Wii-U Will not have local game installs.

This could possibly have something to do with the Wii-U not having a Hard Drive.


When creating a console, a company has to figure out what components to include in it at a price that makes sense to consumers. I have no idea how the Wii was $250 even though it only cost Nintendo $100 to make in the beginning. With the Wii-U Nintendo is trying to cut cost everywhere and once of those is not including a Hard Drive but instead relying on Flash Drives for storage options because we know how well that worked out for the Wii in the beginning.

Now Nintendo could be misleading it's customers by saying they will use Flash Drives and could surprise everyone by including a 128GB SSD Drive which technically speaking relies on flash technology but I don't see Nintendo doing that.

So what is the problem? The problem is that with only a certain amount of available data, users will not be able to install their games on a local hard drive or storage unit. This not only helps to reduce loading times but some games require it, specially on the PS3. A lot of developers use that option and it would make it easier for them if Nintendo included that option.

The Wii is said to have 4 USB 2.0 ports and there's a possibility that games could be loaded from a USB hard drive but with more data added to the Wii-U games it would do more hard than good.

Source