Wii U lacks DVD, Blu-ray playback support

Nintendo‘s upcoming high-definition platform will not support DVD or Blu-ray playback. Speaking during an E3 Analyst Q&A Session, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata said that “it didn’t warrant the cost” to add the functionality to Wii U.

“Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities,” said Iwata.

“The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn’t warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies.”

Wii U launches in 2012.