NINTENDO WII U WILL NOT PLAY DVD OR BLU-RAY DISCS

When we discovered that the Wii U would also use a brand new optical disc format for its games, we wondered whether or not it would be able to play DVDs or Blu-ray discs. We figured it would be likely that Blu-ray discs would be excluded, but expected DVDs to work. Unfortunately, Nintendo says that the Wii U won’t play either type of optical disc.

We know that the Wii U will use Nintendo’s new proprietary game format, and that each disc will be 25GB in size. That’s close to, but not exactly the same size as a Blu-ray disc, and Nintendo has already said that the drives in the Wii U are not Blu-ray drives. However, most people expected that the Wii U would be able to at least play standard DVDs. Now, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata says that won’t be the case.

In an interview, Iwata said that the Wii U “does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities.” It may not matter very much considering most people already have a device in their living room that can play DVDs, and many have Blu-ray players. Iwata also pointed to the added cost of building in DVD playback functionality into the Wii U as another reason why they didn’t want to include it. They decided they could keep prices down a bit by removing a feature that most people probably already had.

JAPAN EMBRACING 3D TECHNOLOGY

Tokyo-based researchers BCN, cited by CrunchGear, report that a cool 57 percent of all Blu-ray recorders sold in Japan last month had 3D playback functionality built in, while 23 percent of all 40-inch-plus TVs sold had the ability to relay stereoscopic imagery. Both those numbers are major leaps in popularity within the nation itself and also easily dwarf penetration rates for 3D hardware in other parts of the world. 3D has apparently grown a lot more affordable in Japan, but lest you think these data are just a symptom of people upgrading their equipment without regard to its third-dimension skills, word is that there's still a chunky 30 percent premium associated with adding 3D to your BR recorder purchase. So, it would seem the trendsetting Japanese are leading from the front on this one.