May as well get a WiiU then if you want to play Wii games in HDMI
And yeah, I guess I can see the appeal if the unit is the size of a disc drive. I really don't see the point though.
Exactly
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Rumor: Wii mini console redesign
- Thread starter TunaLover
- Start date
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May as well get a WiiU then if you want to play Wii games in HDMI
And yeah, I guess I can see the appeal if the unit is the size of a disc drive. I really don't see the point though.
MikeE21286
Member
PSOne is why.
KojiKnight
Member
Nintendo has a long history of releasing smaller versions of it's consoles at the end of life... The only real exception was the gamecube. Sony has a history of that too until the PS3 came around, then it turned releasing slimmer versions into a once every few year deal.
8BitsAtATime
Member
If it looks good i will get it. It will be my 3rd wii.
Just like they did with the NES, SNES, and GBA.
But yeah, this isn't a dumb move. Probably involved them driving production costs down even further, and the Wii still has plenty of popular shovelware and long-tail first party software that will continue to sell for years to come.
If you duct-tape them together...
How much smaller can you make before you can't even fit a disc in it?
2010 Mac Mini:
and that has higher specs, hard drive, more ports etc so I'm sure Nintendo could make a Wii mini even smaller than this.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Try again what? That's literally the last redesign / model update Nintendo did for the Wii.
Honestly, at this point I think he's right, especially if they figured out how to block homebrew; why else bother getting the Wii when you could just get the Wii U now? Of course this seems to be more for casual audiences that just want Wii Sports/Just Dance/Mario rather than for their core audiences, if it's for real ofcourse. Similar situation to the Game Boy Micro come to think of it, scrapping BC seemingly needlessly (although in this case it happened earlier) for a smaller model, though that still had appeal to more serious gamers in that it was EXTREMELY portable.
$40 last I checked, but that's still pretty damn high.
alfredofroylan
Member
Even at $99 this's a hard sell.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
I would be surprised if this were true. Nintendo barely remembers the Wii exists; I can't see them expending R&D on making a smaller version of an already small console.
There's two reasons for this: making price reductions easier (I can't imagine a sub-$99 price is out of their reach) or to lower power consumption (the Wii was already in the 12-16 watt range, but lower for untapped markets?).
EDIT: The PS2 Slim was smaller and used less power than the current Wii (10-11 watts compared to Wii's 12-16) but it's still hard to say if Nintendo needs this revision for different countries.
There's two reasons for this: making price reductions easier (I can't imagine a sub-$99 price is out of their reach) or to lower power consumption (the Wii was already in the 12-16 watt range, but lower for untapped markets?).
EDIT: The PS2 Slim was smaller and used less power than the current Wii (10-11 watts compared to Wii's 12-16) but it's still hard to say if Nintendo needs this revision for different countries.
You are right.
KojiKnight
Member
Getting this a lot... Put a wii in front of you... there is a lot of room to slim down. First off, if you can get the CPU/GPU to be die shrunk (which Nintendo could if they wanted to put money into such a redesign) they could easily push fanless. No fan would remove a good inch or so from the back. Since you still don't have to worry about GCN ports you can easily thin that part out. Take out the SD reader and replace it with a micro card (or just increase the flash substantially since 512MB probably costs about as much as 2-4GB and then remove the SD card completely... in turn also removing all homebrew and piracy problems they had).
Hell, replace the metal case with plastic to save a few bucks and make it lighter while you're at it.
right
i know it COULD get smaller
pstwo is probably smaller
but is anyone really thinking "you know, the wii is just a little too big for me. OH LOOK A SLIM REDESIGN okay i'll bite now"
Same thought here.
Barkley's Justice
Member
whatEVERRRRRR......
goldenpp72
Member
With the support Nintendo is giving the system (none) why bother trying to continue selling them? I guess if people will buy them but.. why? lol.
I think it is in most of the big retailers. Pretty crazy.
Nintendo's gotta break the 100 million hardware sales milestone with the Wii. Their so close!
Barack Lesnar
Banned
I'd pay $50 for it and use it as a casual games console in case I ever get a girlfriend and she only likes Wii Sports et all. Wouldn't mind playing Xenoblade, too.
i just had a bizarre idea for the redesign.
they make it a top loader like the GC and fit all the chips and stuff under the DVD drive.
the GC was pretty small if we remove the extra inches of plastic under it that were for the accesory ports that the Wii lacks. i'm sure the Wii chips at this point can fit in a smaller PCB than what the GC had and there's no controller ports anymore. SD card slot can stay easily next to the clock battery in front.
they make it a top loader like the GC and fit all the chips and stuff under the DVD drive.
the GC was pretty small if we remove the extra inches of plastic under it that were for the accesory ports that the Wii lacks. i'm sure the Wii chips at this point can fit in a smaller PCB than what the GC had and there's no controller ports anymore. SD card slot can stay easily next to the clock battery in front.
SirIgbyCeaser
Banned
MikeE21286
Member
Holy shit quote that pic
2010 Mac Mini:
and that has higher specs, hard drive, more ports etc so I'm sure Nintendo could make a Wii mini even smaller than this.
Take the PStwo strategy and go for a flip top drive, maybe.
fart town usa
Gold Member
Pretty dumb if true. They would just cannibalize their own market during the holidays. Wii's aren't hard to find and it would be more beneficial to try to flood the market with their new system, not a system they no longer support.
I've been looking to pick up a Wii the past few weeks, this would be perfect for me. There is still an audience out there that has never bought one, I'm proof of that. The majority of my game-playing friends don't own one, either.
DonMigs85
Member
Unlikely, they're even less likely to integrate the GC ports now.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
How reliable is Nintendo World Report? I'd prob pull the trigger on this if it comes out.
MikeE21286
Member
There's little to no cannibilization between Wii and WiiU.
Right now they cater to different people due to their price point differences.
Nintendo World Report used to be Planet GameCube, so pretty reliable. I don't ever recall being led on by them even once.
Last November, Wii sales were at 860k.However, 500k units were from Black Friday alone. Of course, the release of Skyward Sword helped as well. Wii received a price cut in October this year so we'll see how well that has done to boost its sales for November. Total Wii hardware sales were last reported on October at 97.18 million.
thehypocrite
Member
A smaller Wii? That's big no no Nintendo. I see a big backlash coming for this small change.
KojiKnight
Member
Err... which part of their market would they be cannibalizing again? Wii and Wii U are targetting 2 different markets (early next gen adopters versus late last gen adopters) and Wii hardware sales are in a hard slump it won't likely get out of on it's own.
A slim model can reinvigorate Wii sales for one last season, price it at $99 and you can get a lot of people who've been holding out all gen. While they get it, they'll undoubtedly grab a game or two and that alone would be enough to profit on the redesign.
KojiKnight
Member
3rd pillar c'mon
*pat pat* That battle is over and we lost that one. Though we got DS/3DS lines so I can't be too sore about it.
Nintendo isn't going to release another portable/semi-portable till they are ready to replace the 3DS/Wii U... They are going to have a hard enough time differentiating them when their next generations happen.
2010 Mac Mini:
and that has higher specs, hard drive, more ports etc so I'm sure Nintendo could make a Wii mini even smaller than this.
If the Wii Micro is anything like this, Nintendo may be able to sell some more units yet. Still saw people last night buying those black Wiis.
Metal Gear?!
Member
If they go with a top loader they can bring back Gamecube compatibility for a very low cost.
Aaron Strife
Banned
$79 Wii + rerelease of Super Mario Galaxy "Game of the Eternity Edition"
KojiKnight
Member
It wasn't the drive that made them take out GCN BC, it was costs associated with the ports and the reduced availability of controllers/memory cards.
DonMigs85
Member
This is Nintendo we're talking about. They took out the component output on later GameCubes and that probably saved them 50 cents at most. What makes you think they'll add the GameCube controller and memory card slots back?
Dreamwriter
Member
Maybe they don't want the $99 Ouya coming in and filling in the tiny budget gaming console gap
Nintendo really should have figured out how to make GC games work with the Classic Controller and internal memory long ago.
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