Nintendo Says No To Online Gaming Fees

August 16th, 2006 Davis Posted in Video Games |

Well as some of you might know, I’m not exactly a fan of the whole subscription game business model. I think that it prevents casual gamers from enjoying games at a leisurely pace and instead forces gamers into addictive massive hypnotic inducing sessions in order to maximize on their arcade credits. This is why I was pleasantly surprised to see Nintendo announce that they aren’t going to be charging online access fees to their subscribers. From Ars Technica’s coverage of it, I’m unclear as to whether or not their partners will charge for access, but at the very least their in house games will be free and Wifi enabled.

The online model for the Wii will be similar to the model for the Nintendo DS, which also contains WiFi support and free gameplay online. Nintendo will provide the servers for their own games, and presumably third party developers offering online support in their games will set up their own servers. This is in contrast to the model pioneered by Microsoft with the original Xbox, where a monthly fee is charged for access to the servers in exchange for matchmaking services, exclusive online content, and other features. It is not known if Nintendo will be offering any of these features with their online service.

I think that this is a smart move on Nintendo’s part. Not only are they creating great buzz for the Wii, but they are doing it at a price point that neither Xbox or Playstation can afford. After being disappointed with the 64, I always put Nintendo out of my mind, but between the unique controller and the low price points, I think that Nintendo could make up a lot of ground in the latest generation of the console wars. While it’s still too early to tell how cool the Wii really will be, the lack of online fees gets a hot donkey from me.