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Nintendic explains why (through documenting Nintendo's online and general tactics within the industry since the launch of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in 2005) why the announcement and future roll out of Wii Pay and Play could be one of the firm's cleverest ever business decisions.
This years Game Developers conference was a fairly quiet affair where Nintendo was concerned, but if there was one announcement that was going to ruffle the feathers of players, it was the confirmation that the firm would - after years of offering it for nothing - be charging players for the privilege of playing certain Wii titles online thanks to Wii Pay and Play.
Although many see this as Nintendo jumping late onto a bandwagon that they surely couldnt afford to miss, could making the decision at this point in time in particular, as well as factoring in some of the firms pre-existing marketing tactics, be one of the cleverest it has ever made?
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Maybe this is a confirmation of the Animal Crossing MMO we've been hearing about? Or how about a Zelda MMO?
As Twilightprince stated, this pretty much stands as an open gateway to subscription model gaming with an actual storefront for companies to use. Games like Guitar Hero and Rockband can offer DLC to gamers without having to design a specific outlet for how people can purchase the music for their games, given that companies are already for pay content, it makes sense that Nintendo would need to figure out how to cater to this.
Although really I can't say I'd be first up for seeing Sega make yet another online Phantasy Star property at this point. @_x
The article is informative.
Nintendo WFC is still free. Pay & Play is a seperate online service that will allow us to download additional content for games (such as Guitar Hero) and hopefully play MMOs on the Wii.
Edit 1: Seems that I'm getting thumbed down for a misunderstanding, so I will rewrite everything below:
It is dissapointing for me. There's no point on making this, it's not that they need "money", since Brawl (I KNOW IT WILL STILL BE FREE) will give them more than enough.
Games such as MMO's and DLC games like Rockband and Guitar Hero often rely on pay to play models so that users can access additional content, given the control around the Wii and the Wii Channels it seems as if it hasn't been an easy task of providing 3rd parties the tools they need for effective pricing on such things.
Opening the floor of your platform to new additions by yourself or by others doesn't stand to harm things because the additions either would have been made or they wouldn't have, and in the case of MMO titles and DLC, chances are it would have never arrived without a pay model.
Spare us the "companies have more than enough money" statement, Sega, EA, Sony, MS, Square, THQ, NCSoft, Blizzard, Activision and others aren't in it for the greater good, they want money to continue developing and delivering content to you.
So until you realize that, you'll continue to be rated down.
"A big dissapointment. I have been liking Nintendo for having all kind of accesible services for free, now this ruins everything and it is abuse of trust from their part."
Odd, they still offer a free system and plan to continue to support it. It ruins nothing because they're not suddenly taking games they own and making them pay for them. Abuse of trust? Nintendo isn't your best friend for 12 years that bought you an ice cream cone, they're a corporate entity and all those 3rd parties behind them are as well. This is an industry not a BFF circle.
" They know that many people play online because they like it, and they decide to add a profit to it. "
Where? Are they suddenly charging for Brawl? no. They're not. 3rd parties have been charging for online services for ages, this is nothing new, on top of that it's overly obvious they want to make a profit from it or the Wii Shop Channel would have never existed.
"Honestly if they want "money" this is the worse method, since Brawl will give them more than enough."
Tell that to Blizzard, NCSoft, Sega, Activision, EA and others that wanted to have a pay system made available to provide bonus content and dedicated servers for their online gaming. Nintendo isn't going to come out of pocket to pay all those companies off, thinking they would is foolish. Brawl is a single title, this isn't 1995, single titles don't carry companies for 5-10 years anymore. The operating cost of the company dwarfs the profit from Brawl.
I mean honestly try to pinpoint the sales figure for a given single title and explain how that's going to fund an international electronics corporation. Brawl giving them more than enough? Really now join everyone with modern economics and business operating costs.
I still don't see the problem with game you have to pay for that are only online, but if they start doing it to other bitg games, I will be pissed.
Just don't expect any game that has DLC packs or that is an MMO type game to be free. The last time a company footed the bill was probably Sega with the original PSO for the Dreamcast.
Try to read up on the comments noting Nintendo Wifi Connect still is going to be free but as an added option for DLC games like Rockband and Guitar Hero they'll finally have a paid storefront system to use. On top that MMO gaming will have pricing models introduced to the platform.
Nice to see people not realizing that these titles have been Pay to play on other consoles and haven't offered said content on the Wii yet. That if you had a PS2 and EQ or FFXI you needed to pay monthly to use the services.
RTFA people.
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