It doesn't exactly strike anyone as controversial to say that Nintendo, in an abundance of aspects, is behind the times in terms of online features. As a result, the company is presently plagued by a poor reputation among the masses who in their outcries plead for Nintendo to catch up to their rivals so that they may once again purchase a Nintendo console and expect to have all of their gaming related needs satisfied. The following suggestions include a handful of measures that need to be taken as soon as possible if Nintendo wish to ever be taken seriously by the consumers who are reluctant to purchase their hardware. All of them related to the area in which their features are by far the most outdated.
1. Online multiplayer implementations
At this point I'm sure that most of you are able to point out some of the many cases where Nintendo has completely neglected implementing online multiplayer modes. Most notably, this includes games where multiplayer already plays a large role. Off the top of my head we have New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo Land, Hyrule Warriors, Wii Party U and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, to name a few examples. All of these games are notorious for how much more enjoyable they are when experienced with multiple players. Yet for some reason Nintendo has decided that if you don't have anyone willing to play with you nearby, or if they are not willing to go through the trouble of traveling to your house, you are stuck with the vastly inferior single player modes.
Of course, someone may bring up how playing with people across the globe supposedly causes interferences with the gameplay experience. But that point is easily countered with how perfectly Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's gameplay manages to stay intact during online multiplayer sessions.
2. More online communication options
Though few of us were shocked, Nintendo's way of embracing online communications was nonetheless viewed as a sad and pitiful attempt at bridging the gap between individuals living in different countries across the globe. Sending people messages require that you are friends with them (meaning that no constructive criticism can be sent to lesser performing players in team based games), sending friend requests practically require you to go through the effort of interrupting your gaming session or wait until it is finished (at which point your quickly established friendship will likely have subsided), voice communication is oftentimes completely disabled (hindering all the healthy discussions that we are all accustomed to in online games), and perhaps most importantly, using any form of adult language will likely get you banned from communicating on their network. A decision that I can only assume was influenced by their overall hostility towards anything mature and well-developed.
Making text- and voice messages convenient to send to people on your friends list, as well as random players, should therefore be a top priority in the online department.
3. Full-blown achievements support
While it is true that Nintendo games occasionally do offer rewards after completing certain tasks (such as stickers in various games) and that they allow third party developers to implement them on demand, there is no list of accomplishments spanning all titles that you own for the system. This means that not only does your accomplishments risk going completely unnoticed by others, but going through the tedious process of manually bragging about them may even cause people to think less of you. A full-fledged achievements system that makes it easy for all your friends and rivals to check out what sort of gaming deeds you are capable of will effectively solve this issue.
Besides, with this implementation we are all guaranteed to at least get something out of those regrettable purchasing decisions that are bound to happen.
4. Paid online multiplayer
It didn't take long for Sony to realize that Microsoft's way of dealing with online multiplayer was the way to go. By disabling it on all games available on the platform unless you pay a continuous fee, you effectively reward the gamers who are willing and/or able to give that extra support to their company of choice. This money can then be used to finance even more online features, prettier looking cutscenes in upcoming games and exclusive DLC content (see point 5). Truly, it is a win-win situation for the consumer, provided it pays up.
The only argument that can be used against this point is that the people who don't want to pay for online multiplayer would essentially pay the same price for a game with less available content. This argument falls flat, however, considering the fact that this issue can easily be solved by simply paying.
5. More downloadable content
If there is one issue that really stands out related to Nintendo's online features, it would be their reluctance to fully utilize downloadable content. Mario Kart 8 only has two offers (essentially one if you want to maximize the amount of content per penny by purchasing both at once), Super Mario 3D World has none, Super Smash Bros. still has no offers and only one future offer (in the form of Mewtwo) is confirmed, Wind Waker HD has none, ZombieU has none, Wonderful 101 has none, Captain Toad has none, etc., etc. Of course, they do have a few examples of games with multiple offers (Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 and Pikmin 3 are the first few that comes to mind), but overall their offerings are very weak compared to the competition. Especially in the sense that the offered DLC very seldom can be considered essential content and might as well be overlooked. Not only is this a huge wasted opportunity where Nintendo could be making a lot of money, but this attitude also deprives us consumers of the opportunity to expand the game's content (through exclusive day 1 DLC, microtransactions, premium offers and the likes), as everything that one might reasonably consider paying for is already included in the original package.
This list only covers the surface of Nintendo's many issues related to this subject, but I have decided to settle with five of the more prominent examples. Now I can only hope that someone working at Nintendo finds his way to this post and takes my suggestions into account going forward.
