Nintendo Considering Subscription Fees

[Austin MacKenzie]

Nintendo Considering Subscription Fees

Nintendo's flirtations with online gaming have always been cautious, but it admits it needs to become more open in its relationship with the internet, and your wallet.

Nintendo is looking to alter its approach to online content by exploring different levels of paid subscription, Shigeru Miyamoto said. "Do we need to demand customers pay monthly fees to enjoy online activities? Or give an online subscription that is free of charge, but then offer something extra for people that pay, so that they get some extra value? With these core business strategies I think we are less active than we should be," Miyamoto said.

While Miyamoto said Nintendo wants to approach its online model with a higher level of business sense, he denied user complaints that Nintendo's online service is lacking. "To be honest, I think it's rather unfair whenever I hear such comments - that Nintendo isn't proactive when it comes to its online strategy," Miyamoto said. "The fact of the matter is that we always want all Wii consoles to be connected online, all the time, so Nintendo has never been less than proactive in that kind of endeavor."

Although Miyamoto mentioned the possibility of extra content for subscribers as a potential business method, in general Nintendo is satisfied with the online service it is offering, he said. "...[W]hen it comes to our endeavors that try to take advantage of internet technology, where we can provide our customers with more fun and entertainment, then I think we can say we have been very, very proactive and well-received," Miyamoto said. "And that attitude won't be changed at all in the future."

Source: Edge


Permalink

 

[VitusPrime]

No...subscription will not work with nintendo less they get rid of there friend codes. Full Stop.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

I refuse to pay for it if it ever comes to this. Why the hell should you have to pay for contents thats should have been on the damn disk? Unless its quality and reasonably priced, I will consider it., but until then, never.

Also, paying money to play a game...that isn't an mmorpg? Ruining yourself...

 

[Plurralbles]

I don't think I'm the only one but...

Who else gets the feeling nintendo never knows what the hell they're talking about?

Or that they are always 5 yeras late to the show on EVERYTHING?

 

[squid5580]

What do they have to offer that is worth paying a subscript fee for?

 

[Antari]

They just want to take full advantage of the vast amount of stupidity available for exploitation in the game community. You know there will be people who won't even think twice about paying them any amount of money for little to nothing in return.

 

[Woodsey]

These ideas piss me off.

I'd like to know why, once I've bought a game, I must then pay again to "unlock" half (the multiplayer/co-op side) of it.

 

[Alar]

I suppose that this makes me glad that I hardly use any of the online content for my Wii.

 

[Jared]

Well, they are looking in the right directions, they need to expand into the internet if they want to remain in the profits, however...they need to be careful how they do it

 

[The Rockerfly]

Why? Nintendo you have about 70 million sales of the Wii alone, you are rolling in money you don't need to charge it and the friends code is an abomination on good online interface

 

[William Dickbringer]

if they do this I will personally fly out to japan head to their main office and ***** slap the people who thought that it was a good idea

 

[RowdyRodimus]

As Miyamoto said, a lot of Wii's are hooked to the internet now, the problem is there is no reason to use it other than the shop channel. Do they expoect people to pay for that dreadful Nintendo Week infomercial they put up every week? I never use my consoles for online play, I just don't like it but I do like being able to download games. However, I won't pay a subscription fee to be able to give them more money. If they added demos or maybe make it so you can download a full game for a set amount of time in a rental type arrangement then maybe a subscription fee wouldn't be that bad. As it stands though, Nintendo has nothing that is worth paying for in terms of an internet presense.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I like how he hand waves away criticism of the online service rather than trying to address the problem. If that many people are really complaining of it, perhaps it would be wise to change it.

Preferably in ways aren't just tacking on a subscription fee.

 

[GonzoGamer]

They just want to take full advantage of the vast amount of stupidity available for exploitation in the game community. You know there will be people who won't even think twice about paying them any amount of money for little to nothing in return.

True that. There's a sucker born every minute. And most of them own game consoles and/or new cars.

The thing is that MS was able to get a lot of 360 owners to sign onto their pay-for service because a lot of those games play online every day. There are very few wii owners who play every day and even less have ever played with the wii online. The trick for them will be to get people to even know that they "can" pay for... whatever nintendo says they'll get with premium online.

The problem they're going to find is that most wii owners aren't really hardcore gamers, and thus not as likely to be suckered into schemes like this.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

And pay for an online interface that sucks?

At least my 360 gives me stuff like Party Chat.

 

[jpakaferrari]

Or that they are always 5 years late to the show on EVERYTHING?

I am not sure how old you are, but maybe you can't remember that most of the hardware features that we now considere "standard" were invented at nintendo. They developed the basic four button set up with a d-pad to move, they created rumble, they were the first to have memory cards. Now everyone is jumping on the motion sensing band wagon. Really Other than being slow on introducing full size disks and HD they pretty much lead the industry in design. I do agree with you that there are often disappointments in the area of software development. I would enjoy a better online service as well. And Myamoto sounds silly just dismissing complaints, but they still rake in the cash, and I still enjoy their products.

 

[Wintermoot]

which games are actualy fun online for example SSBB is way more fun ofline

 

[Worgen]

really this generation nintendo is pretty much out of the online game, the friend codes really hampered things altho monster hunter tri is fucken awesome online and they bypassed friend codes

really its going to be nintendo's next console that will have a bigger online element, Im hoping its free and none of that microsoft bullshit of paying to play multi but then again I mostly do pc games online anyway

 

[Delusibeta]

Right now, Nintendo's internet services can be discribed as "patchy" at best. Sure, Mario Kart Wii has a fine matchmaking system (shame the items are broken), but SSBB is an example of a lacking system. And, yes, I agree: Friend Codes is a drag. Certainly, I wouldn't pay money for it.