No ‘free online service’ promise by Nintendo

July 5th, 2012 by Nickie Williams

Satoru Iwata has spoken out recently about the Internet services available on the next generation Nintendo console- the Wii U. It seems that ‘deep’ internet services and functions on the console may not always be free, but the ‘ordinary, regular’ services will be.

What does this mean for the average player? Well, remember that I mentioned the Friend Codes that you would be able to trade in the MiiVerse? To trade and connect to another player, this may incur a charge. And so, Nintendo is attempting to scrape together some kind of a system like Xbox Live or Playstation Network. Iwata also explains that at least Nintendo are not planning on charging the gamer, the end-user to access the most basic of internet services on the console. He also explains that charging gamers for everything possible on the console, like a subscription-based service would not suit everyone, especially the more casual gaming afficionados that have been drawn to the Wii for their casual-friendly games.

Iwata, in a meeting to shareholders quotes:

“We have a wide variety of consumers, from the ones who enthusiastically play video games to those playing more casually, who are not always interested in them but try to play a game only when it has become a public topic or play it just during certain periods, like a year-end season and summer vacation.

We therefore believe that services which ask our consumers to obtain paid memberships are not always the best.”

The Wii U will be taking full advantage of the Nintendo Network online service, which is already used by the 3DS console on games like Mario Kart 7. It will be supported and joined by the WiiVerse social-interaction system, which is a major selling point of the Wii U console.