Nintendo’s Wii U console is scheduled for release later this year, and it’ll be a lot more comparable to the current geenration of consoles and home entertainment systems, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. However, unlike the current consoles, the Wii U won’t be a media center at all: the new Nintendo console will not support Blu-ray playback. As a matter of fact, the Wii U won’t support even basic DVD playback. This is in line with Nintendo’s previous decisions on this matter the old Wii console had a DVD drive, but because of licensing costs, it did not support DVD movie playback, which annoyed many owners. Nintendo dismissed the criticism saying that most people have several DVD players in their home, and there wasn’t any need for the Wii to have that functionality.

The Wii U will be Nintendo’s most powerful console, and while it will support video streaming for services like Netflix – even the old Wii does that – it will not be able to play movies on its disc drive. The console uses a Blu-ray based system with up to 25 GB of storage per disc. The console has a brand new and innovative controller, which has a 6 inch touchscreen that can be used for video games, menus, and more. The console is said to be 50% more powerful than the current generation consoles. Both Microsoft and Sony are said to be working on their next gen hardware, which should be released in 2013. Nintendo will have about a 1 year head start on the market with the Wii U.