The NintendoGal spoke to Amber McCollom, Nintendo’s Director of Entertainment & Trend Marketing, at E3 and she has dropped a pretty huge bombshell. It looks like the Wii U’s online store will include GameCube games in its download offerings.
Here’s the relevant exchange from the interview:
NintendoGal: I noticed on backwards compatibility at the press conference that the GameCube was missing. Why is this?
McCollom: You know it’s interesting that you bring up backwards compatibility and Nintendo’s history usually goes back one system. The Wii was compatible with GameCube and Wii U will be compatible with Wii and that’s pretty traditional in launches from Nintendo.
NintendoGal: So the Wii U will not support the discs or accessories?
McCollom: Actually the 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.
The one thing McCollom didn’t mention is how GameCube games will be made available on the Wii U. Will they be the original games running off a Virtual Console-like emulator? Or will they be HD ports rebuilt from the ground up like we’ve seen on the PS3 and Xbox 360?
Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.
