Wii U Downloads will NOT store on SD Cards
11/13/12 11:00am
tl;dr
Looks like USB drive is your only hope.
During an Q&A interview with Nintendo of Japan, details emerged about using external devices for storage purpose and while the translation could be off it detailed this.
- Downloaded software can go to internal memory or external USB device. SD Card not supported
- Your downloaded content cannot be transferred to another Wii U
- You can move content to USB drive but not copy
The details are still sketchy but it looks like USB flash drives and USB external hard drives are the way to go. Coming from someone who just bought a 32 GB SD Card, I'll have to wait till Black Friday to get a good deal on a 1 TB USB Drive.
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
darkhyrulelord
A small bummer but flash drives will work fine.
Backfire
Well, considering that the Wii U is an HD console, I'm not surprised that SD cards can't handle the power. I'm perfectly fine with this.
Ferret75
That's pretty unfortunate actually. I liked being able to use an SD card to store stuff.
Sidescroller Def
I never had to store anything outside my Wii's internal memory anyways. I don't know how much bigger Wii U game files are, but I shouldn't need some huge USB drive.
pre10do64
Really? I sure did and I'm almost outta room on the SD too. I'm a real sucker for classic titles, though.
EnigmaXtreme
I can guarantee that the whole reason for this is that the Wii U will format the USBHDD into some propriety format which can't be done with SD Cards
hainami
It's pretty smart of nintendo to allow consumers to use their own hardrive instead of buying an overpriced proprietary one like Microsoft does. I could easily find a 500GB for 30 bucks come black friday or boxing day sales.
Backfire
The reason Microsoft makes their own hard drives is so that stuff like this doesn't happen. With the Wii U and USB drives, there are obvious differences in hardware that don't allow for 100% compatibility (for example, why you can only move content and not copy). However, with Microsoft's proprietary hard drives, transferring content from the hard drive to the console and back is seamless due to the hard drive being specifically tailored for Xbox content storage. See what I'm saying?
hainami
No I don't see what you're saying because I was easily able to upgrade my PS3 hardrive to a 500GB from a 60GB and haven't had a single issue. I'd do the same with my 360 but no thanks to a 250GB hardrive that costs 150 bucks.
Proprietary is bad, the very little good is far outweighed by the bad which happens to to be both price and brand options. Some people prefer western digital over seagate or any other hardrive manufacturer.
bigglou
I agree. My co worker gave me his PS3 as an early birthday gift. It was a 40GB which I filled up quickly and found out I can upgrade the hard drive which I did to a 500GB. I now have 320GB of space left while my Xbox 360 has 15GB space left on my 120GB. Hopefully on Black Friday they finally do a sale if not I'll just watch what I download.