Nintendo Online

Share your perspective. Keep it thoughtful, welcoming and on topic.

1. Nintendo’s online service is very interesting indeed. I think they can reach 50+% because the monthly fee really is a barrier…just look at Guild Wars for the PC.
   90 is a bit high, just because some people still don’t have internet 😉 (well OK Germany is not a developed internet country 😉 )
   and some people might not want to set everything up (or are afraid of viruses etc.). If Ninny can create an easy way to get the Internet connection working, they might reach 90%.
   I will definitely play online with my DS and Rev. I like X-Box Live (what I’ve seen at least) and the new service for the 360 looks amazing, so Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is looking very promising imho.
   But how do they want to keep it going without the fee ? Is the fee unnessecary (sp?) after all ? Or do the games cost a bit more ? Or is it some weird P2P technology (very cool 😉 ) ? Or do they just take the risk and might charge extra in the future if not enough games/consoles are sold to make up the loss ?

2. I agree with sturek nintendo’s online plan is very interesting because its free and, the numbers they want are 80 to 100% of people using the service. i really see it at like 60%. im really concerned about people who live in rual areas where wifi isnt readly avalable. and what nintendo is gunna do about it.

3. ok why not be free because it probably doesnt take all that much money to be set-up and microsoft is made of a bunch of greedy bastards like bill gates…i think its awesome and they’ll make enough money from all their games and consoles sold anyways just like microsoft would but hey, thats why i didnt get an x-box and also why im not getting an x-box 360

4. Since Nintendo doesn’t seem to have any MMORPG kind of things, making their online service really only a player matching service, I would imagine that their bandwidth expenses shouldn’t be too excessive. And since they’ve partnered up with Gamespy to do it….I’d be amazed if this eats into their profits in any way.

   In response to the doo….WiFi is available everywhere. You don’t need wireless internet, just a wireless router that’s connected to the internet (by wireless, broadband cable, or whatever). If you don’t already have that, you’re going to have a small initial setup outlay, but otherwise, you’re free to go.

5. I just hope you can play with slower internet connections, because we’ll never ever get broadband where I live.
   Nintendo says so, but I have experienced enough Online gaming problems because of my slow connection to know that it’ll be at least…not THAT fun…:/

6. Those high numbers aren’t anything to do with the total share of DS owners boys and girls:

   Nintendo say 90% of people who have _access_ to the service. They mean those with the internet AND a wireless setup. Of course, they could also be including people who in their day-to-day lives pass by areas with free wi-fi access too, but that would be kind of foolish (how can you even come up with a semi-accurate number for that).

   So if you say have wi-fi at home, a DS, and Mario Kart DS, and it’s totally easy to play online (for instance, turn on DS, select Nintendo Wi-Fi and bingo) then sure, 90% or more will make use of the service.

   Sony I believe, left it pretty much up to the developers to provide and pay for online gaming on the PS2, while M$ took the route of providing everything. But M$ charges for it. Do they have to? Well no I’m sure it doesn’t cost that much to provide the service, but poor M$ have lost over 5 BILLION to XBox so I guess if they can make a couple million someway we’ll let em have it 😉

   James

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