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No 3rd Party Online Support for Wii Until Next Year?
Via Joystiq, a preview for Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam at IGN. Such a thing isn't really news, of course, but down at the bottom of the article there is some distressing information. According to IGN, third party online support for the Wii will have to wait until next year. Joystiq points out that this could mean launch titles like Monkey Ball, Blazing Angels, and Call of Duty 3 may be offline-only.
Nintendo knows what is best for gamers. The last thing I want is Electronic "Arts" polluting my Wii's online experience.
IGN also reported that the release date and price would be revealed at the Leipzeig Games Convention. They also throw so much hype into untrue stories, I'd take this story with a grain of salt until it is confirmed by multiple sources.
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I won't be able to get it before 2007 anyway. Demand will be huge and even people who lives in USA and preorder it may not get it before Christmas (Remember Xbox 360, that cost twice as much).
On the other hand, Wiimote's innovative gameplay and the training complex games will demand may be enough for you to ignore online playing, at least for a few months.
I think people overestimate how many people take advantage of online services to begin with. How many of the million Xbox live users are only there because they got it for free and are no longer active once they have to pay? And, having to wait until next year? That's what, four months away at this point with the console's release date not even announced yet? So you might have to wait 2 whole months for third party online games and that's supposed to be a deal breaker? No, a $600 price tag on a console not in production with only marginally better graphics for the next year or two is a deal breaker, this is not.
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This is bad news, no need for any commenters to try to spin it. I'm still going to buy a Wii.
There's no reason to expect the Wii to be perfect. I hope this information is false. But if not, I'll just deal with it.
new year...
who cares, gives the 3rd party more time to hammer out bugs.... and zelda/mario will hold the masses for that little gap.
Xbox Live downloads have exceeded iTunes downloads. I have a 360, and the only game I have that I don't play online is Oblivion.
Well, it said early 2007, which basically means that if any company decides that an online mode is crucial to their game, they can wait a few months after the system launches and add online support then. I don't think this is so much a move on Nintendo's part for them to monopolize online gaming on their system so much as giving them a few months to work out the kinks in their system (and if MMORPGs have taught us anything, it's that there are always kinks to work out) without 3rd party companies getting upset because their game doesn't work online. I fully expect to see full online functionality on 3rd party games by March 2007, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. Friend codes are more of a hassle than this.
Mario won't as it won't be part of the launch lineup (assuming you're talking about Mario Galaxy).
And I think Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has been demoted from launch lineup as well.
I'll still get Zelda, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and probably Wii Sports, Super Monkey Ball and BWii (Batallion War II, I don't know if it'll be part of the launch lineup though).
Why is it distressing? The Gamecube managed quite well without any online to speak of, and it didn't have the luxery of Sony constantly shooting itself in the foot.
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So long as the Wii has Net capability by the time that Spore comes out, I'll be happy.
...
I've got a cable modem and a b/g wireless base station and I'm dying to put those to the test
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- Nintendo's primary hits are always first party, especially at launch... especially at THIS launch. Zelda, Metroid, Red Steel, Wii Sports, Excite Truck, all first party. The first party list makes up a good 98% of the games sold at or around launch. Some of these games (Zelda), won't offer online play, because they're not the kind of game that would in the first place. 2% of sold titles not offering online play at launch is nothing to get worked up about.
- PS2 had, what, 4 online games in its entire lifespan... only one of those (FF11) being anything close to a hit, and the system still cleanly won the last generation of console wars. This isn't going to change overnight, come some day in October.
- Consoles + Online is a PROCESS, as my boss commonly says, "evolution, not revolution," its going to take time and a shift in priorities (among consumers) for online play to become a major bullet point.
- The demographic that has commonly played Nintendo systems is not typically one that's too keen on online play. Nintendo has been trying to change that, with the DS, but the consumer market, itself, has been resisting this. So many DS games have online play, some even have pretty good online play... yet the DS mainly sells for its single-player value. The Wii will as well, online play will be just an additional feature.
I, for one, am hoping for as LITTLE online emphasis as possible. I've seen way too many games (Metroid Prime 2, Metroid Prime Hunters) crippled by a drive for them to have multiplayer or online play, with not enough emphasis on single-player fun. Single-player is the meat of the console gaming market, followed by party-style play. I hope that online play never takes hold in the console market, because it tends to do more harm then good to single-player efforts. Unfortunately, it seems that online play is here to stay. I just hope that game manufacturers don't feel pressured into doing online play when it's not in their original adjenda.Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
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It took Xbox Live about a year before it even showed up on the Xbox and with the exception of the original Halo, that wasn't too much of a loss for the original Xbox. Or more recently, take a look at the DS taking a year before Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection came into play. Not many titles were really lost in the long-term.
As long as Nintendo takes notes from Microsoft and Sony when launching their online service, the extra time spent should be a good sign. It's not like there isn't room for delays in the Wii's launch line-up. Launch titles like Call of Duty 3 and Far Cry could probably have better sales in a month like February with added online play instead of choosing to compete with the likes of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption without online play.
First of all, regarding online functionality, it's hard for me to go back to other consoles, which don't have the same level of features as Xbox Live. If it weren't for the free demos, I never would have realized how kick ass Dead Rising is. I'm also a big fan of the Xbox Live Arcade games and the whole achievement system. Granted, a lot of these ideas come from the PC-side of things, but to finally have them in the console space is very exciting.
That said, this announcement only said that 3rd party online support will be missing. I'm assuming that this only means multiplayer, and that you'll still get a lot of the "awareness" features and marketplace stuff that Nintendo is (hopefully) working on. To be honest, I don't actually play multiplayer games that much (listening to whiny kids curse while they kick my butt? No thank you!), so I don't think I'll miss that too much from the Wii.
-- jchenx
This certainly isn't a dealbreaker on the Wii for me. Honestly, the only game I care that has online is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I don't really need online play for anything else. And it's not like this will affect demo downloads or the virtual console, so no worries there.
On the other hand, this might affect 3rd party support for the Wii. And as much as I like Nintendo's 1st & 2nd party offerings, theres a lot of games you miss out on with no 3rd party support. That part is certainly worrying.
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I hadn't heard anything about Metroid Prime 3 slipping from the launch lineup. It was confirmed as one a few weeks ago I thought. I did some searching and found a rumor about it slipping in a forum, but nothing concrete. Anyone know more?
If the way multiplayer on the DS is anything to go by it wont be as much fun as it could be. Go read about the "friend codes" business then tell me if you still care.
Lets not forget the other silly choices Nintendo has made for wi-fi. Hopefully they'll fix them though and we might actually see WPA support in the Wii.
The Wii will still have third-party online support before the PS3's price is dropped to something acceptable.
Using friend codes isn't a silly choice. It's something Nintendo did to protect younger players. It's also something I like. I use online play as a kind of "hardest" setting for games after I've beaten them offline. I don't care who I'm playing against.
Obviously, there's lots of room for improvement for people who want different things from online games, but that doesn't make Nintendo's decision "silly". They're simply not aiming their online service at hardcore gamers, and that works for me.
I am tired of hearing about friggin online games, I want some good games to play online once in a while.
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From the page: This information is backed up here. While it does not specifically state that SSBB would be the first wifi enabled wii title, it does say that it WILL be wifi enabled, and implies that it should be a release title.. Since it appears to have been pushed back by a few months, it is likely that we will, in fact, have to wait until 2007 for wifi enabled titles. i know the logic is shaky, but the implication is there. Of course, this isn't taking into account the possible changes to the launch lineup, and any wifi demo games that may ship with the console.
If i were nintendo, i'd certainly be shipping something small with the console, just to give people something to do while they waited for the big name titles, and for 'value added' credit.
http://www.xkcd.com/354/
But I thought Red Steel was being developed by Ubisoft and is NOT a first party title.