Nintendo, a leading maker of game consoles and software, recently said that it would not release a version of Nintendo Wii game console capable of DVD playback this year. The company did not provide any information about the timeframe when such a console is set to become available, but said that Nintendo’s primary goal is to fulfill the outstanding demand towards its Wii across the globe.

“Sales of the model with DVD video playback function are planned. No further modification of [Nintendo Wii] and addition of any other functions, or design change, are planned. Due to the license charge of DVD Forum, the model with DVD playback will be priced higher than the current,” a statement by Nintendo reads. 

Back in November, 2006, Nintendo disclosed plans to release DVD-playback enabled version of Wii in the latter half of 2007. According to Sonic Solutions, a software developer, Nintendo intended to use Sonic CinePlayer CE DVD Navigator software engine, which supports such advanced functions as anamorphic widescreen video, motion menus, and multiple video angles, to power DVD playback on Wii.

“We had decided not to initiate sales of [DVD-enabled Wii] in 2007 due to the necessity to raise production efficiency for the single game console product type. Given the demand for Wii in Japan, Europe and the U.S., we had to raise manufacturing efficiency of the current versions,” Nintendo indicated.

Nintendo Wii, the most successful new-generation game console, features IBM’s custom PowerPC architecture-based microprocessor named Broadway clocked at 729MHz and code-named Hollywood chip with built-in graphics core, DSP and I/O features from ATI that operates at 243MHz, earlier reports suggested. Nintendo Wii uses 91MB of memory in total: 23MB of “main” 1T-SRAM, 64MB of “external” 1T-SRAM and 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. Nintendo’s Wii does not feature a hard disk drive, instead, it boasts with 512MB of flash memory, but the console will also have a card reader, which will allow installing more memory.

Nintendo set the recommended retail price of ¥25 000 (about $204) in Japan, $249 in the U.S. and €249 ($342) in Europe.

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