Nintendo Wi-Fi Network Adapter announced… why?

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Nintendo announced their own Wi-Fi network adapter today. Why they decided to make their own is anyone’s guess though. It’s basically a wireless router as far as I can tell, so I don’t see the point in Nintendo making their own. I guess if you’re one of those people that has to get everything in the same color and style, this is nice cause it fits in with the Wii’s white look. It’ll be releasing in Japan on September 18th for 5,800 yen. No word on a US release yet. You can view more pictures after the jump.

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[Via NeoGAF]



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  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    Aww…you beat me to it. Gotta go delete my post now.

  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    My thoughts are that Nintendo would like more Wii customers to get online. And honestly, a lot of them I’ve talked to (mostly “non-gamers”) have not done so yet…or didn’t even know you could take it online. Maybe with Nintendo releasing their own product, they’ll be like, “Oh wow…I can go on the Internet with my Wii?” Some people are like that, ya know. They don’t realize things unless that same company releases a product, and I’ve found that several times with the Wii.

    On second thought, if this is more powerful, I might switch over from my Linsys G router. For instance, if this offered N speeds for about $40 or less, that be amazing (at least from what I’ve found so far). And if it had the LAN (direct to USB) adapter included, it’d be even better!

    Just some thoughts…

  • Surgical Precision

    @hattrick

    It wouldn’t make any difference… LAN or not the Wii is only set to go as high as wireless G equivalent speeds… (Roughly 700-800mbps can’t quite remember exact’s)

    I don’t even have the faintest clue as to why that is but I’ve tested it out for myself & conformed it…

    Both my Linksys Wireless G 2.4ghz broadband router & my official Wii LAN adapter take me to the internet at exactly the same speed with the only minor exception being that the Linksys speed varys every so slightly if there’s any interface going on in the area…

    I have a decently fast cable internet service that let me go much faster then that back when my computer was still working… (Using the Wii to get online for now)

    So the fact that I can’t even when I’m not being restricted by my wireless router’s speed means that the system has a set speed limit that it’s not allowed to go past…

    Still that aside maybe this thing might be more stable with the Wii then a general wi-fi adapter…

    I haven’t had any real trouble with mine but alot of people have with theirs… In fact I was really quite unsure about buying my wi-fi router in the first place simply because my Wii & DS would be the only device’s in the house actually using it…

    Everywhere I looked people seemed to be having issues with theirs, so for me it was quite a hard decision that took a bit of time & research… Ultimately only to not have any problems at all but still all the hassle I was reading about nearly scared me away from it before I even really started looking…

    All in all I can see the point in them doing this…

  • DarkWish

    They should be focusing their energy on getting that storage solution out, not on making a router that does the same thing as any other router.

  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    @ Surgical Precision – It would matter, because an N router will put out a stronger signal that will reach further as well. Even if the computer, Wii, DS, or whatever can only achieve G speeds itself. As for the Wii speed of internet, I’m not sure about your test, but what I do know is that a direct LAN USB connection provides a more stable connection than a Wi-Fi connection does. No need to prove that. It’s just how it is. Hardwire is more stable than wireless. It also should be faster, but until I can test it myself or find another person who has, I’ll just trust you that it is not any faster.

  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    @ DarWish – Wouldn’t be AWESOME if they put it all in one in this thing?

  • http://picasaweb.google.com/rothsothy/20080402NokiaN810Night Roth

    Hey, with this product it is possible to transfer files to and from Wii to PC through LAN. \:D/

    // Roth

  • Surgical Precision

    @hattrick

    Oops… You’re right… I didn’t take rang into account… Still that being said I suppose it would be a little to generous of Nintendo to give use a router that’s more then what the Wii could handle all for the sake of range…

    Anywhoo… Yah I’m not 100% about my internet test as well… It often is quite buggy for me over here… But I’m confident that I have been on it enough at this point to have caught it at atleast a several of it’s good times while using the LAN Adapter and still nothing noticeable aside form a slightly more stable signal… (My wi-fi router is extremely close to my Wii though)

    Now that I think about it the Wii’s fermware only takes advantage of USB 1.1… (I have a friend who loves hacking the crap out of game consoles just so he can run Linux on yet something else… Ugh…) I found that strange at the time he mentioned it but never gave it much thought until just now…

    But would that make a difference in speed despite the cabling?… o_0

  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    @ Surgical Precision – I’m pretty sure the Wii’s USB is 2.0. I could be wrong, but I have read that several places, all referring to the Wii as having 2.0. The only place I’ve read it has 1.1 is in a forum post one time and just now. And I’m not sure why Nintendo would only put 1.1 in their system. That’d just be stupid in my opinion.

    And about the speed. It all depends on your internet provider. Lots of them put holds on your speed anyhow, at like 12Mbs, which is what USB 1.1 has anyhow…so actually a LAN-USB adapter wouldn’t be any faster in that case. USB 2.0 is rated at 480Mbs. As for Wireless G, it can go up to 100Mbs or so (mine is rated at only 54), where N can reach up to 248Mbs or so. So technically wireless should be faster, but hard wire is typically more stable. Although with the world we live in today, wireless should be pretty stable too. So, all in all, I’d say the range of an N router would be great…so hopefully that is what Nintendo is doing with this.

  • http://wiinintendo.net/ hattrick

    According to the Japanese Nintendo website, this is only 802.11g. Rediculous…

  • Surgical Precision

    Thanks for that info… Just letting you know I read it…

    I’ll hopefully be able to continue talking with you in the new wi-fi topic…

    Something I’m wondering about…