Ahh Nintendo, rarely an innovator, often an imitator. At least that can be said about the company’s next online “innovative” venture. The company is looking to various media service providers in order to kick off the Wii U release later this year with a bang. Like the Xbox 360, Nintendo has every intention of collecting as many service providers as it can in order to try to replace your cable or satellite box with the console. Nintendo is currently in talks with several ‘top content’ companies, possibly including Comcast, to become a cable TV provider alongside or after the Wii U launch.

Currently there are no official statements from Nintendo as to what content we can expect to see with the Wii U. What we do know is that Nintendo has announced that the Wii will soon be receiving Hulu compatibility.

Gallery: Nintendo looking to woo content providers for Wii U

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While Nintendo focused their E3 2011 Wii U efforts on the tablet-style controller for the new platform, many gamers wondered why they were to quiet about the console itself. In fact, many wondered if the Wii U controller was the console, and if it was just a new accessory for the current Wii system. Nintendo cleared it up later during E3, but all the press photos they released focused on the exciting controller. We're guessing they simply thought that the controller was the big deal (which it is,) and that no one would care about the actual console when it's over a year away from launching (although they were wrong there.) Above is an image of the Wii U console. Not much to see, but at least we can see that it is certainly not a Wii. Oh, and yes, it does 1080p.

Gallery: Here’s what the Wii U console looks like

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Nintendo's hot Wii U console is set to ship next year, but one thing that won't be a part of the package is DVD or Blu-ray movie playback. According to Nintendo, customers already have DVD and Blu-ray players, and they are so cheap that you can get one easily without them bundling that into the Wii U software.

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.

So yeah, Wii U will purely be a gaming console, just like Wii, as opposed to a whole-home entertainment strategies that you see with the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Gallery: Wii U won’t support DVD or Blu-ray movie playback

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