I got the impression that this pay-to-play service was designed explicitly for third parties to take advantage of, actually. A unified system like that would allow MMO games from third parties to be set up as pay-to-play without having to deal with subscription fees manually. They'd just register their game with Nintendo as pay-to-play, and let Nintendo do the transactions for them.

 Yes you are so right, it is not even funny.

I don't really care about the pay to play thing. How is that different from PCs? Some games require you to pay to use their online service, others don't. I don't see what the big deal is. It's more of a service for 3rd party devs who have to cover costs of servers, and opens the way for MMOs which cost alot to upkeep.

As usual people are getting upset over something minor.

SSJ this is a total bullshit post.

1) Clearly, this system won't even be in 80% of games, or it would already be in Mario Kart and Brawl.  It's obviously designed for special circumsatnces.

2) We don't know what services will be offered for these games.  

3) We don't even know if this is just a system reserved for MMOs or other games with extremely complex online systems or not.  

Yes, it'd be different if you had to pay for ALL online games, like Xbox Live.

You don't, and CLEARLY this is just for MMO-type games...of which Nintendo apparently doesn't even have in production.

And yes, this actually helps third parties. If they want to make an MMO-type game and use their own servers...they're not going to do it for free...this pay-to-play system using Wii Points will solve that problem easily.

The only problem I see is that right now half of you are confused and think this will be for most regular online games.

SOME games, not all =)
don't whine, if the game is good im willing too pay

Calm down everyone!

It's crystal clear that Nintendo WON'T charge for regular games.
Why on earth would they otherwise make their biggest online games ever (Brawl & Kart) free?
From a business standpoint that's not very smart.

They're obviously talking about things like MMO's.

Great news! The rumored DLC is true! Go GH4!

This is likely just for a new MMORPG such as that sega game Phantasy Star online, this may not have anything to do with first party online games and simply for 3rd party efforts, even the gamecube had a pay to play game with no warning on the box this is a good idea. Also PS2 had a pay to play game in FF so not even sonys online has been 100% free

Man what do you think prompted them to do this? First, Reggies cocky "were gunna shit all over MS in the US" statement, now charging for online?

Nothing drives away casual gamers like pay to play.