Email: the internet experience

Don’t know if that’s because I’m not american, but I don’t see the
internet experience as that important. I know of some countries that
actually dislike the way internet is becoming so present within the
game consoles.

A lot of people have no idea how to configure a router or LAN and both
Xbox LIVE and PSN usage percent is pretty low comparing to the whole
install base, even though one is the most popular service and the
other is entirely free. It’s different with PC, where people just plug
in their computers on the wall and they’re done. Nintendo WiFi
Connection however, got a lot of people connected before Nintendo
tossed everything out.

Counries like Japan hate how invasive Xbox LIVE can be and third world
countries dislike how all those firmware updates keep hunting their
piracy methods.

Although it might not sound like a big deal because pirates don’t buy
games, and that’s where the real money is, these are countries that
wouldn’t buy the consoles any other way, so they represent an actual
loss in hardware sales that detract from global sales, which in case
helped companies like Sony a lot, with the PS1 and PS2 numbers that
broke hundreds of million. A lot of people in countries like Brazil
only buy a game console if they can pirate games, which is why Wii was
also very popular there.

I can see internet being big for a certain public in USA, Europe and
Japan, but I don’t think it’s that important on a global scale.

Why is Internet experience only considered as ‘Xbox Live/PSN’ or No Internet Experience? All I’m saying is that friends and family game console should allow friends and family to play together online. That is all.

This isn’t 2006. The lack of being being able to play online with family and friends is a huge negative. Not including it is now considered the game company saying: “We are denying you the ability to play with family and friends.”

The reason why it is not there is because Nintendo doesn’t want to do it. Note how there are all these 3d bells and whistles with the game doing 3d tricks that no one asked for or wanted, but Nintendo thinks it is ‘beneath them’ to do tedious work like include online in their games. Nintendo Land could be a killer app if it had some Internet capability.

The thought of an RTS game released today without any Internet capability is unheard of. Or a first person shooter. Or even a racing game.

Aside from weakening their own product offerings, Nintendo is allowing a window for a competitor to exploit. If there was a 2d platformer with amazing Internet multiplayer, it would become the new Sonic the Hedgehog. Super Mario World’s weaknesses allowed a competitor to rise, NSMB U’s might do the same. (Odds are that it won’t with this incompetent game industry).

Now that the well of 3d for innovative gameplay has dried up, Nintendo is relying entirely on the well of hardware for innovative gameplay. Why not try Internet? At least, we know the Internet will still be relevant decades from now. Nintendo’s hardware rarely lasts a few years and the 3d is only interesting for a few months.

I don’t see Internet as in competing with Microsoft or Sony. I see Internet as the game console behaving how consumers expect and how consumers operate on every other object they own (including their online toasters).