Once again, this was about the sixth generation.

For years one of the major complaints about the GameCube has been its lack of online-enabled games. Judging by comments made last week by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, that won't be changing anytime soon.

In an interview with the Japan Economic Foundation's magazine, Japan Spotlight, the famously outspoken Iwata repeated his oft-quoted assertion that "customers do not want online games." He told the Spotlight, "At the moment, most customers do not wish to pay the extra money for connection to the Internet, and for some customers, connection procedures to the Internet are still not easy."

But while Iwata's disdain for online play was clear, he would not abandon the concept altogether. "Online technology has its own interesting features, so I don’t rule out the possibility of making use of it for games," he said. Iwata also said that the industry would soon come around to his point of view. "Game companies now find it difficult to make online game businesses successful, and their enthusiasm for them is cooling," he predicted.

So what was the outcome in the sixth generation? The Gamecube obviously didn't get any online games aside from Sega's PSO. Online games didn't make a difference for the Xbox's demise, not even Halo 2 changed much. Sony removed the HDD port when they redesigned the PS2, known as the PS2 Slim.

So Nintendo did nothing, Microsoft pulled the plug on the Xbox to start over and Sony "screwed over" the people who wanted to play the online focused games like Final Fantasy XI (not really, because hardly anyone cared anyway). Sony was the dominant marketleader last generation and they cut back on online play. If that isn't a game company whose enthusiasm has cooled down, then I don't know what is. Nintendo not making any online games for the Gamecube didn't hurt them at all and that is what all these quotes are about.

Also, let's not forget that the Wii crushed the Xbox 360 and PS3 despite a severe disadvantage when it comes to online functionalities and the Wii slowed down due to the lack of new games in general and not because of inferior online.

If your saying the Xbox 1 and Gamecube were on the same level as the N64 and even the Sega Saturn in terms of competition then you are deluded.

these comments were made in what 2004-05?? the sixth gen was pretty much over, MS pulled Xbox because they were gearing up for 360, lets not pretend its for any other reason. 

these comments were made in what 2004-05?? the sixth gen was pretty much over, MS pulled Xbox because they were gearing up for 360, lets not pretend its for any other reason. 

One of the reasons MS dropped support for the Xbox 1 was that it was a loss leader, the original Xbox never once gave Microsoft an annual profit.  The hardware components and previous contracts with manufacturers were costing them too much money.   If the margins were a little better they would've squeezed a little more life out of the old xbox, like Sony did with the PS2.

If you want to look at that Iwata quote you also have to look at where and when it comes from. (circa 2004 in a Japanese publication)

Iwata said in the interview that Sony's online golf game (referring to Minna no Golf Online in Japan) did not sell as well as the offline versions of the games in the series (and that was true).  Although this version of Minna no Golf can be played offline you have to connect online once in order to start the game for the first time, and so you have to have actual Online access and the hard drive.  The game also had a fee but it's unclear (unlikley?) you needed it to setup the game.

"At the moment, most customers do not wish to pay the extra money for connection to the Internet, and for some customers, connection procedures to the Internet are still not easy."- Iwata

Just to be clear when Iwata says "pay extra money for connection" he wasn't talking ISP fees but game subscription fees.  If you look at games that required a subscription fee to access a good portion of the game's content online (not just optional multiplayer), they usually didn't sell that well at the time.  Games like Final Fantasy XI Online, Nobunaga no Yabou Online and EverQuest Online Adventures weren't selling that great. Even Monster Hunter and Monster Hunter G weren't getting big sales on the PS2 at the time.  MH1 on the PS2 was the biggest of the bunch selling 265,828 copies in Japan but when the Gamecube version of Phantasy Star Online I & II even manages to sell 138,277 copies in Japan (and 189,082 copies on the GC in the US [327,359 total]) it doesn't seem like online peak was all that high then.  Sub Fee games just weren't selling that great on home consoles at the time of this interview.

Of course it doesn't make sense to you, because you continually ignore that the quote originated in spring 2004. That wasn't close to the end of the sixth gen, but in the middle of it. What Iwata was asked is why doesn't Nintendo make online games for the Gamecube and then he gave his answer and explained his reasoning. Online gaming was supposed to become a big thing in the latter half of the sixth generation, but Iwata disagreed because from his point of view the market wasn't ready yet.

Since you've posted the list of online enabled PS2 games, you might take a look at it. The big online offensive happened in 2003/04 with games like Everquest, Final Fantasy XI and Resident Evil: Outbreak being released. These are all games that were built around online gaming, mostly everything else had only negligible online multiplayer that had no significant influence on the games' sales. You didn't see any online centered titles from 2005 onwards. Even Sony's flagship game Gran Turismo 4 was originally planned to have online multiplayer, but Sony scrapped it, because it wasn't worth the additional development time. This combined with the design of the PS2 Slim (no HDD) should be pretty telling how enthusiased game companies were about online gaming towards the end of the sixth generation.