Nintendo needs a PSN/XBL service for multiplayer next gen

[thekitchensink]

Onyxmeth said:

Mr Khan said:

The problem beyond that is getting around their psychology towards online play, and the artificial restrictions they impose to make the experience more sanitized. I mean, they could have a network as good as LIVE, but still ban communication in public matches, and it would be almost as bad as it is now (sans the need to input full-on friend codes, and input them multiple times)

 

I love the way you put this. Spot on. This is the problem I was trying to get across. It's not about the service, but the mentality behind the service. I don't believe Nintendo sees their method as a mistake, and thus will continue to improve the service in their own ways without losing their general disdain (it seems that way at least) for online connections. It seems almost like online wasn't part of Nintendo's vision for the Wii and was merely thought up to appease their traditionalist fans from last gen and prior with a modern day feature just to look comparable to the other two consoles (in that regard).

Edit: I remember Iwata had a negative attitude back in 2004 about online gaming even as the competitors were embracing it, and creating their future infrastructures. It's no wonder Nintendo is so behind the times.

Makes sense.  Nintendo can easily make their online system more modern and inobtrusive while maintaining the safe environment they have now.  For instance, they could let you have an account with an actual username, but in order to keep the names clean, they could have you make a combination of thousands of pre-approved words.  Then, they could allow you to send friend requests, but only allow you to receive them if you phone into Nintendo and get them to activate the feature on your account.  Little things like that could easily give them a more-than-adequate online service while maintaining the kid-friendly image.