Nintendo Wii U To Be Release In 2012 With New Gaming Network

In Nintendo policy/result briefing, the company confirmed plans to show the Wii U final build at E3 2012. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed that the Wii U will be release for the 2012 holiday season. Iwata announced a new gaming network for Wii U and 3DS called Nintendo Network. Iwata says that Nintendo Network will be a personal account system with multiple individual password-protected users on an Wii U system (simpler to PS3 and XBOX 360). The Nintendo Network will also have support for DLC and digital titles.

Satoru Iwata Takes a 50% Pay Cut, Taking the Blame for Nintendo 3DS Sales

I think this is really the first time we've actually seen Nintendo go down the the wrong side of the road, especially after hearing that Nintendo 3DS, their current "big" handheld, has dropped it's price tag. Not to mention that it was so soon; it's been out for, what will be, 5 months.

During a meeting earlier today, Satoru Iwata of Nintendo told investors why the price cut was so sudden. Iwata acknowledged that it will help retailers at the end of the fiscal year and that it encourages developers to continue developing for the handheld.

Although, that's not the end of it. Iwata also announced that many of Nintendo's higher-ups, including himself, will be getting paycuts. With him being the most notable one, getting 50% cut in his pay, he does state that "other representative directors are taking a 30 percent cut, and other execs are taking a 20 percent cut." Before this, Iwata was getting paid to what was the equivalent of $2 million U.S. Dollars.

Wii U Won't Have Blu-Ray or DVD Support

One of the major faults a lot of people found with the original Nintendo Wii was its inability to play DVDs. There are some people out there for whom that was a make-or-break feature and I know a few people who didn't buy a Wii for that reason alone. Well it seems Nintendo is going to upset a few people again.

While speaking to investors at this years E3 Satoru Iwata was asked about the Wii U's ability to play Sony's Blu-Ray format, and regular DVDs. Iwata gave an answer that left very little room for interpretation, stating that the Wii U wouldn't support either format.

"The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray," says Iwata, "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."

Which if you think about it makes a lot of sense. DVD players are incredibly cheap nowadays, and it seems highly unlikely that Nintendo would pay their competitors for licensing fees for a technology that is becoming ever more obsolete. So now DVD or Blu-Ray for your Wii U, the silver lining here is that it looks like Nintendo is shooting to keep this new device at a relatively low cost.