Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that there will be no Blu-ray and DVD playback support in the upcoming Wii U gaming console. Why? Satoru Iwata explains:

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.

Well there you have it. This should hopefully keep the Wii U's price point down a little when Nintendo releases it in 2012.