Topic: mind = blown that you can't play DVDs on the Wii U

I'm shocked that someone in 2016 who wants to play a DVD does not have a DVD player. Yes. Because you can get a DVD player new for what, $20US? You can probably find them used for nothing. So I'd have assumed that someone who has DVDs they want to play would have a player. I don't think this is a crazy thought.

And how big of a first world problem is that second part. Heaven forbid you have to plug a magic movie playing box into your TV! Woe is you! How much trauma you must get from having to find shelf space next to your high definition game playing machine.

@skywake Is right, we live in a time where people think a device needs to have every single useless feature available for it to be good.

Just another things for complainers to complain about (no offense @Rexcalibur, you have a track record of complaining).

I mean come on now. I'm not expecting NX to be spectacular, but you would say that a game console is bad because it can't play DVDs because you don't have a DVD player in 2016??

Both my grandmas have Blu-ray players dude.

Ah, it's been a while ...

We'll revisit this this thread when Nx is revealed to be a cartridge based system and people will whine about it not being able to play CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray or that old Barry White LP.
Physical media is dying for films and music, I don't have a BD-ROM player nor do I feel like I need one. I can't recall the last time I watched a DVD either.

@Samurai_Goroh Don't forget about the 4K Blu-rays

Considering the drives were there already, it Sucks they don't allow it. But oh well, people will defend everything Nintendo does. Of course, not having it is not a deal breaker either. I'm not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if people could hack the wii u to play Blu rays like they did with the wii for dvds. That's what I'd do. Well, I'll hack it anyway.

@Operative The drives are there, but not the licences required to legally play it. It's not like there is no cost for Nintendo to allow it. And like you said, it's not something that would prevent a console from selling, the Wii sold very well regardless. Also the opposite, Microsoft put all its chips on the Xbox One being a media centre/setup box replacement in the living room, they dreamed of selling 200 million consoles that way! It just didn't happen.
I'd much rather Nintendo paid royalties to Dolby for instance than to the DVD or Blu-ray consortia. Because what Dolby Surround does actually matters to games. DVD and Blu-ray do not.

My day is now complete.

I thin I am going to complain that DVD players don't play Wii U discs.

Let's also not forget that Sony is part of both the DVD and BluRay ownership-groups. They receive income as a result of the licensing for the technology (split with maybe a dozen or so other companies, but still they do receive a share).

So while Ninty and Sony are not actually "enemies" in the manner that fanboys would like to believe, if Ninty is able to avoid paying a competitor company for every unit sold of their product (especially if avoiding the cost does not critically affect the functionality of the product — and lacking DVD or BluRay playback capability in their systems in no way impacts the functionality of their systems as game-machines) then they are going to do so — especially if doing so also means that they can then market their product at a lower retail price than they otherwise would be able to do.

TL;DR: It just has been a more sensible business decision to release without DVD or BluRay playback capability.

No they shouldnt. I buy a gaming console to play games. If I want to watch DVDS I buy a DVD player. Or is that to hard for you to understand?

@Rexcalibr Allow me to point out the obvious problem with your disbelief:

If the Wii U being able to play DVDs is so important to you that Nintendo should have ensured it was possible, why has it taken you this long to become aware that it doesn't?

@Tsurii I've just checked our alerts board. A quick search suggests you've tripped the profanity filter at least 18 times this year. Either you don't respect our Community Rules, you don't think they apply to you, or you're just careless. Whichever it is, please amend your approach to posting at NL so it doesn't happen again, or we'll have to consider some stronger amendments of our own.

Sony and Microsoft make other gadgets that play DVDs. Nintendo does not.

Does it make sense now?

@Rescalibr

It's no news that the Wii U doesn't play DVDs, why did you just assume it does?
The reason it doesn't is simple: licensing fees.
They have to pay a lot for being allowed to use these media formats, so it probably would've made the console more expensive.
It's the same reason why the Wii U doesn't play Audio-CDs either, which by the way also applied to the PS4 until about a year ago.

I don't even get the point really, everyone who can afford a Wii U probably has or can afford a PC, Laptop or DVD Player. If I have to choose between a more expensive Wii U with media licences and a less expensive Wii U + using my PC for DVDs etc., I gladly choose the latter.

@YellowFighter The Wii had a Photo Channel, which I would wage the vast majority of users tried a couple of times before they stopped using.
Nintendo must have seen some hard data about Wii Channels usage and figured out which ones would be worth developing for Wii U. The Photo Channel didn't make the cut.

@shani Even now with Windows 10, if your PC manufacturer did not provide you with it, or if you build your own PC, you don't have a DVD licence with the system. Microsoft stopped caring about paying the fee for every Windows user.
Why do people assume these licences are given away for nothing?

@Samurai_Goroh I'm my own PC manufacturer. ^^ And as far as I know, every DVD or Bluray drive you build into your computer already comes with a paid license. On Windows I just install VLC player and everything works fine.

@shani https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/windows-dvd-player/9n...
I didn't know that. I just read that starting with Windows 10, Microsoft is not giving a DVD licence any more. At least Microsoft is attempting to sell this app to someone. Not sure to whom right now, with what you've just told me.

I have PowerDVD from Lenovo and I seldom use it too.

Well I would sure hope so. I wouldn't buy a player that can't play Blu Rays or DVDs

I use some DVD player on my computer, but I usually use my PS3/4 as my disc player.