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

It's all about expectations. There is actually a large group of consumers that feel any video game system is meant to be a home entertainment system. This same applies to cell phones now. Most people expect their phone to do more than just make calls.

I was raised on video games starting with the Atari 2600 so I still just enjoy using my console for gaming. I do use my consoles as my media player though so I ended up picking up another console since Wii U does not offer that ability.

Unfortunately based on my friends who rarely play games they see a lack of media options as a reason to avoid Nintendo.

@JohnBlackstar Well then those people are fools or idiots. Do they buy a toaster expecting it to make coffee as well? Do you buy a hair drier expecting it to wash your hair as well?

You don't buy a product based on something else another product does. You buy a gaming console to play games. You want sokething that plays movie discs and streams buy a Bluray with streming capability. I mean come on do people by a DVD player to play video games???

@Tasuki He's got a point though, when that toaster also makes you coffee and washes you hair, then it surely looks more appealing than the other toasters that don't. The Xbox One S is currently one of the cheapest 4K media players on the market; and it's a home console as well. If you're looking for both, don't tell me that's not a good deal.

Now yes, I do think it's a bit of a silly argument as I explained earlier. I don't agree with the OP; however, I do agree with the general notion that more features can make a console more appealing. Whether a media player in 2016 is still relevant in a console is a completely different question.

I still buy physical media for music and movies. Less than I used to but more than I do for games. I think it's still very much a thing. Especially for content that you really want to have a physical copy of. Or for CDs when they're out for cheap. For music in particular the end result is the same anyway, you get an mp3 you can drag around with you.

What I think is weird about the whine in this thread isn't that people still think physical media matters. Or that there are people who still consume media that way. Because I still do at least partially. The thing I think is weird is that in 2016 someone who is into physical media wants another device to play it back. If you have a collection of DVDs and/or BluRays surely you already have a device to play them.

@skywake True, but if you collect DVDs, then you surely would've bought a DVD player before the Wii U was a thing. You wouldn't rely on the Wii U as your DVD player, even if that was possible.

@Octane
That's precisely my point. I don't think it's strange that physical media still exists and people still want to use it. There's nothing wrong with wanting to watch your favourite movie in full, non-compressed 1080p. Hell, there's nothing wrong with someone who wants to listen to the warm crackle of vinyl either. More power to them.

But someone who complains that a game console doesn't support DVD/Blu-Ray playback? It just seems a bit odd to me. It's not 1996 or 2006 it's 2016. Surely if you have media to playback you have the player. It's not exactly an ordeal to plug in two devices to your TV.

@skywake Maybe my original comment on how physical media for films is redundant was a bit of an exaggeration then; as I own a pretty big vinyl collection myself. So I get your point.

Right that was my point too. I mean honestly who walks into Gamestop and says ok I need a device to play DvDs? No one people want a game console to play games not DvDs. And why on earth would some pay $200 (or whatever a Wii U) costs to play DVDs when they can get a DVD player for less the $100? And it's not like DvDs are a new technology where no on in this day and age doesn't have a DVD player.

Besides the OP wants to argue it's 2016 all consoles should be able to play DvDs. I say it's 2016 everyone should at least have a stand alone DVD player.

I still come back to a cell phone. I'm positive that over 50% of consumers want their cell phone to do more than make calls. We are in a generation that wants one box under their tv that handles all their media needs (me included). I don't want a cd player, dvd player, blu-ray player, 4k player, netflix player, hulu player, and video game system just because I have owned all of those things separately doesn't mean I want 7 systems under my TV. Why would that make someone an idiot? I would assume an idiot is someone that enjoys using 10 different devices when they could be combined in to one..

Your avatar fits so perfectly with this comment... it's almost madness.

Yukari fits with everything. lol

It's a bit different because people tend to have limited pocket space. If a phone came out with, for example, no headphone jack? No ability to easily plug in my headphones? Well that would be an issue for me because I don't want to have to carry around an mp3 player or a bunch of adaptors. Under my TV? It's less of an issue. There isn't limited space under my TV, there are multiple HDMI ports on the back and it's not hard to get a powerboard.

But it doesn't work like that. For a start I have no idea why you'd want to play CDs through your TV but maybe you do. If you do then you could do it through a BluRay player which would also do DVDs. It's also not that hard to find a BluRay player that does Netflix and so on. Though for the sake of simplicity lets say you get one that doesn't. So that's one device.

Then we get to your TV itself. Maybe for some reason this TV is an old set, a non-smart TV. Those are still definitely floating around. But if it is a smart TV or an Android TV even? Again, you get all the video streaming services. But maybe it doesn't. Either way you're still at once device hooked upto your TV. Possibly closer to doing all the things however.

At that point you plug in your Wii U. And guess what? It kinda has all the video streaming services there. Well not all of them but all the notable ones anyway. Though to be fair they were probably accessible from your TV and/or Blu-Ray player anyways. Still, nice to have.

The only thing missing is the 4K BluRay. Though if you need that you must have a 4K TV right? If so then I don't see what the issue is. Your 4K TV would be pretty shiny and new. Also probably fairly expensive. So it'd have all the streaming services built in pretty much guaranteed. Plus a 4K BluRay player does play back BluRays, DVDs and CDs.

So really, unless you want all the consoles plugged into your TV? You can probably get away with just one thing plugged into your TV. Maybe two. I'd argue the idiot is the person who buys 10 devices knowing the overlapping functionality.

There is a reason that Windows Phone is struggling in the cell phone market. Not enough apps or the ones that people want. This is what has happened to the Wii U. Average consumers do not see the return on investment. The Nintendo games alone are not enough of a selling point. Without software and app support I fear the NX will also struggle.

I personally can bypass the fact that the Wii U does not have support because I love the first party games, but the average consumer is not able to get beyond that which is why we sit with a console in last place.

@JohnBlackstar That's a completely different argument though. Nintendo games are not enough, I think we can all agree on that. It's not the lack of DVD player that caused the Wii U to become what it is, it's the lack of other games besides the Nintendo games (and more reasons of course). It's logical that a gaming system doesn't sell when it doesn't get all the games however, suggesting that the low sales are due to the lack of a media player is simply not true. I don't think a lot of people care about the lack of DVD player on the Wii U.

Check this out: http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/25/8111929/why-do-people-choose...

Research shows that having a blu-ray player was the number two selling point for the PS4. Most people don't even know the Xbox One has it because they rarely advertise it.

This is an important feature on a console to most people. Games fall in to 3rd, 4th, and 5th place on all console lists. The game argument is not stacking up in real customer data.

I don't know I don't mind having seperate devices rather then on device that can do everything. That way is my game system breaks or whatever I can still watch DVDS on my DVD player. Plus the less things a product does the less ware and tear happens to that product. I have had PS2 lens crap out on me more frequent cause I used them as multimedia devices compared to any Nintendo console that uses optical discs.

@JohnBlackstar the Wii didn't have a DVD or Blue Ray and outsold the PS3 and Xbox 360

@faint

Yes, I agree. I also think it was a different time period before people started to expect these features. People also expect HD consoles now which was not a norm when Wii sold TONS of consoles.

@JohnBlackstar the ps2 played DVDs. I would argue that people already expected the option due to that. Hd was new last gen and DVD playback was not.

Until recently when Xbox One S ads focused on the fact it has 4K Bluray player and then sales shot through the roof.