Wed, Jul 20, 2011 | 17:27 BST
GameCube titles playable on Wii U via WiiWare, says NOA executive
NOA’s Director of Entertainment and Trend Marketing, Amber McCollom, has said some GameCube titles will be playable on Wii U thanks to WiiWare.
The information was posted in an E3 interview McCollom had with Nintendo Gal.
“You know it’s interesting that you bring up backwards compatibility and Nintendo’s history usually goes back one system,” she said. “The Wii was compatible with GameCube and Wii U will be compatible with Wii and that’s pretty traditional in launches from Nintendo.
“GameCube discs will not be compatible with Wii U, but a number of the games that were playable on GameCube can be downloaded from WiiWare.”
Usually, games already released are re-released through Virtual Console, as WiiWare is usually reserved for original downloads, as Eurogamer points out.
So, either McCollum actually meant Virtual Console instead of WiiWare, or something extra is coming with Wii U – we have no idea.
Like everyone else, we’ll mail Nintendo for a bit of clarification.
16 
Posted in: Nintendo, Virtual Console, Wii U, WiiWare
Tags: Amber McCollom
16 comments
#1
Zidane
20/07/11, 5:29 pm
If Nintendo releases The Wind Waker in full-HD… I will go apeshit.
#2
Kaufer
20/07/11, 5:34 pm
Is this nintendo’s plan to curb used game sales for gamecube?
#3
Phoenixblight
20/07/11, 5:37 pm
@2
Well seeing how the WIi U won’t play Gamecube games through the disk it won’t matter.
#4
elronathon
20/07/11, 5:48 pm
@2 why would they care about used game sales on a console 2 generations old?
#5
xino
20/07/11, 5:50 pm
hmmm..i still have my gamecube memory card that contains Tales of SYmphonia, i love that game and I’ve only completed played 60% of it.
will Wii u use GC memory card?
#6
Stephany Nunneley
20/07/11, 7:36 pm
@1 Me too!
#7
Maximum Payne
20/07/11, 7:41 pm
@1,6 They allready said that game that you play from Wii won’t be scaled to to 720p it will be just exact same looking as on Wii
#8
triggerhappy
20/07/11, 8:48 pm
Ive got a funny feeling Nintendo are going to do some HD re-releases, it just makes sense given the success of Sonys HD collections. I mean if Sony were not making money off them then they would not be doing the whole PSP remaster scheme. And you know what nintendo are like for re-releases, remember the camecube titles that came out for Wii. What were they called, Wii-makes??
Think how well a Zelda HD collection would sell, Wind Waker & Twilight Princess in one package. Bang. Who would not pre-order that? Metroid Prime Trilogy HD, Eternal Darkness HD, there must be some real potential here to turn a profit. Then theres actual Wii games, plenty of them would sell well in HD, mabey thats why theres going to be no up-scaling of Wii disks, if you want HD you need to buy it on Wii-Ware… Who knows, this is just foam enducing speculation.
#9
Dr.Ghettoblaster
20/07/11, 9:31 pm
^ I’m convinced they’re working on Zelda, Mario, and Metroid WiiU HD re-release packages as we speak. I’m not interested though, not at this point. Wii U is a bandaid on a piece of crap in my opinion. I’ll be sitting another generation out for Nintendo.
#10
triggerhappy
20/07/11, 9:50 pm
^ If Ninty can nail down some nice exclusives, give us some 1st party goodness, announce a full version of that nice Zelda we seen demoed and make Skyward Sword dual platform I could be swayed into an earlier than planned purchase.
#11
Crab of Thunder
20/07/11, 9:53 pm
This is nice, there are some great GC games, but its not enough to get a wiiU
#12
Phoenixblight
20/07/11, 10:03 pm
@10
Nintendo has alreayd stated no Skyward sword dual platform especially since the WIi U won’t be coming out until next year when SKyward sword is coming out this winter.
#13
OlderGamer
20/07/11, 10:10 pm
If they put out a PSO ep 1&2 I will be thrilled. But I doubt they will. I do expect a lot of first party games redone however.
#14
triggerhappy
21/07/11, 1:08 am
@ Phoenixblight: but IF they are going to do it, there not going to hurt the sales of the Wii version by announcing it just yet. I think they might sneak it on to Wii U at some point. This could just be wishful thinking on my part, but I think you can still file this one under uncertain. I wouldn’t say a definite no right now… Always the optimist here
#15
Telepathic.Geometry
21/07/11, 2:05 am
“You know it’s interesting that you bring up backwards compatibility and Nintendo’s history usually goes back one system,”…
What a load of fucking bullshit. Wii was the first Ninty console to be BC.It seems to me that this is a cynical attempt to make people buy their existing GC titles all over again. :^/ Not happy…
#16
Phoenixblight
21/07/11, 4:39 am
@14
Just repeating what NIntendo said themselves and I have yet to see Nintendo going back on their word.