In spite of our differences, the one thing I have consistently lavished Nintendo with plaudits for is their rigid stance on online game play, i.e. that it should remain free of charge. Sadly, it seems Nintendo is a bit more flexible than I originally thought.
At GDC Nintendo has revealed their intentions to institute a system for the Wii entitled "Nintendo WiFi Connection Pay and Play". The service will require users to subscribe per game in order to play online, though how much it will cost, whether it will be per game or a broad subscription fee, and which games will fall under its purview has yet to be revealed.
Of note is the specific wording used for this service, Nintendo has named it "Pay and Play" rather than "Pay for Play" or "Pay to Play". The words "Pay and Play" conjure images of people happily being fleeced, while the substitution of the word "to" or "for" paints a far more realistic picture. Yes you can still play the game offline without paying an additional fee, but for a company that has been so adamant about its online gaming policy this seems more than a little hypocritical.
Wii games requiring subscription will have a red mark on the box stating "Pay and Play", which according to Nintendo is to avoid customer confusion. Unless Nintendo makes some unprecedented epic strides in the quality of online play for the Wii I see the "Pay and Play" logo as an incredibly convenient way to choose which game to leave behind when you can't decide between two.
[Via Game|Life -- Thanks, Jonathan]
Contest:
4:10 PM on 02.22.2008
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QFT
Nintendo will be killing their service before it even launches by making certain games pay and play.
That's exactly what I thought when I first read this today. Nintendo's 'Online Service' is a fucking useless joke, and now they want us to PAY for it?!
At least with Xbox Live! you get a whole whack of good stuff for your $50/yr.
Also, they're going to have to deal with this 512MB issue for me to download ANYTHING but VC games on my system.
NO MORE FUCKING FRIEND CODES.
PS does anyone else want to punch Miyamoto's face in that above picture? It makes me angry everytime I see it.
If Nintendo WFC remains like it is, like... shit, they won't see a penny.
That's wishful thinking, speaking. Precident causes doubt of forthcoming quality, despite added cost.
IT'S OFFICIAL. I'M CALLING IT: NINTENDO! YOU ARE ON NOTICE!
Yeah? Well FUCK YOU, NINTENDO.
Otherwise no dice.
I hate turning into this flaming fag, but this just fucking pisses me off. I hope it fails, crashes, and burns.
There must be something good in the works, seeing as Brawl is free. I guess there must be a Nintendo game in the works that has some intense or really good online play.
Actually Nintendo should change just about EVERYTHING they're doing.
Charge me to play online Nintendo, and I'll just mod-chip the thing. No reason to pay for "servers" when I already pay for my own bandwidth and route to their servers. Same for all consoles.
Either way, work on the damn flexibility of online play before jumping to adding money Nintendo. I disapprove of this.
You people just love to hate and be hysterical.
Now I have to pay to play the most bad-ass games!
If they want to get their half-assed internet play a good run this is the wrong way to do it.
But go ahead, infer whatever retarded crap you want.
Either way, we need more info before freaking out. To be fair DToid isn't as bad as some other sites I've read today.
Deep down I'm hoping they're doing this because they have some amazing casual MMO (is that even possible?) game they want to bring to the console, but if standard games that don't require servers to run the multiplayer part of it then it just looks like a money grubbing move.
Let's see where they go with this before we burn them at the stake... but I'm fine with piling up the wood to be ready just in case it does turn out to be the worst case scenario (might as well be prepared).
My guess is they will charge for everything Live has (friend list, leaderboards, voice chat)EXCEPT online play, it will be the exact opposite of live, and it will work.
That way they wouldn't be lying about free multiplayer. I wouldn't mind paying for a quality service like live
if it is free you can't complain but look at live, they fuck up and we as paying customers get a (really crappy) free game, I really home this means the end of friend codes.
Any guesses to what?