Nintendo to enable USB mass storage devices on Wii?

This kind of stuff is never really set in stone until it's announced, but a press release issued by eSOL announced that Nintendo would be licensing its PrFILE2 FAT file system and PrUSB/Host USB host stack middleware for the Wii. Human-readable translation (if you really want to call it that, since this is the English translation of the Japanese release): "By embedding PrUSB/Host, direct communication with USB devices is supported without using PC. Optional Mass Storage class driver enables using USB flash memory, other mass storage device and digital camera as the external storage." So eSOL's middleware can be used to address devices via USB, but it's still not a sure thing you'll be able to expand storage via USB on your console. Now, why you can only expand via SD is beyond us, but maybe Nintendo's wising up to the fact that maybe they can sell overpriced N-branded USB flash drives, too.

[Via C3]

[humpty @ Apr 5th 2007 7:37PM]

Panasonic is their hardware partner; they have a monetary interest in promoting the SD card exclusively... external usb hdds will never happen on the wii.

[Joshua @ Apr 5th 2007 8:09PM]

External hard drive anyone?

[Faisal @ Apr 5th 2007 8:38PM]

lmao!!! there's a company ACTUALLY called eSOL? lol Electronic Shit Outta Luck

[mike @ Apr 5th 2007 8:53PM]

This is a wii-mote charging device. The same picture is down below in another article.

[Chris @ Apr 6th 2007 10:49AM]

fat32 filesystem and mass storage driver has what to do with charging?

[ark_v2 @ Apr 5th 2007 9:46PM]

>_> PSP on Wii

[Shane @ Apr 5th 2007 9:50PM]

From my angle, I don't think it's going to happen. Primarily for the reason of the VC games. Nintendo is not wanting the games to be transferred from console to console w/o pay involved. The use of external removable media devices would enable the possibility of VC game piracy. Now, this could or could not be possible, but hey that's my take on it. I would think personally it would be a great idea for N to provide us this technology upgrade, but I doubt it will happen. If it did, there would probably be a lot of limitations to it, just like the current scenario involving the SD cards. And of course the Wii numbers, and all the other precautions they are taking to prevent piracy. Then again, they could just surprise us all. I just hope that my memory doesn't run out any time soon.

[ai @ Apr 5th 2007 11:17PM]

heres a mockup i made:

http://i15.tinypic.com/2pr77ya.jpg
(i figure it'll be small and hardly visible from the front sides and angles)

[Justin Gehring @ Apr 6th 2007 1:02AM]

@Shane:

VC game pirating with a USB hard disk is no different than VC pirating with an SD card... The fact of the matter is, the encryption on the VC games themselves is so complex, that it looks like it will be awhile before anyone cracks it without a mod chip.

[Almadi @ Apr 6th 2007 5:16AM]

I had a comic on that:

http://madiart.blogspot.com/2007/03/wfgn-11-sega-love-edition.html

[Ethan Duffy @ Apr 6th 2007 5:44AM]

It'll have to be Nintendo branded if you'll be able to run things from it, otherwise it'll be as crippled as the SD storage, which has to undergo laborious encryption for virtual console games, and we'll still have 512mb. My bet is a maximum 4GB RAM, which will cost a lot.

[Chris @ Apr 6th 2007 10:47AM]

maybe they will allow viewing pictures and watching movies off usb drives. they did mention a camera which would have pictures on it.