Will Nintendo finally announce a HDD at this years E3?

For two years now, loyal Nintendo fans have been begging and pleading their beloved company for a hard drive and while their has been many rumors and a great deal of speculation we are still stuck here without one. Some gamers may disagree, but the mass majority of hardcore gamers all shout, “we need a hard drive!”

With game saves, virtual console, and now Wii-Ware, the 512mb of internal flash memory that Nintendo has provided us is quickly filling up. While we struggle with these problems, Nintendo repeatedly denies the fact that the Wii needs a hard drive. Here’s a quote from the NOA PR manager, Eric Walter.
“The way we look at it is, we don’t really want people storing every single game they buy on their drive…”

I really have no idea what that’s suppose to mean but it sure isn’t good. Hopefully what he is really saying is, “I’m making up something so that we can introduce the HDD at this years E3.”

While there have been awful comments by official Nintendo spokesman like the one above, there also have been pretty good ones to. A while back, Reggie Fils-Aime said that there is definitely a market out there that would like a HDD and it’s something that we always look into.
Also, here is a recent quote from Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, addressing the Wii memory shortage problem.
“Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience.”

Comments like these are very good, Nintendo is telling us that they know about the problem and they are doing what they can to fix it Maybe they’re brainstorming whether SD cards would work better or an HDD? But if using a SD card is the route that Nintendo takes then I think it is taking a step backwards. Both the 360 and PS3 uses HDD’s and they are very convenient. SD cards are basically the same thing as using a memory card. Although there are more possibilities when using a SD card over a memory card, they both have the sam annoyings setbacks. Thanks to their much smaller capacity, you’ll constantly be swapping SD cards while a much larger HDD would do the job all by itsef.

So basically, a hard drive would be the best and most convenient solution. It would even make Nintendo more money because everybody is buying other companies SD cards and not Nintendo’s because theirs is overpriced. It has been a while since the Wii has launched, and with all the speculation, rumors, and official comments, it looks like this years E3 could be the best time for Nintendo to announce a HDD. Nintendo has been talking about all of its issues for a while, they’ve said there going to look into but so far we’ve got nothing. Like voice chat for example, Reggie said that he, “would not be surprised if voice chat somehow made its way onto the Wii.” But still we see no Voice Chat.

Two things could happen at this years E3. One, Nintendo could totally ignore all of its problems, announce a few software titles, talk about how good the Wii is selling and their press conference would suck. On the other hand, they could announce a HDD, voice chat, show how they are going to improve the online interface, and announce some amazing software titles and they would have the best press conference out of the three big companies.

Nintendo has definitely pushed our patience to the limit and now I think they will finally address the issues. They will announce a HDD at this years E3 and if not they will address the memory problem with some sort of solution. I think they will also bring announce a Voice Chat feature, and make a few improvments to the online interface. If Nintendo does this right, this could be their big year at E3.

However, it looks like were just going to have to wait until July 15. My Wii News is gonna give you some E3 coverage so stay tuned. Leave a comment below saying what you think Nintendo will announce at E3 or take it to the forums; and keep checking back to My Wii News for more Wii and E3 info!