Plans to let Wii owners play DVDs through the console have, for now at least, been shelved by Nintendo, according to a Japanese report.

News source Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that Nintendo recently chaired a meeting with its shareholders at which the firm’s President, Satoru Iwata, said that continuing Wii supply constraints have forced it to make the current model its core focus.

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The addition of DVD playback functionality to the Wii, either through a firmware update or by creating a second-generation console, has been widely discussed since well before the console’s December 2006 debut.

But the latest announcement will be a big disappointment for Wii-owning film fanatics, who’ve already suffered at least one set-back in their quest for a Wii capable of playing DVDs.

In November, Nintendo confirmed that it was postponing the release of such a system due to a need to secure enough production units in time for the Christmas 2007 rush.