The French site Logic-sunrise is said to have a source inside Nintendo and is reporting the Japan company is underway developing a brand new Wii. The translation, thanks to the guys over at MaxConsole, said this “Wii 2” will have full 1080P by using a Blu-ray drive, which will also help the dreaded piracy issues the system has had to face. According to the site, Nintendo plans on releasing this “so-called” upgrade around the third quarter of 2010, and will be a worldwide launch. If this all ends up being true, than Nintendo will give the consumer the option to trade-in their original Wii system and mark down the price of this supposed new one.

Could it be true? Yeah, I guess. But I do have some problems with it. Sure, Nintendo has been riding high these days with the Wii. Since it launched a few days after the PlayStation 3 in 2006, and about a year after the Xbox 360 — the company has gone on to sell about 56 million units. Since that time, Nintendo has seen a little drop-off of consumer interest around the globe, but one could attribute that trend do to that fact so many already own the system. So I could see Nintendo wanting to shake things up a little bit. But adding a Blu-ray drive doesn’t seem like that would help return the hype for the system, and honestly — it seems like a poor marketing strategy. Which is why, I don’t believe it in the end. Another thing that makes this rumor seem bogus, is this trade in policy. Why would Nintendo ever want people to trade-in their older systems to get a discount? What would Nintendo do with possibly millions of Wiis hanging around? And what would be the benefit for such a program for Nintendo? When has Nintendo or any other company for that matter, offer such a trade-in deal besides a retail store?

via: Ripten