Nintendo to start charging for Wi-Fi gaming

witnessmenow

I completely robbed this from my buddy Ced261 over at wiffy.ie but here it is:

Seriously,who the hell is going to pay for an online service that uses FRIEND CODES ?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service has always been entirely free of charge, but the company will soon introduce a pay-to-play service for some games, it announced at Game Developers Conference.

"Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play" will let users subscribe on a game-by-game basis to certain titles. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced the service at GDC, but did not say what upcoming games would require payment for the service, or how much they would cost.

To avoid customer confusion, Pay-And-Play games will have a red icon on the game's box that reads Pay And Play, in place of the traditional blue Wi-Fi Connection icon, which will only be used for games that are free to play.

This is a pretty big change for Nintendo, who has always been adamant about wanting online gameplay to be free. While this might attract more developers to the service with a new revenue stream, it also might confuse consumers -- and be a hassle if the payment system isn't easy. You'll use Wii Points to pay for the online gaming, so it should be interesting to see if this extends to the DS Lite or if it's just restricted to Wii.

Nintendo To Begin Charging Money For Some Online Gaming | Game | Life from Wired.com

Mr E

*checks date*
April 1st yet?

Thats just greed right there.

aidan_walsh

Mr E wrote: »

*checks date*
April 1st yet?

Thats just greed right there.

Why? Why should Nintendo sit down and allow for free what other companies are able to charge for? There have been no details on the games that will be charged for. How do we know this isn't the prelude to the MMO coming to the living room, for example?

tman

They'd want to have something pretty ****ing special up their sleeves to justify this.
Out of the 3 consoles, the Wii has the worst online gaming service by far... Even the PS3's shockingly crap service eclipses it!

I seem to be becoming less of a Nintendo fanboi as every week goes by...

witnessmenow

tman wrote: »

They'd want to have something pretty ****ing special up their sleeves to justify this.
Out of the 3 consoles, the Wii has the worst online gaming service by far... Even the PS3's shockingly crap service eclipses it!

I seem to be becoming less of a Nintendo fanboi as every week goes by...

Big +1

Rhyme

You never know, this 'pay and play' service could just be for specific types of games. Might be the foundations for future MMORPG's.

...or a massively stupid change of heart.

If this turn of events refers to Brawl, i'll be hastily reconsidering my viewpoint on Nintendo management. At least Sony users get their sh*t for free.

Yakult

I dont like that..

The free online gaming was one of the plus sides with the Wii and now this