Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke to Kotaku about the upcoming Wii U console. He touched up on several aspects of the console and its online connectivity. For example, Fils-Aime said that as soon as players turn on the Wii U, Miiverse will show up (provided users are connected online), and will show what your friends are doing, what games they are playing etc. That’s the “start screen” of the console, the first screen players will see — which is a radical departure from the start screens we see these days.

The start screen in Miiverse will display what your friends are up to, what games they are playing, and if you have the game, you can join in. With the new Nintendo TVii, you can also see which movies your Miiverse friends are watching, according to Reggie. To get to the menu or play a game, you simply hit the “Start” button.

Miiverse will be integrated into Wii U games (it’s optional, though). Reggie gives the example of New Super Mario Bros U, where players walk through the world map and can see messages and hints left by other players.

On the topic of Nintendo Network and the Wii U eShop online store, Reggie didn’t give any specific details, but did say, “We have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money to get our connected experiences right”.

Finally, when it comes to Friend Codes, which is quite frankly the worst online friend system ever made, Reggie offered some hope. “We’ve heard the community feedback on friend codes and we’re making it dramatically easier for you to connect with your friend”. It’s nice to hear that they’ll make it “dramatically easier” than Friend Codes, but then again, that’s not so hard — it cannot possible be worse than the Friend Code system we’re using today.

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/09/wii-u-friend-codes-and-miiverse/