penguin face: Nintendo Wii U expandable memory explained, TiVO hardware not built in

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Nintendo Wii U expandable memory explained, TiVO hardware not built in

The Nintendo Wii U may only have 8 to 32GB of internal memory, but the company's taking a decidedly open approach to expanding that memory: add your own. "You can plug in a full-on three terabyte hard drive if you want. I'll love you as a digital consumer," Nintendo America CEO and president Reggie Fils-Aime told us during a post-press conference investor Q&A. Much like Sony's PlayStation 3, the Wii U allows for expansion of memory via USB, whether that memory be Flash or otherwise. Fils-Aime explained that, with the continuously dropping price of memory, there was little reason to offer pricing for the Wii U -- available in $300 and $350 -- tied to an evolving hardware model.

"The reason we did it that way is that the cost of that type of storage memory is plummeting. What we didn't want to do is tie a profit model to something that's gonna rapidly decline over time. We'll let the consumer buy as much as they want, as cheaply as they want," Fils-Aime said.

Fils-Aime also confirmed that the Wii U doesn't have TiVO hardware built into it -- functionality will require an existing TiVO box. The same goes for DVR functionality, which Fils-Aime said Nintendo doesn't want consumers to bear the expense of.

Filed under: Gaming