Nintendo fans, and parents of fans, I do hope that your wallets are quite deep. With the Wii U getting ready for a re-reveal at E3 2012, and reports stating that it will ship at the end of this year, just in time for Christmas mind you, the upcoming successor to the original Wii console is certain to have a few added hooks to lure consumers in.
One of those hooks, or lack thereof, is that Friend Codes are finally receiving a Spartan kick into a bottomless well, as Nintendo has decided to ditch that horrible idea. But the main draw for the Wii U so far, seems to be the tablet-orientated controller for the console, something which company president Satoru Iwata spoke about in more detail earlier this week.
Speaking at a third quarter presentation, the big boss revealed that the controller will sport near-field communication, something with several money-making possibilities. As Iwata himself said:
By installing this functionality, it will become possible to create cards and figurines that can electronically read and write data via noncontact NFC and to expand the new play format in the video game world. Adoption of this functionality will enable various other possibilities such as using it as a means of making micropayments.
It’s the technology behind Skylanders taken to a whole new level then, and the possibilities for Nintendo to use NFC tech to take their games to a whole new social level are massive. Combined with Augmented Reality and a decent network backbone, and we could see gaming in a whole new light.
Of course, we might also just see this tech implemented as a mobile credit card scanner before we see a new Pokémon game with collectable figures, but at least developers will also have access to this technology, so it will be interesting to see what they can make of it.
Last Updated: January 27, 2012
