Games for the Revolution, which has since been rechristened the
Wii, would come on discs the same size as DVDs, and not the smaller,
proprietary-format discs used by the GameCube. So when the console was
first announced, Nintendo said that the console was capable of playing
DVD movies, although it would require an "attachment" to do so.
The possible inclusion of DVD support was a major change of course for
Nintendo, which had previously derided attempts by rivals Microsoft and
Sony to bill their consoles as online-enabled multimedia devices. But
when Nintendo announced a whole host of functions for its next-gen
device today, many industry-watchers felt the company had finally
embraced the concept of a console being used for forms of entertainment
other than games.
Then, a funny thing happened. Nintendo released the final specs for the Wii--and nowhere did it mention anything
about DVDs. In fact, the company described the console's disc drive as:
"A single self-loading media bay will play single- or double-layered
12-centimeter optical discs for the Wii console, as well as
8-centimeter Nintendo GameCube discs."
The omission of any mention of DVDs led some to believe that Nintendo
had decided to abandon any attempt to have the Wii support DVD
playback. As it turns out, those skeptics were right. Today, Nintendo
confirmed to GameSpot that the Wii will have no DVD playback and will
not have an option for a DVD dongle or add-on in its current form.
"They were originally considering an external [DVD] attachment," a rep
for the company said of the Wii's designers. "But 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."
That said, other than the multimedia features, the Wii remains
largely the same as before. It will still sport four GameCube
controller ports, two GameCube memory-card slots, two USB 2.0 ports,
and an SD Card slot. Its IEEE802.11 Wi-Fi capability will let it
communicate wirelessly with the DS handheld or the Internet, and it
still doesn't have high-definition video output, though it will support
component and S-Video output.
A complete rundown of the Wii's technical specifications--quoted directly from Nintendo--is below:
WII
Launch Date and MSRP: Nov. 19, 2006, in the Americas at an MSRP of $249.99.