Nintendo reveals Wii storage patch

Nintendo has announced that as of Spring 2009 Japanese gamers will be able to download VC games to an SD card.

As of Spring 2009, Nintendo has announced that Wii users will be able to download games straight to an SD card to help compensate for poor storage capacity on the Wii. The bad news though is that the update has only been discussed in Japan so far.

The plans were unveiled at the Nintendo Press Conference yesterday which also saw the unveiling of the Nintendo DSi, the successor to the phenomenally successful DS Lite.

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata admitted during the conference that the poor storage capacity of the Wii was a big issue for some gamers who were unable to use the Wii to the fullest thanks to an undersized disc drive which can quickly become littered with WiiWare, photos, savegames and Virtual Console releases.

Nintendo therefore will be updating the Wii firmware to allow users to download games straight to an SD card from the Virtual Console and Japanese gamers can expect to see the update appearing by Spring next year - though the rest of us will have a much longer wait.

Iwata also used the conference as a chance to remind everyone that Nintendo is trying to push more and more users to connect to the internet through their DS or Wii, even going so far as to create a series of special Nintendo-branded WiFi adapters.

So, it's a step in the right direction - but do we really want to be swapping around loads of fiddly SD cards instead? Wouldn't an official hard drive have been a better, more permanent idea?

How much of your Wii have you filled up with Virtual Console re-releases? Let us know in the forums.
Quote SNIPERMikeUK 2nd October 2008, 12:58
About time Nintendo sorted this 512mb is a joke, my only gripe is the storage problems with my wii.... Nearly filled with Vcon & WiiWare and Saves.
Quote Leitchy 2nd October 2008, 13:05
I doubt they will do an Official Hard Drive due to the news that a software patch for the Wii lets you play ISO's directly off portable storage. Its still early days on the patch, but I think they proved it worked a few weeks ago.
Quote ChuckyP83 2nd October 2008, 16:26
The Wii's internal drive is flash. Just wanted to throw that out there. As saying disk drive implies that there are disks...
Speaking of which, is it disk or disc? Whats the differece? CDs are Compact Discs, but theres a Floppy Disk, and Hard Disk Drives.... So confusing.

edit: I suppose I can contribute tot he discussion too.
I think the idea of an external drive, like a 2.5" or 1.8" HDD over USB on is a stupid idea. The last thing I need is more boxes and cables underneath my TV, I dotn care how small and white and cute it would be. They should make a memory block that plugs into the USB ports. By block, I mean that its physically a block and doesn't stick out an inch or two like normal USB sticks. That way they could keep it in line with the Wii design and not block other ports and whatnot.
Quote Volund 2nd October 2008, 16:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckyP83
CDs are Compact Discs, but theres a Floppy Disk, and Hard Disk Drives.... So confusing.

Not really... they are all different types of disks (if you open them up).

CD- Well, that's obvious
Floppy- has a disk inside of the plastic housing
HDD- Has platters (disks) inside.
Quote CardJoe 2nd October 2008, 18:15
And SSDs - Solid State Disks
Quote HourBeforeDawn 2nd October 2008, 18:47
what about a firmware update to allow larger then 2gb SD cards to be read or is that more of a hardware issue?
Quote badders 2nd October 2008, 19:05
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckyP83

Speaking of which, is it disk or disc? Whats the differece? CDs are Compact Discs, but theres a Floppy Disk, and Hard Disk Drives.... So confusing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yahoo Answers

The best discussion of “Disk vs. Disk” was found at the following URL: http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/Disk

The divergence in spelling is due in part to the way in which the words originated. Disk came into the English language in the mid-17th century, and was modelled on words such as whisk; disc arose some time later, and was based on the original Latin root discus. In the 19th century, disc became the conventional spelling for audio recordings made on a flat plate, such as the gramophone record; this usage gave rise to the modern term disc jockey. Early BBC technicians differentiated between disks (in-house transcription records) and discs (the colloquial term for commercial gramophone records, or what the BBC dubbed CGRs).
By the 20th century, the c-spelling was more popular in British English, while the k-spelling was preferred in American English. In the 1940s, when the American company IBM pioneered the first hard disk storage devices, the k-spelling was used. In 1979 the European company Philips, along with Sony, developed the compact disc medium; here, the c-spelling was chosen, possibly because of the predominating British spelling, or because the compact disc was seen as a successor to the analogue disc record.
Whatever their heritage, in computer jargon today it is common for the k-spelling to refer mainly to magnetic storage devices, while the c-spelling is customary for optical media such as the compact disc and similar technologies. Even in the computing field, however, the terms are used inconsistently; software documentation often uses the k-spelling exclusively.
“}
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060826212822AAnUK2M
Quote ChuckyP83 2nd October 2008, 19:54
Quote:

Its all clear. Now I can sleep at night :)
Quote ChuckyP83 2nd October 2008, 19:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by Volund
Not really... they are all different types of disks (if you open them up).

CD- Well, that's obvious
Floppy- has a disk inside of the plastic housing
HDD- Has platters (disks) inside.

I got that. I was talking about the spelling. I am aware of the differences between magnetic and optical disks. I was just being a jackass, haha.
Quote SaNdCrAwLeR 2nd October 2008, 21:30
Quote:
Originally Posted by CardJoe
And SSDs - Solid State Disks

Solid State DRIVES :P
Quote themax 2nd October 2008, 22:15
Too little too late for me. I decided against downloading much from Wiiware and VC since there was very little space to store. I got Ocarina of Time and that was it for me.
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