Nintendo Dismisses Online For GC Successor

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GamePro article discussing Nintendo's public attitude to online gaming, even as it extends to the GameCube successor. According to Nintendo's senior VP George Harrison, "[Online gaming] is a consideration. We're looking into it for the next iteration of the GameCube. We just don't believe consumers are ready for it. Right now, no one's paying for subscriptions. The real test comes when you have to start coughing up $15 per month." However, analyst Michael Goodman doesn't concur: "The game console isn't just a game console anymore. It's evolving into a home entertainment system. Nintendo has refused to acknowledge that and it's hurt them."

Comments

Re:Oh Nintendo...

[Tom7]

(Well, the GBA is still cartridge based, and they own the portable scene.)

Don't forget that at the time many CD-based games were just "interactive" postage-stamp movies. I think the craze that nintendo was avoiding was the "multimedia" craze, not so much the "mass data storage on CD" craze.

Personally, most of my favorite games are cartridge based, mainly because the constraints force the developers to concentrate on gameplay, rather than just throwing a lot of graphics and sound at it. Unfortunately most of the games for the N64 still sucked. ;)

Re:History Repeats

[savagegus]

I think you missed the point. Nintendo currently offers an ethernet adapter for the game cube and I don't think that would change for a newer system. The issue is whether or not running an online service like Xbox Live is a crippling mistake.