Reggie denies the existence of Wii HD

by Justin McElroy { Nov 6th 2009 at 10:02AM }

Though plenty of people -- analyst Michael Pachter chief among them -- are pretty certain that an HD version of the Wii is in the pipeline, you're not going to catch Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Amie copping to it. Speaking with Geoff Keighley on Gametrailers TV, the Regginator said, "Michael continues to be the only one who believes that this is gonna happen. I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD."

It certainly sounds like a firm refusal, but let's all try to remember that the shelf life of a Nintendo denial is exactly 10 days.

Tags: hd, high-definition, michael-pachter, reggie-fils-aime, wii-hd

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

WINterfang ( Now with the power to piss you off ) @ Nov 6th 2009 10:07AM

Reggie looks like he is having a hard time.

joeybeast @ Nov 6th 2009 10:12AM

He always looks like that.

uncle jesse @ Nov 6th 2009 10:16AM

That's what she said.

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:36AM

He's trying to get the duct tape off his...you know.

Shagittarius @ Nov 6th 2009 11:50AM

They photoshopped off the drool on his chin.

Cody @ Nov 6th 2009 10:09AM

Wii HD CONFIRMED!!

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:14AM

NSMBWHD Confirmed?

Elranzer @ Nov 6th 2009 11:30AM

NSMBWiiNSFW confirmed?

S. Tiger @ Nov 6th 2009 1:11PM

Mario can obtain infinite one-ups, I hear. In NSMBWNSFW.

Dv8thwonder @ Nov 6th 2009 10:10AM

10 days? Funny how it coincides with the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Uncontrol @ Nov 6th 2009 10:11AM

Do you guys get paid for namedropping Michael Pacter?

Bagels (@AlsoBagels) @ Nov 6th 2009 10:22AM

Oh, FTW my friend. And what's with Reggie and Geoff being total teh BFFz?

guttertalk @ Nov 6th 2009 1:19PM

I know Pachter bashing is fun, but the guy is good:

http://biz.yahoo.com/a/9/90326.html

http://kotaku.com/356982/analyzing-the-analysts-episode-one

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:11AM

Isn't that Nintendo logo behind him running on an HDTV?

Reggie is trying to tell us something...

INNUENDO 64 @ Nov 6th 2009 11:59AM

thats not a tv, thats a dsi xl

2nd Lieutenant Gunther (PSN: helghast102) (Getting a DS :D) @ Nov 6th 2009 10:11AM

DSi XL, nuff said.

Solace @ Nov 6th 2009 10:30AM

You mean that over sized piece of garbage for senior citizens? yeah "nuff said"

MOgster @ Nov 6th 2009 10:51AM

I fail to see how a bigger version on the DS is 'garbage'

Solace @ Nov 6th 2009 11:07AM

and I fail to see why Nintendo would make such a pointless revision to the DSi already

oh wait that's because Nintendo is milking their renewed success any way possible because even they know the money is going to slowly stop coming in at such a fast rate

TwEE @ Nov 6th 2009 11:19AM

"money is going to slowly stop coming in at such a fast rate"

What the hell dose that mean?

WINterfang ( Now with the power to piss you off ) @ Nov 6th 2009 11:22AM

and I fail to see why Sony would make such a pointless revision to the PSP already.

Giroro @ Nov 6th 2009 12:07PM

He's talking about how the DSi was announced less than 2 days after Nintendo said it was "just speculation" right?

NOT ME @ Nov 6th 2009 2:36PM

I see where solace is coming from....the DSi hasnt been out that long and here is but another one. Only Nintendo can get away with stuff like this. These are the people who will rebuy a console because a new color came out. to Gb releases within a year is rediculous. I can understand buying it but you people seem excited about as if they are free or on some kind of exchange programs. Like is said if any other console brand would do this people would be pissed.

koehler83 @ Nov 6th 2009 10:16AM

Reggie is a shyster.

uncle jesse @ Nov 6th 2009 10:18AM

His body's saying let's go, but his heart is saying no.

uncle jesse @ Nov 6th 2009 10:39AM

Wii H Dii

Captain Planet [Planeteer | Power of Captain Planet] @ Nov 6th 2009 11:40AM

Wiid?

uncle jesse @ Nov 6th 2009 11:42AM

Is that the new game where you "smoke" with the wiimote? I hope it uses motion plus. I heard that's the good shit.

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:20AM

If we're really lucky, we'll get a Wii HD with HDD...

Hopefully it won't be five hundred and ninety nine dollars.

Rob S. @ Nov 6th 2009 11:03AM

My best guess is they will try to keep the price down, so it will most likely use a mass market HDD instead of a proprietary one, since they cost a lot less these days.

Sam @ Nov 6th 2009 11:15AM

lol! people are still pushing for this? they gave us something better HCSD support, so no more hard drive failures! No lost data!

Hard drives are horrible, thats why people are working so hard to bring the price of flash and solid state storage down!

fundando @ Nov 6th 2009 11:22AM

"Hard drives are horrible"
Come on, do you really think that?

BPMOmega [XBL, PSN, Steam] @ Nov 6th 2009 8:16PM

He's right about reliability, at least. But if you want mass amounts of storage, HDDs are still the way to go, and will be for quite some time. You can get a 500GB external HDD for $90 or less... To get ~500GB in 32GB SDHC cards would be about $1,248.

Gun Barrier @ Nov 6th 2009 10:21AM

It always makes sense to deny this kind of stuff. I wouldn't buy a wii if I knew a newer version was coming soon.

Asmerom (PSN: neon6plz) (XBL: reo6) (Waiting for NMH2) @ Nov 6th 2009 10:23AM

What is it with Reggie and his tendency to destroy interest?

Mr Khan @ Nov 6th 2009 10:25AM

Yeah, it's the same emphatic "no" that we got for the DSi revision, the DSi itself, and the Wii price cut, but this one is definitely not going to pan out. Certainly not for 2010. Nintendo has nothing to gain cutting off Wii too early, and from their projections, they have the software to keep us moving into early 2011 easily enough

An incremental upgrade (as in, Wii, just with enough more and faster video RAM and scaling chip to make it possible) would be a horrible market splitter that would be disastrous, especially for all 56 million of us who already own one.

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:29AM

Unless it's an add on unit.

Wii DVD?

Quiggy @ Nov 6th 2009 10:31AM

I don't really agree. I mean, Nintendo's currently running the DS and DSi simultaneously. If the Wii HD had the ability to play all of the standard Wii games as well as new HD ones, and Nintendo promised not to drop support for the original Wii, I could see them doing a similar simultaneous run of Wii and Wii HD.

TwEE @ Nov 6th 2009 11:22AM

Thats not the same at all Quiggy.

Giroro @ Nov 6th 2009 1:02PM

It could work out if the Wii HD upconverted the standard Wii games and did absolutely nothing else. no extra ram, no HDD, same processor, just with the addition of a chip to upconvert Wii's SD output into HD. Would it make things look amazing, no but at least things would look 'better' without changing the standards that Wii games are built around.

sam @ Nov 6th 2009 7:07PM

@Quiggy: Sure, it's not *impossible*, but it's not *sensible* either. Why rush to make a new expensive console when your current one is still outselling competitors, in fact still selling nearly as much as both competitors put together, and has room for more price cuts as well?

It's not impossible that Wii HD will come out before the next consoles from other companies (given that it's likely to still be a generation behind), but I really don't think it will be next year. 2011 maybe.

I'd love for Wii HD to come out tomorrow and so would a lot of people but I think that's why the rumours keep coming; just wishful thinking.

Mr Mobius - the wandering artist @ Nov 6th 2009 10:29AM

Official! Nintendo's new console is a remake of the N64!

We can dream.

Darth Bradwart, The Dark Lord of the Sith @ Nov 6th 2009 10:37AM

Oh, great. The Wii 2, with three N64's taped together.

Chibi Chaingun - blackhivemedia.com @ Nov 6th 2009 11:35AM

lol ^

Kleptomaniac @ Nov 6th 2009 10:30AM

I don't understand this Wii HD idea. Wouldn't all of the current games just upscale to 720 really badly? The next Nintendo console is probably only a few years away and it'll do HD games, I don't know how it couldn't with graphics cards that are 3 times as powerful as the one in the Wii being dirt cheap. So yeah, just wait a few years for a Zelda in HD.

Rob S. @ Nov 6th 2009 11:05AM

They got old Nintendo games to work on the Wii, I guess they can figure that problem out too.

Chibi Chaingun - blackhivemedia.com @ Nov 6th 2009 11:33AM

Games can be re-rendered at higher resolutions, which is not the same as upscaling. For an example of this, look up HD versions of Wii games playing on emulators. It's actually RE-RENDERING at a higher resolution, not upscaling. This has been done for eons in PC gaming. 3D objects/polygons can be re-rendered in any resolution. The only thing that may look odd is UI graphics, but considering the games were designed for "enhanced resolution" of 480p, they will still be passable as opposed to most n64 games (for ex) that if you play in HD on an emulator, the UI images are pixelated/blurry. Textures may come across not as detailed, but it would be a minor gripe and not noticeable to most. The increased resolution of the 3D objects however would be very noticeable as Wii games would be crisp and sharp on HDTV sets.

Kleptomaniac @ Nov 6th 2009 11:41AM

@Chibi Chaingun

Hmm that is a very good point and comment. I have seen Mario galaxy being run in the Dolphin emulator before and it looked pretty good bar the missing post processing effects. The only problem with the re-rendering is that each game would have to be patched to support it. I really don't think the small gain would be worth it though and nintendo would be better making a full blown successor to the Wii.

Chibi Chaingun - blackhivemedia.com @ Nov 6th 2009 12:20PM

It could be a challenge for Nintendo to be able to develop a new console that does play each game perfectly AND have the processing power to run in HD. The hardware would need full backwards support for every Wii game (making sure all aspects from GPU effects to sound still work the same way) while still being able to give enough horsepower to re-render in the increased resolution. So, it's possible, but yes, it is also a slightly more difficult task than some think, like you mentioned.

knighty (GT: ZeraKnight) @ Nov 6th 2009 2:33PM

You don't have to patch each game. Considering the fact that there are probably very few games on the Wii which really even use more than 1 frame buffer (as if you have space in the video RAM to) it's really easy to just force a different resolution. Remember in 3d graphics, everything is normalised until the end of the pipeline, nothing changes.

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