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."

Comments

Great Move

[tommertron]

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.

Re:Great Move

[creepynut]

It's a tossup, but the way I see it there are 2 groups of people.

1. Those who buy/play games because they're good, fun games
2. Those who buy/play games because they want to get the most of their monthly subscription.

I most certainly fit into group 1. I don't have the time or money to throw away not only on a subscription, but on new games to keep me from getting bored with my subscription.

Live will have to follow suit

[SuperKendall]

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...

Re:Live will have to follow suit

[UbuntuDupe]

Yes, good point, the PS3 has a huge advantage in cost.

Re:Live will have to follow suit

[p0tat03]

Depends. If Ninty's online service is of the same calibre as Live (instead of just a random PC-like matchmaking service) and becomes HUGE, I can see Live becoming free. But as of now MS is the only one that has proven themselves capable of making a good console online experience.

Re:Live will have to follow suit

[xenocide2]

I doubt Nintendo will offer an IM service to players. It's useful and lets players build communities, but the potential for Internet preditory practices is something Nintendo understandably wants to avoid, at the expense of building an online community. Look at the awkward systems on the DS. You can't communicate with people you haven't already met in the real world. And even if you do get their number through outside means like a gamefaqs forum, few games allow serious conversations. Mario kart provides no method of communication at all. Metroid Prime only allows you to talk with people you've met before, and only during the time for choosing game options.

What this embargo on interplayer communication means is team oriented play is nigh impossible. You'd have to do something similar to the iconographic messages used in Phantasy Star Online, which was primarily designed to let people of different languages play together. Building up a meaningful vocabulary like that will take a lot of investment from both the designer and the players.

Re:Live will have to follow suit

[badasscat]

Mario kart provides no method of communication at all. Metroid Prime only allows you to talk with people you've met before, and only during the time for choosing game options.

Seriously, some of us actually prefer this. It's the really hardcore players that get into the whole "clan" thing - even instant messaging through a game console is pretty geeky. I mean you can talk about how many subscribers XBL has - you're still talking a couple million people out of a population of 300 million in this country, and it's been stuck at that same number for a long time now. (It's also counting people like me, who got a free subscription, never used it, and then let it lapse.) Online team play and online chat with random people are features for a) the very young, and/or b) the very hardcore.

I think one of the lessons you can take from the DS is that the mass market either doesn't mind, or actually prefers, to be without these features. One of the things that drove me away from XBL was just the sheer idiocy I was forced to endure, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. It got so I would actually disconnect my headset and try to play without it, but then I'd either get kicked out of games or not allowed in because you can tell who's not voice connected. So then I'd connect my headset but just leave it on the floor - worked a little better, but it's a stupid thing to have to do. The bottom line is while I want to be able to play against other people, I do not want to have to talk to or listen to them. I know I'm not alone in this - it may go against the hardcore gamer grain, but there is a lot of resistance among more casual players to being forced into this soup of mostly teenage male hormones.

I've always said that XBL is just a disaster waiting to happen. Someday, a teenage prostitution ring is going to be discovered operating through XBL and that'll pretty much be the end of that for MS. They'll be held liable, whatever their user agreement states. You can bet congress will take notice if the courts don't. Why would Nintendo want any part of that potential headache?

I think it's probably pretty smart to enable anyone to play online for free, but to sell some sort of microphone attacment to those who want it. So if you want to have your games with friends, or you want to use the service as a dating service or whatever, you can. But those of us who just want to play a quick game against a human without fuss and without having to deal with a bunch of morons can do so without being shunned because we've turned off a required piece of borg electronics.

Seals the deal

[Rectum2003]

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!

Re:Seals the deal

[cowscows]

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.

Re:Seals the deal

[LordKronos]

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.

Wow, Nintendo. You've won me back.

[dominion]

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].

Wiinner

[Belgarion89]

Did anyone else try pronouncing "wiinner" from TFA? Anyone who did keep a straight face?

Re:Encryption level?

[poot_rootbeer]

Network encryption on the DS is done in software, not hardware. Each title comes with its own code for managing the wifi connection.

The developers of Mario Kart DS were not able to implement anything more secure than WEP in that title without affecting playability. So that game does not support WPA and never will. It's not unreasonable, though, that later titles, once devs learn to make better use of the system -- or titles like the Opera browser in which frame-perfect network synchronization is not as critical -- may support additional forms of encryption.

Myself, I just locked down my wireless router to require WEP and only accept traffic from the MAC addresses of the wireless gear I own. It seems a fair compromise eto me.