If Nintendo truly wants to broaden its audience the way it wishes to, it’d be smart to allow developers more options to bring new genres to its systems, including the Nintendo Wii. Although it claims it’s not so fixated on going high-definition this generation, Nintendo would really be king if they considered such options. It’s certainly possible that with a hard-drive developers would have plenty more options for creative licensing whilst still providing a unique gaming experience. I understand this would definitely ante up the Wii’s price tag a bit, but it’d definitely be worthwhile. With the money they’re making right now, it’s not like it’s impossible. They could still produce the regular Wii with the $250 price tag, but do something similar to what Microsoft and Sony did. Nintendo can’t thrive alone on its own first party titles to appeal to the hardcore gamer and third party knock-offs that cater to the casual gamer. Nintendo needs to expand its territory if they want to stay number one.

“Nintendo needs to expand its territory if they want to stay number one.”

they have expanded the market, which is why one could argue that they are number one. honestly, a full HDD isnt what is needed. what is needed is the ability to use thumb drives and write directly to SD cards. Taht would solve most all problems. Most people dont have a need for a full HDD, but many could justify dropping the handful of dollars for a 1 gig SD card or a decent thumb drive. provided the transfer rates are fast enough it would be perfect, playing save files and VC games off of SD cards or even using them for extra downloadable content (GH3 tracks anyone?)

cheaper, easier solution, and we already know that ninty has liscenced tech to support extra storage solutions. its only a matter of time I suppose

@Mr. Mike: You have a valid point there, and I commend you for coming up with your own alternative to my answer. When I meant “expand its territory”, I meant as in pursuing similar objectives in the way Sony and Microsoft have. The majority of their games for their current generation systems, although they too are beginning to appeal to a broader demographic, appeal to the hardcore gamer. That’s something Nintendo should look into besides relying on its own first-party franchises to appease serious gamers. If something of the kind came into being, it’d allow third-party developers and publishers alike to be interested in making games for the Wii. Games like Bioshock and Crysis. Because of the technological and hardware differences with the Wii, they’re not going to be as motivated in committing such a move. That’s why I believe they need to expand much more than they have already done so.

This is old news but also inacurate. Poor translations. Remember when Square Enix said Nintendo wasn’t allowing 3rd party devs to go online this year? Yeah. Another bad translation. All they need is a Hard Drive and the MMO would be just fine and I bet that’s what he meant by “not allowing”.

You know, Nintendo probably wants to enter some sort of agreement with an established company before it makes a hard drive, that way they can ensure that it is truly compatible with the Wii. The most recent update adds support for USB keyboards, and future firmware updates could enable hard drive support, I think Nintendo is a) holding out for some way to bind VC games to a single hard drive (similar to how the console flash memory works), and b) wants to ensure compatibility with the Wii by forming a partnership with an established hard drive manufacturer.
Square claims that friend codes prevent an MMO from being made for the Wii. Not necessarily true. For instance, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will have online capabilities including random battles. Many DS games also have this. It is possible to play online without friend codes, so why can’t an MMO be played like that?
Furthermore, it is not absolutely necessary to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for online games. The existence of self-contained web browsers (meaning that they connect to the internet without connecting to a proxy) proves that they could connect to a server run by Square Enix, for instance. A phone running Opera Mini must connect to the internet through a server that will render web pages. (Opera Mini doesn’t have it’s own rendering engine.) The DS, for instance, (using the web browser) can login to routers that forward you to a login screen, like T-Mobile hotspots. I know that games that use the Wi-Fi Connection (which requires that the game connects to Nintendo’s servers) cannot be played on routers that require you to login. Thus, the DS can connect to servers other than Nintendo’s servers. If friend codes are too much of a problem, or if cross-platform configurations are a problem, why not host the game on your own server? Square already does that for the 360, the PS3, and PC. (I don’t expect Sony to allow 360’s to connect to their servers even though a game is cross-platform.) Heck, a game could add support for a hard drive (although, only the game would be able to access it, similar to the GCN modem). Technically speaking, the tools are in their hands. Square just appears to be lazy.

Oh, by truly supported, I mean that each storage format is not automatically compatible with all others. For instance, a Windows machine cannot read a disc created by a Mac (not out of the box, anyway). Apple has its own storage format, which applies to CDs, DVDs, floppy discs, flash cards, USB drives, hard drives, and even mp3 players. Apple computers can read the Microsoft format, but Windows cannot read (without additional software) the Mac format. The 360 probably uses the traditional Windows format, but I have no idea what format the Wii uses. It could be that the Wii doesn’t even have a format yet. Let’s not forget, though, that this generation, the firmware can be updated, unlike last generation.

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