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Nintendo To Begin Charging For Some Online Gaming

warcrow

warcrow

Lifer
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.
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http://blog.wired.com/games/20...2/nintendo-to-beg.html


Weird. I wonder what the reception will be like for our community. Personally, I have zero interest in this. Seriously--WTF.
 
Might as well add this to this thread since it's sorta related:

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wii games will soon be able to download add-on content, said Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama at Game Developers Conference.

DLC has been a big part of Microsoft's and Sony's online business, but Nintendo has thus far not allowed games to have downloadable add-on content on Wii. For example, the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 doesn't currently let you download new songs.

But at his address at GDC this morning, Aoyama said that Nintendo will, in the near future, allow Wii owners to use Wii Points (purchased with a credit card transaction online or on cards in stores) to buy add-on content for games. He said that add-on contents would also be available for disc-based games as well as WiiWare downloadable titles.

The add-on contents for disc games would be purchased within the game, Aoyama said.
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http://blog.wired.com/games/20...2/nintendo-will-b.html


We all saw this coming, but I've gotta say that I'm interested in additional content for Zelda, Galaxy amd Prime 3. But my concern is....WTF are we going to store all this content?
 
Originally posted by: warcrow
Might as well add this to this thread since it's sorta related:

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wii games will soon be able to download add-on content, said Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama at Game Developers Conference.

DLC has been a big part of Microsoft's and Sony's online business, but Nintendo has thus far not allowed games to have downloadable add-on content on Wii. For example, the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 doesn't currently let you download new songs.

But at his address at GDC this morning, Aoyama said that Nintendo will, in the near future, allow Wii owners to use Wii Points (purchased with a credit card transaction online or on cards in stores) to buy add-on content for games. He said that add-on contents would also be available for disc-based games as well as WiiWare downloadable titles.

The add-on contents for disc games would be purchased within the game, Aoyama said.
Click to expand...

http://blog.wired.com/games/20...2/nintendo-will-b.html


We all saw this coming, but I've gotta say that I'm interested in additional content for Zelda, Galaxy amd Prime 3. But my concern is....WTF are we going to store all this content?
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I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before they properly flesh out and integrate the SD card support if theyre really serious about DLC, but you have to keep in mind these are still addons to Wii games - the DLs will be much smaller, and the 512mb will still hold a decent amount. But a 4GB sd card is under $50 now, and that will hold plenty.

The only people I hear really complaining about storage space right now are game reviewers, and the nature of their job is going to cause their 512mb to fill up super fast. I dont know anyone with an actual Wii that is having storage issues.
 
To your first post - that is f'd up. Seriously. It's like Nintendo looked at MS's model and Sony's model and said, "How can we make this worse?"

To the second post - How is Nintendo going to pull of DLC when they have only 512MB of storage and they don't allow play from larger memory cards? Are they going to change this now? Are they go to allow an external HDD to be hooked up to Wii now?
 
Originally posted by: randay
for "some" online gaming? does the wii even have _any_ online gaming at all yet?
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Teh Pokemons.

Other than that, SSBB and Mario Kart Racing will have online play.

It will be a real downer if they charge for it for those two games.
 
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: randay
for "some" online gaming? does the wii even have _any_ online gaming at all yet?
Click to expand...

Teh Pokemons.

Other than that, SSBB and Mario Kart Racing will have online play.

It will be a real downer if they charge for it for those two games.
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Theres plenty of other games. But I doubt theyll start charging to play for regular games like SSBB or MK - this is little more than a way to open the door to MMOs. Animal crossing MMO, anyone?

But lets not all forget that nintendo actually likes money. When storage space becomes a major issue for more than just the super hardcore niche thats already filled up the 512mb, theyll sell you something so they can sell you more games, or theyll integrate the SD better.

These are both positive announcements, but I suppose given nintendo's ridiculous history and current support of online, I can understand the negativity. Next thing you know, we'll have achievements. And then maybe a in 2015, we can finally get rid of these stupid friend codes.
 
the optimist in me hopes that by making online play an added revenue source, they will spend more time developing and engineering a solution that works!
 
Nintendo seriously screwed the pooch on Internet gaming this generation, and that's one of the reasons my Wii doesn't get nearly as much play time as my 360. Friend codes, and a complete lack of integration of the service, this crap belongs in the previous generation of games.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Nintendo seriously screwed the pooch on Internet gaming this generation, and that's one of the reasons my Wii doesn't get nearly as much play time as my 360. Friend codes, and a complete lack of integration of the service, this crap belongs in the previous generation of games.
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I think the online setup just shows how far behind Nintendo is technically. Unless they start throwing money around to get some major help onboard for their next system, they're going to be pretty bad off (I don't see the same things that drew people to the Wii carrying over without some real advancements).
 
Originally posted by: randomlinh
WTF NINTENDO!

sigh... they had so much going for them... and then they botch up online play, yet again.
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What game would you actually want to play online anyways?
 
Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Originally posted by: mugs
Nintendo seriously screwed the pooch on Internet gaming this generation, and that's one of the reasons my Wii doesn't get nearly as much play time as my 360. Friend codes, and a complete lack of integration of the service, this crap belongs in the previous generation of games.
Click to expand...

I think the online setup just shows how far behind Nintendo is technically. Unless they start throwing money around to get some major help onboard for their next system, they're going to be pretty bad off (I don't see the same things that drew people to the Wii carrying over without some real advancements).
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Yeah, I've owned every Nintendo system, but they better step it up a notch if they want me to buy their next system.
 
Nintendo's online strategy is shit. It has been shit since the Gamecube released a LAN adapter just for PSO... which I stupidly bought with the hope of more games. This just proves they had no plan in place to begin with and realize now that the infrastructure costs money.
 
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: randomlinh
WTF NINTENDO!

sigh... they had so much going for them... and then they botch up online play, yet again.
Click to expand...

What game would you actually want to play online anyways?
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any game that has multiplayer, should also have online play. its pretty much the standard now.
 
charging for online gaming and introducingg dlc?

I think Nintendo saw MS raking in 250 Million dollars and wants some of that money.
 
Originally posted by: BD2003
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: randay
for "some" online gaming? does the wii even have _any_ online gaming at all yet?
Click to expand...

Teh Pokemons.

Other than that, SSBB and Mario Kart Racing will have online play.

It will be a real downer if they charge for it for those two games.
Click to expand...

Theres plenty of other games. But I doubt theyll start charging to play for regular games like SSBB or MK - this is little more than a way to open the door to MMOs. Animal crossing MMO, anyone?

But lets not all forget that nintendo actually likes money. When storage space becomes a major issue for more than just the super hardcore niche thats already filled up the 512mb, theyll sell you something so they can sell you more games, or theyll integrate the SD better.

These are both positive announcements, but I suppose given nintendo's ridiculous history and current support of online, I can understand the negativity. Next thing you know, we'll have achievements. And then maybe a in 2015, we can finally get rid of these stupid friend codes.
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I suspect this is the case as well. I'd assume first-party titles will still be free to play online, but this will allow 3rd parties to charge a fee and allow users to play on their servers.
 
Yeah, let me just download some content onto my non-existent hard drive...

Does this mean the Wii will have a hard drive attachment as well? That would be weird...
 
Originally posted by: Eeezee
Yeah, let me just download some content onto my non-existent hard drive...

Does this mean the Wii will have a hard drive attachment as well? That would be weird...
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Actually, Nintendo suggested that external HDDs would be supported before the Wii launched. They changed that stance later at some point. I guess it wouldn't be too out there if they went back to supporting it.
 
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: randomlinh
WTF NINTENDO!

sigh... they had so much going for them... and then they botch up online play, yet again.
Click to expand...

What game would you actually want to play online anyways?
Click to expand...

Well, given this has no effect on SSBB and Mario Kart (I hope...), those won't count. But the point is they keep failing at this. I really miss an old school FPS DM with random people. Hell, geometry wars would be an interesting multiplayer online game. I'm more complaining about the absolute failure of having a decent system in the face of xbox live.

I feel as though this is a huge experiment they wanted to do, and the next Nintendo console may finally get it right.
 
Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
so are they planning on charging for mmo type games or all mp games?
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no real details. it just depends on whether or not the game will have that pay and play logo.
 
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