Sega unconcerned about Wii storage, falling

by Jason Dobson { Jul 16th 2008 at 4:15PM }

Planning ahead, you're doing it wrong. That appears to be the mantra for Sega, at least when it comes to the ever-elusive topic of Wii storage. Strange, given that it's also a topic upon which the company is blazing a trail, announcing yesterday plans to release downloadable songs for the upcoming Wii-exclusive Samba de Amigo. In the same interview that gave us this insightful nugget, we also asked Sega marketing VP Sean Ratcliffe how the company plans to cope with the console's internal shortcomings, to which he had little response.

"This is an innovation for us, so we're going to test the waters and see how well this goes," he explained. "It's clearly something we'll need to address in the future, but for right now I don't think it's going to be a problem in terms of storage for us...we're going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it." Just forgive us if we don't follow you across that expanse -- that bridge is likely to fall out from under you.

For more on Sega's strategies, or lack thereof, look for the full interview soon.

Tags: e3-2008, e32008, samba-de-amigo, sambadeamigo, sd-card, sega, storage

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

arrrgh @ Jul 16th 2008 4:21PM

maybe theyre using a better compression algorithm

mpeg compression ftl

Zertoss @ Jul 16th 2008 4:23PM

I already don't have space for any DLC unless it'll run off an SD card.

bm @ Jul 16th 2008 4:42PM

Games can stream content off the SD card, we've seen that in Excite Truck. Seems like it's up to the developer, then, to make use of the feature. Unless they are all as paranoid about their DLC as Nintendo is about VC and Wiiware games?

Sora @ Jul 16th 2008 4:24PM

They'll realize the issue once their game releases...

Apoklypse @ Jul 16th 2008 4:34PM

I'm pretty sure why they are so non-plussed: I guarantee the content will already be on the disk, the purchase will just unlock it. Why else would 3 songs be available on Day 1? It is pretty easy to not be concerned with storage space when all you are storing is a line of code or two.

Jody Anthony (gamertag and psn: JodyAnthony) @ Jul 16th 2008 4:35PM

probably will end up being like the dreamcast game, where all you download is a key to unlock stuff that's already on the disc

Gillfigno @ Jul 16th 2008 4:36PM

They don't have to worry about space because the "downloadable" songs will all ready be on the disc, which has plenty of space because it's a port of a Dreamcast game.

Jerk Face @ Jul 16th 2008 5:31PM

You beat me to it, friend. And I bet you're absolutely fucking right. Thanks for charging me for shit I already had, game developers!

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 16th 2008 4:40PM

Dude, 2GB Memory (1GB=twice Wii storage, 2GB=4 times) only costs about $10-15. Don't be pussies and buy one. That's how GH:WT rolls DLC.

Monkeys Suck @ Jul 16th 2008 4:45PM

Actually, we don't know that yet...if you did find a source saying it will run off of SD, please post, as I've never seen it.

Let's hope it's like that, and not the Dreamcast analogy.

Cesaria (cesariatic.wordpress.com) @ Jul 16th 2008 4:43PM

No, there is a problem, Sega. This is coming from a proud Wii owner that would love to buy your new Samba de Amigo game, but have run out of space due to WiiWare and VC games. I don't want to move things around anymore. They better announce something in Nintendo's secret conference.

Jacksons @ Jul 16th 2008 4:53PM

Does this mean they're going to ask you to pay for stuff already on the disc that required no post-release development? That seems so dirty.

Rob Accomando @ Jul 16th 2008 4:58PM

yeah, that does sound wrong.

Mr Khan @ Jul 16th 2008 5:03PM

They'll have to make it SD compatible, then

Hopefully that storage solution that Iwata and Fischer spoke of isn't all that far off.

majortom1981 @ Jul 16th 2008 5:03PM

question. IS it possible for develoeprs to release content epansion that is already on asd card? Can sega release song expansions on sd cards and the game just reads them off the sd card or is this blocked by nintendo?

Mr Khan @ Jul 16th 2008 5:18PM

The card is open to interact with the System Memory for everything except Channels and Game Saves. A game will not detect a save on an SD card, nor can you play channels from there

But as Excite Truck and Smash Bros showed, other things can be freely accessed from the card

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 16th 2008 5:12PM

No, it goes on the Shop channel, you buy it, then you put it on a SD card. You can't buy a SD card pre installed with DLC....Yet

benmully @ Jul 16th 2008 5:44PM

Well its either off SD or they could be on the game disc like they did with Dreamcast, and ou just download an unlock token.

Either that, or I won't be buying any extra songs as my internal storage is also full!! A fact completely ignored by Nintendo!!

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 16th 2008 8:05PM

Except for the whole SD card slot

Obie @ Jul 16th 2008 5:45PM

I will no longer be buying any Nintendo DLC until they fix this storage clusterfuck. Period.

Angelo @ Jul 16th 2008 6:21PM

Being a hardware issue, I fail to see how it's actually Sega's, and not Nintendo's problem. How exactly is any developer supposed to "plan ahead" for something like this? If space does become an issue and people stop buying these then, guess what? They just stop releasing them.

"Unlocking content" is pure speculation at this point. It would be rightfully underhanded if this was the case, but I have my doubts. I would assume that were legal and licensing issues involved with the songs in question.