Nintendo Addresses Wii's 'Insufficient Memory'

October 2, 2008 8:16 AM

With the Wii's ever-growing emphasis on downloadable games and in-game content, console maker Nintendo has revealed that Wii owners will be able to download games directly to an inserted SD memory card beginning next spring.

"We have to address the console's insufficient memory storage," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said during a press conference last night, reports Kotaku.

Though Wii users have been able to transfer content to and from an SD card since the system launched, they have been unable to directly download games to the card, with titles needing to be stored within the 512MB of internal system memory to run.

It is assumed that games will be playable directly from the SD card, as there would be little sense in downloading a game if it was not immediately playable. Vicarious Visions' Wii edition of Guitar Hero World Tour, due October 26, will let users play downloaded songs from an SD card by automatically copying the content to internal memory.

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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manlyman

 reply
October 2, 2008 8:22 AM

If the Wii supports high capacity SD cards (4GB+) then this is a good idea. If not then this is just a bad solution, my Rock Band songs take up 4.2GB, how will that work on low capacity SD cards?
- whistler
  
   reply
  October 2, 2008 8:35 AM
  
  I was hoping that they'd announce support for SDHC. Unfortunately no such luck. I guess this is better than nothing, though.
- dedgecko
  
   reply
  October 2, 2008 8:54 AM
  
  buy more SD cards - they are pretty damn cheap these days.
  - BioSector
    
     reply
    October 2, 2008 7:01 PM
    
    Ya, it will be really convenient to have to keep track of what songs are on what SD card and swap them during gameplay.
    
    Great idea!! :P
- nandu666
  
   reply
  October 10, 2008 5:35 PM
  
  Wii only supports up to 2GB SD cards.