Preorder page for upcoming open-world action game reveals digital version won't fit on internal Wii U storage space.
Gamers looking to purchase the digital version of Lego City Undercover will need an external hard drive to do so. That's according to a preorder page for the game (via IGN), which bluntly states "an external hard drive is required to download this software."
The Wii U basic model includes 8GB of internal storage, while the Deluxe model boasts 32GB of storage space. However, a significant portion of that space is pre-allocated to system software. In reality, the Basic model has 3GB available for data storage and the Deluxe model has 25GB.
The Lego City Undercover file size has not been revealed, though it is likely to be more than 3GB, meaning those who own a Wii U Basic model will need an external hard drive. It is not clear if the same requirement will be in place for the larger Deluxe model.
A Nintendo representative was not immediately available to comment.
Lego City Undercover launches March 18 exclusively for Wii U. Unlike past entries in the Lego series, the game is not based on existing franchise--like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Instead, Lego City Undercover tells an original story focusing on an undercover police officer named Chase McCain and his pursuits to bring criminals to justice.
For more on Lego City Undercover, check out GameSpot's review.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
Why nintendo would put such tiny harddrives in the WiiU is beyond confusing. It's completely ridiculous. Harddrives are seriously cheaper than dirt these days. There is absolutely no excuse for that thing to have any less than 500 gigs. Sometimes I think nintendo is TRYING to fail.
WTF were they even thinking with that disc space?
What is Nintndo even doing these days? Get the hell out of the 90s, guys. Seriously, I love your franchises but you really need to figure out what is happening in gaming today.
20GB (shrunk down to 12 usable GB after space calculations and system use) was not that much space when the 360 launched in 2005, considering how many games they would like people to download, considering how they want to adopt a DLC strategy, considering the grand designs they have for the console, giving its users such a pathetic amount of drive space is moronic.
1 Like Saw this coming the moment I found out the Wii U specs. Nothing against Nintendo or it's fans, but there is no way 8GB was going to last even a year with today's games.
@EnforcerICE Umm, wasn't it Nintendo that designed the console(duh)? So I would say yes, something against Nintendo. It was their dumb as fuck decision to put such a small HDD in their console AND push digital downloads.
2 Like Well the system was made so they can remake Mario, Zelda and the rest of the big N milk brands for their so called next gen system - these are not really hard drive hogs.
3 Like Because Nintendo are idiots that yet refuse to embrace the fact people are moving forward with technology and BIGGER and BETTER things. They may as well just start working on a Wii U 2 with a better design and 300GB of HD space.
2 Like Ah, another night of reading silly comments on a news story that isn't really a news story. So the game can't find on the internal FLASH storage on the Wii U. Whoo-de-friggin'-doo! Since when did downloadable versions of games become all the rage anyway? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the idea to some extent, some games would be great to just click and go, stuff you play in short bursts that you don't want to have to dig out the disc for every time. But this? God forbid you would have to buy a physical copy, or worse *gasp* an external HDD fitted to perfectly suit your download needs!
I will agree that most of what Eddie writes is trash but I think people should be informed about this in particular before buying the game.
2 Like @Discomaster Nobody is taking this situation seriously even though they act like they are. All this crap that's going on is just another attempt for Nintendo haters to crap a system that they have no intentions of buying, or ever buying under almost any circumstances. Good or bad, Nintendo haters will always look at it as a bad thing.
The gaming society is nothing but a cesspool. From greedy gaming companies, corrupt gaming journalism that essentially betrays themselves as the bitch of the gaming companies (aside from fanboys), and low self-esteem gamers that are whores for whatever powerful hardware (which is why they hate Nintendo) and anything with the right name on it.
You wonder why some of the stupidest comments we see here always manage to get other users to hit the "like" button? "Well, this is the stupidest comment I've ever read, and doesn't make a lick of sense, but he hates Nintendo, so I like it."
2 Like Millions of soccer moms and 5 year olds around the world say, ''What is a HDD''? This is why the wii-u failed. Casual gamers won't go near a wii-u. Outside of the cult of Mario (japan), the wii-u is irrelevant.
Can't wait to play this game ( Hah GTA in Lego style) But i must buy a Wii U The 25GB Deluxe model (Black).And i'll do must have it it's a great console.
4 Like In other news, downloads require local storage. It has recently been determined in a scientific study that files downloaded from the internet require an amount of local storage larger than the file size. Gamers everywhere are shocked by this stunning revelation.
Josh Doonsk, an average gamer, told this reporter "I can't believe that I have to store the downloadable version of Lego City Stories on a local storage device. I think this shows that Nintendo is doomed and they should drop out of the hardware business. I think that Nintendo should be making smart phone games because I downloaded Chuck Norris Zombie Runner for free on my Samsung Gonad X2 and I think that it is addictive! I have spent like 15 dollars on in app purchases to unlock hats in this game and I think it has been well worth the money!"
Will Nintendo be able to compete with all the many other devices on the market which also require local storage to store downloaded files and are thus not really any different from the Wii U? Only time will tell...
@advancedcaveman
What are you talking about? Most other consoles don't require an external storage device to install a game or DLC! And most owners of these consoles don't run out of HDD space so soon after its' launch!
2 Like in a market were Ps3 and Xbox have HDD in the hundreds, Nintendo comes with a system with single and double digits HDD that's not a good move.
i think ill be seen Nintendo with the same fate as Sega back in the day.
PS: Nintendo fans do not defend this outright ripoff from Nintendo, the Wii-U has no excuses not to include a 120gb HDD. you should demand the same storage capacity as PS3 and Xbox owners.
1 Like @Dieofnv Oh, didn't know that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 could have two terabytes of disc space. When were those drives released?
While I agree Nintendo should have included more space, I would think the desire for open-source solutions that pervades the gaming community would appreciate Nintendo giving you options not only for drive size but for manufacturer. Or that you can get 2TB of storage for $100 where Microsoft is still charging $130 for a 320GB model.
1 Like @RandyAU93 @narpassword may a remind you xbox360 came out in 2005 and PS3 in 2006 thats 8 years ago and digital download and installing games on the harddrive was not a main focus and as soon the whole downloading and installing games became available, both the xbox and PS3 upgraded their HDD and tho the xbox HDD is expensive you can get a 3er party HDD for half the price.
The wii U in the other hand came out IN 2013 and it is a so called NEXT GEN SYSTEM with 8 and 32 GB HDD.
so before you used your sarcasm think if it makes sense
@Dieofnv May I remind YOU that, currently, it is Microsoft that sells the console with the smallest amount of built-in storage of any current system, at 4GB. It's also probably one of its best sellers, too, at the crucial $200 price point. It is also expandable, just as Wii U is. However, its upper limit is much lower than Wii U's and you spend more to hit that limit (20c a GB at Microsoft, 5c a GB at Nintendo).
Again, I'm not disagreeing that Nintendo could have offered more on-board storage. I'm just not as bent out of shape about it as you appear to be.
1 Like wow gamespot gamers all agree on this im shocked i was expecting "fanboidom" all over the place
well apart from airnardo17 he rather you say nothing at all
I never download full games anyway. Takes up too much space. I will only download games that are digital only because they dont take up too much space, like payday and scott pilgrim. Im a physical copy type of guy so I think Ill be fine.
While I generally agree with your overall premise...you used a very poor example in Payday! Man, that game takes up hella room and the patch you have to automatically add upon first booting the game is like 3 GB in itself!
1 Like So I have a dirt cheap 16gb USB stick. How dare you Nintendo....... HOW DARE YOU!!!
or I'll buy a physical copy, problem solved.
Well, there's a flaw in all this thinking people are having over this topic, and I don't mean the hard drive. People are going to purchase retail, because even at new, and even though physical media costs more, the download version is full RRP and therefore pretty much guaranteed to be higher than going out and buying a disc.
remember when the PS1 had at least 10 times the media capacity as the 64...and nintendo lost square. At least the 64 had crazy ram and no loading, the wiiU has a resistive touch controller
4 Like Nintendo is so weak, pretty much what they get for pulling the same marketing sh!t
People learn from Nintendo
Nintendo didn't learn from people
I've always thought Nintendo made good quality games (albeit they repeat the same series OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER) and I'm worried about the WiiU and what it means for Nintendo. This is just another in a series of eyebrow-raising issues with the Wii U.... it's small HD, processing power....etc. I don't have a Wii or a WII U (still play some gamecube now and then) but does this mean that Nintendo won't release a "next-next gen" console until the PS5 and Xbox 1080 or whatever come out? Also heard that the Wii U d/l speed isn't too hot (although that's anecdotal... it could be an outlier)... I was pretty impressed when my 360 could pull down a 6+ Gig game in somewhere close to an hour (give or take, wasn't there the MOMENT it finished). I dunno, I do plan on picking up a PS3 and Wii just to pick up all the exclusives that I missed on my 360 (while waiting the the next-gen prices to drop a tad.... and them to work out that first-wave of hardware issues)..... I just worry that Nintendo may have made a BIG mistake with this one.....
For this sole game, I wish I had a Wii-U
last time I said that, was when they released Punch Out wii.
2 Like Digital downloads are awful anyways. This game would lake around 8-9 hours to download. Much easier to just purchase a physical copy. Digital downloads is what i've hated most about the changing industry
Its not always due to bad internet. Some times the specs of the harddrive installed can cause slow downloads too.
4 Like You gotta be kidding me!! This is news? This is just what Nintendo has already stated since 2 days after launch of the Wii U. People with the Basic Model will need an external hard drive to download the full version of any game!. And since we don't know if Deluxe will handle it or not, we can't really post it as news, can we?
2 Like @craigprime The problem with this is that the WII U is billed by nintendo as a next gen console; Digital downloads are going to be a big part of next gen. The fact that the WII U has so little HD space is more evidence that Nintendo is dead set on doing things their way and not the way that the market dictates. Their is no excuse for their preiumim console to have only 32 gigs of space.
3 Like @GOGOHeadray @craigprime Yea, that's all pretty problematic. But what was the purpose of this article? This issue already applies to every downloadable game the Wii U can offer(Except Virtual Console). Why is Gamespot going out of their way to point it out for this?
1 Like @craigprime - Agree, I don't get how this is even news..even with the deluxe model, you still need an external HDD if you plan to get your games digitally..there's only that much games you can fit unto a 25gb free space. If you buy a WiiU & plan to get games digitally then external HDD is required full stop no matter which version you get.
@GOGOHeadray @craigprime Possibly, but the Wii U already has a fine stash of exclusives, though it certainly lacks games that Sony, Microsoft, and PC share. I'm just not sure if there was anyone here that wasn't already aware of the storage space issue.
@craigprime @GOGOHeadray I guess because this game is going to be a nintendo exclusive; and everyone is wondering why so early in the consoles lifecycle is a game appearing that wont be able to launch on half of the SKU's in a digital manner.
@PSYCHOV3N0M I enjoy the console, but have to agree on the size, especially when it's not all available to you as the user. At least an external HDD is useable, but still.
In saying that though, it's not the first, with MS releasing a 4GB 360 (good luck even downloading some DLC let alone games there) and PS3 with a 12GB drive. At least they had versions with proper drive sizes, especially the PS3 line.
Nintendo, its no getting past this obvious fact. In the age of digital downloads the Wii U should have come with a hard-drive pre-installed. Correcting that mistake should be priority one.
Still possible they up the gigs later in the life cycle, when the other components become cheaper... kinda like PS3, Xbox did.
@SmashBrawlerBoy That is true and I expect that; problem is the ps3 and 360 launched with HD space that conicided with the lauch of digital downloads. The WiiU has come out when Online play is a established requirement for a console to have and having a 8/32 gig HD is not going to cut it.
Kevin VanOrd sends LEGO's flying everywhere in this video review for LEGO City Undercover.
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