E3 2011: Nintendo Wii U Discs Can Hold 25GB Of Data

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Interesting development on the Wii U hardware front. In a recent article, I pondered on how much capacity the Wii U’s own proprietary disc format would have. Now, Kotaku has come out and reported that they’ve learned at E3 that it will be able to hold 25GB. That puts it on parity with Blu-Ray discs and, of course, the PlayStation 3.

Early rumors had pinned the Wii U as using a proprietary Blu-Ray based disc format, and now it looks like they might be. There are a number of reasons that Nintendo wouldn’t come out and just use straight old Blu-Ray discs, and that’s the licensing mess and costs that are associated with Blu-Ray. Besides, Nintendo has always wanted to be the master of their own formats – remember those mini-discs than the GameCube used?

On another front, it’s also come out in the media that the Wii U will have 8GB of flash memory on board. Most bloggers and pundits seem convinced that is enough storage for Wii U owners to download DLC and other extra content that’s offered via download on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. If that’s not enough, you’ll be able to expand storage on the Wii U by SD card or USB stick.

Now that the PlayStation 3 and Wii U both will have 25GB of storage to offer developers, I think Microsoft and Xbox developers will feel the restraints of DVD9 even more.

What do you think about the Wii U? Do you think it will be a “hardcore” console?