Space race: Nintendo working on Wii storage 'solution'
by Randy Nelson 
{ Jun 18th 2008 at 5:00AM }
Not being privvy to every last internal working of the Wii, we can only speculate that Nintendo is concocting a method – perhaps via a firmware update – for allowing downloaded games to be played directly from an SD card (much like we'd hoped for when the console first went on sale). There may be a chance this "solution" gets revealed at E3, depending on just how long Nintendo's tech heads (dare we say geeks?) have been working on it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Victor @ Jun 18th 2008 5:19AM
I'd have to copy dinner to my SD card?
rofl
DBuck_Eye @ Jun 18th 2008 9:38AM
Actually, that's the equivalent of purging, a problem which has plaqued many of America's young women today. So yeah, it's hilarious.
required @ Jun 18th 2008 11:56AM
the Wii does binge and purge disposable batteries
b33eazy @ Jun 18th 2008 5:45AM
I know this is unrealted, but 360 owners are FINALLY getting their 360s repaired with consoles that won't RRoD all OVER AGAIN!!!! The OPUS is finally starting to release.
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/06/18/opus-model-360s-begining-to-flow/
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jun 18th 2008 8:38AM
I hope that's true.
SoulBlade @ Jun 18th 2008 9:41AM
I'm pretty sure falcons still have a suboptimal failure rate. I quickly read the link, so I might have missed it, but if they're not replacing the GPU, then I doubt the problem is fully solved.
Chase @ Jun 18th 2008 6:00AM
Is, senior marketing director, Laurent Fischer also aware that he's a hypocrite, and a douche bag? What is his solution to his idiocy?
Fall on your sword, Fischer, and then we'll call it even.
Nigeria @ Jun 18th 2008 6:04AM
Ugh, I really hope "geeks and otakus" doesn't become the new "2 gamecubes stuck together".
SoulBlade @ Jun 18th 2008 9:41AM
Does it matter? Just enjoy your console.
Nigeria @ Jun 18th 2008 12:07PM
I mean it's going to become really played out real soon. You know, the constant regurgitation the internet is so fond of.
A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Jun 18th 2008 6:18AM
Good God, your puns. They must be carcinogenic or something; there must be some ill unleashed with their semblance. But seriously, I guess this is good news. I haven't ran out of room on my Wii yet, but when i do and SD cards become a necessity this problem being fixed would be awesome.
I have a dream of owning every worthwhile VC release and then going crazy one day with some friends. It would certainly beat the deluge of Halo games I'm drowning in :-/
Foetoid @ Jun 18th 2008 6:27AM
Agreed, tho i will say, thanks to the Final Fantasy game on WiiWare, i officially ran out of space on the internal memory. I removed a channel or two (goodbye useless Mii Voting thingy, tho i did get Kakashi and Lee Miis), and moved over Pokemon Snap and F-Zero X ro the SD card and that helped. For the record, i can't keep my hands off that awesome FF game on WiiWare and i intend on buying WiiPoints for the downloadable content next week and probably starting the game again. Can anyone tell me once the downloadable content is downloaded, you can use that content on any current or new game right?
Burnt Meatloaf @ Jun 18th 2008 6:36AM
How hard is it to register a game for a specific memory card if you copy it off the main memory? If the Wii is chipped, no DRM method will matter, anyway. A patch to enable you to play games off the SD card is long overdue, and that alone shows how committed they are to "storage solutions."
It better not be online storage. Managers cream their pants over the idea of buyers not actually owning anything. I'm sure that will work real well over a flaky WiFi connection, too.
Korova *Pyro aspect* @ Jun 18th 2008 7:14AM
That's what I said - how much can you glorify a fairly obvious and easy patch? Its a patch, people.
Ninty really knows how to build anticipation and excitement - they are good salesmen first and foremost. OMG! This is the best patch ever!!!I!(1111 AHHH, Love you Ninty.
Shit.
Raikage (LDF CRAB BATTLE!!!) @ Jun 18th 2008 7:12AM
Regarding Nintendo and this subject:
Screw you Nintendo! Screw you and......... all your pussy-whipped friends!
/tourrets guy quote
FOXHOUND @ Jun 18th 2008 7:32AM
loooooooong overdue. :\
Jhongerkong @ Jun 18th 2008 7:35AM
Im gonna have to brush up on my anime in order to prepare for this.
John Z @ Jun 18th 2008 7:36AM
I do not think that playing direct off the SD Card is a viable option. I mentioned this a few months ago when the rumblings were mere murmurs of discontent, but the access and seek times for SD cards (at least on the Wii) are not just slow, they're glacial compared to the internal memory. While that works fine for smaller titles like NES or SNES VC releases which could theoretically fit entirely in the system RAM, anything larger than a handful of MB would either need to be streamed from the card (a process that could take upwards of 1-2 seconds, which is unacceptable for a game that assumes it's running on a ROM chip with instantaneous access) or copied to a scratch space in the internal memory first (which would necessitate long 'install' periods before play). A 'patch' is NOT going to solve what is essentially a shortcoming in the SD card slot's hardware. Nintendo MUST eventually release a hardware revision (unlikely) or an external storage solution (now less likely).
I've been thinking, though, and creating an "SD Channel" might be an answer. See, the Wii Menu reads all of the channel files on the internal memory every time it loads (on boot and when you're done playing a game). Since SD card access is so slow, reading channels off the card at these times would be prohibitively time-consuming. Therefore it would make more sense to have a specific 'sequestered' area of the Menu where the channels that live on the SD card could be accessed. This might be the solution Big N is contemplating, but I'd love to see them pull it off.
Oh, and lest I be accused of anti-Nintendo fanboyism: The 360's DRM shackles suck and the Marketplace is an unbrowsable mess, and the PS3 should have had in-game XMB a year ago and needs more worthwhile downloadable games. The point being that none of the current-gen consoles have been perfect out of the gate, a phenomenon that is highly disturbing since console firmware updates have become the norm.
John Z @ Jun 18th 2008 7:38AM
tl;dr: I talk too much and this is much harder than the majority of the world is making it sound.
Greyseal @ Jun 18th 2008 8:03AM
I agree that none of the major consoles have been "perfect out of the gate." But the parent company should at least try to seem more receptive to complaints -- particularly one like this, that has the potential to directly reduce on-line sales. I have less than 200 "blocks" left, which means I need to think twice about the next N64 game or Wiiware title.
I've always wondered why the SD card wasn't made available to saves and channels. Then I tried copying Sin and Punishment to my SD card, and discovered why. Took at least fifteen minutes, which is absurd. Unless there's a software bottleneck slowing it down that can be removed, this solution simply won't work for anything but NES games, which aren't the problem to begin with.
The Wii needs an external drive. Period. It can be a big hard drive. It can be little overpriced thumbdrives. Whatever. It needs to attach via USB, and it needs to transfer data at a rate commensurate with other consumer electronics devices made since 1994.
I'm still not even sure why the Wii has an SD slot to begin with. I've used it for nothing, because it has no particular functions enabled (other than the extraneous Photo Channel).
Get it together, Nintendo. We're begging to give you more money here.
FOXHOUND @ Jun 18th 2008 8:44AM
Greyseal --
I know I've been saying nearly the same thing everytime 'storage solution on the Wii' articles even come up, but it's nice to know there's others thinking along the same lines. Now to wait until the next generation for Nintendo to actually incorporate it. Or similar to recently - a third party manufacturer to build it, get a scolding for Nintendo for it(read: "Nyko"), and then await Nintendo's half-ass solution on it.
It's the only fault that Nintendo's had since the NES, IMO... their damnably archaic practices and "overly safe than sorry" approach. I'm aware the market is more risky than ever, but something like this isn't rocket science and SHOULD have been considered way back in the R&D days of the Wii/Revolution.
loof @ Jun 18th 2008 9:02AM
The Wii has 88megs of memory - 64 external, 24 internal. The largest n64 cart was 64 megs or so. Assuming they've done some compression on the VC stuff they should be able to cache it.
samfish @ Jun 18th 2008 9:03AM
Can't they run games off of the SD card using the HomeBrew channel, though?
SoulBlade @ Jun 18th 2008 9:48AM
They could also mean that there's not going to be an official Nintendo storage add-on, and that the firmware update would just allow any USB stick to be attached.
Obie @ Jun 18th 2008 9:57AM
Very good points sir, and I agree. Still, we'll have to see what they come up with because the lack of storage is unacceptable.
John Z @ Jun 18th 2008 10:10AM
@loof: True, but then again we're not limited by the maximum size of N64 carts anymore: we have Sega CD and TG-16 CD games to consider. Those might be able to be fooled into thinking the SD access times are CD access times, but it would be tricky. Also, you're assuming that all 88 MB of RAM is accessible and usable for code space: some of that will have to be RAM for the emulator, and some of that RAM will have to hold the actual emulator code, to say nothing of how much RAM is reserved exclusively for the GPU/frame buffer.
@Greyseal and Foxhound: Nintendo added the SD slot "for future expansion", just like every other expandability port in every other console they've made that almost never got used. The only high-profile, actually-released expansion unit that ever worked for a Nintendo console was the Game Boy Advance Player for the GC. They just decided to forego the custom ports this time and use USB and SD "somehow".
@samfish: That's as may be, but have any large-scale (read: WiiWare-size) games run on it at full speed? Come to think of it, how about someone on the homebrew scene get cracking on figuring out the actual data transfer rates for the SD card vs. the internal flash memory?
@SoulBlade: Huh. Never thought about that. Are the USB ports 2.0/high-speed? If that's the case, it might just work out. I could get behind attaching a small USB drive.
Mr Khan @ Jun 18th 2008 5:00PM
It IS USB 2.0, that was one of the few features confirmed about the Wii back in the early days
However, since they don't plan to issue hardware, i believe that SD is going to be their solution
And the insane times they have for SD are because, during the SD transfer, the game in question is heavily encrypted. The encryption is what slows what otherwise would be relatively acceptable read speeds into a torturous nightmare
SoulBlade @ Jun 18th 2008 9:44AM
If Nintendo announces the ability to play these games off the SD card, there's going to be hacks all over to play unreleased ROMs and such. I'll be curious how Nintendo intends to solve their issue without an add-on...
I guess a storage add-on has the same problems. Oh well..
The Aggie CEO @ Jun 18th 2008 9:47AM
bah.........
how much would it cost for them to simply put say a 20-40 GB HDD in the Wii??? those things cost pennies when bought in the mass quantities they would need
gary @ Jun 18th 2008 10:11AM
Considering that they would most likely have to modify the entire case to fit it and that would also leave out all current WII owners, I'd say a lot.
The Aggie CEO @ Jun 18th 2008 11:35AM
so they have to make it a little bigger.....
big deal.....still wont be nearly as big as the original Nintendo or current gen consoles.....
and as for leaving current Wii Owners out, wont be that big of a deal.......I mean as we get use to, buying stuff early makes you an early adopter........and often time early adopters get burned......we as consumers simply learn to get over it.....its not like it NECESSARY to have a HDD in order to play games so it wont hurt anyone
Zephiel @ Jun 18th 2008 2:27PM
The early adopters are the geeks and otaku that care about the hard drive.
The Aggie CEO @ Jun 18th 2008 6:44PM
LMAO!!!!!!!!
SoulBlade @ Jun 18th 2008 8:28PM
Not to mention that a single SKU is one of the reasons a customer can walk into a store, say I want a Wii, and get one without any further questions... that is of course if the store isn't sold out.
The Aggie CEO @ Jun 18th 2008 11:42PM
come on........
who wants a Single SKU these days.......
there are 5 versions of some DVDs.......some TV manufacturers sell hundreds of models of TVs.........
I know I dont like a single SKU........I like choices....... I mean hell.......they have like 8 SKUs for the DS........2 for the Wii wont hurt
BobattackCatfish @ Jun 18th 2008 9:53AM
All he says is that Nintendo doesn't plan to issue any hardware. Maybe they will (hopefully) just issue a patch that allows any USB hard drive to work. Unlikely because Nintendo likes to make money, but you never know. They apparently think nobody would buy a hard drive if they issued one anyway.
gary @ Jun 18th 2008 10:07AM
Nintendo is mostly concerned about piracy and this is why they have taken a long time to come up with something. All they would have to do though is that when the game is downloaded to the sd card or other device the game should be encoded with the WII console serial number so that it can only be played on that console. Just my thoughts.
Imaginationland Warrior @ Jun 18th 2008 10:38AM
Being able to read save data from the SD card seems sufficiant in the short term. But if we are going to have DLC, then it won't be enough space unless we have a HDD. But, since DLC isn't available, reading off the SD card seems fine to me.
Shad0wguy @ Jun 18th 2008 11:07AM
They are going to have to do something, since it is official that Guitar Hero World Tour will have DLC on the Wii. I suppose for games like that they can load off the SD card since they already have load times, copying the song into the system memory would just be incorporated into the load. It would increase the load time of a DLC song by maybe 5-10 seconds, which is bearable.
grp110nyr @ Jun 18th 2008 12:47PM
Rather than fire off complaints I prefer to thank Nintendo for (if true) developing a way to fix the storage problem. My guess like most is that it will be a firmware upgrade and you will utilize the SD slot. If this is the way then kudos to Nintendo for saving us the pain of purchasing another peripheral to attach to the console. SD memory is cheap and a external hard drive with cord and slick white case can be expensive and dare I say lead to another development shortage. Again IF this is true then Nintendo could be saving gamers some of their hard earned money via the SD slot. My fingers are crossed and dare I mention that if they ended up with an external drive I would still buy it. On the bright side maybe extra storage space will lead to serious developement, better games, and fun online experiences (regardless of chat capabilities).
1234 @ Jun 18th 2008 1:34PM
Nintendo should just fire that fisher dude,thats the cancer that almost killed N back in the days.Overconfident ignorant high on their ego business dudes that just diss their costumers.
Now hes also a big hypocrit.
Martez @ Jun 18th 2008 2:26PM
Fail. I WANT to use an external device. Is it that big of a deal to give us the option?
Keiichi @ Jun 18th 2008 4:44PM
They shoulda made it compatible with SDHC cards.
From WikiP: "SDHC...is an extension of the SD standard that appeared in June 2006". The Wii came out in Nov'06... for the sake of a bit more tinkering, I'd have been willing to wait a while. Got an 8-gig SDHC card in my Zen right now.
Minas @ Jun 23rd 2008 9:55AM
Soon or late Nintendo will come up with solution and I think it will attract more customers.