Topic: Nintendo Working on Flexible Online Services, Including Social Networking

[NWR_Karlie]

Online could be very different for Wii U.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26837

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Global President, says that a flexible online strategy is essential moving forward, and working with social networks cannot be discounted.

Nintendo's past online infrastructure has been something that is fixed, but this is not good for developers, who cannot realise their ideas for online as the services provided by Nintendo are already out of date. As they talk to third parties, they realise that different publishers want to do very different things, and an online system must be able to cope with any of these different demands. He was specifically asked about online voice chat (VoIP), and said that they would work with publishers on how to enable them to do that if that was a feature they wanted in their game.

With social networks such as Facebook, the penetration and adoption is something that cannot be ignored, so they must find ways to use these social connections in the context of video games.

[Enner]

I would be nice if Nintendo provides a low level base for a Nintendo network identity, game notifications, online voice chat, player messaging, and party chat rooms. From there, other developers and publishers can add or modify as they see fit.

[Lady Mushroom]

I hope they will be bringing the improved online environment to 3DS too.