Despite the fact that Netflix support for Wii has been confirmed for this spring, it would seem that many are more concerned about the fact that support for HD content will not be available on the Wii because the unit simply does not support it.

In response to this, Nintendo North America big cheese Reggie Fils-Aime is downplaying the issue because “the vast majority of content that is available through Netflix is not HD content.” The view from the Nintendo camp is that the addition of Netflix support is about entertainment experience and not whether you can get the content in HD or not.

The discussion has fueled many rumors that perhaps the Nintendo Wii is at the end of its life, which started the rumors of the possible development of an HD version of the Wii. According to sources, Nintendo is no longer looking at moving in this direction; and when it does launch a new console, it will be a totally new box that will likely be a next generation leap for Nintendo which will include more memory, processor, graphics performance, and, of course, HD support.

Despite the fact that the Wii is for most part based on the old Game Cube technology, it certainly does appear at little bit long in the tooth when compared to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. While it is believed that Nintendo is already looking at designs for their next console, the company seems to be holding strong to the fact that they have not hit a wall yet as to what the Wii is able to do. However, it does appear that the lack of HD support has raised some concerns, or at least talk, about how much of a future the Wii has left.

In the short term, as we said before, it will be interesting given the makeup of the vast majority of Wii owners as to how popular the Netflix streaming will be; and we have to think with all of the other devices that are supporting Netflix streaming now that if you wanted Netflix HD support you might already have another device that you own that can do it. We continue to wonder how much real life the Wii has left in it, but we have to think with the kind of numbers that Nintendo has sold, the company will not be anxious to abandon the Wii platform anytime soon to establish something new without total backward compatibility. While the company might be looking at it internally, we just don’t think it is going to happen anytime soon.