Nintendo: Revised Wii "Not out of the Question"

Amid statements made formerly by Nintendo that a revised Wii is a possibility, Nintendo vice president of marketing George Harrison reiterated in an interview published on Monday that an upgraded Wii could come, though not for a while.

"It's not out of the question," Harrison said when asked in an interview with GameDaily if a revised Wii is already in the works. "But we're not even to our second holiday yet, so it's kind of premature to talk about any revisions to the hardware itself," he concluded.

The Wii, despite its commercial success, has been widely criticized by some core gamers for its antiquated graphics and processor technology. Official hardware specifications have never been unveiled by Nintendo, and critics suggests that while popular now, the Wii won't last the traditional 5 year console life cycle due to its dated technology.

Harrison also addressed concerns that Nintendo may be losing some gaming purists while attempting to broaden the medium's audience to include casual players.

"We tried to show [at E3] that there are a whole variety of games that were great for the existing and hardcore gamer, and that included everything from the games that used a Zapper like Resident Evil and Call of Duty but also things like Madden Football from EA, which can be a different experience [on Wii]," he said.

"[But] We know there's going to be some purists that we're going to lose and they might be first to focus on the absolute last detail of perfect graphics and if they're willing to pay five, six hundred dollars for a PlayStation 3 then more luck to them."

And even though the Wii may sacrifice core gamers at the expense of casual ones, Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma said that's not his company's intent in an interview published last month.

"It's because of gamers that games have come as far as they have... it's not Nintendo's intent to alienate those people," Aonuma told Nintendo Power. "We think we can involve everyone, people who played games in the past because the approach is so new, and people who were never gamers."