Nintendo working on storage for the Wii, but no HDD

We definitely detect that they [gamers] are serious and we know there is an issue in this, so it's something that we're working on," he told GamesIndustry.biz. But Fischer poured cold water on rumours - stemming from recent hints dropped by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata - that the company was planning an external solution.

"Definitely there's no plan to issue hardware, an external hard drive, but we know that we have an issue in that area," he added. "It's very obvious and we're perfectly aware of it, but there's nothing we can say beyond this."

Pressed on what this entailed, Fischer said he was not yet privy to the details, explaining that "this area is fully handled by the development team in Japan. It's very linked to the overall strategy; that's something they're working on."

Last week, Edge magazine reported that Fischer had said during a press event that only "geeks and otaku" were worried about Wii memory limitations. The comments provoked a furious response in forums, and a scathing attack from outspoken God Of War creator David Jaffe, who labelled the remarks "arrogant" and said Nintendo should be "very ashamed" if they reflected company thinking.

Fischer was forced to issue a statement aplogising for what he called a "misunderstanding". And eager fully to set the record straight, he this week insisted his words had been meant as a "joke".