I don't understand the complaints. This announcement is coming from a developer conference. They're telling developers that they now have a unified service for charing for subscription based games, that includes standardized labeling for consumers on the game packaging. Anyone that thinks the Mario Kart or Medal of Honor is going to require you to pay to play online is insane. The industry standard for those types of online experiences is free, and Nintendo providing this service will not change that. What it might do is entice developers to bring massive multiplayer or persistent world games to the Wii which, for those consumers interested, is a good thing.
Nintendo To Begin Charging Money For Some Online Gaming ?
- Thread starter tongue_of_colicab
- Start date
It depends. Because the Wii is more likely to offer MMO-lite, you might not see the $10-15 a month fees that are common on the complex PC games. $2-$5 a month might be appropriate for some developers that need to fun some type of persistent online game. In any case, it's an option for developers that might be appreciated.
www.clubpenguin.com on the Wii for your 5 year old. Free for basic content, $5.95/mo for premium content. Nintendo just made this possible on the Wii. Parents do and will pay for this kind of service.
Wait a minute, what the heck does that even mean? Why do they keep calling it Nintendo's wi-fi service?
What exactly are you paying for? I mean my wi-fi comes from my wireless router.
I'm assuming they just mean "pay to play online" right? What does wi-fi have to do with anything? Maybe, is that the only way Wii can connect to the internet? So basically paying for online is being called paying for wi-fi?
I guess I'm just confused, I mean with 360 you can either do wi-fi (with the adapter) or plug a ethernet cable in. Online is just online regardless how you get there, I'm not seeing what wi-fi has to do with anything, or why you'd pay nintendo for wi-fi unless they're beaming it to your house or support a network of hot spots for you to use or something..
What exactly are you paying for? I mean my wi-fi comes from my wireless router.
I'm assuming they just mean "pay to play online" right? What does wi-fi have to do with anything? Maybe, is that the only way Wii can connect to the internet? So basically paying for online is being called paying for wi-fi?
I guess I'm just confused, I mean with 360 you can either do wi-fi (with the adapter) or plug a ethernet cable in. Online is just online regardless how you get there, I'm not seeing what wi-fi has to do with anything, or why you'd pay nintendo for wi-fi unless they're beaming it to your house or support a network of hot spots for you to use or something..
DeadlyNinja
Veteran
They're calling it pay per play or something. They're not charging you to go online or anything. They're not even talking about recharging you for games you can already play online right now. It's just something they can implement now if there's ever a game that might require it -- like a big MMORPG for example.
Just bad naming, Rangers! Wifi is what people use to go online with DS as well as Wii, and I guess in Nintendo's eyes, somewhere along the line, their customers associate network gaming with Wifi.
The standard connectivity for both the DS and Wii is wireless, but it's still a bad name.
When does anything nintendo sound good?
It will help them afford to have top of the line low latency servers and special features like XboxLive.
Oh and its for a "pay while you play"(like a sample) feature . The online service and online gameplay(from Wii/DS games) is still free.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/854/854251p1.html
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Not really, atleast not from the average joe pov. They dont know anything about technologie, they probably dont know much more than wi-fi gives them wireless internet around the house (which isnt even true as it gives them a wireless network but you try explaining that to them) so by naming it wi-fi the average joe will associate it with his wireless internet connection.
When does anything nintendo sound good?
It will help them afford to have top of the line low latency servers and special features like XboxLive.
Oh and its for a "pay while you play"(like a sample) feature . The online service and online gameplay(from Wii/DS games) is still free.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/854/854251p1.html
Well I think Nintendo is a good company in a lot of ways but sometimes they seem to be just so stubborn. Like their whole online thing, im pretty sure you actually need to spend effort in getting it to work as ''bad'' as it does. A guy I know from a other forum talked with the nintendo wifi guy about the whole friend code system and all and he said they did it because they wanted to keep it easy and safe (by making it hard for strangers to get into contact with others) but they could still have it kept as ''safe'' as it is now by changing the wii code into a name and just using one name for all the games instead of separte codes but they just didnt for some reason that probably is impossible to understand.
So basically this is Nintendo allowing game publishers to charge for online gaming if they see fit.. hows that a bad thing? Surely it'll mean more and better online gaming. As you'll have the games with free basic online we already have now as well as more and better online enabled games from companies who currently don't see the free online as an apealing idea.
Why can't nintendo use the server's HDD?
They have to be conscious of people's network bandwidth, I guess. You don't want it to take 3 minutes to load a new area. Not to say that it can't be done. I have no idea. I'm just used to PC MMOs where storage is not really an issue.
Maintenance issues. Not to mention hackers/cheaters. It's the sort of pain you have to go through when you're dealing with MMO's, especially Phantasy Star Online stuff.
Mintmaster
Veteran
Don't count on it. If Nintendo and MS are charging for online gaming without consumer backlash, then Sony will follow. All companies in all industries absolutely love the monthly payment model for their products.
Think about it: 17M regular online gamers paying only $5 a month is a cool $1B/year. I'm perpetually shocked at how much money WoW generates this way. No sane CEO would pass on such an opportunity.
I'm gonna say I don't think they will. Sony's view is to get everyone online and take money in other ways, particularly I think advertising on Home. In fact Nintendo aren't any different either - these extra monthly amounts are per title, and not for the online service as a whole. There'll always be games that are subscription model based, but I don't think all online services are going to go subscription based like Live!
