In the flood of interviews with top Nintendo execs during the days leading up to the launch of the Wii, there were plenty of quotes flying around. Most of them contained PR speak that covered things gaming newshounds already knew. But NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime happened to drop an interesting quote in a USA Today article.
"Tough choices about not including a DVD player at the start, tough choices about not including high-definition capability at the start. That's because we wanted a mass-market price, and we believe the market will validate those decisions come launch day on this Sunday," Fils-Aime said.
The key phrase here is "at the start." Wiis currently cannot play DVD movies, but Nintendo has already confirmed that a new model will be able to in the latter half of 2007 (in Japan at least). If we apply this logic to the "high-definition capability" statement, it seems that this might only be a temporary setback as well.
We contacted a Nintendo rep to clarify, and while they said that Nintendo is absolutely not currently announcing any plans to upgrade the maximum resolution from 480p, it shouldn't be impossible in theory.
The rep noted that Microsoft was able to patch the Xbox 360 to support 1080p.
After all, continued the rep, Nintendo has already released a patch to allow Wii gamers to transfer game saves to SD cards.
This could be good news for Wii gamers looking for a sharper image on their HD sets. We'll keep you posted on any official announcements.
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