GDC 09: Nintendo announces storage solutions, 4.0 update

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11:55 AM on 03.25.2009, Colette Bennett

38 comments | 5502 views

GDC 09: Nintendo announces storage solutions, 4.0 update photo

#GDC #Nintendo #wii

Of course, anyone who owns a Wii and likes to download games from the Wii Shop knows the pain of having to deal with storage -- the current arrangement is simply not that convenient. Nintendo is well aware of user complaints, and addressed the issue at today's keynote at GDC.

Iwata announced that the 4.0 update is available as of right now, so run to your Wii and get it -- so that's why the store was down a little while ago! This new update will feature twenty screens with twelve channels each,and also will support SDHC. Bring on your 32GB cards!

Wiishop channel can also now download directly onto an HD card if you choose, and you can launch the same content directly off the same card. Virtual Console will also offer some new ways to move content and messages, according to Iwata.

I would have preferred something slightly more groundbreaking, but since Nintendo has been pretty firm about it so far I wasn't expecting anything more than this. Is any of this going to help you manage your Wii content any better than you do now?

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37 comments | showing # 1 to 37

Black Nexus

Yes Memory cards!!! Its 1997 all over again.

Tubatic

This is exactly what I needed.

Man, I almost feel like I have a current gen console... :D

falsoman

This is pretty sweet!

However i'm so into homebrew right now that i will have to wait till this is completyl hacked to update.

But yeah! 32GB memory for my wii!

sweetchuck

That'll do pig. That'll do.

Chack

Personally I'd have hated the need on buying an external HDD for my Wii. The idea of its size is to make it easy and light to transport. That and the obvious that releasing an HDD for the Wii would kill the SD port.

eternalplayer2345

Its like a hidden menu in my wii that was hiding till now :P

linuxguy

yes Tubatic if this was 1997

naia-the-gamer

I'm thinking about picking up an SDHC card for this.

I may wait though until some things NOT installed on my Wii can work though.

Tubatic

Well, I didn't have embarrassing amounts of downloaded content back in 1997! Card, HD, it makes no never mind to me. No more moving things "out of the fridge"!

Now if they'd only update the Web Browser to the latest version of flash...

Dr Milkdad

I need this

The-Excel

@naia-the-gamer:
Whatever you're thinking of, reports have surfaced that they do still work. Updating is another matter.

Chronic Logic

So it's a big memory card?

megaStryke

@Tubatic

That's kinda out of Nintendo and Opera's hands. Adobe has to give out that stuff.

Moofey

This is about as good as I could expect out of Nintendo. Good job. I'll most likely be buying a better SD card to take advantage of this.

theredpepperofdoom

about damn time.

bloodylip

Hell yes it'll help me. I've been catching up on wiiware games lately. And every time I want to download a new one, I have to move an old one to SD first. No more of that shit. Plus, I've already got a 16gb SDHC card lying around from when my wife decided to stop using her EeePC. Woot.

John B

I love you, Colette!

Downloading v4.0 now, and they're obviously getting crushed. The download is taking forever.

SDHC's transfer rates are significantly faster than SD. I hope this new firmware allows for the increased speed in SDHC cards as well.

Moofey

I take my last comment back. This is a shitload of fail.

Every game I try to launch from my SD card that isn't already on my Wii fails to launch.

gg Nintendo.

Tubatic

@Moofey/Naia

So wait, I have to have a copy of the game on my SD card and on my Wii?

is it the save files?

Oi...

megaStryke

The save files need to remain on the Wii. The games themselves can go on the cards. Since save files take up all of one or two blocks, this is a non-issue.

Moofey

You can have the game on your SD card only, but the save file needs to be on the system.

As for my "this is shit it doesn't work at all" problems, it's looking more like my card.

peachboy

this is pretty sweet.

pedrovay2003

For the love of God, finally.

Dexter345

This is welcome. Now I can finally have all of my games available to play again. The Strong Bad games just take up way too much space.

Corak

Better late than never?

mistic

finally...

just installed a 120Gb HD into my PS3, so with my 32 Gb SD card, the 360 has now dropped to last place in my collection when it comes to HD-capacity :p

PappaDukes

Later is better than never.

Holyetheline

Hell yeah. I'm stoked to have this update!

sparkthatbled

I knew that Nintendo would do something like this, I just knew it!

Well, that'll solve my VC problems for the current decade...

B-Radicate

'Bout damn time.

Mxyzptlk

Finally!

welkstar

I literally just screamed out of pure joy. :D

pedrovay2003

This is probably a longshot, but has anyone tried copying a game to an SD card an then tried to play the same game directly from the card on another console? I'm sure you can't copy the game to another console (that was already blocked before), but then again, you couldn't play games straight from the card before, either. Anyone try this?

Also, mistic, isn't that ironic? I was blown away when I realized Nintendo went from having the worst external storage solution to something better than the 360's first hard drive.

@Tubatic

I always knew the Wii was current gen, but I honestly got that SAME feeling from this update, and it blew me away. I feel like the Wii was "more" current-gen now than it was this morning.

Sustenance

This was the simplest, most elegant solution to this problem. I NEVER thought they would go the HD route. This way no one has to buy some big, clunky add-on... you can have 1GB or 32GB. Anyhow, better late than never.

I never moved my saved games to my SD card - only games - so this has worked like a dream. The only bad aspect is that I am not very tempted to fill the card with more games.

KoKoO Psy

Sure, this works, but it is gonna kill the internal flash quicker.

Capm Trevo

Well... There goes my paycheck

WiiWare and VC here I come!

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