They really should be embracing online gaming wherever possible. This is getting silly. I'm pretty close to jumping on the 'fire Iwata' bandwagon.

Nintendo dd not add online multi player because they did not want to spend the money- That is usually the answer w them- The Wii U is costing them money- they are trying to get by spending as little as possible on t until the revenue produced by the Wii U grows- But that is the reason why the Wii U has been performing so poorly to begin with- they thought they could release the console on the cheap w few games and thought people would buy it and 3rd parties would make the games for them- but Nintenod is running out of credibility among its customers and 3rd party Dev s-

It is one thing to not include multi[player on games that it does not make much sense or is not a good fit- but even Nintendo did not deny that Mario 3D World has a multi player focus - if they gave their customers and potential customers a choice, then people cold decide how they want to play it - but Nintendo did not want to spend the money on it

As Reggie said - they don t listen to their customer base in making business decisions - which a=is a mistake when you sell to the public in a competitive environment- but that is how they operate for now

yet another failure of nintendo

Pretty pathetic..What is the reason then that NSMBU doesn't have an online mode? Or What about DKC? What will be the excuse for that game not having online? At least ppl can talk on Mii-Verse about why there's no online modes, besides mii verse lol.

why does Nintendo keep thinking "gamers don't care about online". Steam? Xbox Live? PSN? Stop denying it and get with the times

it amazes me how ppl still think every damn game needs a online option when it clearly doesnt. perfect example : condemned 2 . they added online mode and the time they put into that , took away from the atmosphere of the original and made the sequel a utter piece of shit......

I can't see the added value of online in a game like Super Mario 3D World. If you really don't have friends that live close by I suggest you make some.

I can see no fun in playing a game like Super Mario 3D World with strangers in a different room.

Let's keep the online and voice chat for games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros 4. I really can't see any other Nintendo game that would be fun if it had online multiplayer. Zelda and Metroid are singleplayer experiences. 

Maybe if they made a Luigi's Mansion for the Wii U and put in some (online) assymetrical multiplayer that uses the gamepad in a creative way. I guess the same can be said about Metroid, as long as it doesn't bring down the quality of the singleplayer. 

I play local only so it's not my problem.

Your friends don't need to own a Wii U to play local multiplayer games together with you.

Anyway, I don't have the problem of friends living far away, my country is the size of a needle.

In a perfect world adding online multiplayer wouldn't damage the quality of the rest of the game, but often it will. Plus I don't feel like waiting longer just to play the game I want. 

Let's save the online option for competitive games. 

Ok, I will play devil's advocate... first lets remember that we are talking about MARIO here, not call of duty, or army of two, and let's begin.

Mario is not a cooperative game really, do you need to play with others to reach the end of the stage? you need the powers of the other characters so much that is handled by an AI when you play alone (like RE5, or Army of two)? there is little advantage of adding online for co-op.

Mario is not a competitive game either, is about who reaches first at any stage? who collects more coins? who dies less? you can get all those details with just a leader board. Hell if this is available, most likely you will never even see your competition because they are very good and leave you behind, or very bad and you left them behind.

Why would you like to play online really? co-op is pointless and competitive is also pointless, so why spend time, money and effort to implement a mode that does not create a real advantage for the game? When you play local co-op you are all force to be on the same screen, is this the kind of online that you want in your Mario game?

I think they made the right choice, they reduced the effort and costs of the game, by not including something that for me feels kind of pointless in the first place, and that many will not use anyway.