Video distribution coming to Japan Wiis early 2009, overseas later

Starting early next year, Nintendo will be joining the ranks of its fellow console makers in offering a video distribution service through the Wii. According to Nikkei business daily, The House of Mario will team up with Dentsu, Inc. to offer cartoons and other programs created specifically for the service, and since they're using the phrase "new revenue stream," we doubt it's gonna be offered gratis. Videophiles shouldn't expect much magic, either, given the console's 512MB memory limit and 480p max resolution. The service will launch first in Japan and head overseas later. Hey Nintendo, if you really want to emulate your competition, how about an online social network that doesn't require long strings of integers?

[KobeBryunt @ Dec 25th 2008 6:10AM]

I bet it's going to look like trash

[Shea @ Dec 25th 2008 7:02AM]

now which part of the article possibly made you think that?

(is the sarcasm tag really necessary here?)

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Dec 25th 2008 9:21AM]

It will look good enough. (But of course on HD TV sets it would look bad due to generally subpar upscaling of SD TV.)

The real problem is how they are gonna work around the 512MB limit. At best this is 1 hour of 480p content. From my experience, 2 anime eps either DivX or x264: 200MB per 25 min ep * 2 = 450MB for one hour.

1 hour is really nothing. Either the service would fail or they would finally announce some storage solution. I guess that would be the later since N was mentioning it several time before already.

[TavisJohn @ Dec 25th 2008 11:18AM]

@ Ihar `Philips` Filipau

Well you can put a 2gig SD card in the front... And Nintendo did hint that a spring update may let you run WiiWare off of SD...

However if Nintendo really wants this video service to fly, they will need to add 1 of 2 storage solutions (I would prefer both).
Nintendo either needs to add SDHC support so that 8+ SDCH cards can be used, OR add USB Mass Storage support. (Or both!)

Hmm With USB Mass Storage support, I can put my 12gig laptop HD to good use!

[Flashpoint @ Dec 25th 2008 2:19PM]

I know I'm gonna get downranked by the people who fight for Wii tooth and nail...but EVERYBODY ELSE can see that Wii was never intended to offer a true HD gaming Experience. At best, its designed to play games that barely edge out Gamecube's in graphic quality and at worst, its a barebones emulator for SNES, NES, Turbographyx16, NeoGeo and Sega that just happens to upconvert images to 480p.

If I was Nintendo's design team, that huge ugly gray base at the bottom would have an optional clip on attachment HDD (just like 360) where you could add a 10GB HDD which would be more than enough for regular gamers and could be expanded by people actually *snicker* trying to use the Wii as an entertainment center *lol*.

damn thing doesn't have standard Ethernet, 720p or better, or a mass storage built in.

oh yeah...but its got Zelda... and Mario...and Smash bitches.

[Ozzman_79 @ Dec 26th 2008 10:06AM]

why would I want to use my Wii as a entertainment center? I payed for a game console. If I wanted it to be an entertainment center, I would have bought something else. I want to play games on it. And it does that just fine.

[NeoDarkSaver @ Dec 25th 2008 6:14AM]

i love that last line... :D

[Jonathan B @ Dec 25th 2008 7:06AM]

Strings of integers? Pah! You can't mix data types like that!

[Matt @ Dec 25th 2008 7:13AM]

You don't approve of string int float doubles?

[Hackettman @ Dec 25th 2008 9:35AM]

Yeah I was always upset about the whole console code crap........ Its why I still dont have friends on Wii still........

[Dave Chappelle @ Dec 25th 2008 6:35AM]

Ye well as soon as all the other countries get equally awesome internet as the Japanese for a good price and not crap quota shaping (Australia) we will welcome it, but the way i see it there is still a long way away.

[Ross @ Dec 25th 2008 6:39AM]

It's like Nintendo are taunting everybody with the fact that it has no HDD, it's like "Hey, we're going to release some video thing, you can't store it though cause there's not enough room, but you can stream it like everybody used to do in the good ol' days"

For crying out loud, just release a HDD, so that I can actually manage to read Nintendo Wii Fanboy without them complaining about the lack of HDD. Gah!

[Shea @ Dec 25th 2008 7:01AM]

The name "Wii" always sat nicely with me, even if I did chuckle a little when it was first announced.
Reading the plural "Wiis" just started that all up again.

Thanks, engadget.

[Jimmy Jones @ Dec 25th 2008 7:04AM]

I'm sleeping .......... is it xmas yet? bbl..........*snoring*

[johnburk @ Dec 25th 2008 7:48AM]

It's about time WII upgrades it's hardware to support 720p! I can't belive that they did not make the harware ready for 720p. There current hardware will not last till 2011!

[breaklaw @ Dec 25th 2008 8:00AM]

Looks like it's about time for Wii HD or Wii Ultra or whatever.

And why are they starting a video service anyway? It's Nintendo, everything will be rated PG-13 or lower.

[Colton @ Dec 25th 2008 8:22AM]

Ok, I have an xbox and a wii. And to put it simply: the wii sucks. I will play any xbox game every day for 3 months. But the average wii game gets played a grand total of 6 times. The wii feels too limited and unadvanced. Everything on the xbox flows and links together but the wii is almost exactly like the gamecube. Even when playing online you can't see who you are playing with or talk to them ( with the exception of animal crossing). I would gladly pay the extra $60 a month for xbox live instead of having a wii. But hopefully this 2009 update will make Me want to use my wii again.

[deezy @ Dec 27th 2008 3:35PM]

Umm you mean you'd gladly pay $50 a year like you do for xbox live and not $60 a month right?

[Nasty McFilthy @ Dec 25th 2008 8:32AM]

Why don't you all go back to worshiping your PS3's and 360's, and just let the rest of us have a little fun? That's what Wii is for. If it sucks so bad, why does it outsell the other two?

[PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Dec 25th 2008 10:18AM]

because its simple to use and baby boomers are flocking to it........

[PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Dec 25th 2008 10:19AM]

oooooooh 480p video.......gotta love that........



now about storing said video..........

[GingerFox @ Dec 25th 2008 2:24PM]

dragon dragon ball...dragon ball Z!

[majortom1981 @ Dec 25th 2008 10:26AM]

I have a ps3 and a wii and my wii gets a lot more play time then the ps3. The wii rocks when you have little play time. Ful ltime work, working on wedding plans, and stuff like that i have very little time to play games and games like wii sports are much better for this.

So stop with the wii bashing. Also look at the ps2 I bet it has more TRASH games then the wii.

[PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Dec 25th 2008 2:45PM]

Of COURSE the PS2 has MORE crap games.........its been out for almost 10 years there are OVER 2,000 games.......

when the Wii hits that number it will have just as many or MORE crap games..........

[majortom1981 @ Dec 25th 2008 10:27AM]

PS if hulu 480p video can look good then so can the wii video service.

[mko @ Dec 25th 2008 10:40AM]

May be something's wrong with me but "Video distribution" is the least thing I want from a console.
So is an online social network.

[PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Dec 25th 2008 3:29PM]

yea you are living in the past......

[Bionic Radd @ Dec 26th 2008 8:36AM]

you dislike playing games online with your friends? Almost everyone I know has a Wii. Seriously. A bunch of us bought Smash Brothers the week it came out and that pretty much killed the Wii for me. Playing that game online against friends is a severe PITA. I had to call my friends that bought it on the phone, have them read out their stupid code to me and then give them mine. Then after that, I realized that if I wanted to find out if any of my friends were playing the game, it would be faster to call all of them than it would be to dig out the game, boot it up, log in to Nintendo's god awful online service and then check to see if my friends were playing.

This is in contrast to turning on the 360 (or PS3, I am sure, I do not own one, yet), seeing that my friend is playing GTA IV or COD4, right there. I also don't have to pester my friends every time we all buy a game to play online. Friends lists are a freaking must have for online gaming and I really wish Nintendo would wake up and see that. Make it an opt-in feature that parents can lock their kids out of and let the rest of us have a decent online gaming experience.

At the very least, I want an online ID that I can tie my Virtual Console and WiiWare purchases to. If my Wii breaks after the warranty is out, I am not going to send it to Nintendo to be fixed. I am just going to buy a new one. Same thing for all my consoles or really, any piece of electronics I own. With the 360/PS3, because everything is tied to my gamer tag, redownloading my purchases is a snap.

I loved the Wii when it came out, but since then, NIntendo has made zero improvements. The main dashboard still blows if you have made a ton of purchases. They are still using friend codes. They still have no mass storage solution. It's been two years and frankly, I am sick of sticking up for a company that obviously could care less what their customers need.

[MRLN @ Dec 25th 2008 6:07PM]

None of my TVs are HD, so this is great.

Well, it would be, but there's no SDHC support and no streaming from it anyway...

That needs to come first.

And then Zelda Wii.

Then an online community.

THEN the movie thing.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Dec 25th 2008 7:45PM]

excuse me, but the Wii already has video distribution. I catch all the latest episodes of the AMiSH PiRATE on youtube. Oh Snap!

*sigh* yeah, I don't see the resolution on this new distribution program being much better then old youtube resolution.

[lolz @ Dec 26th 2008 7:02AM]

Umm... I can currently play DVD's, and have movie/mp3 playback by installing some hacks even with the latest wii firmware upgrade. Also you can watch tv using youtube, veoh etc... Not that I use the wii opera browser or anything, but uhh... lol Nintendo loves to milk people's pockets! When will their products stop printing money?

[Ozzman_79 @ Dec 26th 2008 10:10AM]

Couldn't agree more. All that extra crap is of no interest to me. And if it was, there's already 2 consoles that do it, why would need a third?

[chris @ Dec 26th 2008 2:10PM]

how about stupid stinking dvd support?!?! if it has simply that i would use it more. it doesnt seem like a hard request. no wonder why everyone turns to homebrew, companies drop devices seriously crippled and overpriced and then expect us to kiss thier ass for rushing products they werent ready for and didnt fully develop and proceed to not support.