Nintendo: Wii U online functionality will be free

**Blacksite** · 06-30-2012

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata doesn't believe there should be a fee for connecting Wii U consoles to the Nintendo Network.

According to a translation of Nintendo's annual shareholder meeting via Andriasang, Iwata said that having all users able to freely access the network will help spread the service's offerings through word of mouth. This tactic, his translated commentary suggests, is thought to lead to greater hardware and software sales.

Iwata also revealed that external developers were brought onboard with Wii U at about the same time as internal studios, which he hopes will counter lagging third-party performance. To prove Nintendo's renewed focus, Iwata reportedly pointed to the upcoming Namco Bandai collaboration behind the new Smash Bros. coming to Wii U and 3DS.

Source

**Rapture** · 06-30-2012

Which is good and appropriate as it appears it'll continue to fly behind both XBL and PSN in terms of quality and features.

**Versus** · 06-30-2012

Free, but will it be worth a damn. And even if it is, will there many popular games to play on their network?

**Ghost-Rhayne** · 06-30-2012

This is no surprise. They said that they won't be able to reach the standard of PSN and XBL, so there's no way they'd have the nerve to charge for it I don't think.

**AaronSOLDIER** · 06-30-2012

Good, I only want to be able to play online too, couldn't care less for Bells and Whistles, I shouldn't have to pay to play online.

**RaY_210** · 07-01-2012

Good. Online should be free. Not that I play online much at all anyways.

**The Cage** · 08-06-2012

It's expected that Nintendo will make it free

**F34R** · 08-06-2012

I think they know people wouldn't wanna pay for their extremely crappy online service they use. Dreamcast had a better system lol.

**The Cage** · 08-06-2012

Originally Posted by F34R

I think they know people wouldn't wanna pay for their extremely crappy online service they use. Dreamcast had a better system lol.

I disagree, it's not "crappy"

**F34R** · 08-06-2012

Originally Posted by The Cage

I disagree, it's not "crappy"

I know I didn't degrade it enough, but everyone that has Nintendo gear knows how bad it is to use their system they built for online play. If that is going to be extended to the Wii U, God forbid it please.

**AaronSOLDIER** · 08-06-2012

They need usernames not codes as well.

**DeviousOne** · 08-06-2012

from the details provided at E3 im interested in trying it out when i get my Wii U

**F34R** · 08-06-2012

Originally Posted by AaronSOLDIER

They need usernames not codes as well.

BINGO!!! A username/tag that is associated with everything online... none of this stupid ass code bs. That alone makes it the worst online service available.

**Kuro** · 08-06-2012

Hey 0975828591 how's it going?

Seriously though username over numbers anyday. A username is more easier to remember then a bunch of numbers.

**The Cage** · 08-07-2012

They will still use codes, they said it at E3 i think

Originally Posted by F34R

I know I didn't degrade it enough, but everyone that has Nintendo gear knows how bad it is to use their system they built for online play. If that is going to be extended to the Wii U, God forbid it please.

Come on it's not that bad, if it's bad for someone that doesn't mean it's bad for everyone

and yes i do have Nintendo products

**F34R** · 08-07-2012

Originally Posted by The Cage

They will still use codes, they said it at E3 i think

Come on it's not that bad, if it's bad for someone that doesn't mean it's bad for everyone

and yes i do have Nintendo products

Yes, it's that bad. Sorry. I have plenty of Nintendo products to justify my opinion. If you like it, that's fine, doesn't negate the fact that the quality of their online services suck.

**Soldier 95B** · 08-07-2012

Originally Posted by F34R

Yes, it's that bad. Sorry. I have plenty of Nintendo products to justify my opinion. If you like it, that's fine, doesn't negate the fact that the quality of their online services suck.

I have never played my wii online. I wouldn't even know where to start. Is their random public matchmaking like on xbox? And if so is it a lobby full of wii codes? And are there headsets?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

**AaronSOLDIER** · 08-07-2012

Install homebrew on your Wii and you can play all kinds of awesome games online

**RaY_210** · 08-07-2012

Originally Posted by The Cage

They will still use codes, they said it at E3 i think

Come on it's not that bad, if it's bad for someone that doesn't mean it's bad for everyone

and yes i do have Nintendo products

I think I'm one of the bigger Nintendo supporters on this site and I'm not much of an online gamer either. But I gotta say, their online is crap. You can't make a queue of downloads; you have to wait for each game to download. It took a few years to finally let people directly download and run games off SD cards. It's easy enough to play random online games, but adding people was a hassle. Also, each game differed in terms of how online played (lag wise). The one game they should've made sure worked, they didn't do a damn thing. Smash Bros.

With all that said, the 3DS seemed to fix a lot of problems, so one could be optimistic for the Wii Us online system. But given their track record, they had to have a free system in place.

**DeviousOne** · 08-07-2012

The Wii online sucked i tried playing SSBB online it was horrible im hoping the Wii U is a VAST improvement to say the least.

From what i remember the Your Mii will be involved so most likely its going to be something like the 3ds where you have friend codes

X2 · 08-07-2012

Why should online be free????

**AaronSOLDIER** · 08-07-2012

Because you're already paying your ISP and you bought the product? Companies wouldn't have to break even off server costs if they released a ton of games people wanted to play, which is probably how Nintendo will easily manage to cover the costs of the network.

X2 · 08-07-2012

Originally Posted by AaronSOLDIER

Because you're already paying your ISP and you bought the product? Companies wouldn't have to break even off server costs if they released a ton of games people wanted to play, which is probably how Nintendo will easily manage to cover the costs of the network.

So what you are saying is that MS should be able to break even from the 2 billion they invested in Live, by spending more and investing more in a ton of games that people like to play?

**Kauldron** · 08-07-2012

Online play should be free. Look at PC, iOS, PSN.

Sounds good Ninty. Ditch the friend codes and you're good to go.

**RaY_210** · 08-07-2012

Originally Posted by Kauldron

Online play should be free. Look at PC, iOS, PSN.

Sounds good Ninty. Ditch the friend codes and you're good to go.

Friend codes are back. But I believe it's one per system like the 3DS. And it sounds like they're doing something different to allow multiple accounts on a system. So gotta wait and see what they're doing