The Wii U will not feature DVD or Blu-Ray playback functionality as Nintendo believe it to be unnecessary.

Addressing Nintendo's investors following the Wii U announcement president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the Wii U will not feature DVD or Blu-Ray playback. When asked why he claims the formats are already widespread enough that they don't need implementing into another console, further increasing the cost:

"Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities. 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 about Mr. Iwata's announcement? Would you rather pay more for Blu-Ray support or do you think it's easy enough to buy one anyway?