Nintendo cans DVD Wii plan

Plans to let Wii owners play DVDs through the console have, for now at least, been shelved by Nintendo, according to a Japanese report.

News source Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that Nintendo recently chaired a meeting with its shareholders at which the firm’s President, Satoru Iwata, said that continuing Wii supply constraints have forced it to make the current model its core focus.

The addition of DVD playback functionality to the Wii, either through a firmware update or by creating a second-generation console, has been widely discussed since well before the console’s December 2006 debut.

But the latest announcement will be a big disappointment for Wii-owning film fanatics, who’ve already suffered at least one set-back in their quest for a Wii capable of playing DVDs.

In November, Nintendo confirmed that it was postponing the release of such a system due to a need to secure enough production units in time for the Christmas 2007 rush.