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SD movies fine for Wii, hints Nintendo

Console's Netflix streaming won't be in HD

Nintendo has claimed consumers won’t mind being unable able to watch HD movies on the Wii’s upcoming movie service.

Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo America, told CNBC this week that since “the vast majority of content that’s available for streaming through Netflix is not HD content... there really is no loss for the Wii consumer”.

Nintendo and Netflix announced a movie streaming partnership earlier this week, allowing subscribers to Netflix’s $9-per-month DVD postal service to access any number of downloadable videos through the Wii.

The video resolution of Netflix’s Wii movies has not been confirmed.

Talk of a Wii HD console has been doing the rounds for months and many took Nintendo’s Netflix partnership as a sign that a model able to support higher-resolution video was en route.

However, Fils-Aime didn’t rule out the possibility of a Wii HD altogether.

He claimed that the next step for the Wii will “not simply be to make it HD” but to add more capability, which Nintendo plans to do when the existing model’s experiences have been “totally tapped out”. ®

Latest Comments

DVD's

They probably actually could make it read DVD's but dont bother through a firmware update...

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Er

Perhaps stating the obvious here, but does this come as any surprise given the Wii's inherent lack of HD capability?

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Don't think so

Doing so would only make it more expensive thanks to the tax man. I doubt there's a house hold with a Wii and no DVD player so I don't think it's that essential.

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DVDs

Nintendo could make the Wii considerably more attractive by allowing it to play DVDs.

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