Instead of going with a unified online network for all games like its competition, it’s seeming like Nintendo will be trying something different once again with their Wii U. In an interview with Forbes, the company’s President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime spoke as if the upcoming console’s online aspects will have many aspects left to each publishers’ discretion.
Nintendo is “creating a much more flexible system,” Fils-Aime explained, “that will allow the best approaches by independent publishers to come to bear. So instead of a situation where a publisher has their own network and wants that to be the predominant platform, and having arguments with platform holders, we’re going to welcome that. We’re going to welcome that from the best and the brightest of the third party publishers.”
Reggie isn’t worried at all, saying that Nintendo’s recently announced device will offer an “extremely robust online experience.” The good news is that the annoying and archaic friend code system will be gone, but hearing this news makes it tough not to think that the online portion of the Wii U is being undervalued. Especially when the House of Mario is saying to defer to the publishers for information and Ubisoft did the exact opposite during a roundtable event.
We’re crossing our fingers hoping Nintendo blows us away when they end up announcing something tangible.
