Nintendo announces pay and play for the Wii…

…an announcement at GDC revealed that some upcoming Wii titles will not use the free Wii Wi-Fi Connection, but a new “Pay and Play” system. Players will use their Wii Points in per-game subscription system. No info as to how much these subscriptions will cost or how often you’ll be expected to fork over your cash. These games will be clearly marked with a red Pay and Play logo in place of the standard blue Wi-Fi orb.

At best this can only be received with mixed feelings, if not outright skepticism. Nintendo has a long way to go before they can expect to merit a pay to play online gaming service a la Xbox Live if they can’t even get people online with their current free model. Go on, try to find someone online playing Guitar Hero III.

This isn’t to say they won’t be able to pull it off. In fact, the pay and play model just might force them to actually turn their focus to refining the debacle that is their current online service… but at the current juncture all I can say is good luck finding a friend with the superhuman capacity to con to memory a randomly generated 12-digit friend code.

[Via Wired]

~ by Zack on February 22, 2008.