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Nintendo Confirms Free Online Play For Wii
Via Gamasutra, an interview in USA Today with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime confirms that the Wii's online component will be free to play. The outspoken Nintendo advocate says "We will offer online-enabled games that the consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for. They'll be able to enjoy that right out of the box. The Wii console is going to be Wi-Fi enabled, so essentially, you'll be able to plug it in and go. It won't have hidden fees or costs."
Gets people to pick up the hardware. Also, if people can get on for free, it's a lot more likely that they'll stick around and maybe buy a few classic games.
Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
It seems like with both Sony and Nintendo supplying free online match play, Microsoft will have to give in and make Live free. They can still make money selling games like Geometry Wars, and also in game content...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you've got a credit card to pay for live, then you're probably not the target for pedos and the like.
If you've got a Nintendo DS, you probably are.
At least, thats the way people tend to think. Only little kids play gameboys, grownups play xbox games.
Damn, could they make the Wii any more attractive to casual gamers? I've always wanted to play online games, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay for a game, and then keep paying more for the service.
$200-$250 price point, fun games, and free online play. The only way they could make it more attractive is to [insert natalie portman reference here].
It's the same premise. We will offer online-enabled games that the consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for. They'll be able to enjoy that right out of the box. The Wii console is going to be Wi-Fi enabled, so essentially, you'll be able to plug it in and go. It won't have hidden fees or costs.
Note they didn't explicitly say "online play will be free," rather that "some online content will be free."
This still leaves the door to some subscription based services, possibly including 3rd parties. Course, some free content better than no free content.
Just seems that the general view is everything online would be free, I just don't read it like that.
I just hope that they set up the games so you can connect to random players in the same skill bracket. I don't have a DS myself, but I imagine having to go and hunt out Friend Codes so you can play online gets obnoxious after a while.
Here's his statement:
It should be noted, however, that when he says "we", he probably means only Nintendo. So, third parties may still be able to charge for their own monthly fees. We'll have to wait until the end of this month/early September to get final clarification on this.
You sir, have evidently never been on X-Box Live. You'll never find a more wretched hive of foul-mouthed prepubescents.
Recently, a friend of mine said he was thinking of buying an X-Box 360. He wanted it because of the camera attachment being used in games, so he can see the other players. He thought it was cool.
My response: "I've played on Live with all the 13 year olds cussing in my ear. I don't think I want to see them."
My karma is in a nose dive
This seals the deal for me! I wans't quite sure I wanted to buy a next-gen console, but this, the wi-mote, the 27-game lineup, the non-evil practices, I'm sold!
9 31995:
... as a consumer, you should hope for a draw so that there is innovation as opposed to stagnation
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo#1990.E2.80.
"By the end of the 1980s the courts found Nintendo guilty of anti-trust activities because it had abused its relationship with third-party developers and created a monopoly in the gaming industry by not allowing developers to make games for any other platforms."
All three of these next-gen console companies are bastards
Nintendo has a great track record of multiplayer and party games, just none online (to speak of). If the new Super Smash Bros. is online, that'd be pretty sweet. I foam at the mouth anticipating a game like Crystal Chronicals or Zelda: Four Swords online.
>You 're right, and I also forgot Big N's practices of hunting down websites that hosted NES & SNES roms.
what's evil about that ffs?
That was a good number of years, and a no-longer-existing monopoly ago. Nintendo really seems to be making a lot of the right moves as of late. They know that they have to earn their money now, they can't just dictate why people are going to give them money, or force unfavorable terms on developers. They've also had some employee turn-over over the decades, so hopefully they've purged most of that arrogant mindset.
While I'm not naive enough to think that the bottom line isn't Nintendo's biggest concern, their recent history, combined with what they've shown about their future leads me to forgive them their past wrongs. If they manage to pull together an 85% marketshare this next-gen somehow, and then start being assholes about it, my feelings will quickly change. But I don't see that happening, so I'm not too worried.
As for how it will really pan out, I hope Sony loses big, because they really could use the sort of humbling that Nintendo has already been through. Sony has basically gotten a draw(at best) with the PSP vs. the DS, and they still don't seem to have learned anything from it. Sometimes it takes a complete stomping to make people really reflect on the decisions they've been making. And even if the PS3 completely bombed, Nintendo and MS would still have each other to keep them reasonably honest.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
We will offer online-enabled games that the consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for. They'll be able to enjoy that right out of the box. The Wii console is going to be Wi-Fi enabled, so essentially, you'll be able to plug it in and go. It won't have hidden fees or costs.
He did not say "we will offer all"...he just said "we will offer online-enabled games..." This guys is a *salesman* first and foremost. A salesman - i.e. what he didn't say is just as important as what he did. This is a shell game played with words and misdirection. You could say the same exact things about Microsoft's XBox Live service's "out of the box" capabilies - "online-enabled games that consumers will not have to pay a subscription fee for...etc etc" All of those things are true of the XBL Silver account...you just can't play head-to-head without a gold account.
Depends on if you're looking at letters of law or spirits of law.
By the letter of the law, people who host roms are giving away software which has not been released freely, and for which the copyright has not expired. I mean, it's only been 10-15 years since the SNES games were made and sold for $49.99. 15 year old books can't be given away for free.
However, by the spirit of the law... I don't see downloading ROMs as hurting someone. It isn't physically stealing, it's copyright infringement. No one is being deprived of a good or service. All of the money that has been spent on development, production, and marketing has already been spent. No additional money or effort is being spent by the copyright owners, and the games are no longer offered for sale. To me, that signals product abandonment.
This might change after the retro services offered by the Wii.
~Will
sig?
No additional money or effort is being spent by the copyright owners, and the games are no longer offered for sale. To me, that signals product abandonment.
That's
right.
These
games
have
been
completely
abandoned
by
Nintendo.
P.S.
I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay for a game, and then keep paying more for the service.
This is precisely why I haven't gotten into MMORPGs. I'll consider paying $50 for a game. I will NOT pay every month to keep playing.
Hopefully Nintendo will have so much success with this console that others stop the business model of trying to milk their customer's dry.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano