Dear Reader:
What the HELL is up with Nintendo and Wii online play?!
I am not a huge fan of online play, but I know that it is an important part of console gaming today. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what the hell is going on with online play on the Wii. It seems like third parties are left scractching their heads just like us. Here is a portion of a Destructoid article concerning Majesco and Cooking Mama: Cook Off!.
My biggest bone to pick with the game is the lack of online multiplayer. I spoke with the Majesco rep about it and he wasn’t too pleased with how Nintendo was still keeping their online service a secret from developers. Basically saying that Nintendo is not letting devs know how to develop their games for Nintendo’s online service.
In case you don’t think this is a problem, let me tell you, it is. In fact, the rep was telling me that the online question is the #1 thing he is asked all the time about the game. Everyone wants it and everyone wants to know about it. The bottomline is that for now, if a Wii game doesn’t have online, don’t blame the developer or publisher. It seems that Nintendo is content to keep online on their games only … for now.
This is a trend that needs to stop. I can’t understand why Nintendo is doing this to themselves. I think this has gone on far too long already, but if we don’t see online games by Summer…there is a serious problem.