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Nintendo ‘Can’t Promise All Wii U Online Services Will Be Free’

Nintendo has announced that while Wii U’s standard online services will be free, there’s a possibility that Nintendo may ask users to pay for a deeper online experience. Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata says that Nintendo can’t promise that it will always provide a free online service in the future.

“We cannot promise that Nintendo will always provide you with online services free of charge no matter how deep the experiences are that it may provide.

“But at least we are not thinking of asking our consumers to pay money to just casually get access to our ordinary online services.”

“We have a wide variety of consumers, from the ones who enthusiastically play video games to those playing more casually, who are not always interested in them but try to play a game only when it has become a public topic or play it just during certain periods, like a year-end season and summer vacation,” he said.

“We therefore believe that services which ask our consumers to obtain paid memberships are not always the best.”

120 thoughts on “Nintendo ‘Can’t Promise All Wii U Online Services Will Be Free’”

  1. They’re probably referring to DQX. Which is unfortunate as i was hoping (and i still am hoping) that it was going to be free to play outside of Japan.

    1. not really. It is gonna be a great game. DQ is a great franchise. Dont care about monthly fees if I know I am gonna get ALOT out of it.

    2. Didn’t they announce something like everyday there’s going to be like a two hour period where anybody can play, even if they haven’t paid the monthly fee?

  2. Sounds fair. I hope they go the Playstation Plus route of adding the nice but unneccassary features for a paid membership while giving great discounts/free downloads of dlc or download-only titles. Services like that are great if they can set out a plan for consistently changing rewards for being part of a paid membership.

    1. TBH, I can’t see Nintendo giving out 15+ retail/PSN-like games for $4/mo. HOWEVER, I shall be optimistic. If it’s like Xbox Live though, I’m definitely not subscribing. :X

      1. Yeah, I’d like my Xbox more if it weren’t for Gold and having to pay a subscription for things I can do for free on the computer.

    1. “But at least we are not thinking of asking our consumers to pay money to just casually get access to our ordinary online services.””

      Targetting MS? ;)

        1. and what about xbox8? where did xbox 3 4 5 6 and 7 go? must be the BORING E3 conference that put me into hibernation mode ;)

            1. I think it’s time to *put sunglasses on* Usher Microsoft off the console race.

              YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

              1. hey siegfried. good to see you change accounts. So can I but I wont because I am not a sad little basement dwelling kid.

      1. Nintendo loves to make their opinions known about MS and Sony, but in very subtle ways. That’s what I love about them – they aren’t so simple as to resort to flat-out lying, like MS did about the Wii U a few articles back.

  3. If we get a Nintendo version of Playstation Plus they better give us some good features like FREE Gamecube games or an early access to Smash 4 demo

    1. I woud pay £40 for stuff like that. I like PSN Plus, its a worth while investment, and on WiiU it would be even better. Even more so if they intergrated it with the 3DS, so you get content on both for one account

                  1. I did indeed ;) I still love Nintendo today. Yes they make mistakes but I still love them for their great work.

        1. You got it all wrong! What I meant to say is that there is nothing wrong with casual gaming. And unlike peterius or seigfuck, I actually know how to behave on this site.

            1. No. I’m actually telling you that there is nothing wrong with casual gaming. And I am am somebody DIFFERENT!

                1. I am a girl so yes I love men! :) Thank you for making me feel better about myself

                  O btw, how would you know I am gay? Are YOU gay? Insecure perhaps? So you wanna call someone gay to make yourself feel better?

                  bless your cotton socks Siegfried…

            1. *facepalm* I am not seigfried! How many times do I have to tell you. I love Nintrndo, do not troll, hate Xbox, plays all games whether they are hardcore or not. I’m just sick of people being mad at Nintendo for propising Nintendo Land. -_-

                1. I’m sorry for calling youa bastard. I’ve been on thisste waylonger than himandI justhte it when people expect too much from Nintendo.

                    1. Do you realize that I’m a guy or that you are joking? No thanks! I’ll just hurry and make me a profile just to avoid this from happening again. I just don’t know how to change these avatars.

                2. Here’s my very first account. And I told you from the start that I wasn’t Seigfried and I’m no longer anonymous. I already apologized for the misconception earlier. Now you believe me?

          1. You are the fucking loser, Seigfuck! That’s for accusing me for using an alternate account I was just correcting somebody on the thread about the fact that there is nothing wrong about casual gaming!

  4. Pingback: There’s no guarantee Wii U will have completely free online services says Nintendo | NintendoGlobe

  5. I am not paying for online. I am like never online I am online like 5 times a year. I am not paying for that.

  6. Wow that “Sieg Fried Chips” (A.K.A “Anonymous”) really needs to get a freaking life. He/she commented on every single comment almost. What a retard, Xbox fanboys troll this site too much because it’s so damn good!….. Wii U rules, Nintendo rules!… Peace out Wisconsin!!

    1. *facepalm* That anonymous was me and it all started just because I insulted Aeolus for hating on casual games. And the “real” Sieg Fried Chips accused me of being an alternate account. That was just me arguing with him over the fact that I wasn’t him. He just called me that because I insulted Sieg Fried Chips for starting this would mess. Now that I actually made an account nobody will ever mistake me for him again. -_-‘

    2. TheDragon234 i CAN COUNT BECAUSE i AM SPECIAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Actually Andy…. Fried chips praised the Nintendo wiiU. Read before commenting you faggot

  7. Fair enough. If it’s like Xbox Live, then I have to complain at Nintendo. Like PSN is good, unless there is another outage.

  8. i think what theyre getting at is that they will allow some publishers to make there games have a monthly fee type deal, aka with mmos, so theyre keeping themselves safe by saying that they can’t guarantee that it’ll be 100% free because of those options.

  9. So PS+ Basically. Cool.
    Which is the BETTER choice personally.
    I rather not be forced to pay-to-play but then again it does have it’s perks!

  10. Still doubt they’ll charge for stuff…I think this has been said so if at some point they change their minds, they won’t be going back on their word. Although of course if they find themselves struggling to make profit they may feel like they have to have some paid services

  11. Actually, this isn’t anything alarming at all. I mean, no videogame has a full free online service! Iwata might be talking not only about DQX, but other stuff that we need to pay to get it online, such as DLCs, the Netflix and Hulu (do we pay to use Hulu? Never tried before) services, etc. If we can still acess the internet and play most of the games online for free, I’m fine with that! And like someone said: it might be a good opportunity for MMO games to shine on the Wii U.

  12. So I see that everybody in the comments talk about the PSN+. Since I don’t own a PS3, is there a special feature in PSN+? or is just a simple online shop?

    1. You can do all essential online things for free but also get bonus content like the occasional free game and beta access.

  13. This is fine. PS+ seems to pull it off in a reasonable manner, and I can see it working here. It would be cool if full subscribers got some free games like the other said service. It can be assumed that online play will be free, so no worries here.

  14. Please no paid subscriptions… Please. Seriously, please. I’m okay with one-off stuff, but the lack of subscriptions is one of the reasons I actually like Nintendo…

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