http://www.nintendic.com/news/1883

Interesting article on the above link (i'm not gonna post all of it but the links there) about the Wii pay and play that will get introduced in 08.  I agree with the article on a lot of points and I feel that Nintendo had to introduce this if they wanted to get the MMO's and DLC off the ground for the Wii, if we see titkes like Animal Crossing, a Wii Phantasy Star and other huge MMO titles on the Wii and this service being limited to them and new DLC for GH's and Rock Band games then bring it on as far as i'm concerned.

So far there's been too many tites that have had online modes for the other versions and the Wii version doesn't - I feel thats because the devs dont see the Wii having a huge online community but if this brings some new online franchises and new gming community's to flock to the Wii then although I dont want or ever seeing the Wii becoming the "Hardcore's choice" if you like this can only have a good knock on effect and the free Wi Fi games online modes in cross platform games may just get more expansive and deeper.

 On the other hand there is the argument tha people will see the Wii as not having free online play and turn away from it, I think the red and blue Wi Fi logo is enough personally, games may just have staggered functionality saying right you can do have random and friends matches with free online as a taster but if you upgrade you get leaderboards, acheivements, leagues etc - who knows?

Basically I think it's something the Wii couldn't ignore any longer and to stay on the online game they had to introduct sefvices like this, DLC, Voice Chat and it can only be a good thing as it's a new batch of devs that will be looking at the wii platform - what do you think?  please discuss..

This isn't like Xbox Live where you pay to play any game...so I don't see the big deal...DLC packs, MMO games, you can't get far without paying for those...and Nintendo needs to supply a way for developers to charge for these features if they want to.

There's nothing else to it, PS3 and 360 already have it...online play is still free like PS3, but certain things cannot be free, it just does not make sense.

 Agreed. I don't believe Nintendo will apply it to merely incidental online modes.

I dont either but i've looked at several articles on various sites covering this and each has several people saying bad move by nintendo and i'm selling my wii etc, although these may be trolling it seems there's a chance some people may go off half cocked and either not buy a wii they were planning or get rid of theirs. Either this or there's a chance if Ninty dont control it tight enough that every game with online mode will have some form of payment needed to get the full 100% of the game.

They're just idiots who are confused on what this "Pay to Play" means. They think it's going to be tacked on to games that shouldn't cost anything...and there's no indication that that will happen.

Nintendo doesn't have to worry, 3rd parties would be stupid to charge unnecessarily...it certainly will chase away gamers if it's not needed.

They have been doing this with PS3 and 360 just fine, there's no reason to freak out.

And if these people who are selling their Wiis expected free DLC for Rock Band on Wii, or something like that, they're idiots. A few free songs, maybe, but otherwise, what incentive does the developer have to go back in the studio, make more songs, and then give them to you for free? Unless sales for the game were so massive it doesn't matter, there's no reason they won't charge you for it.