Upon reading the hands on for Guitar Hero 5 and the wii only functionality - the following paragraph jumped out at me...

it'll automatically find your friends and keep you signed in the entire time. Every time you boot the game after that (as long as you selected it as an initial setting) the game will log you in, reference your Wii system number for friend info, and keep you connected to the Nintendo WFC at all times. This is the first game out of the gate that obliterates friend codes entirely, and from what we're hearing its tech that will now be available to any devs out there that want to rid themselves of the game-specific codes and instead use the system code itself. Good call.

This seems like a good move to me and although it seems a code will still have to be swapped to add friends but at least there's only one code and it wont be long before there's work arounds around that.

Good news or about time? 

If it's true at least we know that Nintendo is trying to improve their online system, even if like you say the code won't be eliminated...devs must be happy this time :)

Don't be TOO excited, the ability to do that has been in the machine from the very beginning, developers themselves said they were going to do that from the start and then dropped it by the time their game came out.

The Conduit "kinda" does this already with adding people right off your Wii Friends list, but still gives you the ability to add friends with the game specific friend code.

The big reason why most Wii features are not used is because Nintendo didn't make it standard, if it's not required developers even first party will not take the extra time to include the function. It's just like you CAN play music from your PS3 hard drive or Wii SD card while in-game but only select games do while it's standard on 360 and always included.

Sounds more like they are finally supporting friend codes instead of having to do game specific codes.  Sounds like they are a thing of the future.

Yeah but in the last few months we've had Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods, The Conduit - it seems that online game modes are becoming more common so perhaps functionality like this will be used more.

I read that it's one system code only - not a game or friend code, that would mean that number is constant no matter what game you are playing.

That's what friend codes always were supposed to be.  You put in the system code of your friend's wii in the system, and not into every game.

The game will have individual friend codes. It has to, if it's using Nintendo WFC, as the individual friend code is the only way that WFC can identify individual users, according to my knowledge. If they're making them transparent, it's all well and good, but it's just some sort of trickery in the end.

Capcom is using their own servers for MH3, that's the limit of that.

The game IS using Friend Codes, it just uses the codes you've already added to the system itself, which is the way it should be.

From my understanding, it's impossible to directly use the System Codes for online play over WiFiConnection, since the System Codes operate on a seperate network. If it's working like this, the real friend codes are transparent, but they have to be there, and distinct from the system codes. There's no other way for it to work like this and still be running on WiFi Connection

The question is, how is Activision getting the special permission that is clearly necessary to do this? According to High Voltage, The Conduit had the least possible friend-code interference, to the point where they were up against the limits of what Nintendo would allow on their own network.