My little Wii console’s 512MB storage sure seemed meager before WiiWare and and future downloadable content entered the picture. What’s Nintendo going to do about this?


by Benjamin Buday, Editor-in-Chief


So who’s used the USB ports on the back of their Wiis? My only usage of these poor, neglected marvels of technology was for a LAN adapter that I no longer need. I don’t even know what else can go in there besides Rock Band peripherals.

Deleting my downloaded copies of Streets of Rage and 1080 Snowboarding a month ago signaled the beginning, for me, of what Nintendo (or at least, Nintendo of America PR Manager Eric Walter) expects us “geeks and otakus,” as Nintendo of Europe Marketing Director Laurent Fischer so kindly labeled us to do: micromanage. With the burgeoning WiiWare and potential DLC for upcoming games like Guitar Hero: World Tour standing at the gates of the Wii Shop Channel, I shudder at the thought of spending as much time gaming as I will spend deleting, swapping and reloading games and content to which I should have immediate access.

So, let’s review. We need more space on our Wii consoles to store games and DLC. The Wii has two USB ports hiding out back that, for most of you, are probably virgins. The question floating around for over a year now is, “Why not make an external hard drive, Nintendo?”

Geeks and otakus worldwide have fingers crossed in hopes that at E3 Nintendo will unveil an external hard drive. I’m hesitant in getting my hopes up because, clumsy and poorly-formulated press responses aside, it seems like Nintendo’s focus really is on the casual gamer. And when turds like Carnival Games fly off shelves more often than Okami or No More Heroes, I’m not surprised. I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched children, teenagers and parents hold a copy of Super Mario Galaxy in one hand and some wonder of software like Ice Age in the other, ponder the decision, then go with the choice that dares me to run past them and slap it out of their hands. Hell, Nintendo’s selling more systems in North America than its competitors, so why change the formula?

Here’s what Nintendo should do: make a system update that allows the use of any external hard drive. If I want to plug my Western Digital in, it should work. I’m sure the technology allows it. Hell, even charge for the update, if necessary. Having the option both circumvents the need for Nintendo to manufacture and produce an item in which they see limited profitability and encourages your more-than-casual to hardcore fan base to spend more money.

Sales of Virtual Console games were up to 7.8 million back in November 2008, according to Shinji Hatano of Nintendo. That amounts to nearly $33 million USD. No doubt sales have approached or broken 10 million by now. And who’s downloading these? The gamers who owned the NES, the SNES, the N64, the Genesis — the demographic that will spend a hell of a lot more if more games become available and if they can store these games. $33 million on old software. I know I’d be willing to throw more money to try those TurboGrafx shooters and beat ‘em ups if I didn’t have to delete Gunstar Heroes and Harvest Moon just to find out if I like them or not.

The concept of an update allowing the use of any external hard drive isn’t a new idea, I’m sure, but it’s Nintendo’s best bet. Let’s use that USB functionality, guys! And how about some keyboard functionality too?

When he’s not micromanaging his Virtual Console games like a good geek, Benjamin can be reached at benjamin@megazinemedia.com.