Game Developers Conference: an event that reveals some great new information from all different companies, but Nintendo’s project leader, Takashi Aoyama, revealed some real interesting news. There is some great news about Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service that was revealed, but unfortunately, there was also some not-so great news.
The Good News: Nintendo will be soon offering downloadable add-on content for some upcoming Wii games. Downloadable content is commonplace among Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and even Sony’s Playstation 3, but not for the Wii, and that barrier will soon be broken. Aoyama said that Wii owners will be able to use Wii Points to purchase content for both disc-based games and future Wii-ware downloadable titles. However, the content would be purchased within the game.
The Bad News: Nintendo will soon be charging money through a pay-to-play system for the online content of certain games. Takashi Aoyama said that the “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play” service will allow owners to subscribe to certain online features, despite not announcing which games will use the service and how much it will cost. In order to avoid confusion, games that take advantage of this feature will have a red circle that reads “Pay and Play” in the place of where the traditional blue Wi-Fi logo is located. Hopefully, Mario Kart Wii will stay free of the red circle.
