Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has been talking for months about Nintendo launching a new "Wii HD" or "Wii Plus" sometime next year. Recently, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime was asked about this supposed hardware upgrade for Wii and he responded, "Michael [Pachter] continues to be the only one who believes that this is going to happen. I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD."
That certainly seems pretty clear, but Pachter thinks Reggie is just blowing smoke up you know where. In the newest edition of IndustryGamers' "Pachter's Podium" series, the analyst countered Reggie's denial. "Reggie needs to get out more," he said. "I have no personal knowledge of a Wii HD, and I’m sure Reggie has no personal knowledge, either. With that said, I’m pretty sure that there is at least one other person who believes a Wii HD is coming."
He continued, "It makes too much sense for Nintendo to upgrade their hardware whenever they can (look at the DS, DSi, and DSi XL, for example), and I think that the next logical iteration is to add high definition. Let’s just say that I am confident that Nintendo will launch a new Wii SKU next year, and that they will call it a 'Wii Plus.' My guess is that the new SKU will have HD functionality."
Fils-Aime's denial aside, Nintendo of Japan has at least been considering the possibility of hi-def visuals in a future console. Whether an upgrade will actually be released next year is anybody's guess. If it does happen, we doubt that 56 million Wii owners are going to want to spend the money on another system so soon.
Be sure to check out the rest of Pachter's Podium for further comments on Xbox Live pricing, third party Wii struggles, future portables and more.
