As a society that is becoming more internet based I honestly think this is going to haunt Nintendo a little.

The leaks probably will come from Sega or Ubisoft, even THQ or EA. I doubt Capcom will talk. They seems to be the closest to Nintendo.

Either way someone's going to spill the beans soon enough...

Im thinking each developer will have their own online hub which could be great.

For the most part, this decision will have both positive and negative impacts for consumers and developers, and depending on what Nintendo does will determine whether the decision is more positive or more negative ...

If Nintendo creates a well formed API that contains most of the functionality of a unified online service, makes some core features mandatory (unified login and friend list for example), while leaving most features optional, and removes many of the restrictions that exist in other online services they could have a "winner" here.

Essentially, while I'm not a big Facebook fan I recognize that a lot of people see value in social networking. Right now no online gaming service integrates with social networking in a meaningful way, and publishers are not really allowed to come up with their own deals with social networking sites to develop their own meaningful features; and it is likely that publishers will only get to implement the features Sony/Microsoft want them to if they create these integrations, and will mandate that they're included regardless of whether the publisher sees any value in it. In contrast, if EA worked out a deal with Facebook to make it possible for someone to earn "Bragging rights" on their Facebook page (or some other integration) they could implement it without waiting for Nintendo to see value in it and integrate it into their core API; of course, the side effect of this is that EA could secure exclusivity in features and prevent other publishers from having a similar service.

Ultimately, I would hope that Nintendo created a full suite of high quality and creative features for an online service (possibly partnering with many other companies) and are leaving it up to developers how to use them; and that Nintendo isn't just producing the bare minimum features and expecting developers to build complete systems themselves.

Yeah I hope they re-think their approach, or lack of one because this sounds like a nightmare.

Doooooooooooooooooooooooom!!

As long as I can press a button and see what friends are playing, I'm ok with Nintendo's "online".

I'd be much happier if they offered a monthly/yearly subscription to the Virtual Console on top of that. Make it available across 3DS and Wii-U and I'll pay extra. It would make Xbox Live revenue look like pocket change.

I'd charge $50 a month but you get to take them anywhere you want on your 3DS or I'd tier it like Netflix. X games/month for however much. Makes perfect sense. People will still buy the replayable games as well as subbing. Hell, do it for Wii/DSWare too.

I'm wondering if the lack of unified online service will also effect content distribution too. Would Nintendo allow each seperate developer to distribute updates and DLC via their own channels?

Charging based on what generation the game was from was idiotic. The pricing in general just feels awkward. How they release games is awful too. 3 a week or whatever it is is pitiful. Surely the 3DS is capable of playing NES and SNES games not to mention N64 games so why aren't they available? Why aren't Gameboy games available to the Wii? How about Mario Brothers or Kart or Zelda collection packs at a discount?

They're sitting on a goldmine.

Edit: And they should add a DS slot to the Wii-U.