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Nintendo wants your money for online "Pay & Play" gaming?
Nintendo couldn't have been more obtuse in its announcement last week at GDC, but from the looks of it you won't be enjoying that totally free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection play forever. Nintendo is busting out a new Pay & Play service for certain games, which seems to refer to both downloadable content for some titles, and online multiplayer for others. It's really hard to tell, but it doesn't sound like Nintendo has any intention of going the Xbox Live route. There will be red stickers on games with Pay & Play features so you can spot them in the store, and if you do end up paying for online multiplayer, it looks like it'll be on a per-title basis. Other than that Nintendo isn't spilling much -- we have no idea what titles will cost money to play, and how much it'll be -- but given the fact that Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart are just about to make online play on the Wii actually interesting, this isn't exactly an encouraging sign. [Via Register Hardware]
GDC08: Wi-Fi good news, bad news
Here's the good news:Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama recently announced that Wii games would soon feature downloadable content. If you're unfamiliar with this service (which is currently prevalent in the other current-gen systems, the PS3 and Xbox 360), this means that you'll be able to download additional content for your games via Wi-Fi.There's no word on what games will offer DLC (though we can make guesses on a few that will and won't), nor have we heard about potential memory limitations with the inclusion of this service. Add-ons will be available for both Wii Ware titles and disc-based games, though. As per usual, Wii owners will be able to purchase such content with Wii Points or a credit card.Now, are you ready for the bad news?
