Wii U will not play DVDs or Blu-ray, Iwata says
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/G22zOa5NOzyOnQP5GEYWHg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTMzOA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/xpUSqafyfnG3ubY48h2RJA--~B/aD0yMTE7dz02MDA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/06/2011-06-15-wiiudvd.png)
Planning to replace that aging Blu-ray player with a Wii U? Not so fast. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the gaming console won't play DVD or Blu-ray discs, due to patent licensing fees.
Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities. The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies.
So there you have it. Iwata doesn't want to hand over a bag of cash for baby Blu's "bag of hurt." By the time the Wii U hits store shelves in 2012, we may be buying Blu-ray players just for their Netflix capabilities, so here's to hoping the console at least carries over that functionality from its predecessor.