Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Nintendo Wii Online

Let's face it....Nintendo has a free pass this generation on online play. The Wii has primitive online capabilities compared to Microsoft and Sony. And this has not hurt them as of yet. Sure all the trade rags and fansites bash them over it, but the masses speak and online play is not a big thing to them.

However, i can not help but wonder what Nintendo is waiting for. Online multiplayer games are only going to get bigger and more prevalent. Nintendo is raking in the cash today. Today, with a dominant position, they could (a big step there) be extending their presence online and tying all those players into their online services.

The video game industry rarely rewards complacency. Look what happened when Nintendo insisted no one wanted CD's and cartridges were they way...Sony cleaned their clock. The N64 never contended for that generation #1 position. And it pushed Nintendo into the underdog position with the Game Cube from which it stayed in last place.

IMO, the next generation is not going to be so kind to Nintendo with its lack of online play. I hope they have something coming soon, otherwise their fall from #1 to the bottom will be just as hard as it was when the N64 came out against the PlayStation.