Nintendo Working On USB Devices – HDD Possible?

I'd pay for a storage device. Many games I've paid for are unplayed much because I want my favorites in my channels and it might sound like nothing but the process of deleting and re-downloading games seems like a time-waster even though its only about a minute really. If a game was just in my channels, I'm more likely to want to play it.

I really hope it is a storage device, then I'd be able to enjoy my VC/WiiWare games a lot more...

If it is a storage device I hope it'll do decryption in hardware and allows us to play from disk. Otherwise it offers little advantage over SD cards.

Id pay for a storage device as long as it's not to exspensive also it can hold all of my Game save files and photos and vc and wii-ware games! Yessss £25-£35 price id like to see! I would pay £50-£60 for a 120 gigabyte harddrive

I completely agree with all the above comments, It feels like a pain redownloading, or fiddling about with the mem card.
come on N, don't let us down.

"Storage Device" being far more likely a thumb drive than a hard drive...

Still, "Official Nintendo Keyboard", "Eye Toy knock-off" and such are far, far, FAR more likely.

I have a 2g usb thumb drive myself but we need an HDD. I have over 100 vc games and six wii ware games. We need more space.

In this other news story you published some weeks ago, plans for an external storage device sound definitely more realistic than these latest assumptions based on a job offer.

Why not use the SD as an expanded memory slot like many other devices do already like mobile phones? I prefer having all my memory stuck inside the Wii than a usb drive sticking out the back

One thing I want from Nintenods USB devices is have some sort of USB hub bulit into them. Kind of like the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive has.

Its a bit pointless if they make several devices and then you have to constantly swap them about.

Still as far as stoage solutions go. Knowing Nintendo it'll be three things: Expensive (say, ~$100), comes with a amount of space (say, <4GB) and propriety (you can only use Nintendos storage solution...kind of like how on the Xbox 360 it has to be Microsofts hard drive)

Does that mean it could be a hardrive? Because I really want a hardrive for the Wii.

Whatever it is, lets hope they announce it at E3. They have to have something big to show off then, and it better not be a DS 2, I just got one for Xmas and would stink.

I don't know what to think so I'll hold off until E3 rolls around...

i think Nintendo is definitely working on something,
making a storage device would be an easy way to make some money,
so i'm sure Nintendo is all over it.
but we probably won't see it until later this year, if not next year.

Looks too involving to be just a mere storage device.

There has to be pressure not only from consumers, but 3rd party developers.
The stroage problem will only become more prominent, and the longer nintendo drags its feet, the worse it will get.

hopefully its a storage device they're working on, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was a headset or else something really crazy.

yay

although it could be anything, this gives me hope for a little while.

@Everyone
Alright. I am putting up $10 that Ninty will announce some kind of solution, or perhaps "Solution" at E3. Who wants to gamble?
Also, $15 that we will only get Earthbound OR SMRPG in the next 3 months!
EDIT: This is not a real gamble, with no real money attached.

All I can really say to this is that Nintendo better be working on something. There really is no excuse for this anymore. Never was really but it's just gotten rediculous.

@Starwolf_UK: "comes with a [crap] amount of space (say, <4GB)"

My SD card is 2 G-bytes and I have some Mp3 rips from old N64 games, a bunch of pictures, and some other miscellaneous computer garbage on there as well as backups of every channel I ever downloaded, and I have over 11,000 blocks of free space, according to my Wii. Each block = 128kb, so let's see, that's enough to hold 38 copies of Sin&Punishment or FFCC (both 287 blocks), or between 366-440 NES games, assuming an average file size of between 25-30 blocks. A clean Wii-formatted 4Gb thumb drive would contain up to 32,768 blocks at 128kb a piece, nearly 16 times what's available on a newly purchased Wii. If, for some reason you managed to fill that behemoth "expansion drive" up, you could simply buy another one, and let's say, put all of your puzzles & platformers on one, but keep all of your SHMUPS and fighters on the other. Then, depending on what mood you were in, you could hot-swap one for the other, or even stuff both into your Wii at the same time, provided you've either got a USB hub (they are fairly cheap), or aren't using the ports for something else, like a keyboard or LAN adapter.

PS- You could fit an entire GameCube game (1.4Gb ISO) on a 2Gb SD card with room to spare, if you could somehow get the Wii to mount the disc image. For an external storage solution, 4Gb is only crap if you are trying to let's say, rip your entire CD collection for playback in the Photo Channel, or watch entire full-length movies in 480p, stuff your Wii was never intended for in the first place.

At first I thought that storing wouldn't be an issue but it has indeed become one. I would probably have bought a few more VC games (will buy more Wiiware games) but didn't because I had no storage space left. Sure it's easy to remove a game and download it again later (backing up to a sd card takes too damn long) but that's not really something that I like doing. Even though they say that not the majority has this issue, it's the most spenders of their store that's having these issues. Something has to be announced soon.

Sweet, nice snooping Dazza.
Personally, I don't care why Nintendo is hiring for this position, whether it be USB HD, Wireless USB keyboard, or some other more creative peripheral, either way it would be sweet.
@Manicfatty - I seem to remember you and Atlantis 1982 having a nice little fight about this awhile ago... does this mean you win?

@Stardust
Although blunt, I agree. 4GB would be plenty for me. Considering MUCH LESS than 512 MB can carry 4 Wiiware, 2 VC, and several channels, along with dozens of save data (which now means I am completely full) but anyway that x6 would be plenty!!

I think the best solution is that someone should just work for that job in order to tell us what it is.

Come on everyone should know that Nintendo is making a motion sensing microphone for the brand new casual game Super Mario Karaoke (from the makers of Get Fit With Mario).
Anyway I will pray that it is a usb hard drive. I hate having to delete games off of my system in order to play other games. I haven't played half my vc games due to this. I own the license to about 50 games yet I only have 8 on my wii menu.

@ Cooldued59- i'll put together my résumé.

lol i have 0 space left had to take out my king of fighters 94 to put in the nintendo channel the file it self is huge as the save file for it compared to smash bro file. i have 5 n64 games 2 snes games, 2 sega games, one neo geo and 8 nes games. if they just make a harddrive or direct access sd cards their sales in vc and wiiware would increase i know cuz when i get a job again my entire paycheck will dump into thier bank account for vc and wiiware games. possibly might do same with second paycheck lol call me crazy if you want

one thing to point out does anyone not find it strange for such channels like nintendo channel take up so much memory that u need online to access it its more internet like then it being in the system. everyone should know the videos and other stuff aren`t in the wii itself yet it takes so much space.

I really need a storage solution and would pay for one for sure. 4-8 gig would work well enough and although i expect it to a propriety based and expensive i think it would be worth it as most of my vc and wiiware titles go unplayed because i have to either download them again or move them back and forth to my sd card. Like some else has said though you will need to be able to play them from the storage system itself or it is not improvement over just buying a sd card (which i already have)

@StarDust.

Yeah 4GB might be sufficient for a few years of Wii but my point was $100 for 4GB (or less) is Nintendo raping you value-for-money wise.

Though ATM due to the Wii using FAT 16 2GB is the most we'll see.

If they charge $100 that would work out at around £50 at the moment and think flash memory does cost alot more that HD based storage systems (not that I wont to be robbed by nintendo) wouldnt an update from nintendo allow the support of 2gig +

Actually, Flash, although slower and smaller, is still a lot cheaper than even a low-capacity microdrive. I can remember a time a few years ago when the 750Mb Zip drives came out, USB flash memory was still averaging $1 per Mb. At $25 apiece, the 750Mb Zip disks looked dirt cheap in comparison, so that was what I got.