Worldwide Wii Day (Sep 14/15): the official thread *Released Nov 19 for $250 (US)*

[StefanS]

IGN has a video of the MP3's new demo level, showcasing the new "expert" controls. They offer the highest sensitivity and turning speed issues seem to be a thing of the past.

http://wiimovies.ign.com/wii/video/article/732/732887/metroid_full_level_qtlow.mov

 

[Crayon]

I am in a mental wrestling match of epic proportions.

I am trying to talk myself into passing on the PS3 and HDTV and just getting a Wii and calling it a day. I have to move. I have a wrecked motorcyle to reassemble. I could use and extra 1500 bucks laying around.

The main things mind-screwing me:

Most of the extra functionality of the PS3 is valuable to me. Especially functional web use. (480p browsing? I'll pass.)

MGS4. Gran Turismo 5. Virtua Fighter 5. Final Fantasy 13. There are alot of good games (even at launch!) in teh PS3 pipe but missing these eventual releases would really break my heart.

Of course I could just get both (HAHAHAHA). But that would be too easy.

This thread is goo. I'm trying to get more into the wii.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There is no DVD playback in Wii

However Nintendo also admitted yesterday that it had ruled out the idea of including DVD playback functionality, contradicting earlier announcements.
"Because the price of DVD players has dropped so much and they have become so commonplace, Nintendo saw no need to create extra hardware options that would drive up the cost for consumers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19686

How much do the DVD license fees amount to? Considering how cheap some DVD players are, they can't be high. Nintendo are a bunch of cheapskates

 

[StefanS]

How much do the DVD license fees amount to? Considering how cheap some DVD players are, they can't be high. Nintendo are a bunch of cheapskates

I don't what the amount is now, but a while after the GCN launch they were said to be about 20 USD. It might be cheaper now, I don't really know. GudenOden - I think it was him, if not sorry Guden - pointed out Nintendo could enable it by a firmware via its online service.

EDIT: BTW, When does the EURO event start?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't what the amount is now, but a while after the GCN launch they were said to be about 20 USD. It might be cheaper now, I don't really know. GudenOden - I think it was him, if not sorry Guden - pointed out Nintendo could enable it by a firmware via its online service.

It's got to be cheaper than that, seeing as you can pick up a $30ish DVD player! And they're not offering a dongle solution either. Plus they're making a profit at launch. Are they at 65nm already? If not, that'll be just around the corner. I'm sure they could bear something like a $5 loss per unit, worst case, until then.

What this rather annoyingly means is for the kids' bedrooms, you'll need two devices where one should have sufficed. It's not a huge deal, but it's definitely Nintendo being penny-pinching cheapskates!

 

[Guden Oden]

It's got to be cheaper than that, seeing as you can pick up a $30ish DVD player!

I have some vague memory of another discussion of someone tossing around a $10 figure, but even that sounds high...

And they're not offering a dongle solution either.

They really shouldn't NEED a dongle, or develop any extra hardware. Even a 400MHz P2 CPU was capable of fully software decoding MPEG2 and dolby digital, and that thing barely had any multimedia acceleration junk at all (only MMX, which was said to be rather gimped as far as SIMD instruction sets go). In fact, DVD decoders at the time might not even have used that stuff.

Broadway ought to be fully capable of decoding and outputting both audio and video on its own. The sound DSP could encode dolby pro-logic 2 audio for 5.1 surround as well...

What this rather annoyingly means is for the kids' bedrooms, you'll need two devices where one should have sufficed. It's not a huge deal, but it's definitely Nintendo being penny-pinching cheapskates!

Absolutely! I'm so totally with you there.

It's like building a horse carrier to tow behind a car, only to put a spare wheel smack in the middle so you can't actually fit a horse inside it. Nintendo totally absolutely SHOULD have put in DVD playback capability in the Wii, it's a pure crime they didn't.

 

[Arwin]

They sure are ready to make sacrifices to meet that $250 limit.

 

[avaya]

They sure are ready to make sacrifices to meet that $250 limit.

The hardware is being sold at a profit, the only sacrifices they are unwilling to make is on their profit margin on the hardware itself.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They really shouldn't NEED a dongle, or develop any extra hardware.

By dongle, I just mean a useless little piece of plastic that you sell to people to pay for a license fee, as people will want something for their money. It's like the XB remote (which was a good way of hiding the DVD fee). As an entertainment option for a kids room, PS2 still looks a good option. Kids are less bothered by controller problems, it's small, quiet, has loads of games, lots of cheap back-catalogue, and plays movies too. DVD playback would have been really sweet and left PS2 with little advantage. I wonder who makes these decisions and how they came up with this one? What was the reasoning?

 

[Teasy]

There is no DVD playback in Wii

However Nintendo also admitted yesterday that it had ruled out the idea of including DVD playback functionality, contradicting earlier announcements.
"Because the price of DVD players has dropped so much and they have become so commonplace, Nintendo saw no need to create extra hardware options that would drive up the cost for consumers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19686

All that says is that DVD playback won't be included with the system, which doesn't contradict earlier announcements in any way. Nintendo always said that any DVD playback would come from buying an addon (used to pay for the license fee no doubt) and would not be included with the system.

At the end of the day even if Nintendo didn't make a DVD addon at launch they can change there minds and release one at any time if they think that lack of DVD support is hurting the system at all.

 

[iNoV]

There is no DVD playback in Wii


http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19686

How much do the DVD license fees amount to? Considering how cheap some DVD players are, they can't be high. Nintendo are a bunch of cheapskates

Ok i think i can see where the price increase may come from. Has it been confirmed that Wii will be using standard DVDs??? I think were all assuming that the hardware is already there for DVD playback, but what if it isnt???

 

[pipo]

Euro conference text feed is up: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=67637

 

[iNoV]

The hardware is being sold at a profit, the only sacrifices they are unwilling to make is on their profit margin on the hardware itself.

Think about it though, it has to be sold at a profit more than their other systems, they are offering a lot more "free" than they have with their other machines.

I really dont think at this moment in time nintendo is in a position to assume they will cover all costs through game sales alone

 

[Shifty Geezer]

All that says is that DVD playback won't be included with the system, which doesn't contradict earlier announcements in any way. Nintendo always said that any DVD playback would come from buying an addon (used to pay for the license fee no doubt) and would not be included with the system.

The full article makes reference of that

"Because the price of DVD players has dropped so much and they have become so commonplace, Nintendo saw no need to create extra hardware options that would drive up the cost for consumers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.

Previously Nintendo had said it would release an attachment for the Wii console that enabled DVD playback.

As I understand it, the option has been lost because they don't want to confuse the buying public, or somesuch.

 

[Zaphod]

How much do the DVD license fees amount to?

Quite a bit. Various essential licensing fees add up to over $14 in royalties.

• Macrovision: $30K flat + $15K per year.
• DVD-ROM and DVD-Video for $20K and $15K, respectively.
• CSS $20K per year.
• The 3C-pool (LG, Philips, Pioneer, Sony): 3.5% per player/drive, minimum $3.50
• The 6C-pool (Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, Victor, Warner) 4% per player/drive, minimum $3, maximum $8; 4% per "DVD Video decoder"
• Dolby Digital decoding is $0.66. Multichannel decoders are approximately $1.50. In addition, Philips, on behalf of CCETT and IRT, also charges $0.20 per channel (maximum of $0.60 per player) for Dolby Digital patents.
• MPEG2 lisence is $2.50 for a DVD player or decoder
• ...

Source.

 

[StefanS]

Euro conference text feed is up: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=67637

It's starting for real. Why did they ban electronic devices?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I was wondering that. My guess is so the press get the full picture, rather than sending a quote before the presenter can explain it in more detail.

 

[StefanS]

I was wondering that. My guess is so the press get the full picture, rather than sending a quote before the presenter can explain it in more detail.

Or playing the devil advocate: There's might be bad news on the horizon for us , Euros.

EDIT: Japan had Ai Sugiyama. Europe has Tim Henman and Rusedski.

 

[Arwin]

Could they just be worried about interference with Wii's wireless features and such?

 

[Mariner]

Or playing the devil advocate: There's might be bad news on the horizon for us , Euros.

Being a glass half-full type of guy I'm guessing you're right here and that the March 2007 release date we've heard rumours if correct.

If this is indeed the case, Nintendo will have made a complete balls-up of things here in Europe missing a great chance to pick up lots of customers over the Christmas period.

Let's hope my pessimism is unfounded! :smile: