Wii U Iwata: No DVD Or Blu-ray Playback for Wii U

[x3sphere]

While we know Nintendo's Wii U touts a 'proprietary' disc format for games, a question looming is if it will be able to playback DVD or Blu-ray media from the same drive. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a recent Q&A session, the answer is no, citing cost concerns over patents:
The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies.
Nintendo's stance on this hasn't change since the Wii, then[...]

Continue reading: Iwata: No DVD Or Blu-ray Playback for Wii U...

 

[B2K24]

Standalone players are dirt cheap these days, so Nintendo doesn't have to even mess with it.

 

[Robby]

It's still a convenience. On my xbox I can play games, then put in a DVD and watch it without having to do anything besides opening a tray. No need to plug in dvd video cables if your tv supports one set, no need to switch channels/inputs.

Not that big of a deal, but still.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

I haven't used a DVD or Bluray in maybe 4 years so it doesn't matter much to me. Most people have the players in-house now anyways

 

[Adiuvo]

If it saves money then they might as well do it. The Wii U sounds like it's going to be somewhat expensive so far.