Nintendo surprises with "Everybody Votes" Wii channel

Most Valentines Day presents aren't so terribly inquisitive, but it's the thought that counts, and it looks like the Wii was thinking of you this February 14th. Nintendo just pushed out the new "Everybody Votes Channel" last night, which provides simple questions for you and your Mii to answer with a flick of the Wiimote. Stuff like "Which is a more romantic Valentine's gift?" and "Do you prefer dogs or cats?" isn't going to necessarily require deep thought, but it looks like Nintendo will be compiling national and worldwide poll results, which should be good for some harmless fun while you're taking a break between boxing training sessions. Nintendo will be updating the questions over time and the channel is free, so there really isn't anything to lose.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Jonathan Keim @ Feb 14th 2007 11:48AM]

Wow, what a great idea. I just love how nintendo does things like this

[Heyzeus @ Feb 14th 2007 11:54AM]

Wiis to replace Diebold voting systems in 2008!

[steve @ Feb 14th 2007 11:55AM]

Sounds like Nintendo stands to make good money on selling survey results

[Heyzeus @ Feb 14th 2007 12:01PM]

I'm totally against this, but if they were to implement a system where you'd get Wii Points in return, I might consider participating.

[marc @ Feb 14th 2007 12:01PM]

steve, i agree, how long before you get the "coke or pepsi" questions.

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 14th 2007 12:54PM]

Coke....by a mile. ;)

[Meltz; @ Feb 14th 2007 1:37PM]

hey jerk...shut up
I think this is actually a good idea

[normy1024 @ Feb 14th 2007 12:01PM]

Can anybody tell me what the dialog boxes say after answering the survey for the first time...it was three dialog boxes

[mblind @ Feb 14th 2007 12:09PM]

sorrry.. I love my Wii.. But this channel is LAME

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 14th 2007 12:51PM]

Yay! Player profiling. All they need is my name, email, snail mail, sex, and purchase history to totally spam both my mailboxes with stuff they think I need. :(

Which is a more romantic Valentine's gift? How about just being there and being alive?... or have we become so materialistic that V-Day requires flowers, chocolate and other things? FYI, yes, I'm a guy and I cringe whenever I hear "A guy's responsibility in life is to make a woman feel happy and wanted." Barf. Oh, a forever single guy at that. Damn I ranted totally off-topic.

[Randavance @ Feb 14th 2007 12:58PM]

My school had was closed today so I downloaded this at 7 this morning. It's cool, I like that Nintendo is keeping up with new features to the Wii, it really hope Microsoft and Sony follow suit in adding cool new features like this to there systems with firmware updates.

As for the voting thing itself, it's pretty cool. It has a "submit a question" option too. I think this could open up a new source for Nintendo to hear what there fans want.

[Randavance @ Feb 14th 2007 1:02PM]

Maybe these seemingly pointless questions are all used by Nintendo and allied developers in upcoming games. The cat dog one and house one could bother have to do with Harvest Moon games.

[Mike @ Feb 14th 2007 1:03PM]

Looks like Nintendo is getting ready to launch some advertising model. Once they know what their players like/dislike, they'll tailor ads to match...

[Thomas S @ Feb 14th 2007 1:13PM]

You can submit your own questions... i wonder how many times people have submitted the age ol' question "anal or vag?"

[HobbesIsReal @ Feb 14th 2007 1:16PM]

I would like them to use this to get customer feedback about the Wii. I love my Wii and play it nearly exclusively since I got it, but I would like them to know we need a wireless keyboard, be able to transfer thousands of points when the unit is defective, suggestions for added Mii features, etc...

[Brenden @ Feb 14th 2007 1:22PM]

I wish that they didn't change the interface. I do like the black theme, but the inconsistency with the other channels bothers the hell out of me. They should introduce a way to choose themes.

[David @ Feb 14th 2007 1:34PM]

I think we should use this channel to tell Nintendo what we think of friend codes. I submitted: Are friend codes useful when playing online? Yes/No.
If we spam them maybe they'll wise up

[Heyzeus @ Feb 14th 2007 4:41PM]

Look 'tard: You obviously don't know how to use this commenting system as I was replying to this statement:

"Sounds like Nintendo stands to make good money on selling survey results"

[Naris @ Feb 14th 2007 1:49PM]

Only Nintendo could come up with something so innocuous, so oddball for a console and not take get flack from it. After all, who would've ever thought a video game console could make a make a weather channel interesting?

[Erik @ Feb 14th 2007 2:33PM]

It's simple and it's free. Why not? I just hope Nintendo uses this to their advantage and to college information about future updates. Heck everyone voting has a Wii - it's a great way to know the consumer base.

[Phil @ Feb 14th 2007 2:35PM]

Coke FTW!

[aj @ Feb 14th 2007 2:36PM]

This channel may not be much, but it follows Nintendo's goal of making the Wii the console where there is something new every day. When you turn on your Wii, you never know if you'll get a new message or Mii from a friend, or if Nintendo will have added a new feature or virtual console game. This keeps it interesting, if you ask me.

[HybridAndy @ Feb 14th 2007 2:53PM]

Does anybody remember what the link was for the site that lists all of the local stores based on your zip code and reports back if they have a wii in stock or not? I think it was wiifinder but I can't seem to find it. Thank you.

[Andrew Bovill @ Feb 14th 2007 3:27PM]

Another interesting fact is that while it supports up to 6 players, only 1 wiimote is used. kinda... suck. yeah.

[Michal G @ Feb 14th 2007 3:43PM]

It's a cool interface. Good for them if they start making money on advertising using this as in turn all they really would "need" to do is put this as a standard un-deletable channel and lower the price of the Wii and instead make the money of the advertisers.. Works for all?

[Ry @ Feb 14th 2007 5:49PM]

This has the potential to give us gamers some real power in game design...

picture this... a studio announces a new game, lets say for example, a new FPS
- they could ask, should this game contain mature content or should we keep it nice and blood free etc?

cast your votes!

of course everyone would vote for blood, but i mean it gives nintendo and POSSIBLY (if nintendo lets them) 3rd party developers the power to design their games, based on what us gamers (who obviously already own wii consoles)actually want and will buy... i just hope they use this potential at their disposal.

Any thoughts?

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Feb 15th 2007 4:27AM]

ZOMG!!! I can only hope that you are right.

[Andrew Fong @ Feb 14th 2007 7:50PM]

I think it's brilliant. It builds community and a sense of affection for the console -- maybe not as much as they potentially could by getting rid of Friend Codes, but this doesn't hurt.

[Kev50027 @ Feb 14th 2007 8:31PM]

This is a cool feature? It's nothing, it probably took them 10 minutes to come up with, and it's still edging on the childish nature that Nintendo is, rather than appealing to EVERYONE as they said they would with the Wii. It's surprising.. do they WANT to just stick with their 12 year old audience or what?

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Feb 15th 2007 4:26AM]

Fun factor & advanced socializing.

I'm frankly not thrilled by the service, but it seems to me more like messenger telling that Nintendo has more of networked party/social packed stuff in pipeline.

Most dismiss that as non-features. But then, many dismiss Wii itself as "feature poor". Fun is way too hard to describe in business plan, I guess.

[Dakota @ Feb 15th 2007 7:01AM]

I woke up at 2:30-ish this morning to find the blue light on. Lo and behold, Nintendo sent me a message with an Update button.

To use the Everybody Votes Channel, you need to update the console first, THEN go to the Shop Channel. That's what the message they sent told me.

It's allright, but I can't use my Wii anymore. My batteries are dead :(

[josh @ Feb 15th 2007 9:25AM]

totally surprised me. never saw it coming.hope nintendo brings us more surprises

[Jeremy @ Feb 20th 2007 10:17AM]

Hasn't anyone noticed yet that ALL of your gaming/surfing/Mii creation time is being tracked already every time you turn your system on? Unless that is you don't ever connect your Wii online. Besides, Everybody Votes is strictly voluntary. Nintendo's not holding a Wiimote to your head!

[7031 @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:45AM]

@mblind: define:LAME:
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