Wii Mini announced prematurely; set for dec. 7th release date.

Why would they do away with Wifi? Could it be considered to be THAT expensive? In the age of the internet they do away with internet access?
 
It goes to show how little they care about the Wii's online services.

Edit: Currently it's being reported as a Canadian exclusive.
 
But wasn't the Wii also good for doubling as a netflix player? Taking this out reduces the utility quite a lot, I can see how parents might stick this with a kids tv and having netflix for instance would be a good bonus in terms of available content.
 
I assume there's either an ethernet jack on the back of the box, or else you have to use the wired USB adapter (which may or may not still be available) which was released early on in the wii's life. That, or else you won't be able to use the nintendo store or a lot of the wii channels, as well as having issues with those (relatively few) wii games with online functionality.

No idea why they'd do this - even as a cost-cutting measure it's a dumb move. Wifi really is considered standard in gadgets these days, it makes no sense. Even many TVs come with 5GHz wifi-n connectivity these days, a new revision of a games console not having it...very strange!

I'm hoping this was reported in error somehow, although it's just as hard to see how such an error would occur.
 
Do any of you actually own a Wii? I got one on launch day and I can say that withouth a doubt nobody buying wii(mini) at this point will care about being able to (not) go online. Hell, the majority of wii owners probably don't care. I never cared. Wii is useless for online games, those channels are pretty useless as well, especially since everybody owns smarthphones/tablets these days which is much more convenient for checking weather and reading the news. That leaves wiiware (is that still alive?) and vc games. Given the target group this model has, wiiware and vc games won't be important.
 
I think there are a lot of people that would buy one for their kids to play games that do not want their young children going online anyway. I don't see why this is a bad decision, if it is suitably cheap as a child's toy.
 
Losing WiFi is dumb as it removes the ability for the Wii to act as a potential alternative for streaming boxes like the Roku. Even the barbershop I goto uses a Wii for Netflix. . .
 
deathindustrial said:
Losing WiFi is dumb as it removes the ability for the Wii to act as a potential alternative for streaming boxes like the Roku. Even the barbershop I goto uses a Wii for Netflix. . .
Click to expand...
They could have at least added DVD playback support to give it some media functionality. Ability to game and play DVDs with the low price would make it a decent choice for a bedroom console for kids while the lack of internet connectivity could calm concerns of some parents that "negative influences" would otherwise be happening when they're not watching.
 
If you need the regular features, you buy the regular Wii. If you want a cheap box for your six your old to play Mario on, you buy him the mini. It's pretty straightforward.
 
Yes, it makes total sense to release a Mini Wii because the Wii is so hot right now and there are so many people that would totally purchase one if the original wasn't so huge.

And who cares about WiFi? Internet is so overrated nowadays.



I hope the OUYA destroys this thing. Maybe then the people who are calling the shots over at Nintendo will get fired and replaced by someone who doesn't live in a cage since 2001.
Then we'll get to see some Nintendo creativity in games running in a hardware that's actually more powerful than my cellphone.
 
Looks like that's really meant to be cheap.
No DVD playback - saves licensing costs.
No WiFi - save another buck or two.
No backward gamecube compatibility - ok the newer Wii models already didn't have that neither.
The problem though is that at 99$ seemingly not including any game it's not really a good deal even if you only use it to play (non-online) games, since after the latest price cuts the "normal" Wii is only 130$ and that one includes the same hw accessories BUT also two games (Wii Sports & Wii Sports Resorts).
 
Lack of NGC back-compat kinda sucks for me but I'm willing to buy it if it ever reaches Europe. Cool stuff. :]
 
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