess.

Nintendo should have increased the internal flash memory to 2GB and added extra features that the older Wii missed out on during its release.

Both games had 3 other control options: Wii Remote, Wii Remote + Nunchuk, Classic Controller.

Not a chance HDMI will be added, what would be the point when the system can't display higher than 480p anyways? Kytim, no chance. The whole point of removing the GCN stuff is to save money, adding more flash memory would add cost and wouldn't really benefit them.

Adding more flash might actually save them money.

I can't think of a single device that is using 512MB of flash other than the Wii. If they used a chip that was being mass produced in higher quantities (like 2GB), then it might actually be cheaper to produce and therefore save them some more pennies in the long run.

A flash bump to 2GBs might have happened if the 3DS was a bigger success since it also uses 2GB flash chips. Having the Wii and 3DS use the same flash chip would drive the price of that chip down a lot faster through mass production.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are using larger chips, just with parts disabled.

That would be stupid. Does having more than 512MB or Flash Mem break compatibility with Wii IOS or something? Having more internal flash is a selling point that would have made alot of core gamers happy less bitchy.

I don't think it would make existing Wii owners less bitchy, since they would have to spend another $150+ tax to get a new system for it. I would have liked more than 512MB (lol, 512KB isn't enough even for the OS, I assume it was a typo in both posts) of memory, but I don't see it as a big deal they didn't change it for this.

Yeah, I meant 512MB Flash mem. not 512KB.

I'll go fix that now.

I mean, chip companies ship higher capacity/capability chips with parts disabled all the time (often defective parts). It's cheaper for them to do it that way, and it could be done without Nintendo's input.

Yeah, I remember reading a long time ago about how the Sega Genesis towards the end of its life was using a CPU which was much more powerful than the original CPU used, and that Sega artificially limited that CPU so that it was the same as the old one, even though it was capable of much more. The reason they used the newer and faster CPU was that it was less expensive than to continue using the old one.

So it is very possible that recent Wii units may be using 2gb flash memory chips as we speak, but Nintendo artificially is restricting them to 512mb to keep them the same as past units.

This new Wii 1.5 most likely does not cost that much for Nintendo to produce and it will help increase their profit margins over the current Wii system. When Nintendo made the transition from the DS Lite to the DSi they doubled the RAM and added internal flash memory. It stands to reason that even Nintendo is aware that just by removing the Gamecube portions of this console may not be enough to attract significant sales base. However, if Nintendo added extra RAM and internal storage then it might incentivize enough people to impulse buy. The only issue is that the Wii U is so close to launch that many may avoid buying this system due to the bigger and badder Wii U.

I wouldn't call it a Wii 1.5, more like Wii 0.9. It's not a new system and doesn't add anything (it actually subtracts features). I don't see Nintendo adding RAM and stuff because I doubt there's any chance of games using the added RAM. People were willing to upgrade to DSi for the camera and DSiWare  (and the slightly bigger screen), I doubt anyone did it fro the increased RAM and only a handful of retail games really took advantage.

How is that an incentive to buy? You can't see the extras. DSi at least had camera and larger screens. The extra flash memory will come in handy but it's not going to change anyone's mind. What would additional RAM do for the Wii? No one is going to use it at this point. Skyward Sword is the console's swan song.

Edit: Damn you, tj...

There's no point in upping the RAM or making it more powerful because no existing Wii games would make use of it in any way nor would future retail games because that would break compatibility with the installed Wii base which is huge. The only reason the DSi beefed up RAM was for the DSiware service, plus the integrated web browser which required a RAM expansion on the original DS that plugged into the GBA slot. So that's why the DSi had expanded RAM and why that made some sense, but it would make no sense to do that on the Wii.

Yeah, I don't see upping the RAM at all - and while there's no foreseeable harm in upping the system's internal memory, I don't think there's any real nagging reason to do it.  WiiWare/VC is already a failed service - and those who support it can easily use an SD card.  If larger memory is cheaper/the same price as the smaller memory, then sure... so long as it doesn't somehow break the system's programming or something (similar to how RockBand can't read HDSC cards...

Who the hell would be attracted by the removal of a feature?  This is entirely Nintendo slyly cutting costs and hoping no one notices.  It's not like they're going to advertise "the new and inferior Wii!  Now without Gamecube support!"

When some of you are talking about improving the Wii, do any of you actually want them to do this?  Would you buy a brand new system for some additional RAM or storage space and then go buy a brand new Wii U next year?  You know that the Wii is finished and has only like two more games in the pipeline.  You know the successor is coming out soon.  So why the hell would you want a better Wii?  The Wii U is going to be backwards compatible anyway.

When Sony removed PS2 BC from the PS3 people raised hell and eventually moved on. The same thing is going to happen to the Gamecube once the Wii U is released.

Agreed. But you should take into account that removing GC support apparently results in a physically smaller and more lightweight system, which is always nice from a consumer perspective. There is also the matter of a reduction in manufacturing costs which is the real reason Nintendo is doing it. If Nintendo passes those savings on to consumers in the form of price drops or bundle deals (like the European one which has two games) then that's great for consumers.

Name one person who is going to raise hell about GC support not being included in the Wii U.

I just want to amend this statement: This is entirely Nintendo slyly cutting costs and hoping no one notices.

I would for the Homebrew Channel, but not until I could get one for under $100 and especially if Nintendo packaged Wii Sports Resort and Wii Play Motion as I have neither of those games. I remember years ago when Toys R Us was clearing out their stock of the redesigned SNES for $20 and my mom wouldn't buy me one. I probably wouldn't wait/hope for the price to drop that low, but hell yeah, I'd buy the redesigned Wii. By then, I'm sure I could get Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower for super cheap on ebay.

I like how the press release advertises placing the system horizontally as an awesome new feature. What they should have really done was made a swiveling logo like the PS2 had, then you could switch it to either and the logo would always be upright! The stuff about removing GameCube support is conveniently hidden away with a "find the truth" symbol.

Let me amend it further: no one cares.

I hate to say it because I loved the Gamecube myself, but even when it was alive it wasn't exactly a hugely popular system. So even when the Wii first launched the fact it was backwards compatible with the GC was not a huge selling point. If you asked people why they were interested in a Wii I bet GC BC probably wasn't even among the top 10 answers. It mattered to some, though, but everyone who it mattered to already has a Wii or can easily get one for cheap.

So no one cares. No one on this site is raising a fuss about it and this IS a Nintendo fansite. If people here aren't complaining who will?

Because we all have a GameCube, so we don't need backwards compatibility. The type of person who would care is either a recent fan or a big game player in general. But even those seem like a small number.

As for the Wii U not having Gamecube ports, this will most likely be solved via the front USB ports on the console. I would bet my bottom dollar that Gamecube will return as a Virtual Console with full support for all Gamecube games.

Nintendo has a history of revisng their systems by removing features. Look at the Gameboy family, for example. When they released the GameBoy micro: they dropped GameBoy and GameBoy Color support when they released that handheld. The DS consoles would not play the Gameboy/GBC cartridges either and the DSi dropped the support entirely and the 3DS emulates the Gameboy systems. As technology progress it is going to become more common for game console to simply emulate their predecessors that to support them via game discs and controller ports. This helps the company in question to avoid unneccessary production costs.

Exactly, except with new Wii owners I would change it to 99.9%.

This isn't a redesign or a relaunch to sell more Wii's, this is just a cost cutting decision.  The PS3 did this ages ago with the ps2 chip.  GC backwards compatability is pretty much never used and won't be missed, especially by people who are going to be buying a Wii in the future.  Let's be honest, people that cared abou the BC abilities bought a Wii a while ago because they like Nintendo games.  It is pretty much a nonissue.

GC games on the WiiU will be played with the Ucontroller or a classic pad.  They didn't release a special N64 controller for the GC afterall.

Hi, I'm UncleBob... I guess we haven't met yet.

:D

That's exactly my point. There is a very tiny number of people who might be interested in GC compatbility. These would mainly be people who are either new to gaming or new to Nintendo and because of the Wii they got hooked and became interested in looking at games on the GC they may have missed. But Gamecube games aren't really available in retail stores anymore. Maybe you can get a third party knock off controller and memory cards for it, but all the games have been cleared out years ago. In order to get GC games you'd have to go to flea markets or garage sales. If you're going to go that road you might as well get the real deal and get a GC system as well. You can probably get a used GC for $20-$30 I imagine. There's also about 100 million Wiis capable of GC compatibility, so finding one of those shouldn't be an issue for the next 50 years. The games are what's going to be hard because only so many of those were made, and that's it.

I just thought of something:


Many games, both disc and downloadable, warn you to plug in or use a GameCube or Classic controller upon start-up (because they're not compatible with Remote or Nunchuk). Will Nintendo update the BIOS in this revision to eliminate "GameCube controller" from the warning?

I seriously doubt it. Probably too lazy.

If it's anything like the in-game home menu they can't even do it if they wanted to, as it's probably hard-coded into the game and not coming from the system at all.

No, those warnings are programmed into the game, so it's not something that could be fixed easily by the BIOS. (There's a lot of stuff that you might think would come from the BIOS, but it actually included on every game disc, such as the Home buttom menu).