Does anyone know why they are adding a fee to something that they can and are giving out for free NOW!!

Heres what I know about it (found out on http://www.friendcodes.com)
The games that you have to pay for will have a red pay2play logo on them rather than blue like other online games.
Most of the p2p games will be 3rd party (90% of online games should still be free)
(should) only affect Wii and not ds (you will pay in wii points)

Brawl and mario kart wii are both going to be free forever
any game that alredy has free online play or will get free online play will ALWAYS be free.

hope that helped
Duksandfish

if it upgrades this ridiculous "double friend code exchange" and allows voice chat, I would gladly pay 5 bucks a month for some online play. Everything depends on the games. The article says that Brawl and Mario kart Wii might not have them however, so what is left? boom blox?! More info and details please Nintendo! And Arvin and Ben should cover this next week in the podcast, itd be nice to hear some more opinions or possible news.

If they start charging money to play games, the game better win for you, or at least have voice chat, easy autofriend adding system (like XBOX Live) and a better set up so you can add who you are versing and a whole assortment of other good features, like constant bug fix updates, the legistics of it are, if im payin' it better be worth the playin'.

If you have to pay to play, I wonder if Nintendo is thinking about a hard drive because you might pay to also unlock downloads from the game which would make a larger experience. This could also be more X-box Live like but then the PS3 doesn't charge its players for most online things and has about the same online setup as X-box Live

That's stoopid

I wonder how this is going to change Animal Crossing Wii when it gets released this year (according to http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/080125e.pdf#page=9 )

i think that nintedo should just swallow their pride and do something that is a total rip off of live.
Microsoft got it right, and nintendo needs be able to compete when it comes to online play.
I do not want to see another game with online play similar to that of brawl.
Brawl was simply pathetic.
Come on nintendo

@GreenBamboo Here Here, ppl are seeing the light, a few bucks for competent online play is not alot to ask for

Caltus

But Pc games have free and good on line (Age of mythology pwns online)
SO does PS3
But Nintendo have done well with mario Kart wii, as you can add People to your friends list if you are in a freind match with another friends freind (hope that wasnt too confusing)

yes, kart is better, but that is just because it is a different branch of nintendo. It is the same company that makes the two games, but not the same people. What i mean to say is that the general guidelines for the games are under the same basic train of thought, but really have the potential to vary by a high degree due to the fact that they are made by different people. Do you understand what i mean? Thats why i think that nintedo needs to have there own overall online engine that will cover, (or at least be strict guidelines for) all games that have online capabilities. That way, nintedo does not end up with embarrassments like brawl when it comes to online play, because they will have a set standard.

about how they have free online stuff,
yes they do, but nintendo seems like it needs some encoragement to get some GOOD online stuff. I am willing to pay if they will make it worth it.

i heard its waht nintendo cals dlc

They should start doing more DLC.

I don't have a problem with pay to play as long as I am getting my moneys worth. Microsoft did it right and Nintendo should too.

You don't have pay to be online. it's only for stuff like DLC. So it's basicly their way of saying. This game has DLC.

And no. Microsoft didn't do it right.

Microsoft did it right. And don't be such a fanboy I like all consoles and each console has its pros and cons.

how did they not do it right?

How did they do it right?

The xbox has the best online experince out of all the consoles out there. They will continue to make it better by making users go on twitter and facebook! It is definitly worth 5 dollars a month and they have netflick all these great programs for just 5$ a month.!

except, just why, why do have to pay for it? Why? PSN has all the features of xbox live and whatever features it doesn't have that are exclusive to xbox or whatever it makes up for with other features. Like the life with PlayStation feature how it has the folding@home project (sorry folding@home is to complicated to explain, just go to sony.com or youtube or something to learn about it). And why in the flip does the 360 not have a built in wireless adapter. And why does it cost a hundred dollars to buy one, what a rip off. And don't use the excuse that 360 came out earlier than everything else, the ds came out the year before 360, and it has a wireless adapter, so wtf. I can't go online with xbox because it's just Ethernet (friend brought his over one time, nothing worked).

I'm not a fanboy, I'm just presenting the facts.