Wii to Start Charging for **SOME** Online Games and Downloadable Content

InuFaye

InuFaye

Banned
SAN FRANCISCO -- Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service has always been entirely free of charge, but the company will soon introduce a pay-to-play service for some games, it announced at Game Developers Conference. "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play" will let users subscribe on a game-by-game basis to certain titles. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced the service at GDC, but did not say what upcoming games would require payment for the service, or how much they would cost.
To avoid customer confusion, Pay-And-Play games will have a red icon on the game's box that reads Pay And Play, in place of the traditional blue Wi-Fi Connection icon, which will only be used for games that are free to play.
This is a pretty big change for Nintendo, who has always been adamant about wanting online gameplay to be free. While this might attract more developers to the service with a new revenue stream, it also might confuse consumers -- and be a hassle if the payment system isn't easy. You'll use Wii Points to pay for the online gaming, so it should be interesting to see if this extends to the DS Lite or if it's just restrict
Click to expand...
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/nintendo-to-beg.html
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wii games will soon be able to download add-on content, said Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama at Game Developers Conference. DLC has been a big part of Microsoft's and Sony's online business, but Nintendo has thus far not allowed games to have downloadable add-on content on Wii. For example, the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 doesn't currently let you download new songs.
But at his address at GDC this morning, Aoyama said that Nintendo will, in the near future, allow Wii owners to use Wii Points (purchased with a credit card transaction online or on cards in stores) to buy add-on content for games. He said that add-on contents would also be available for disc-based games as well as WiiWare downloadable titles.
The add-on contents for disc games would be purchased within the game, Aoyama said.
Click to expand...
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/nintendo-will-b.html


DISCUSS!
 
grrr that makes me mad they want to charge us to play on a service that isnt as good as the competitions. I have been able to look past alot of Nintendos internet flaws by telling my self at least its free but than they go and change it
 
There may be some jenglish confusion going on here. Nintendo ought to know that nobody is going to pay extra money for online play with the friend code system. This may just be an announcement of certain games with DLC that can be bought.
 
Wow. They offer the worst online service and now they're going to charge for part of it?

They better at least come offer unified friends list and game invites for the games that are part of the pay service, or otherwise a total rip off.

Makes me even more confident in my decision to likely get rid of my Wii (girlfriend's family borrowing it now, possibly buying it).
 
I want to believe this is a joke. Nintendo has the worst online service available and they have the nerve to charge for it? I bet the only thing that brought this on is the popularity of Super Smash Brothers.
 
You guys and even the OP are reading this wrong. This will be a new service with some games offering a pay PER play on it.

This is not that the wii online is going to start costing money...

Get a grip and I have to admit those particular articles are somewhat misleading.
 
It sounds like the pay and play will be select few titles. I imagine they are making the announcement in anticipation of an upcoming Animal Crossing MMO announcement. Hopefully it will be an all-encompassing subscription though, and not an individual charge for each game you get.

Also, they said that the DLC will be done in game. Does this mean current titles are out of luck if the option wasn't built into the game? Or will GHIII still be able to add new stuff? And hopefully this means that external HDD support is coming soon (and not limited to 1st party either).
 
Inu, before we get an influx of people who don't read OPs, at least fix the title to something like "for some games."

Nintendo won't be getting a dime from me, so boo on them. Unless it's for MMOs, which I still won't pay for. If the next Fire Emblem features a red Wi-Fi logo though... shit will get real.
 
[quote name='Snake2715']You guys and even the OP are reading this wrong. This will be a new service with some games offering a pay PER play on it.
[/QUOTE]

I realize that. But Nintendo is a money grubbing company just like MS and Sony, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something like Smash Bros and other first party games be Pay to Play.

If it's just MMO's etc., then no big deal. But I'm not optimistic that's the case. Nintendo is likely seeing another chance to increase their profits, and jumping on it.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I realize that. But Nintendo is a money grubbing company just like MS and Sony, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something like Smash Bros and other first party games be Pay to Play.

If it's just MMO's etc., then no big deal. But I'm not optimistic that's the case. Nintendo is likely seeing another chance to increase their profits, and jumping on it.[/quote]If that's really their idea, they're insane. Even the pay content available right now has an attach rate less than 1. I'm hopeful that it's just outside devs (like Square with FFXI) wanting this model in place. The fact that this comes around after Brawl is released, which will probably end the generation as the most-played online Nintendo title (barring an Animal Crossing MMO) reinforces that belief.
 
How dare they do this!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go stock up on MS points cards for my Mass Effect DLC and Conan/Champions MMOs on the 360.
 
[quote name='trq']How dare they do this!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go stock up on MS points cards for my Mass Effect DLC and Conan/Champions MMOs on the 360.[/QUOTE]


I don't think anyone has any problems with the pay DLC part. They have problems with the pay to play online stuff, given how crappy Nintendo's online gaming setup is. But even that is wait and see if the pay stuff applies to major games or just the usual MMO stuff, and if the pay games get a better service (i.e. a unified friend list for pay to play games).
 
I was told prior that the person who has the most posts in this thread was supposed to cease with his bitching.

Boo about the DLC thing though.

On an unrelated matter: For a moment I was paranoid about them eventually copying the achievement/accomplishment garbage, but then I realized that theres no way to make it work without a more unified online service, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
 
I think most people would pay for additional Brawl characters that didn't make it in yet, or even more drivers. Nintendo can do this much more successfully than either MS or Sony.
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']I was told prior that the person who has the most posts in this thread was supposed to cease with his bitching.
[/QUOTE]


My bitching in the Wii forum is done with, as I'm pretty much done with the system and that forum and the asswipe fanboys that frequent it. Bitching in general? fuck no. That's the only, single, sole, fucking solitary purpose of internet forums. :D
 
I motion to move this topic into the Wii subforum and merged with the thread that is already there.

I think Neogaf is onto something by linking this announcement with the one from Square Enix about the White Engine now being renamed Crystal Tools with Wii support available.
 
Awful idea on Nintendo. More reasons to stay away from Wii at this point.
Hell the pay-to-play games are probably going to be the Mario ones that everybody wants to play online anyway.
 
Can we change the title to something slightly less misleading?

Something like "Nintendo unveils system to allow charging for online play"

The whole point of Nintendo's service is that its free. They know, we know it. They arent asking people to start paying for that.

Fortunately the vast majority of the bitching is going to be by people that arent effected by it (Yes, I know I am also among those not affected)
 
I'm so confused I don't even know what I'm not paying money to not play anymore. I need TRQ to come in here and explain what the hell is going on at this point.
 
The White Engine being renamed Crystal Tools and this really don't have anything to do with each other.

They included that **SOME* parts of it will work on the wii.

Its not OMG WHITE ENGINE ON WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.

Thread title is not misleading as they are charging for **SOME** Online Games. They would not announce it if some games were NOT going to use it.
 
Wii isnt charging for anything. Wii is a piece of hardware. Until its announced what developers on it, you cant even say that NINTENDO is charging for it. All Nintendo has done is announce that charging will be possible, with no other details.

A 2nd tier of online play just doesnt make much sense. Pay per game doesnt exist outside of MMO/social type games. It would look like an extremely poor value situation compared to the competition.
 
This thread made me realize that I am now refering to my Zelda box as that white box that no longer has a use now that Rock Band is out.
 
I feel like i have been transferred to GameFaqs with all the ignorant posts and such. There is barely any information on the Pay-to-Play service and everyone(almost) has just shit their brains out. If anyone read the articles, they would know that games wouldn't be suddenly changed to Pay-to-Play. This is in the Wii forum also. I don't think it has much need in here. Well maybe to let the little kids cry and whine about things we know very little about.
 
If this just amounts to some paid DLC, I'm indifferent to it. It's about time Nintendo joined the party.

If it's a per-game subscription service for anything other than MMOs, then they (Nintendo, the 3rd parties, or whomever) are out of their minds!

But yeah, I'll need to keep my panties unwrinkled until some more official clarification is out there.
 
Pay per play SSBB might be enough to cancel my preorder - though they would have (should have?) announced this long ago if it's going to be implemented for that game - I suspect, if we see it at all, it will be much later.

Am I the only one who thinks the announcement of DLC support is a good thing (seeing as how we all thought the Wii wouldn't support very much of it at all)? Charging for DLC is fine, as the competition does it; charging for online play with their paltry system in place is not fine with me - but also unproven as of yet.
 
Yeah, DLC pay content is fine, however, with all the success of the Wii, why would Nintendo try and cash in on an underdeveloped online system? I just don't like the idea of paying for online.
 
I think it's safe to say SSBB will have free online since it's already live in Japan. I don't think Nintendo has an ounce of evil in them*, let alone enough to switch on pay-per-play after the release.

*A lot of questionable thinking and stubborness, maybe, but not evil.
 
The level of ignorance in this thread astounds me.

This is likely going to apply to few games and they will be along the lines of MMOs or any type of game that requires tons of servers, traffic, software updates, blah, blah, etc.

Anyone who seriously thinks that Nintendo is going to release a mandatory update to patch Brawl so that it is no longer an online game unless you pay a subscription fee, all after the game is released and has become one of the highest selling titles of this generation - please, go find a boulder, dislodge it and get your skull crushed underneath it. We really don't need you here. Or alive.

I thought the Nintendo hate was ridiculous before. But the sheer stupidity of some of the claims in here when we have really been told nothing at all is just amazing. Go back under your rocks and let the rest of us be happy that we are getting DLC and likely in the future will have expanded storage capacity.
 
I'm with Kendal (albeit not in the Civil War sense). An awful lotta fear for notalotta facts, here.[quote name='metaly']I don't think Nintendo has an ounce of evil in them...[/quote]BWAHAHAHA!
 
I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that most likely the pay-to-play service will be used on subscription games, and what are subscription games? MMO's.

I, for one, would happily pay for MH3 to have an awesome online component to play with others around the world. And whatever "true" 3d pokemon game nintendo plans to release on the Wii *crosses fingers for an mmo* I would pay for that as well.

while it's different, I don't think it's a bad move and nintendo for sure isn't going to dick any of its users and customers. I think the best thing to do right now is just wait and see what happens.
 
Wow... I really don't understand this thread and it's responses at all.

Nintendo, classically, doesn't understand online play that well, but that doesn't mean they're ridiculously stupid.

Pay-for-Play Brawl? Are you people serious? The game comes out in 2 weeks, after a delay that wasn't even to work on anything, almost assuring that the game is complete and sitting in warehouses just waiting to ship. Oh yeah, THAT'S the game we'll pay for. :roll:

Anyway, it seems fairly obvious that these will be games that fall into the classic P-f-P formula, which are MMOs and the like. Someone earlier mentioned Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing, both of which would fit perfectly into that category. What I don't understand is that people are going 'it's the worst online, and now we have to pay for it?!?!?!'... did you ever stop and consider that paying for it may, I don't know, make it function better? Animal Crossing is a Nintendo property, so who knows, but I guarantee if Monster Hunter is Pay-for-Play, we'll be doing it by Capcom's rules, not Nintendo's. Plus, again, it seems obvious that this is an announcement that the infrastructure is there for developers to use, not that Nintendo is forcing it on anyone.

Point is... I have to agree with a few posters, I've never seen this much complaining about a completely vanilla announcement in a long time.



... slightly more on topic, I have to say I am pleased that we'll be getting the ability to have DLC on the Wii. After finding out that Guitar Hero didn't need it to be highly competitive on the Wii, it's nice to see it actually happening, though it may be more for Rock Band than anything, since there's honestly NO way that RB can be competitive without offering the exact same expierience as the other consoles.
 
Okay, people who are saying they hope they don't charge for Brawl online are just stupid. Sorry guys, but why are you even asking this? The game's already out in Japan, and they're not charging for it.

They said this will be a 'pay per game' thing, meaning MMO's and similar games. What games? Monster Hunter 3 is a candidate, but no details have come out about it yet. People have said Final Fantasy XI, Square's new MMO, and Animal Crossing are other likely games as well.

I'm more concerned about the Downloadable Content for games, and how to store and use said content. If we're talking about 10-25mb per game here...we need a hard drive. Plain and simple.

BTW, this should be locked or merged this it's a Wii topic and there's one like this in the Wii forum.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']I'm so confused I don't even know what I'm not paying money to not play anymore. I need TRQ to come in here and explain what the hell is going on at this point.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, but logic would have just gotten lost in the clamor.

[quote name='KingBroly']Okay, people who are saying they hope they don't charge for Brawl online are just stupid. Sorry guys, but why are you even asking this? The game's already out in Japan, and they're not charging for it.

They said this will be a 'pay per game' thing, meaning MMO's and similar games. What games? Monster Hunter 3 is a candidate, but no details have come out about it yet. People have said Final Fantasy XI, Square's new MMO, and Animal Crossing are other likely games as well.

I'm more concerned about the Downloadable Content for games, and how to store and use said content. If we're talking about 10-25mb per game here...we need a hard drive. Plain and simple.

BTW, this should be locked or merged this it's a Wii topic and there's one like this in the Wii forum.[/QUOTE]

This. All of it.
 
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