Wii U lacks ability to play DVDs or Blu-ray flicks

We have talked all about the Wii U since the new console made its debut at E3 and we know just about all there is to know about it at this point. We know that the console will use game discs with a proprietary format what have 25GB of capacity per disc. That is the same capacity that a Blu-ray disc offers. You may have been hoping that the console would at least play DVDs.

Alas, the console will not support DVDs or Blu-ray playback. The confirmation on the lack of playback capability came by way of Satoru Iwata, "Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities." I would wager a bunch of folks already have devices for playing discs. However, I think on a modern console the ability to at least play DVDs should be a given. This rather reminds me of Nintendo insisting Wii gamers didn't want HD graphics when most certainly did.

Iwata said, "The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies." What do you think, should a modern console like the Wii U be able to play DVDs and Blu-rays or is that not an important feature?

[via Kotaku]