Would you buy a HD Wii?

[RepoMan]

Everyone's favorite talking-out-his-ass analyst, Michael Pachter, is at it again (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14921).
Continuing, he suggested that "in two or three years, commodity prices for graphics processors and CPUs may decline to the point that a High Definition Wii could be introduced. If so, Nintendo will likely introduce one.”
Thing is, this actually would get me to jump. I'm done with 480p forever, but a 720p Wii would push me over the edge. You?

[Jake Plane]

Same. I like the idea of the Wii but I'm done with 480p gaming. If the Wii were high def I'd certainly own one.

[gamadict]

If I had a large HD display, probably. As of right now I play HD consoles on a monitor, which would be inappropriate for waving-my-arms-around-like-a-doofus Wii gameplay

[Drunkagain]

In a heartbeat.

[Rob_Merritt]

Only if it ment they were going to make their games look good to match the HD resolution.

[rjcc]

orange tastes great.

[BobJustBob]

Interesting sidenote: everyone who votes "yes" doesn't really matter.

[Angrycoder]

Interesting sidenote: everyone who votes "yes" doesn't really matter.

Its is one of the few occasions where I agree with bob. He totally nailed it. Like it or not, Nintendo cares fuckall about technophiles.

[metta]

My option isn't represented: I have no interest in a Wii, but want Nintendo in my life to keep feeding my NDS.

[RepoMan]

Yes, but Nintendo likes money. If Wii sales start to slow down in three years when they've saturated the last gen, and if it only costs them like 5 bucks per console to add 720p by that time, I could totally see Nintendo going for it just to pick up the added marginal revenue. They don't need a new CPU, a new GPU, or anything else; all they need is a 720p frame buffer, a slight clock speed bump on their existing GPU, and component output.

metta, you are exactly who the last poll option is for.

[MrLipid]

Don't think I would.

It'd mean buying another Wii and a new TV and probably all manner of other things.

I'll stick with what I've got for the moment.

[shang]

They don't need a new CPU, a new GPU, or anything else; all they need is a 720p frame buffer, a slight clock speed bump on their existing GPU, and component output.

But in order for it to really make a difference, all games out so far need to magically conjure higher resolution assets out of thin air. I really doubt they'll make that sort of revision for the Wii, rather I think they'll wait till Wii2.

I personally wouldn't pay extra to upgrade to WiiHD, even though I have a HD set. Sure, 720p is better, but 480p is good enough for me, just like DVDs are good enough for me as a movie format.

[Hanzii]

Three years?
I think even my daughter will be tired of whoppin' me in Wii Sports by then... highre resulution on the Miis probably won't make a difference.

(actually I just got Wario Wares, Excite Trucks and Super Swing Golf and the last is an example of gameplay that I really like... but dang it's ugly on my HDTV. Otoh Excite Trucks is in the same res but not nearly as bad... but Motorstorm it ain

[Charles]

I'd buy one if there was more attention given to traditional gamers like myself.

I don't need Wii Fit or Wii Sports, HD or not.

[Sarkus]

What would be the point? Your old games would look the same (maybe a little better but not much) and I'm not sure we need to see Wii bowling in high def and even if it was it wouldn't matter.

The Wii is about gameplay, not graphics. I'm sure Nintendo will think about high-def support on their next system but not on the Wii.

[E-phonk]

Don't have a HDTV so can't really be bothered. In three years, maybe...

[Ben Sones]

The Wii is about gameplay, not graphics. I'm sure Nintendo will think about high-def support on their next system but not on the Wii.

I wish people would stop talking about gameplay and graphics as though they had nothing to do with each other, or (worse!) as though they were somehow mutually exclusive.

[Nick Walter]

I wish people would stop talking about gameplay and graphics as though they had nothing to do with each other, or (worse!) as though they were somehow mutually exclusive.

You are absolutely right, people should be saying "HD resolution graphics" instead of just "graphics" when making points like this. Graphics are important to gameplay, but 720p vs 480p isn't.

[LesJarvis]

I wish people would stop talking about gameplay and graphics as though they had nothing to do with each other, or (worse!) as though they were somehow mutually exclusive.

I agree with you in principle here, but I don't think Sarkus is suggesting either of those things. That Nintendo hasn't made cutting edge graphics a priority with the Wii is self evident, so I don't think it's unfair to say that they're not banking on the graphic appeal of the machine to succeed. His statement doesn't appear to imply anything more than that.

[unbongwah]

Sheesh, when are "traditional" gamers just going to accept the Wii isn't for them (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24)?

[walTer]

Switching from my 15 year old Phillips 31 inch tube to my 42 inch plasma and moving to a component connection on my Wii was a huge jump in video goodness.

While 480p looks really really nice, I would love to hop up to 720p-and there is a HUGE difference. I bet those bowling pins will look sweet! Plus all those classic NES games will just look, um, sharp?

[runesword forger]

Don't have an HDTV. Like the Wii, my TV caps out at 480p widescreen.

It'll be at least 2 years before we get an HDTV. By then, the PS3 will cost 250 bucks and have a nice library. The 360 will cost 200 bucks and function reliably.

If the Wii just upscaled, I wouldn't see the point. If it's a Wii-compatible successor that launches before MS and Sony launch successors, well... How cool is it?

I just don't care right now. My gaming cup already runneth over. I could get hdtv, but it just isn't all that interesting. I'd sooner blow my disposable income on a hobie cat sailboat.

[Charles]

Sheesh, when are "traditional" gamers just going to accept the Wii isn't for them (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24)?


I have accepted it. That's why I have no interest in the wii right now, as per my answer.

[Igor Muravyev]

What about all the games that are hardcoded to render at 480p, or worse yet interfaces that are statically sized would shrink on 720p? Wouldn't Nintendo have to produce patches to backport all of those?

[runesword forger]

I'd like to know where my wii hid my traditional gamer cred. I've played Odyssey: the Compleat Apventure! I had the chainmail books! I remember when every stupid jotting of Gygax was instantly canonical! Bilestoad! Eamon!

Wait! Ummm... Fortress! Jumpman! The original squad leader! Dark Tower! Cosmic Encounter! Mindwheel!

Aiiiiieeee!

[RepoMan]

Hmm. I forgot about the 16:9 vs. 4:3 issue. That would be a problem alright.

Maybe I'll just test drive the Wii on our 720p projector and see what it looks like, the projector probably upscales pretty well....

[Coca Cola Zero]

What about all the games that are hardcoded to render at 480p, or worse yet interfaces that are statically sized would shrink on 720p? Wouldn't Nintendo have to produce patches to backport all of those?

For older/existing games, the best you could hope for is they take the 480p framebuffer and scale it up to 720p, using some fancy filter to avoid too much pixelization.

[jim crawford]

For older/existing games, the best you could hope for is they take the 480p framebuffer and scale it up to 720p, using some fancy filter to avoid too much pixelization.
Couldn't they rasterize at 720p? There would be texture resolution issues of course, but using a fancy filter on them seems like it would work at least as well as filtering the entire framebuffer.

Edit: Wouldn't work with games that directly manipulate the framebuffer. Don't know how common that is.

[Dave Long]

This is a dumb thread.

[shang]

Hmm. I forgot about the 16:9 vs. 4:3 issue. That would be a problem alright.

Eh? I think most Wii games already support standard and widescreen mode.

[jfletch]

I don't own or want a Wii so I guess I gotta say no.

[MyNameIsWill]

Eh? I think most Wii games already support standard and widescreen mode.
Most games do 480p (though it's often a fake widescreen).

[KaoFloppy]

I vote No. Because later this year or next year, I'm gonna hook up my Dreamcast & SNES into the LCD via some >$1000 upconverting receiver that Case tried out. Even 480i is good enough for me!

[unbongwah]

I have accepted it. That's why I have no interest in the wii right now, as per my answer.
Right, same here: it just amuses me the number of people who basically say, "I'd buy a Wii if it wasn't a Wii." :-)

I'm also not sure I understand the point of the question. Are we simply talking about a Wii which upscales output to 720p, but everything else is the same? Because if so, what's the point? If you're using a fixed-resolution TV, it'll upscale the signal anyway. The graphics won't be any better, just a little sharper, because the games' graphics won't have changed.

And if you're talking about a Wii with extra processing power to handle 1280 x 720 (or something higher), then aren't we really talking about the Wii 2?

[MyNameIsWill]

No. Nintendo doesn't believe in merely upgrading the graphics and calling it a day. ;)

[deepruntramp]

HD doesn't fix the "no games" problem.

[DennyA]

This is a dumb thread.
Based on a dumb supposition by an overpaid-if-he's-not-a-volunteer analyst.

Even if they did a 1080p Wii, due to compatibility reasons, they'd only be able to upscale existing assets. If you've looked at upscaled back-compat games on the 360 (or your PC when you run a low-res game full-screen on an LCD), you see that they only look marginally better. An HD Wii wouldn't be able to come close to 360/PS3 graphics.

Now, if they did a Wii 2 (or perhaps they's call it the "Wii Wii") with a significantly upgraded GPU and CPU that used upgraded games, and back-compat with the original Wii titles, that would be a wholly new console, as different from the Wii as the Wii is from the GC. (Controllers excepted.)

[walTer]

I would buy a Wii Wii just to tell people I had one.