I don't think the Wii U is even reading the disc constantly, it's definately spinning in the disc drive, but I don't think it's reading it with the laser.

Fair enough. It's still in continuous use, however, and that means by default (technology does not get better with use) that it's wearing down.

I can guarantee people are going to be disappointed that the Wii U, as the current model, does not last nearly as long as any previous Nintendo product.

We will see, considering stuffs going in a digital direction anyway.

Not misleading at all. The Wii U has flash memory included. Not a hard drive.

You could ask the same of a fair chunk of PS3/360 skus throughout their life. Most of the early ones, due to the capacity of drives at that point, didn't have much more storage than the Wii U does and lately some of the cheaper skus have come with ~8GB flash anyway. The suggestion that developers are restricted because there's not as much assumed storage equally applies to the PS3/360 and yet I don't think there's been that much of a problem.

As for whether it's an oversight... it probably will be a bit of a problem for heavier users but for most I doubt they'll ever realise there's a limit. Plus storage is so cheap you can just plug a HDD in anyway. Much more elegant than what we had to deal with on the Wii. I still wish there was a way to store saves on the Wii U and data on the external drive but... meh...

Personally I'd rather see a Wii U with Gigabit Ethernet and USB3 before one with a cheap 320GB HDD built in.

I never had any laser of any disc-reading-device EVER break down on me because of too much use. I had 3 xboxes redringing on me (which has nothing to do with the laser) but besides that - I believe the gain you get from installing discs on your PS3 might be quicker loading times since a hard disk is quicker than a disc drive but "prolonging the PS3's" life argument might be neglectable, except you want to play it 30 years+...

Not wanting to sound like a smartass btw.

I agree. Never had my original Playstation in the shop and that had a double speed CDROM that ran games exclusively. Having said that I'm not interested in packaged media so it's hard drive or bust for me. A faster connection would be nice, but USB2 is plenty fast enough given how much RAM the machine has.

My external HDD is alot faster & better then the cheap one Nintendo would of given us

I actually hadn't even considered the potential effect it could have on the laser.

I remember I had to replace the laser module in my PS2 because it became practically unusable over time.
Still, that's not to say the same will happen with Wii U.

Personally, I found using an external hard drive more hassle than it needed to be. I can't really use an external power supply as I don't have enough power outlets left, and the system wouldn't run a HDD using just one USB port. The only option was a USB y-cable, which obviously takes up 2 USB ports. To top it off, I have to plug the HDD into the front of the system as I have an ethernet adaptor in the back. Kind of spoils the nice sleek design of the system.

Since you can have unlimited memory by adding USB harddrives there's absolutely no issue downloading tons of Wii U games.
The only memory problem is that VC and WiiWare are restricted to Wii Mode's 512 MB and a flawed SD Card Menu with only 240 free slots.

I'm quite happy to use an external. Particularly since I already have a shiny black 1TB mybook that, although four years old now, I'm ready to format and stand next to the Wii U (I stopped using it as my main backup device a while back). I doubt developers will worry about that - as someone else pointed out the kind of people who will buy those games will no doubt buy several of them and be the kind of people to have already taken care of storage. Optional peripherals are always a concern for developers though and I really, really hope that Motionplus isn't forgotten by developers. I want some more Red Steel 2 action!

As for the laser issue. Is it really more likely to wear out than the laser in the Wii?!?

With the way Nintendo has been pricing their digital games I don't think I'll need a hard drive.

You've been lucky, then. The original Playstation and Dreamcast were notorious for the laser failing. Back in the day there were all sorts of tips on how to stack the Playstation on its side or upside down to prolong the life of malfunctioning systems. And not long after the Dreamcast ceased manufacturing there was a blitz on online retailers by collectors looking to get a second or third backup Dreamcast who knew what fate awaited their system The PS2, while more reliable than the PS1, also had plenty of similar problems..

That is odd. Nothing bad ever happened to any of our lasers either. Anyways...

Portable hard drives are fairly cheap - only $100 for 1TB, and the smaller ones will only get cheaper, so I'd say it isn't much of an issue.

Nope, they didn't make a mistake. I like the option of just being able to plug in any size hard drive. This is one of the best features of the Wii U.

In my opinion? Yes. Nintendo has been trying to make the jump to digital world but 32GB isn't much memory. I'd pay an additional $50 for a built in 1TB hard drive. Though it does support external hard drives and $50-$100 gets you a fairly large one.

I've also NEVER had a problem with lasers failing, and I've played the heck out of my disc based systems (GCN, Wii, PS1, PS2, 360 which I haven't installed many games from and often play from the disc, PSP if that counts)... in fact, all my consoles are in great condition and I still play them. If it wears on the laser, I haven't ever seen it do anything.

More on topic, I think it would have been a mistake if Nintendo DID include a HDD. That's unnecessary hardware to charge us for instead of letting us find the best deal we can on storage. One of my big gripes with Microsoft was that I had to pay so much for a specialized HDD for my 360 when I can get a rather large USB one for cheap through my college. I have a nice 1TB HDD for the system for less cost than I had to pay for a 120GB HDD for my 360. Forcing consumers to pay for their HDDs is ridiculous, not everyone needs a lot of space and I doubt this affects developers, it's fairly safe to assume anyone who needs a HDD can find one for cheaper than it would've been to include it. The casuals who would find this as an issue wouldn't even need that much space.

If nintendo were to do that it would definatly drive up costs for the wiiu... if anyone has a wiiu its inevitable that a hard drive purchase, and i like the fact that the consumer can choose the hard drive that best fits their needs... plus external hard drives are easier to replace should something go wrong with it..

fyi game update data takes hd space...

true... not all ps3 games require any installation whatsoever... some has it as a option while others require it