Indeed. FC were just way too much work and so user unfriendly. I just gave up halfway through the generation when it came to applying friend codes for different games. It's just a giant hassle that I don't want to deal with. Still, there were some 3rd parties that helped aleviate some of the frustration, like Rock Band 3, which takes your Wii system friends and tranfers them automatically to your RB3 friends.

But yeah, this universal FC is nice (would have liked to be known as Smeags, but 1143232202 isn't bad either. ) and it'll be great to just enter a friend's number once, and be done with it.

@Bird of Rain

Those are some good questions, It'll be interesting to see how Wii2 and 3DS work together.

It's exactly the same shit. The only difference is that you provide your friend with a number instead of a name you picked. After that, everything can work the same way. Of course, to some it's important to try to downplay the 3DS, so there you have the reasons for the whining you see here!

If it's anything like the current Friend Code system, you'll be able to give your friends nicknames.  So on their system you won't be 1143-2322-0202, but "Smeags."  Or perhaps something less flattering, depending on the friend... >_>

Anyways, this is good to hear. 

Oh yeah... forgot about that.

My biggest pet peeve ever was Brawl when it would only allow 5 letters to a name. Smeags wouldn't fit.

I'm going to guess that you'll be going by something else. Maybe your Mii?

I never cared about friend codes in theory, I just cared about adding the same person for each game.  This is very good news

just think about as a phone number

They promised this with the Wii. I will believe it when it comes out.

so, another 7 years of "code" model?

Nintendo never learns. Mii is a great model, why can't you just have your own username and be done with it?

how many of us remembers our 'friend code" right off the top of my head?

You never had one ;)

Do you remember your phone number? Your cell number? Uhhhhh... it's reallyyyyy hard...