E3 2008: Miyamoto Discusses Limited Storage Space On Wii

A comment is better than silence at least. I´ll wait patiently

Maybe I am the only one that thinks so, but I don't need something like that. I have bought "Paper Mario", "Neutopia 1", "Neutopia 2", "Startropics", "LostWinds and "Toki Tori" and copied them to SD-Card. And I still have plenty of space on my 2GB-Card. And there are not too many games I necessarily want to buy in the near future.

But as always, this is just my opinion. For those who want more memory, I hope that there will be a solution soon.

Well, at least they say bthey are working on it. Better than nothing.

Although I would like to see a cheap solution to the Wii storage problem, I'm not sure how bad the problem is. I have only downloaded a few VC and WiiWare games, so I've still got some room left, but I can see that I may have a problem when I buy my next WiiWare game.

Can someone tell me how much of a hassle it really is to keep a 2GB SD in the Wii and just save and re-load games as needed?

For example, I just downloaded Paper Mario which is great fun. I also have Lylat Wars on my Wii. If I was short of space, how much hassle is it to swap between the two? How much time does it take to save a game to SD card, delete it and load another game from the card? Is Save data saved too, or would I have to save and load that seperately, or would I just leave it on the Wii?

What steps do I need to go through to, say, replace Paper Mario with Lylat Wars, and how long would it take?

And - sorry for all the questions - what happens to a game (like FFCH:My Life as King) with a load of DLC? Do you have to save and delete the game and extra downloads seperately - and reload them seperately later?

Having asked all that, I must confess that I don't really see what Nintendo's problem is. I would have thought that a simple firmware update would be possible to allow the playing of games directly from SD card.

But Omega seems to have the right attitude. After all, you're not likely to play more than one or two games in a session. Some of my games I hardly play at all, and would be happy to archive to SD until I get the urge again. (For example, I've got Star Tropics only because the hero is called Mike Jones. Guess what my name is? <grin> I very rarely actually play it and then only to show someone I've had a game hero "named after me".).

Sorry to waffle on - doo you think Nintendo have bigger problems than storage issues to worry about? They seem to have come up with a solution to the headset problem, but there are others.

It's the same dilemma I have every morning at work when I look at my To Do list. Should I start with the not-so-important but simple problems, or concentrate on the hard but vital stuff. I usually make a cup of coffee and play online Bejewelled for an hour.

If you were head of Ninty-Corps, what would be on your To Do list? And in what order?

Why do all the great news (except Wii Motion+) get "announced" via double-talk from interviews at IGN with Miyamoto behind the curtains?

I have been waiting for a storage solution since May, when my Wii filled up. I was hoping that they would announce their intentions at E3 (such as "we'll do this method by insert date") but now I am just gonna go get a 2GB SD card. Whatever...once I do, I won't care if there's a solution....unless they do the firmware update...

Please let there be a firmware update if I download 1 more wiiware game over 200 I'm bust I already have a 1GB card and u get tonnes of space nearly over 7000 blocks so don't bother with the hassle of 2GB cards there expensive.

@mikejonesuk

I tried doing that once (my wii system memory has been full for at least 6 months now.), I wanted to move Sin and Punishment to my SD card because I was quite done playing it for the time being. I think it took, if memory serves correctly, at LEAST 30 minutes. No exaggeration, perhaps it took even longer. So, yeah, it is quite a hassle, especially for larger games.

The save data for VC and Wiiware games is saved seperately from the data file (it's saved on the wii still, but only in a 1-3 block save file). So, you can delete the game, but still have the save data if you redownload later.

I don't know about wiiware games with DLC because I haven't purchased any DLC for a game.

And I completely agree with you, it seems like a firmware update would not be that difficult to come up with. I imagine that the transfer rate between the wii system memory and SD card would still be rather slow... But perhaps we could be allowed the option to download directly to the SD card?

But, the thing I like about the VC/wiiware is that there is supposed to be no hassle! No scratched/smudged disks, no blowing into a cartridge, no searching around for that game you want to play. It's all just on your wii, all you have to do is click on it. That's what I don't like about the whole delete/redownload or SD transfer thing. Those two "solutions" take a ridiculous amount of time, and it kind of defeats the purpose of the VC for me. I could just as easily go on ebay and buy all the games I want! My SNES still works, my N64 still works, except I wouldn't be limited by storage space or by what Nintendo feels that I deserve to play this week.

And that is MY storage solution. Until nintendo decides that we're worthy of their great and holy power, until they decide they can wave their hand and fix our storage problem (because let's be honest, how hard could it really be?), I will not be purchasing anything from the VC/wiiware. In fact, I love how at their E3 press conference yesterday they failed to even mention the VC. They barely said a word about wiiware. So, of course, no word on a storage solution.

Also, that "Cammy" lady or whatever the hell her name was, was annoying as hell.

I don't think I've had any game take more than 3-4 minutes to transfer to a SD card. Maybe you should get a faster card? 30 minutes seems way too long. Still, it is a pain to have to copy games back and forth...

The palm handhelds have the option of running games from their SD cards. First they copy the game to the internal memory, then run it and when you exit it, they erase it from memory. I think Nintendo should do this too, so the process of copying/deleting is automated...

I'm glad Nintendo addressed one of the key problems with the Wii by announcing the Wii Speak boundry microphone, but I think the storage issue is the more pressing problem and should've been a higher priority for Nintendo. Once again, it's nice to hear that they are aware of the problem but until I see something more concrete then passing banter, I can only assume they are trying to avoid the issue.

I'm glad we got WiiSpeak rather than a storage solution. I'm out of space on my Wii also, but I don't play my VC games very often, and am only looking at buying Super Mario RPG in the future. And as for WiiWare, I really don't see anything on the horizon I'm going to buy. So I'm ok with deleting games and reloading them, but I wouldn't have to do it often. And FINALLY we have means to talk to other people online, without using my phone. I'm very glad we got this rather than a storage solution.

@mikejonesuk Assuming Nintendo really want the family market it is a huge problem.

The channels and games wanted by different members of my family (and oddly the ability to save games) have completely blown the memory. Moving anything to the SD card requires negotiating since I'm not letting the kids decide what gets deleted (chances are one of them will end up deleting something one of the others want without backing up and there will be hell to pay).

Yeah, it takes quite long to get it onto an SD Card, but once it's on, downloading is quite faster, but it's still as fast as downloading it from the Wii Shop (I have 8mbit up and downstream)

Sin& Punishment didn't took me half an hour, but I guees it were between ten and 15 minutes, and it's a Wii specified SD card from SanDisk! (I won it at a contest)

I agree with the first comment posted. At least this is better than silence or the stock answers we have gotten. Besides there are only 4-5 Wii owners with this storage issue.

@ Everyone who thinks Nintendo can just flick a switch and the storage issue is handled

I'm tired of people who think that Nintendo is some sort of god company who can easily do stuff just bye clapping their hands. It's not as easy as it is, first off they need time, they have sh*t to handle besides this, we're not the only group complaining and bickering about how the staff at Kyoto are totally incompitant with handling the issues of their still loyal fans. And to the ignorant people who think that it is just a simple firmware that'll make this disgrace go away, why don't you go make a hack that'll solve is if it's so easy. But I'm still with you on the fact Iwata needs to get his foot off his desk (I was gonna write about his foot somewhere else, but you know, inappropiate.

@Dokenzz "why don't you go make a hack that'll solve is if it's so easy" People have (and the recent update to 3.3 or whatever killed that option too). As for us normal people...yeah, that's all we are. We're not a multi-billion dollar company. Nintendo is. So to say it isnt fair to demand Ninty make a firmware update is, in itself, unreasonable.

I been jonesing for a hard drive just like most of you guys were, but I've actually grown to like (OK, tolerate) the SD card method. The only real issue with it is that it takes forever to copy files around, especially with larger ones (games that take up more than 200 blocks take what seems like 20 minutes to copy.) I don't plan on downloading a ton of games anyway.

Edit: Nevermind what I said earlier about how Hard Drive fans need to suck it up. Maybe I was being a bit harsh. The driving lessons I've been taking haven't put me in the best mood.

But no, If Ninty says (or at least hinting at it) that we're getting one, I'll gladly take it. I'd love to have a storage method that doesn't take 3 days to copy back and forth.

Well, this is good news. I figured he was going to avoid the question all together, but he actually mentioned something that indicated they were thinking about it.

Ya, I stopped using the SD card all together, transferring was far to slow, and I can't copy most of my saves to it, so I really don't see the point. It never took 20-30 minutes though, it just seemed like it when I'm sitting around waiting. I hope they go with a flash drive thing, or something I can't concieve, because to me, accessing stuff from the SD card doesn't seem like much of a solution. Of course, my problem is I don't want to wait.

I'm preparing to lose all credibility with this next comment...

I'm actually fine with 512MB. I liked it because it kept the cost of the system down compared to an Xbox 360 or a PS3 when I got it Christmas 2006. Also, considering that Miyamoto originally wanted the Wii selling for $100, it didn't include the Flash Memory, so I'm grateful that 512 is there in the first place. I don't do the SD Card storage thing. In fact, I have no problem redownloading a game. I look at it like if I'm planning on enjoying a game, like Mario Kart or Ocarina or Lost Winds, for the next couple of hours, a few minutes to download is no big deal, macrospectively speaking. Maybe it's not a case of being a geek or otaku, but maybe OCD or just the unnecessary luxury of saving a few minutes by not having to download again. SD Cards are fine if you're taking your Wii someplace where there's no internet, I'll admit.

Okay...let the tomatoes begin.

Well I am glad Nintendo addressed this issue. However, in my opinion I pit all he blame on this space issue do to Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB). It forces you to use so many blocks for data that you can put onto an SD card. I think it should've been optional or something and thats when I ran into my space issue. Although, the only Wiiware game I see myself purchasing is Mega Man 9 in the future. The VC sucks right now to me and maybe thats why Nintendo is releasing garbage games for the most part is due to the space issue.

Leaving SD on a Wii, specially if it uses Wiiconnect24 and no extra vents, can overheat and damage the SD and the SD slot. There are some files that cant be copied, plus you may also want to have songs or photos on the SD for the Photo channel on top of that cheap SD lose data or dont even work at all.

too little, too late!
too many problems
too little/weak content! lol

@Thomas: I know that you have said that you are fine with re-downloading files on the fly, but not everyone has that luxury. I have set up my minimac as a WEP-protected wifi hub that shares my dial-up modem connection with my Wii. That is right, there are still people out there that use this antiquated technology. Like many others here, I have stuffed my Wii console with games. I was totally unable to connect to the shop channel for the first ten months that I had my Wii. The August 7th update last year (the one I avoided for so long because it broke the GC Action replay) suddenly allowed me to access this world for the first time. My first successful VC download was SMB:TLL in early October, because I thought it would soon be gone forever as it was in Europe. Then Mario 64, which took 50 minutes to download (15 minutes per block, then 5 minutes of Mario smacking his head, proving the 30%-60%-90%-100% conjecture). Believe it or not, I have successfully completed over 200 Mario Kart Wifi races through my dial-up service, as well as download every world-record ghost in the MK channel (even on a modem, they only take a few seconds!). For some unknown reason, the Wii only transfers the content binaries at 1x, even though I have a 150x 2Gb SD card (3rd party). The photo channel loads the 1000-or-so photos on my SD card at a blazingly fast speed, proving that the Wii is at least capable of reading (if not writing?) the data at high rate of speed. This makes a possible update plausible at the very least - one explanation that I have heard is that the files take an eternity to decrypt. I find this highly unlikely given the low-overhead that most encryption schemes require. The fact that Nintendo did not even discuss the storage problem at E3 for more than one passing sentence, tells me that their "geeks and okatu" philosophy is correct - they just don't care about VC fans/ storage issues

Erm, "fix" the firmware so that;
a) The SD card access / data transfer rate is optimised.
b) "Bridge" the SD card internally (via firmware) so it can be accessed directly by the engine. (i.e. so it can be used in exactly the same way as the exisiting onboard memory).
c) Perform the same process for external USB sticks / storage.
d) Advise users that higher quality SD & USB storage devices will provide better data throughput. (Also via firmware).
There problem fixed, easily and cheaply for all us loyal users. We love you Nintendo (and have done for many years) so now love us back please!

I totally agree with you, raxous.
Come on Nintendo, I need more memory!

;( I NEED MEMORY. I dont need it i mostly just want it cuz its annoying downloading and uninstalling things from your sd card every ****ing sec