Nintendo has revealed that its upcoming Nintendo Wii U system will have neither Blu-Ray nor DVD playback capabilities, running instead a proprietary disc format that only plays Nintendo titles.
Nintendo feels that it is unnecessary for the Wii U to provide these functions as they believe consumers in general already own peripherals to watch movies.
“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,” said Satoru Iwata.
Customers intending to save a bit of money by purchasing the device as a home entertainment system may have to look elsewhere—perhaps to the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, for what they have to offer