22 Jul

Well, that whole backwards compatibility thing didn’t last long, did it Nintendo? Amber McCollom, Nintendo of America’s Director of Entertainment & Trend Marketing, confirmed that the upcoming Wii U console/tablet will not be able to read Gamecube discs. Instead, current plans point to select games from the Purple Lunchbox’s back catalog being brought to WiiWare. Why WiiWare, and not…say…the Virtual Console? We’ll let McCollom explain after the jump.

“You know it’s interesting that you bring up backwards compatibility and Nintendo’s history usually goes back one system.  The Wii was compatible with GameCube and Wii U will be compatible with Wii and that’s pretty traditional in launches from Nintendo.” McCollom responded to an interview question from NintendoGal, “GameCube discs will not be compatible with Wii U, but a number of the games that were playable on GameCube can be downloaded from WiiWare.”

Well…ok, there wasn’t an explanation in there yet. But the informality of the on-the-show-floor interview could suggest that McCollom misspoke, or that the company’s official position/statement on the subject wasn’t finalized. We have questions currently spending towards Nintendo of America’s inbox, so Elder Geek will keep you informed of any developments.

(via NintendoGal, through Eurogamer)

2 thoughts on “Gamecube Discs Incompatible with Wii U, Coming to WiiWare Instead?”

  1. Well it is entirely possible. Just waiting one official confirmation, then to see what companies will jump on board. Looking to be able to play some games I didn’t get to play on the system, and relive some old games (looking at you Melee). This of course all depends on what games will be available at system launch in both virtual games and physical releases.

  2. I don’t think he misspoke. I heard another interview during e3 where they sort of said the same thing, but for controller compatibility… aka the gamecube controller would not be compatible.

Comments are closed.