WiiHD: Wii Storage "Solution"

In an effort to make core gamers shut up and leave them alone already alleviate the burden of Nintendo's best Customers that tiny minority of Wii owners who find the internal storage lacking, Nintendo announced they'll be opening up SD storage for active use. Meaning you will be able to launch WiiWare and VC games and what not from the SD card, instead of having to juggle everything endlessly or "clean out the fridge".

Q&A
Q: So we're limited to 2GB, right?
A: 2GB per card. But there are some 4GB cards that aren't SDHC, like this one. They're very popular with Wii owners and Palm PDA/Smartphone users, so when looking for them, be careful and try to find confirmation from user reviews that they really aren't SDHC and really do work in non-SDHC capable devices. Don't simply accept the lack of a label as proof that a card is non-SDHC.

Q: Can Nintendo add SDHC support to already sold Wii's?
A: Yes. It's a software issue, not a hardware issue.

Q: Will they?
A: Probably not, for the same reason they've resisted real external storage solutions to this point. They think it discourages piracy. Case in point, hit the kotaku link below and read as someone asks "but how will we run SSBB off an SD card if it's only 2gigs". Yeah *rolls eyes*. The 2GB (ish) limitation makes some form of piracy a little more difficult than they currently are. At least for half-wits.

Q: Is this the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything?
A: Clearly not. But it beats nothing. And don't forget, even 12 months ago, Nintendo was confidently proclaiming "redownloading" as the only storage solution you would ever need. This is actually pretty significant progress for ninty.

Q: Can't we already run Quake Wii off an SD card?
A: Yes, but no thanks to Ninty.

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Anonymous (206.255.211.x) 1223125175|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Actually 2gb should be more than enough even if you go crazy downloading stuff. at the most you'll need a 4gb card or two 2gb cards assuming the the wiiware size limit doesn't drastically change.

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Anonymous (206.255.211.x), 1223125175|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

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Storage

David Marseilles 1223144823|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The XBLA size limit was once 50mb. I'm not sure where it is now, but I'm guessing somewhere in th 150mb category. I'd welcome such a change in WiiWare.

Lots of games have avoided DLC precisely because storage was so limited. They risked facing a double-scarcity — a scarcity of customers willing to pay what they were asking for what they were selling, and a scarcity of customers with room to use it. The group of people MOST willing to pay for DLC were also the group most likely to have maxed out their storage. Game patches have been avoided on Wii as well, for the same reason. That might no longer be the case now. (hopefully it won't still be the case — I like my bugs fixed)

Now that everyone, not just GH, will have access to the SD storage for DLC, the amount and size of DLC will increase. The 2gb/4gb is PLENTY for EVERYONE!!! argument might not hold up too long.

I give you credit for noting that with new space, there might be more demand on that space, but don't forget how constrained retail game makers have been when deciding what features to place in their titles.

The only way 2-4 gigs as plenty doesn't quickly (6-8 months) go extinct is for us to continue to be robbed of features even though there's no longer an excuse for it. The best case scenario is for us to need a better storage solution down the line. Hopefully Nintendo isn't cooling their heels (and I kind of suspect they aren't—despite past behaviour), but is working on the next solution already.

last edited on 1223144839|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by David Marseilles + show more

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David Marseilles, 1223144823|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

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Anonymous (75.146.206.x) 1223300041|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Duh, everyone knows that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.

Anyway, I've noticed confusion as to wether things are actually going to RUN directly from these cards or if there will be a sort of swap space in the internal storage of the Wii. Any clarification?

Also, I didn't know that SDHC is a software issue, that at least gives me hope. What I'm interested in are the various speed classes of SD card. I use a 4 (4 MB/s transfer rate) with my Wii currently, with no issues, however, I wonder if I'm realizing any performance increase because of it. And similarly, would I see any improvement using a Class 6 (6MB/s transfer rate)?

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SD speed ratings

David Marseilles 1223320531|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

No clue on the speed ratings. There's probably some wii hackers somewhere that would know. Hackmii, tehskeen, or wiibrew.org would be my suggestions for getting an answer.

As to where the content will be run from—I went back to the best source material, IGN, and all they had really recorded was that iwata has said you could now download directly to the SD card. Still, given the deal Nintendo had already struck with GH for DLC to be stored on the SD card, I'm pretty sure this will run off the SD card. As to it's 'directness', well, Nintendo is pretty cautious. I'd be surprised if there weren't an extra layer of DRM to go along with what they already have. Might that include a swap system like you suggest? Maybe. Might performance suffer regardless? Yeah, as DRM wasn't made for customer convenience and speed.

I don't think those details are out yet though, so we'll just have to wait and see.

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