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]
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21 comments + 95764 views
If there's voice chat, then, I'm in.
I'm fine with paying for a good online service. But until they get their online in fucking order, I'm not going anywhere near this. DLC, maybe, but paying to play online, fuck no.
"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."
QFT
Nintendo will be killing their service before it even launches by making certain games pay and play.
It's pretty clear that online gaming is just not going to work for Nintendo, not this generation. I'll still buy games with "Pay and Play" written on them, but I'll just stick to the offline experience, as I would probably have done even if online play were free.
"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"
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.
Nintendo's going to have to amp up the speed of things on the Wii to grab my attention for playing anything online. I'm sure people are happyily knocking each other around in SSBM without any problems, but all other online activity on the Wii leaves something to be desired. The speed and time it takes to download a 30 MB file via the Wii Shop is just shy of a generation gap.
Also, they're going to have to deal with this 512MB issue for me to download ANYTHING but VC games on my system.
This seems kinda vague to really criticize it even if it doesn't sound appealing right now. Sounds to me like it would be for online only games, or possibly downloadable content.
im gonna wait and see before i scream out "BULLSHIT" since no real details have been revealed about the pay and play.
I'm only paying for it if they make it stop sucking. Because until it's at least as good as the old Xbox Live, then I'm keeping my fucking money.
NO MORE FUCKING FRIEND CODES.
Ah shit, sorry for the size.
This is for a future MMO type of game. No, you're not going to have to pay to play Mario Kart or Smash Bros online on the Wii. Much adieu about nothing.
I won't be paying to play anything on the Wii, other than the cost of the game itself. Who in their right minds would pay for such a rudimentary online service? 75 digit friend codes and no voice chat? No thanks.
PS does anyone else want to punch Miyamoto's face in that above picture? It makes me angry everytime I see it.
@Mxyz: If that's the case, then cool. I wouldn't touch an MMO with a 40 ft. pole.
Okay, we discussed on another post about no voice-chat in Brawl and although you don't have to pay for Wi-Fi some were disappointed but I still thought it wasn't something neither necessary nor justified (and I still don't by the way and I still don't care if I "fail" or something, bring it on) yet this is shit. The Wii was the console of your choice if you just wanted to play online some times, have the most basic features and stuff and most importantly: you didn't have to play.
If Nintendo WFC remains like it is, like... shit, they won't see a penny.
Evil Cheese says it all there is to say.
Maybe they don't want to give away a great service for free, then rile people up by charging for what was free. So they're going to start charging and make it not suck at the same time.
That's wishful thinking, speaking. Precident causes doubt of forthcoming quality, despite added cost.
The very idea of paying for Nintendo POS online services is laughable. I'll wait to see how they do it, but as it stands it sounds pretty shitty. Don't fail me again Nintendo!
IT'S OFFICIAL. I'M CALLING IT: NINTENDO! YOU ARE ON NOTICE!
Why would any of you pay for it? This is just silly. I wish we could sue Nintendo for lying about free online play. Instead, we'll just give the corporations what they want. And thus, we produce the biggest bunch of suckers in the world: the gaming community.
Nintendo can't possibly do this right. They're more than welcomed to try to prove me wrong, but they won't.
Pay and play?
Yeah? Well FUCK YOU, NINTENDO.
I'll pay if they make it as good as xbox live.
Otherwise no dice.
And if they're gonna make me fuckin' pay, why do I have to do it for each fuckin separate fucking game?
I hate turning into this flaming fag, but this just fucking pisses me off. I hope it fails, crashes, and burns.
Now that I've descended from the cloud of hell:
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.
Unless Nintendo makes a HUGE change with their online service then I'm not gonna pay for anything.
Actually Nintendo should change just about EVERYTHING they're doing.
As a PC gamer that owns a Wii for family use, I've been laughing at Xbox owners for years while they payed $50 a year for "Gold" and "stat-tracking" and "enhanced matchmaking." Since at least the early 90's I've never payed to play a PC game online (excluding MMOs) and most of the more recent games have every one of those "Gold" features, and Steam even has "achievements" (whoopie...).
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.
Until there is a unified friends list with cross-game functionality and integrated voice chat in all online games... the red dot will only mean "STOP! DON'T PURCHASE!"
Laughing so fucking hard at the massive butthurt this is causing all the Nintendo fans who constantly cried BS whenever people with XBL told them that in order for Nintendo (and SONY) to step their online game up, they would have to start charging. Enjoy. Next up is Sony.
I hope the red stickers says something along the lines of DO NOT WANT!
Have they mentioned what extra services will be available, or could this basically be Nintendo saying "if an MMO happens to want to have a pay to play model on the Wii, we can do that" But I don't see mario kart, or smash bros, or most 'online' gaming for the Wii. But I can see Fantasy Star online doing a Wii P&P model.
That picture always reminds me of this:
If this happens, i will sell my Wii.
Can you say PokemOnline?
Shitty online? And paying? Thanks, but no thanks. If we're talking about MMOs then I could simply avoid them but charging for playing Smash Bros or Mario Kart in online is plain lame.
uh seriously....how the hell can we jump from sub par online gaming to a pay to play service? I sure hope they don't expect Brawl to be a PTP crap. Cause I can be fine playing Brawl offline with friends around me.
Either way, work on the damn flexibility of online play before jumping to adding money Nintendo. I disapprove of this.
Did anyone actually read the press release? This 'Pay To Play' is an addition not an either or. I'm guessing that the bare bones online service Wii has already will remain, a new service will be added which you have the choice of paying for or sticking with what you have out of the box.
You people just love to hate and be hysterical.
NO!!!!!!!!!
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.
All this does, is explain how Monster Hunter 3 is coming to Wii.
But go ahead, infer whatever retarded crap you want.
LOL When I read this on Gamasutra I knew the internet was going to asplode over this. Before jumping to ANY conclusions I need to know more information about this: What are we paying for? an MMO? New 360-like features? Voicechat? If it allows people not to have to deal with friend codes and give developers more freedom to have a more seemless online infrastructure, then maybe it would be worth it for people that play a lot of online games. If the service is still gimped, then this would be one of the stupidest things they could do.
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.
I hate to break it to Nintendo, but "Pay and Play" logo is not a good way to let consumers know they have to pay for online play. Average consumer will think "Oh yeah, I'll pay now and play the game alright, what's the big deal..". Instant fail. Pay and play even may refer to "no extra payments necessary, just pay for the game and play it.)". Also, ballz.
Harglebargleaaarrugh!!! This makes me so impotently enraged against Nintendo!!! Wait, no it doesn't. Never mind.
horrible. no voice chat,no dvd drive,no music,a friend code?and now paying for the 6 games that will have some sort of online component. no way i'd pay.or any of my friends for that matter. and sony has said it repeatedly=you won't pay for psn.not this generation. they'll make the revenue to support it by placing adds and billboards in home, and by the microtransactions of buying stuff in home.nintendo is pissing people off and they don't care. they're doing things that convenience them not the gamer. ho hoo gamer only like nintendo product,we give them nothing ho hoo buy wii fit and you will like oh hoo buy only nintendo we market leader finally again oh hoo lets charge for play they will buy or no wii for them oh hoo gamer a stupid people don't care about laying down while playing make them stand and bend over while pointing at tv oh hoo they will think that fun. fuck that. i'm happy with my psn thank you.and laying down while i play. holla #1_in_the_hood_G!!
I'm against it at the moment, but they really haven't fleshed out what the pay to play titles will consist of, and as Zardoz pointed out the article suggests that only some titles will have the "Pay to Play" on them for their online component. It definitely seems like a backwards move, but at this point who really knows.
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).
If Nintendo gets it's shit together, maybe I'll enjoy this. It would need voice chat, wired support, and whatever else it would take to make playing smash bros online not suck.
oh hoo super smash brawl good others bad oh hoo old games with overpriced value oh hoo no hard drive make them pay oh hoo lego mii last gen graphics oh hoo we alienate the fans with party games that have no depth oh hoo no real plan oh hoo stupid patents oh hoo kalimari fishing game without sushi oh hoo please someone continue this i'm running out of jokes. someone please?¿?¿?¿?¿#1_in_the_hood_G!!
The worst online service of this generation is going to cost us now? Yeah... They'd better improve the service by a shitload before I shell out money for this. I don't even think Smash Bros. would be enough for me to pay if I still have to use friend codes.
Nintendo does not want to compete directly that's why they are using their wiimote gimmick, and it's working.
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.
BALLS.
I just realized that nintendo annouced this so they could make a MMO of some sort.
Any guesses to what?
Soooo We are going to have to pay for Friend codes now? Thats insane. Count me out.
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