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Nintendo may charge for its online service

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Is that money I smell?

Nintendo is renowned for many things but its online ability is not one of them. I’ve been told before that hte Wii does actually have an online component but while I’ve received mail once, I think, I can’t remember doing anything actually useful on the online section.

So when I saw that Nintendo may be planning on charging for its online service I nearly fell of my chair; however in their defence they aren’t talking about the sub par experience they currently offer online but rather the super new experience that is going to accompany the Wii-U and only some parts of the service may come with a charge.

In a recent meeting the Nintendo head, Satoru Iwata, was discussing the Nintendo online offering and while they’ve already announced that it will be free he has now stated;

We cannot promise that Nintendo will always provide you with online services free of charge no matter how deep the experiences are that it may provide

But at least we are not thinking of asking our consumers to pay money to just casually get access to our ordinary online services.

So basically it looks like they are following Microsoft and Sony’s plan by offering a two tiered online system – or planning on supporting MMO’s –  however it isn’t yet clear if they are going to offer free multiplayer like Sony and then charge for some extras or follow Microsoft’s route and charge for online play but allow messaging and downloading without charge.

Personally I think Nintendo need to prove they can do online before starting to prepare people to pay for online.

Last Updated: July 5, 2012

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