Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Takes To The Airwaves
Eurogamer has a look at some new information about the Revolution's wireless presence. From the article: "Iwata confirmed that consumers will not be required to pay any monthly fees to play first party titles - the only costs incurred will be the price of games and the user's own Internet connection. He said that Nintendo has worked hard to design a system which is secure and protected from the kind of abuse that can come from anonymity. A Nintendo-branded USB Wi-Fi access point will appear on the shelves along side the first Wi-Fi enabled game for use by gamers who don't have a wireless Internet connection already set up - which would suggest that third party wireless access points can also be used." Update: 09/20 20:47 GMT by Z : Edited for clarity.
Hopefully the Revolution online service will also be free for first party titles.
The USB access point is going to be used for the DS. And maybe the Rev later. RTFA before making the title.
Yet wtf, they make more profit than Sony and Microsoft as it is!
The GC netted Nintendo 1bn$ in profit. The PS2 netted Sony 600m$ in profit and the XBox netted Microsoft a loss of 400m$.
But that's because Nintendo HAVE to show a profit since it's their only product, while Sony and Microsoft have many other products.
^_^
It sounds to me like you have "wi-fi" and "online gaming access" mixed up. Nintendo's online plan for the DS is to use the built-in Wi-fi capabilities of the machine to connect to their online service. They aren't going to charge people who connect to the online services for first-party games. If they provided "free wi-fi", it would be the big N running around creating access points.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
As opposed to Xbox Live or MMORPG subscriptions, people will be able to play Nintendo games online for free. There is no ongoing fee. And unlike PC games which are free to play online (if you connect to an ISP- or player-hosted server), Nintendo is providing all the server and match-up infrastructure. Iwata remarked recently that the reason Nintendo didn't run an online service for the GameCube (instead giving developers free reign to do whatever they wanted to with the broadband adapter by giving away network dev kits) was that there was no business model that made it work for the average consumer. Not everybody wants to pay an ongoing fee to play the odd online game, as can be evidenced by the small adoption of Xbox Live amongst Xbox owners. With the Gamespy partnership, Nintendo can finally make free online console gaming, anywhere, a reality. I think that's bloody marvellous.