Nintendo shoots itself in the proverbial foot, refuses to let third-party publishers go online |
 |
by the hammer of Jim Squires! |
|
Back in early March, Spong.com interviewed SNK America President Ben Herman about Neo Geo titles coming to the Wii’s Virtual Console. Ben wasn’t too forthcoming with any of the information you’d expect to hear in an interview like this — titles, release dates, details — but he did drop one little tidbit that instantly perked open my ears;
“Nintendo is still not letting Wii third-party publishers include online capabilities in their games and it doesn’t look like they will during 2007.”
If you were holding out hope that Nintendo was ready to do battle in the online arena this time around and were just coming late to the party, you can probably relax. It ain’t gonna happen, and if it does it will be so late in the game that no one will care. Sorry fanboys!
[Spong.com via EGM]
7 Responses to “Nintendo shoots itself in the proverbial foot, refuses to let third-party publishers go online”
Leave a Reply
Case on 16 Apr 2007 at 10:23 am #
The only fanboy here is anyone who would say that online gaming one year later is as worthless as no online gaming at all. And unless Smash, Super Mario Strikers, and Pokemon don’t come out this year, there’ll be online this year.
But I thought Nintendo was trying to garner third party support. Nothing says “we respect you” to third parties like holding out online kits for a year when Nintendo’s own studios have had them for months already.
Squints on 16 Apr 2007 at 12:20 pm #
I fail to see why online gaming is so important. If you have three friends… you know, friends in real life, why do you need online gaming on a home console? Do you consider games that aren’t online to be worse than games that are?
Dan Zuccarelli on 16 Apr 2007 at 12:35 pm #
“worse” is the wrong way to look at it. But not all of us have friends nearby to game with. I used to but as we’ve grown up and apart I’ve been mostly left playing games alone.
Now with online I’m able to play against other people again, so for me personally it’s a HUGE deal. But it’s not going to matter for everyone.
I think Nintendo’s main issue here is that they seem to be fighting it, which is a shame. Games like Mario Kart would be so f’ing awesome online. I just wish they’d embrace it and not treat it like no one wants it, cause lots of us do.
And you’re “friends in real life line” is misguided. I play on-line with a “real-life friend” who lives in hundreds of miles away. We grew up together and he moved for work. So the idea that the only people out there that game online are social idiots is not only wrong but completely & totally wrong.
Squints on 16 Apr 2007 at 12:51 pm #
I didn’t bring forward the idea that online gamers are social idiots, and it’s odd that you need to attack a stance I never took. I think consoles work better when playing on the same screen, and PC games need to be online because they pretty much only have one controller.
And besides, God of War II seems to be doing well, and it doesn’t even sniff online gameplay.
Dan Zuccarelli on 16 Apr 2007 at 1:20 pm #
I’m sorry, I honestly didn’t mean it to be an attack like that. But “you know, friends in real life” to me says that somehow your friends online don’t count or somehow aren’t valid “friends”. And I’m simply saying this isn’t even remotely true.
And obviously not every game will or should be online. GOW2 is a perfect example of that. There will always be games that work better alone and those better in groups. It’s not an all or nothing situation. So we’re in agreement there.
As for playing on the same screen, I would argue that playing 4-player split screen is inferior to everyone having their own screen to work with. It keeps you from cheating and looking at the other players’ screens and also gives you a larger screen for yourself.
greshkov on 16 Apr 2007 at 2:04 pm #
i like online co-op because even though my tv is 50″ in size, i still hate split screen. i’d rather play with someone and still have the entire screen to use. but there is something to be said about a room full of people playing a game. either way i think online is important, and i don’t think nintendo sees it that way. as i like to bring up often, does anyone remember that just last system nintendo said that they didn’t think that online was the future? i suspect that’s why all their commercials have more than one person in a room and japanese dudes showing up at other peoples houses.
Kevin Alexander on 16 Apr 2007 at 5:13 pm #
There’s really nothing to defend about Nintendo’s online “strategy”. They’re behind and trying to make excuses for why they can’t catch up. I respect Nintendo for wanting to do their own thing, but at some point you have to take your customer’s complaints and wishes to heart.