Nintendo announces Wii Pay & Play.

digirob89 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Today, during a GDC presentation, Nintendo's Takashi Aoyama announced a new expansion to Nintendo's Wi-Fi services called Wii Pay & Play. Aoyama explained that Nintendo will begin "collecting fees for some services [that] will allow us to adapt flexibly." In other words, by subsidizing additional, unnamed service and feature costs to consumers, Nintendo feels they can explore new concepts and channels.

He added that it was a Nintendo initiative to avoid misleading consumers into thinking they can buy games that can be played entirely free when they cannot (whether or not this implies an initiative to begin charging for multiplayer content was unclear). To aid in a clear cost presentation, the blue WFC logo will be joined with a similar red logo featuring the line "Pay & Play."

http://kotaku.com/359754/nintendo-an...-wii-pay--play

So basically for some games, there might be a fee. Like MMO's? Maybe.

They might also have this pay & play to have unique usernames instead of friend codes. A lobby system maybe. And maybe even voice chat.

Then again, it could be just about DLC. Who knows.

Discuss.

avelanch · #2 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 03:49 AM

See Nintendo always preached about/promised no pay to play crap for years when they were even thinking about a online anything, and now they are going back on their word. I refuse to support this. they better not make a game I want for that crap service.

jordanzeldafan · #3 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 04:00 AM

Lets hope that they do give us better online service if we have to pay for it. Like voice chat and no friendcodes. If not, I'm gonna be pissed!

digirob89 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 05:07 AM

They are two different things.

NWFC (Nintendo Wi-fi Connection) Free
NWFC: P&P (Nintendo Wi-fi Connection Pay & Play)

I'm thinking this is mainly for the 3rd party developers because I'm pretty sure nintendo is still bent on making their games available to anyone.

avelanch · #5 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 05:41 AM

I guess this solves some of the MMO issues since I know SE approached Nintendo awhile back about FFXI for Wii.

Speaking of Square Enix, some GDC news from them:

The White Engine that powers Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and their new unnamed MMO has been renamed to Crystal Tools and supports the Wii.