Info about the Wii U's online has been hinted at several times by 3rd parties. I'm just exploiting quotes from them, putting the pieces together, and making a prediction at the end. Important stuff is bolded.
Peter Moore thinks that Nintendo has finally gotten serious about online, and EA is helping them with it. Link
"“We’re a long way away from [Wii U] going live, but their intentions are good,” he said. “They recognize they fell behind a little bit with the Wii at the same time Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are accelerating by the tens of millions of users. You weren’t getting that level of interaction and engagement from Wii consumers.
“Nintendo has recognized the future is connected. The future is online. The future is about building powerful communities. They know they have to do that, and certainly with the conversations I’ve been in with them I’m very optimistic. We all need to help them, which we’re all willing to do. When I say “we” I mean developers and publishers bringing their best practices.
“I think it would be great to have three, powerful online game networks going at it with each other.”
- Nintendo did say that they would rather let publishers talk about the Wii U's online, so this is a good sign of things to come. The Wii U launches in another year, so there are probably a lot more secrets to be revealed.
Adam Blunt of Ubisoft says that Nintendo has stepped into the 21st century and ditched friend codes.
"Also the ability to easily find friends. Rather than using friend codes, which we've had in the past, we're able to connect players in a much easier way, which allows us to have a community that's playing together in the game."
- This pretty mich speaks for itself. Welcome to the 21st century Nintendo. (sarcasm)
-Kotick talks "deep rich multiplayer games" on the Wii U
-Nintendo is planning a non-unified online service
-Iwata talks about the Wii U's online
Putting the pieces together
I would assume that the Wii U's online will be non-unified like the PS2, but there will still be some Nintendo branded "thing" going on. EA is making the Wii U's online, so that is good news. They are the only publisher currently working with dedicated servers, so the chances of the Wii U using dedicated servers are a lot higher. Nintendo won't say a thing for obvious reasons, and 3rd parties are being tight lipped as well, so like I said, there are still secrets under wraps at Nintendo. DLC is coming, FCs are gone, and they are getting serious about downloadable games. All of this is good news. Overall, the Wii U will have a good online service.
