Disclaimer: THIS IS PURELY SPECULATION

Consoles always undergo a series of redesignes during their lifetime. Some are drastic, like the slimline PS2 or the DS Lite and others are not so obvious, like the Gamecube model without progressive scan support, or the Xbox 360's with CPU's that run cooler.

Recently, an analyst broke news to Gamespot about DS and Wii redesigns in the works. While not much was mentioned about the Wii, the analyst did say that the DS would be losing it's GBA cartridge slot. It struck me as rather odd for two reasons: First, some software requires the GBA cartridge slot (a cartridge used in combination with a DS card), and second, GBA's and GBA software is still selling well enough to be a noticable chunk of profit.

What would a Wii redesign mean? Well, most likely a way to manufacture the console cheaper and faster. What would be one of the first features to go? Gamecube backward compatibilty unfortunately. Here's a few good reasons why:

- Gamecube was Nintendo's worst selling TV console in it's history

- Many Wii owners did not ever own a Gamecube

- The Gamecube market is dead, no new software is being produced

- A future initiative to sell Gamecube games on the VC would be much more profitable

- Gamecube backwards compatibility is not a strong selling point for the Wii

While it probably doesn't take much for the Wii to run Gamecube games given the similar CPU's, alot of money could be saved if each Wii unit didn't have four GC controller ports and memory card slots.

I'll probably make an effort to buy a Wii faster than I had planned to because of this line of thinking. It's ironic that Wii's are in such short supply. If this becomes true, it will make those who already own a Wii thankful they went through such hardships to get one early. If Sony can drop backwards compatibility for the more successful PS2 and sell more consoles.....why can't Nintendo?