You guys are fucking imbeciles. Do you not read the articles? The games will now be read directly off the SD card. Boom. Solution. Now STFU and rejoice for new Punch-Out and Pikmin re-release. Not to mention a new DS.
What angers me more than the kids who talk out of their ass on Kotaku (while not bothering to read the articles) is Nintendo saving all this awesome news for TGS. No E3 love? You'd think the way the Wii was selling here they'd show us some of this awesome news first, but it seems like the typical practice of a Japanese company that is single-handily saving the Japanese gaming industry.

BurgerBat

@nintendomaniac64:

Exactly. Perhaps they're trying to prevent piracy, but it's going to happen either way. They can just enable MSC/UMS support from their USB and problem solved!

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Tha_Villain: I'd say that requiring a hard drive upgrade might actually be a bad idea for the Wii. The Wii has 512 megs of internal storage, so SD cards might not be too bad since most games would have to fit within that space anyways.

Shin-san

@dead_red_eyes:

Can you play the games from the SD card? If not, then it's hardly a good solution.

I was thinking they'd create some sort of virtual space that you can lease. Say you want 8GB's of storage you can buy it virtually from Nintendo to store your titles and play them. They can be streamed to your system as long as you're connected to the internet. That is compltely possible and to me a better solution.

Hell, why does it have to be a huge HDD? Why not just sell a small flash drive. OR how about this one d_r_e enable the USB port to support USB Flash drives and external HDD's.

I don't think there is any hardware limited that would stop them from being able to let us use our own external HDD's and/or flash drives.

LittleBigPlaneteer

@nintendomaniac64: And unlike homebrew's current limitations, Nintendo would actually be able to make it use USB2.0, for reasonable speeds.

NinjaMarion

@regnez: I would sort of doubt this will happen, as it's a decent little hurdle for pirates. If they were to allow the Wii to read SDHC, and allow reading from SD, pirates would have an ISO loader that runs games straight from SD card with no need to burn within no time. And since the Twilight Hack works on unmodded consoles, this would open the gate to easy pirating which would lead to more widespread pirating.

NinjaMarion

What I want to know is why the Wii can't use USB mass storage devices as an alternative to SD cards - homebrew already can!

nintendomaniac64

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Oh christ LBP. Would you have rather had Nintendo sell you a 20GB HDD for $120? A 2GB SD card is PLENTY for most people, especially since it's going to store nothing but VC and WiiWare games. They're even hot swappable! And SD cards are freaking CHEAP these days. You can pick up a 2GB Kingston DS card for $5 on Amazon. This is way more beneficial to the consumer because it's a cheap solution, rather than having to pay out the ass for a proprietary hard drive.

dead_red_eyes

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Seriously, every other system has some sort of HD on these days but the Wii can't even use SDHC. I guess they couldn't think of a good Waggle gimmick so it wasn't worth their time.

BlackMage66652

@Saist:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Maybe a firmware update will allow SDHC cards? I would be nice to see.

dead_red_eyes

actully I do something like this with my 2gb SD card at this very moment. i download games to my wii and save them to my SD card when i want to play a different game and delete it from the system memory....
this wont really be of use to me unless they allow for execution of wiiware/VC titles direct from the SD card; as when i download my titles, i want to play them after i download them.

segamanxero

@KSPRAYDAD: Beats the crap out of proprietary memory cards though. I was looking at a few for my old PS2 and they still are expensive, especially since I got a 4 gig USB flash drive for $10.

Shin-san

Nice solution for casual users until they get a hard-drive accessory into production.

el_rezzo

@ZombiePuppy: I hardly see how this will make pirating any easier than it already is, considering there's no way to save a Wii iso on an SD card, even if they allow direct reading and writing to and from it. Wii SD card limit = either 2 or 4 gigs. All Wii isos = 4.67 gigs. No less. Ever.

NinjaMarion

@akumaserge: It could be due to FAT16 limitations, and I think SD cards use FA16. SDHC uses FAT32

Shin-san

@akumaserge: yes two 2gb unless you can find a non-SDHC card above 2gb... i think i had one at one time that worked (a 4gb one).... foolishly i lost it (moving it between my camera and wii) and now i cant seem to find a similar one on any website or store...

segamanxero

@Mit: Let's see...the Wii has 2163 blocks of memory. LostWinds takes up 259, Toki Tori takes up 289, each episode of Strong Bad take up 320. That's 1,188 blocks just on those four games. That means 7 (because four is over half of the memory, plus we aren't counting a couple hundred extra for saves and whatnot) games can fill your Wii. So either you own six games, or you are retarded for buying so many games, just like the person that would "splurge" on buying 7 games through WiiWare or VC (for a total of around $70 or less) over the entire two years the system's been out.

NinjaMarion

I can't believe how much of a failure this solution is. Seriously....

LittleBigPlaneteer

so I guess this is the way of them saying a HDD is not needed

Tha_Villain

This can't be their solution to hard drives can it? This isn't a solution, and it damn well isn't a better one. I think it's sad that Nintendo couldn't even think ahead and make the Wii SDHC capable. They messed up big time.

LittleBigPlaneteer

So will we be able to play VC and Wiiware games off of the SD cards? Otherwise it's no better than the current system.

It better work that way cause I don't want to reshuffle my games every time I buy a new Wiiware game. I'm running out of space now.

Naturestee

Does this mean that, one day, similar DLC will be available for Wii Rock Band/Guitar Hero games?

Chadders

This... what? They're serious?

I can already put games on my SD card. This just makes that easier, but it doesn't do fuck-all to solve the problem. I still can't play anything that's on my SD card, and I still need to shuffle around all my damn games to play one I want to.

This is bullshit, Nintendo. This isn't a solution, this isn't even a work-around. This is just bullshit.

Rabish12

Well, this is of course the obvious solution. Being able to save and play games off the SD card does alleviate the problem significantly.

Now all we need is to confirm that it'll work the way we want it to, and for Nintendo to update the firmware to handle SDHDcards so we can go for more than 2GB of extra storage.

WolvenOne

@Trowble (XBL/PSN): Right now, the Wii does NOT support SDHC cards, which means that 2GB is as high as you can go.

However, since the difference between SD and SDHC cards is not in the hardware, Ninty could (in theory) release a firmware update allowing the Wii to support SDHC; SDHC cards max out (right now) at 32GB.

regnez

@ManekiNeko: The Wii has an SD slot. It's under (or to the left of) the disc slot, hidden by that little plastic flap. Just put the SD card in there, and you're set. No DSi needed.

Zeikcied

That works for me. It was the obvious solution, so I'm glad they went for it instead of something more complicated.

QuestionableToast

Like people are saying, it's going to be pointless unless you can play the games off of the card directly.

FISSURE

@Mit: Or MAYBE I could use if for other things like music and OMG video...you know..things that could be done an a basic post year 2000 video game machine. Thanks for the personal insult by the way.

KSPRAYDAD

What's the max storage the Wii can read off an SD card?

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

@akumaserge: Why would they ever need to fit Brawl on an SD card? This is only gonna be for things like WiiWare, VC, and any DLC games have, not disc-based games.

NinjaMarion

I just bought a bunch of 2GB micro SD cards (with SD adapters) for $5 each. I think this works out better then a HDD.

Tyrannical

@akumaserge:

Easy.
They won't.

Notice it's talking about WiiWare and VC games. Neither of which will ever hit 4gb.

dantemustdie

Because it was really THAT difficult to manually transfer everything to the card, put it into your pc, create a storage folder on the pc for backup save files and games, and reload them if necessary back onto the wii.

Sir_Crocidile

Hey there, pirates. Seems your lives are going to be easier!

ZombiePuppy

"Save Nintendo Wii Games Direct to SD (Starting Spring 2009)": Um, *cough R4 cough* I mean, awesome!

JohnnytheFuture

@KSPRAYDAD: You're retarded if you would ever spend enough money on the Virtual Console to need a hard drive.

Mit

Someone needs to make Kotaku kids for some of you :)

Earthslide

Well, if you bought this and an 8 gig SD card it would be cheaper than a iPod Touch.

Diamondblade

Thats the exact same SD card I have!

HELLSRIDER

So there's gonna be Nintendo favored SD cards eh? Better not be just limited to the Wii/DS.

Floreum

@otis123: How bout punch out?

Brian Crecente

@takashimiike 7:
I think so, but even then... How the hell is a 4 gig game gonna fit into a 2 gig sd card? Unless nintendo made some kind of compression technique and format that can make a huge game like brawl fit into an SD card... I see good things and bad things coming from this choice.

akumaserge

@akumaserge: That's a good point. It's kinda weird that it doesn't support SDHC...

branny

Downloading GBA games straight to these things would be cool(ish?)...going to hold off on this for a while, see how it all pans out. Initially very exiting though :)

happycodemonkey

THats cute. Doesnt mean that Have much Id use it for though.

Formula1

SD cards are not cheaper the HDDs per GB...this is a retarded solution Nin...really.

KSPRAYDAD

It's good enough....for now. I can get a 2gb SD cards for $10 bucks. Sounds like a great idea.

DannKnee

^^i swear, flying Bruce lee style kick to the head if they dont announce some games!!

otis123

SDHC cards only require firmware updates. So all Nintendo has to do is issue another firmware update enabling SDHC.

Saist

Oh crap, is this the storage solution that Nintendo was talking about earlier? You have to buy a Nintendo DSi (yeeeeeOW!) and connect it to your Wii to use it as a high-capacity storage device!

ManekiNeko

If you can't run the software from the SD card it still kind of defeats the purpose. I'm hoping more data comes up about this soon.

alf717

Can I play off of them? That is the real question. If not it is bullshit. I can already transfer the games. I want to actually play it without moving it.

ProfWho

Nintendo really does just want your money, don't they?

GrandfatherParadox

if they dont announce some goddam games (ahem! pikmin 3) im going to kick reggie in the head.

otis123

Not sure how long this will last with SD cards...but it's better than nothing as long as I can play my games off from the SD cards instead off of my filled up Wii.

OrangeHairKid

@akumaserge: Aren't they hot swappable though?

takashimiike 7

Don't care unless I can play it straight from it. Otherwise it's still an effin' pain.

infamyRISE

That actually seems like a good idea, but doesn't the wii only support SD cards up to 2 gigs?

akumaserge

It's not all that much better though. It still means if you want to actually use the stuff you've downloaded you need to transfer it onto the hard drive, and that might mean firstly moving off stuff that's already there.
And anyone who's done those kinds of transfers knows that it the process is slow as hell.

It's a step in the right direction, but it's still not a fully practical solution.

Dajmin

Well the Wired guy was getting his stuff straight from Gemaga, including IMing him clarifications. Kotaku doesn't state it either way, really. They just said you can download to the SD card.

Cagmin

@BurgerBat: Except you need to read the article as well. It doesn't say anything about being able to PLAY from the SD slot, only that you'll be able to download directly to it. It might be implied, but with the way these companies act lately, it's just as likely to not be.

NinjaMarion

@regnez: Yeah, there's plenty you can do, but of all the things you can do, pirating games without a modchip and without needing to even have the expenses of dvds to burn them to is not one of them.

NinjaMarion

@Cagmin: I don't know who to believe, the Wired blog or those blogs solely dedicated to video games. Hmm. I'm gonna go with my sources. Sorry. And that sentence was very awkward. Because it was a complicated sentence. I'll avoid complicated sentence structure for you. I think your #2 is a valid point, because I sincerely thought this was the TGS conference.

BurgerBat

@Yin: Nope. Not as of yet, at least. The best that's been able to be done is to "scrub" the images, which changes all of the dummy data on the disc (What makes it go from the 500mb shovelware game files on the disc to being a 4.67gig iso) to make it easier to compress, allowing for rars of far less than 4.67 gigs (much more comparable to the actual filesize of the game). But even then, when extracted, the iso is still the full 4.67 gigs.

NinjaMarion

@infamyRISE:

Yeah, nothing i've read says that you can actually play the games from the SD card... which makes this pointless really. What's the deal? The liveblog doesn't cover any of this in detail...

Duoae

@NinjaMarion: I'm not trying to speculate or guess at what Nintendo is going to do in the future, but the current 2GB limit is a non-issue for someone looking to hack the Wii; you can do quite a bit with less than even 100MB of space.

regnez

@LittleBigPlaneteer: I'm sure the Wii is capable of eventually being able to hold more than 2 gig SD cards. But as of right now, in Wii memory blocks, 2 gigs is alot of space. Not sure of the real conversion numbers, but this is the internet, I don't need proof. But seriously, how is changing SD cards every once in a while any different than changing game discs, other than the fact that SD cards hold more than one game (possibly quite a lot, once again, I don't really have numbers)?

BurgerBat

That's good enough for me.. I'm happy I won't have to buy an overpriced HDD for that :P

CockroachMan

Scratch #2. I just reread your awkward sentence.

Cagmin

#1. In the Wired blog, he says "You'll be able to download software straight to an SD memory card, and be able to easily copy that software to the Wii." That tells me that you still have to copy it to the Wii to play.

#2. Nintendo isn't going to TGS

Cagmin

@Floreum:
They've been around since shortly before the Wii launched. Don't buy them, they're overpriced.

sugardeath

@NinjaMarion: But some discs do not use all that space, it should be possible to trim them somehow and remove unused space? Now, I have no idea if this is possible but it sounds like something that might work.

Yin

@Rabish12: You ARE bullshit. Read the article. Games will be played off of the SD card.

BurgerBat

@Chadders: Of course, Chadders. In fact, Chadders, it's been announced and confirmed that RB2 Wii has DLC. I know, Chadders. It's crazy.

BurgerBat

@BurgerBat:

They can do that same system update and enable UMS support too. That way I can just plug in a 16GB Flash drive in the back instead of swapping around a bunch of 2GB SD cards.

LittleBigPlaneteer

Thank god. That's all I ask.

Mister_Jack

@Chadders: The devs of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band devs have said that DLC will be available on Wii as well.

pashaveliki

@dead_red_eyes: No kidding. The kids are being ridiculous again. They don't understand what a great and simple solution this is. Nintendo is actually bypassing a chance to sell you a hard drive in favor of a solution that requires nothing more than a system update. Great news.

BurgerBat

Can I play the games off the SD card on my DSi?

That would seriously be the best thing ever.

arcanearts101

@LittleBigPlaneteer: If you look closely at the pictures of the DSi you will notice it does feature two cameras, one on the outside of the case and one in the middle of the hinge, where the microphone is. I imagine the one in the middle can be integrated into games, while the one on the outside if for taking pictures. I sense a little sarcasm in your post, so I am taking the opportunity to say you've been PWND.

BurgerBat

@tylerstyle: i have to ask, do you really keep every single game you download on your wii menu? i delete them after i finish them. it's not like you can't download them again for free, ya know?

frank0127

@BurgerBat:

They also stated at one time that both screens are touch sensitive. Are there even two cameras in the DSi? Joystiq seems to think so...

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Cagmin: Me too, otherwise, this isn't much of a solution. But with the recent DLC news for GH and RB, I'm much more inclined to believe that we will be able to read/play off the card than I would have been had I heard this a week ago.

BurgerBat

Ok. Let's presume, that we will be able to play off of those SD cards.
All sounds well. But there's a very limited space for channels, on the Wii Menu as well.

What when that limit is reached? How many are there? 48 or something?
After the Storage solution, we need to be able to sort our Channels into folders or something like that. Group some Content, or some such.

What about that? Seriously.

tylerstyle

Not optimal, but could be a lot worse

Jestersage

@BurgerBat:
Hey now, you leave poor Chadders alone. As he said, Chadders, it is confirmed. So you don't have to worry about it, Chadders. Until we meet again, Chadders.

akumaserge

Man, I hope that's true. :)

Cagmin

@NinjaMarion: Engadget and Joystiq articles both state that you will be able to save and play from the SD cards.

BurgerBat

@Cagmin: The Engadget and Joystiq article both stated that you can save and play from the SD cards.

BurgerBat

@BurgerBat: I should have been clearer: I meant "similar" in the sense of volume. 512MB is not a lot of MP3s, but you can still have some DLC. Getting a 2GB SD card packaged with your RB2/GH:WT game, and playing the MP3s straight from it, would make a lot of sense to me.

I don't actually have an iteration of either game at the minute, so am only going by what I'm told by mates.

Chadders

@Saist:
Depends how they've written the code for accessing the SD card slot - if they've made it part of the firmware, that's great and it's a relatively simple update like you say, but if any libraries in game software use it, the extra address space needed to address >2GB cards might break/cause unexpected problems in the games. If that's the case, it won't happen, I think.

AndyboyH

I know what it means...it means you won't hafta clean the fridge anymore to download...but in the end, you'll still have to clean the fridge....pathetic.

*sad panda* T_T

Still, if Nintendo could somehow improve the transfer rate between the SD and internal memory in Spring '09, I could deal with this solution.

Knoxximus (XBL/PSN)

@frank0127: Hell yeah. When I bought it, it's mine, my precious. I need to keep it. I can't stand re-downloading things...

But you know, how it is. Fanboys will never be content. Never.

tylerstyle

Nah, man, I don't have 48 games/channels, I just want to bitch.

BurgerBat

Hey, "not my problem."

lol

masterbanana

@BurgerBat: i hadn't even posted yet and i was offended by how unequivocally rude your comment is.

IAO6

That seems fine, it's not like VC games are huge. People who are complaining about no hard drive need to stop and think, this isn't the PS3, you're not going to be downloading 1gb HD demos and 8gb HD feature films. Nintendo 64 games are like 32 mbs, and Wiiware games are small too. On a 2 GB card you could hold a shit load of games, dozens.

deathly

@Duoae: You can already store games on the card, so presumably the news is that you can now launch them from there.

L_K_M

Meh where is my WiiHDD?
And yes I agree: all ROM-fans are very happy now.

Garo

Yay! I'm running out of space on my Japanese Wii with all the downloadable games and Japanese games. May not be the best answer, but you are right, it is better than silence

Mike's Stalker

@BurgerBat:Great posts. It's nice to see that SOMEONE knows how to read around here instead of simply bitching.

Foxstar Sixtail

@IAO6: In retrospect, it was kind of rude of me to use "fucking imbeciles". Especially considering the rampant confusion about the press conference and what was actually said there. I apologize. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?

BurgerBat

@L_K_M:

Yeah, i had a look on Engadget and Joystiq where the feature was explained properly.

Duoae

I suspect I could be a little bit behind the times here, but is the timing of this linked with the timing of the announcement that DLC will be available for the Wii Rock Band 2 - i.e. are Nintendo opening up access to SD memory and internet more after such a rocky start?

Jeb

JebJoya

@tylerstyle: You really can't make the assumption that along with the Wii update that will allow you to copy and play games direct to SD cards that they won't update the Wii to allow more channels?

Anyway, I'm hoping they update to have less channels. NES channel, SNES Channel, etc, etc. That way, you go to a menu with your games.

What they have now looks cool, but certainly isn't practical in the long run.

smcallah

@otis123: Good luck getting through his meatfists. :P

xAnarChisTx

Couldn't you already do this? I have an SD card with a bout 5 VC games saved on it already. Its just a pain to load them up every time I want to play them.

plankton88

We were always able to backup our games on SD, it's playing them off the SD card that's a problem. Nintendo failed so bad by lacking such basic insight into these features. Oh well not like I have touched my Wii in months. Cone on nintendo release some more games, your third party crap sucks.

mikecoscia

@plankton88: I think they're stating that you will now be able to save them to the SD card and then play them directly from the card.

And no, I don't think you could previously save/load Wii games directly from the card.

TRT-X

Thank You!

Will we be able to migrate our current WiiWare and VC games over to the card as well?

Benjo

if this is the solution for downloading rock band songs, this solution sux! having to constantly swap out memory cards to find the song you want to play is almost worse than not being able to download songs at all.

AgainstOne

Nintendo, on behalf of all of us, I thank you.

LionheartAce

Wait so you'll be able to play the vc games off the card now? The Wii finally got interesting for me again....still can't find one in my area and it's not quite up to the I MUST HAVE IT level yet.

Ajh

@DannKnee:

And that'd already be expensive. There's cheaper options at the right online stores.

hibikir

I get my SD and Micro SD cards here. There is free shipping and good pricing. I use PQI brand myself.

[www.meritline.com]

synapticflow

@smcallah: Or even less, just a VC channel, and maybe a WiiWare channel. In fact, fuck that channel shit, I prefer a text menu to choose from. Nah... they wouldn't understand us.

I don't know why there's a limitation in the first place. I guess Nintendo just underestimated the powah of the VC.

WordMan

An SD card is great. I have a 2GB and I guarantee it will be the only one I ever need for the Wii. If you claim to need a HD, you're doing something wrong or just looking for a reason to complain.

And for the people who want to retort with "what about pictures and music?", are you really using Nintendo's crappy photo channel to view pictures and listen to music? Chances are you have a PC, which allowed you to transfer the pictures and music to the SD card in the first place. A PC is the ideal place to view pictures and listen to music. Stick with that.

WordMan

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

In a sense I can understand where your running with this, the article isn't concrete on whether the games and content are going to be able to be PLAYED directly off the SD card, but if they are announcing it like this as the solution, then it's probably quite inherent that the fact that we can now download directly to them should also mean that we'll be able to play them directly, we'll see. As someone else pointed out too, other sites are confirming that, but I don't know their sources.

But you have to look at this solution in comparison to what is on the Xbox 360 and PS3, they both offer more to download than just VC and WiiWare titles that are quite small in size (depending on the WiiWare title that is). the 360 and PS3 both allow you to download full movies, TV shows and (come November for the 360) disc game installs which require Gigs of space. Unless you download just about every VC title and WiiWare title, this solution is more than adequate for Wii owners who already own an SD card, and maybe not an external HDD. I'll be quite content when the update is released, I only have 30 blocks left on my Wii after i downloaded Mega Man 2 and 9.

Ryguy226

@otis123:

I bet on Reggie in this, sorry man, get a helmet ASAP

pillo

@otis123:I've got $50 on Reggie also :P

Eviscerate

@WordMan: So, you don't have many virtual concole or WiiWare then, do you? Because I myself have a 2Gb SD card as well, and, you're right, it may be the only card I need for saves for a long time, but even without any saves on my system, I still don't have enough room to have all of the WiiWare and VC games I want. I had to delete a Vectorman recently so I could download Super Mario RPG. So, yeah.......we still need a HD, even though this should help a lot.

Am I stiill doing something wrong?? Maybe I like Nintendo games TOO much, that could be it.....

R3Verb

@R3Verb: " Maybe I like Nintendo games TOO much, that could be it..... " Vectorman is a Sega game. BURN! just kidding.

Get in touch with me when you fill up a 2GB SD card with VC and WiiWare games, and I'll send you a new 2GB card free.

WordMan

@GrandfatherParadox: Let's see, a giant multinational corporation... just wants your money? Preposterous!

Companies such as Sony and Microsoft would NEVER be accused of the same thing! Great point!

dae_giovanni

yeah, i wish they would just man up and make a hard drive....

Kuebel33

@dae_giovanni: Got a little carried away with the italics tags, eh? Nice work.

dae_giovanni

@NinjaMarion: Improve your reading comprehension (or maybe just slow down). I'll assume that 2163 blocks is 512 MB, and that Nintendo can't upgrade the card reader to SDHC with just a firmware update. This means that, at most, you get a 5-fold increase in storage. That's close to 40 *large* games. In this calculation, NES games don't count, but Smash Bros. saves do. That's a lot of games. And if you have more than that? Buy another card. You should be able to fit 30 or so onto each card. "Requiring a HD" implies that you've got so many games that flash memory is insufficient (i.e., you own something like 10GB of VC and WiiWare).

Personally, I like this a lot better than having to buy some retardedly expensive branded USB HDD. You know that's what they'd do if they went the HDD route. How much is Microsoft's 20GB disc? $80? At least I can use SD cards in other things.

shimage

@AgainstOne: No, it's not even close to worse.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

On another note, Nintendo better think this one through and allow for DS demos to be downloaded to an SD and played on the DSi.

Dr_Claw4891

They need a firmware update to support higher cap cards...

Dr_Claw4891

@ProfWho: im presuming that's the case; if not, yeah, there'd be no point to it.

TheIrishNinja

@otis123: Save the fists, Pikmin 3 was announced at E3.

MetallixO0001

I tried a 4Gig SD card earlier this year and the Wii couldn't read it. Hopefully they'll implement a fix for larger capacity cards.

snowilli

@shimage: Improve your reading comprehension. Someone said they'd have rather Nintendo done the obvious thing, and allow some type of hard drive use, and someone else claimed you are retarded if you buy enough stuff to require a hard drive. It's very easy to fill up the Wii's memory with only about 5-7 games. This extends it to about 20-30 games, and only if you buy a 2 gig card.

Nintendo could have allowed the use of usb hard drives just as easily as this, but would have been much faster than SD use. Hard drives are also, as the original commenter pointed out, cheaper per gig than SD cards. They could have very easily allowed us to use the external hard drives many of us already have instead of forcing us to buy slower, less cost-effective SD cards. And at least external hard drives can be used in other things, too!

NinjaMarion

@snowilli:

From what I have heard they actually can't upgrade the SD card reader via firmware. The limitation is on the actually SD reader chip thus cards larger than 2GB can't be read.

Jabjabs

@Shin-san: SD Cards are a medium - file systems are dependant of the actual OS.
Regardless, FAT16 supports up to 4GB worth of data in a single file. No more. You can actually (if you look) find non-SDHC 4GB SD cards. Most will work with your Wii. Some won't. It's about the same price, too.
For Americans, v[www.newegg.com]
$8 excl. shipping, and in the feedback it is reported to work with Wii's. A little tip for anyone looking for a 4GB SD Card for your Wii - ask for a non SDHC card. Check the packaging, Class Six is the same as SDHC.

toejam316

@NinjaMarion: Shimage summed up what I meant quite nicely. I was obviously not referring to only the Wii's onboard memory. Enough games to require a hard drive meant you have 10-20GB of downloaded stuff from Nintendo's store, which would be the equivalent of hundreds of dollars of downloads. And really KSPRAYDAD, I wasn't calling you retarded, because I'm quite sure you would not actually download that much stuff. (if I said you're retarded if you think you need a hard drive, that'd be a different story)

Nintendo doesn't want to allow something like external hard drive use. It just doesn't fit their image. They already have an SD card reader, and all they had to do to solve the storage problem is to allow VC games to be played straight from the SD card, an actually even easier solution than implementing third party hard drives. Hard drives are a bit less practical, and as stated already, really unnecessary. The only reason other systems need them is extensive multimedia downloading and storage capabilities, and game installs and whatnot. "Well why doesn't Nintendo have that?!" because then Nintendo would have to force everyone to buy hard drives to get the most out of their system, and they'd be in the same complicated situation as 360 owners. I'm sure they like what they have going on, where everyone has the same system.

Mit

@akumaserge: I've got an 8 GB Non SDHC SD card, and my Wii reads it fine. I use it mainly for Homebrew.

FRIEDjellyWALNUT

I thought they were working on holographic storage?

goodknight