Nintendo is really changing a lot of their online policies with 3DS/Wii U. How much are they changing it? Well they are allowing developers to allow online cross-platform play with iOS/Android devices. They are even willing to allow cross-play with Xbox and Playstation systems. For real!
Pure Chess developer Ripstone revealed this news by saying:
We’re launching Pure Chess and Knytt Underground later this year, and on Pure Chess we asked whether we could do cross-platform multiplayer, expecting it to be the typical closed console platform I’ve been used to working with for 20 years. Within a couple of days they said, ‘yep, no problem. You can have other console players playing against Wii U players. You can have smartphone players play against them. No problem
This is a pretty huge deal. I never thought I’d see the day when one console maker would allow players to play against other console users online. I certainly didn’t think Nintendo would be the one to do it.
If this doesn’t convince you that Nintendo has changed, along with their relaxed payment policies and complete embrace of indie developers, I don’t know what will.
'Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.'
-Shigeru Miyamoto
