Blake

Interesting that they aren't going online, but probably a good move. Wait and see how XBOX and PS2 fare and then, if the market is good, invest in online, but if they go down in flames, Nintendo's a genius...

Gallant Pig

Imagine Smash Bros. Melee Online or WaveRacer Online. If that was the case I wouldn't have sold those games already.

Homer Simpson

I believe Nintendo is going to let Sega run the Online part of the GCN. I have nothing I can point to directly and I'm too lazy to look for it, but that's what I've read. I've also read that Nintendo will not have an additional license fee for online games.

We may still see online games on the GCN, just not run by Nintendo. I'm sure facts will follow from someone.

Gallant Pig

The article is saying the Nintendo won't be making any of their games Online capable. So no Super Smash Bros Melee Online, etc.

They are releasing a modem. 3rd party companies such as Sega and EA are free to do whatever they want with the modem.

ScandalUMD

Also, Smash Bros or WaveRace online wouldn't be as much fun as it sounds.

Smash Bros. is slightly more forgiving than most fighters, but even the slightest lag would blow your timing on a smash attack.

WaveRace is one of the most demanding racers around, and lag would make some of those slaloms impossible, even at broadband speeds.

For shooters and arcade racers, I think, people can adjust to lag, and have for PC games, but for technical fighters and sim racers, there's too much finesse involved, too much precision required, and even at broadband speeds, lag could ruin the experience.

Gallant Pig

Does lag exist at broadband speeds with a peer to peer connection?

Gallant Pig

BTW: if you are lagging in any gaming situation, be it FPS or football, it quickly goes all to hell.

However I highly doubt a lag would exist on a peer to peer high bandwidth environment. (I realize that Halo was somewhat lagged but that's because it was never optimized for Internet play, I imagine any game designed for Internet play -- (Halo Online) will run smoother).

Kellehair

When people are ready for online games, Nintendo will make online games. The time for online console games is not now though and Nintendo knows that.

Flay

Then the network adaptor for the Gamecube will fail.

Without an awesome lineup of killer 1st party online games, the network adaptor will sell poorly.

Without high sales of the network adaptor, why would 3rd parties add online features to thier games? The meager return due to the tiny user base won't justify the extra development cost.

Aghama

I agree with Flay(?!?), there's no way the GC will flourish online without first-party support. It's almost as if they were setting themselves up for a failure so they can say "we told you so, the market isn't ready for online console gaming." Either way, they'll look pretty stupid if Sony & MS pull it off.

Tamrok

I'm sure glad that you and Nintendo have made that decision for the rest of us. Please let me know when it is time for online gaming. Until then, I'll just wait patiently...

Groucho

No doubt Nintendo will change their tune if/when Microsoft and Sony are successful with their online strategies. By that time it'll have been too late.

Get Me Coffee

I love Nintendo's video game plan...looking back... CD games!?!??!!? We're not in the movie making business! <big> MORONS!</BIG>

Kellehair

Going with CDs at that time would have been a huge financial drain on Nintendo. CD players were expensive back then and and Nintendo, unlike Sony, had no experience making them. CDs weren't the perfect medium at that time either. Load times for half the PSX games were almost unbearable.

Just because you're ready doesn't mean everyone else is.

The point is is that it would have sold poorly either way because most people don't want online console gaming yet and most people are stuck woth 56k right now anyway. Why should Nintendo make mass market games for a small online market?

True. I don't see that happeneing though.

Homer Simpson

I tend to agree that it's not time for online gaming (only my opinion, obviously) but there certainly is a core group that are waiting for it, such as you. I'll defer to Microsoft though, any company willing to spend $1 billion on it must know something we don't. I just (personally) have no desire to play against people I can't see. I think the linking of the XBox is the coolest thing they did, Intranet gaming is much more intriguing than Internet gaming to me.

It all has to start somewhere though, and my guess is in X years (X is an unknown currently), when Microsoft is dominating the arena, we'll see Nintendo scramble to put something together.

The best news of all is it can only make things better, it's going to be painful to grow into, with lags and other problems we don't know about yet, but if people can stick with it now online gaming will likely be great in a few years.

Tamrok

Well said. I agree.

Tamrok

My point was not that everyone is ready for online gaming. I'm simply objecting to your presumption that no one else wants or is ready for online gaming. How do you know that? Have you conducted a scientific poll? Don't you think that it's likely that billion dollar companies like Microsoft and Sony might have done some market research before they decided to spend several billion dollars on online gaming? Or did they just decide to blow a bunch of cash on a crazy idea that some peon in the software division came up with? Somehow, I doubt it was the latter.

Kellehair

Most people aren't ready for online gaming because most people don't have broadband. That's because broadband is at least twice as expensive as dial-up and it's still not available in a lot of areas. Those that do have broadband are probably largely harcore PC gamers that could give a crap about online console games anyway. I just don't think the demand for online console gaming is there right now.

Gallant Pig

Twice as expensive isn't right. Once you figure the extra line (which many online people end up getting + the ISP cost that already exists) it's about the same.

Tamrok

Sounds like you've got it all figured out. I guess Sony and Microsoft should have asked your opinion before they went ahead and spent all that money investing in online gaming. Maybe next time they'll do some market research before making such a big investment!

boobietheclown

Cell Phone - $50 per month (which I need regardless of a home phone)
Home Phone - $36 p/m
AOL - $22 p/m
Cable Internet - $45

Cost of cancelling Home Phone and AOL and Getting high speed cable internet this month...PRICELESS!

Cardiff Giant11

Nintendo's limited approach to online gaming isn't a huge suprise or letdown to me. I've got a PS2 and a Cube and I'm planning on taking my PS2 online but I wouldn't do so for the cube. My reasons? I bought the cube mostly for exclusive games, most of which are single player offline experiences(Zelda, Metroid, Resident Evil, etc). Plus, I'm not sure I'd want to buy ~75 dollars worth of network adapters for the PS2 and Cube combined. As far as are we ready for online gaming, I think the answer is yes. The key market is going to be college students. If a college student lives in a dorm, they most likely have access to a very high speed internet connection included with their room and board. College students also play alot of video games so it seems like the market is there for the age group. While kids might not have much money while in school, they will once they graduate. They will also be so accustomed to broadband and online gaming that they will get it in their homes or apartments when they graduate and find employment. I've still got one more year to go in school, but my parents have a cable modem at home and I've got the broadband connection at school too. I can't imagine not having broadband. I don't think I've used a dial up connection for over two years. Will online gaming prevail? Tough call. I'm glad that companies are giving it a shot though. It's also good to see two very different approaches being taken by Sony and MS. We'll have to wait and see which one prevails.

Gallant Pig

Heh. That's my home plan too. I have a Cell phone, no actual Home phone and just cable Internet.

Tamrok

Me too!

Kellehair

A basic phone line is around $15 and an ISP is around $20. The majority of Cable/DSL plans are $50 or over. If money is an issue, then there is money to be saved by not going the broadband route -- assuming that's even an option in your area.

These are of course my opinions. If you didn't realize that...wow. Still though, it's not like Sony and Microsoft can't be wrong. Sony stumbled with Minidiscs and Microsfot sure didn't meet sales expectations for the Xbox. Only time will tell so try not to get to bitchy when we discuss this.