Nintendo shuns DVD once again

There’s nothing Nintendo likes to do more than be a little different and it’s a tradition that the Wii U will embrace in more ways than one.

While both the Xbox 360 and PS3 offer DVD playback (and in the latter case, Blu-ray too) out of the box, the Wii has always stood alone in not offering DVD playback.

And echoing the reasons given for the decision taken with that machine, Nintendo has once again confirmed that Wii U has hunted the functionality.

"Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities," president Satoru Iwata confirmed to investors.

"The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn’t warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies."