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Wii with DVD playback for Japan delayed
Although it's been a long time since we've even thought of the DVD-ready Wii, the morning edition of Nihon Keizai Shimbun (via IGN) reports Nintendo pres. Satoru Iwata told stockholders that, given the current demand for the Wii, the company's priority is still on that model. Iwata also said the 1seg tuner for DS in Japan will be released this month at retail (it's currently only sold online).The Japan-only DVD Wii was originally expected to be released in the country sometime late last year, but given the company's general inability to keep up with Wii demand, at this point Nintendo has time to sit around like Winnie the Pooh and think about the Wii's next hardware iteration. As long as the cash keeps flowing, what's the rush?
Wii: then and now
"People change. Hairstyles change. Interest rates fluctuate." When Hillary Flammond uttered those words in Top Secret, she clearly hadn't experienced the gaming industry -- a marvelous, often magical place where things change very quickly indeed. As today's cataclysmic explosion of Wii news demonstrates, things can change for better or for worse. Yesterday's truth may become today's obsolete press release. So, what has (and hasn't) changed for Nintendo between then and now?Then: The Wii could play DVDs via an unspecified and entirely nebulous dongle. The original console description reads: "Two Disc Formats, One Slot: Instead of a tray, a single, innovative, self-loading media bay will play both 12-centimeter optical discs used for the new system as well as Nintendo GameCube discs. Owners will have the option of equipping a small, self-contained attachment to play movies and other DVD content."Now: Inserting a DVD into the system will likely produce a polite error message indicating a complete inability to play DVDs. Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan explains DVD playback was removed "in order to deliver the machine at a cheaper cost and because most people today already own DVD players." On the plus side, this reduces the amount of times we'll have to type a dubious word like "dongle."
