Nintendo Admits They Can't Catch up to Microsoft and Sony With The Wii U's Online Capabilities

IGD: These are the words of Nintendo of America president Satoru Iwata, uttered during an investor relations meeting during E3 last week. The meeting focused some time on Nintendo’s online infrastructure plans for their upcoming home console, the Wii U – and just how it stacks up in comparison to the offerings of Microsoft, Sony, iOS, and Android.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

This is a duplicate article. Anyway, the statement was taken out of context. He's really saying that they want to do it their own way instead of trying to outdo MS and Sony.

[egidem]

Agreed.
People are really misconstruing what Ninty said. Here's that other article : http://n4g.com/news/1017881...

Nintendo is aware of the fact that PSN and Live are services that have been existing for the past years - they took years to evolve and grow, they weren't built in a day.

Ninty is just approaching the whole online system differently, in their own way.

[donman1]

Xbox is the golden standard of how console gaming online capabilities should be.

With that said, what Mr.Iwata is really saying makes perfect sense. You cannot truly invest in the Wii U online capabilities this generation and compete with Microsoft without going through their own growing pains. Nintendo is heading in the right direction and will get it done with time. I expect them the leap frog Sony's offering sooner than later.

[thekiddfran]

" I expect them the leap frog Sony's offering sooner than later"

And you are basing this off what exactly? The 3ds and wii network yeah?

[callahan09]

Why do you imply that "Sony's offering" is somehow like a piece of crap that can just easily be surpassed as soon as someone like Nintendo wants to try? The PSN is practically identical to Xbox Live, it really is.

[DigitalRaptor]

I agree with Callahan09, except the "PSN is practically identical to Xbox Live" part. In terms of features and interface PS3's network is not, but the PS Vita's version of PSN is actually very similar in quality to XBL and that's for free too.

I don't know how people don't expect for Sony to match XBL feature-for-feature next gen as well as offering something completely new. It's obvious they've learned from their misjudgment of online networks and now mean serious business. Check out PlayStation Plus for a specific example of how their network is expanding and how enticing it can be.

For PS4, online will be free, but additional features will become a part of Plus. Mark my words. That's something Microsoft should have done with XBL in the first place.

[FunAndGun]

well, the golden standard is a monetary system so you are right in that you have to pay for it. lol

[donman1]

@ TheKiddFran

When you make silly comments like that... how can we have a serious conversation? Just remember my words when it happen if you want to. Microsoft lead and dominance may never be matched by Sony or Nintendo when it comes to online capabilities and service.

[kuntryboy]

Xbox online is the golden standard? LMAO. I want a detailed description of what you think is better on XBL than PSN. I think it's just a redundant statement that XBL is waaaaay better than PSN this late in the gen. They are pretty much on par the same thing. Yes, XBL has voice chat and you can send voice messages... so? I can't remember the last time I used that on my 360 lol. They both have games on demand, demos, trailers, movie store, music store, apps... and this whole belief that PSN lags is BS. I have both systems... lag is your internet connection and whatever host you connected to in P2P games not PSN or XBL. Also Sony stepped their game up with PS+ full free games, early access to demos and betas. Sony gets a nod for that.

[metroid32]

This is a joke the article was stating that Nintendo will do their own thing and concentrate on social aspect of gaming interacting with 1 another ect,he wasnt saying we cant catch up to sony ect,more we dont want to.

Oh and the wiiu has a more powerful Online than ps3/360 dont get this out of perspective the WiiU is light years ahead in terms of Video chat and all that kind of stuff,miiverse looks really cool aswell,if you look at what the WiiU online can do it can do a lot more than LIVE/PSN easy all day long.

[rmedtx]

Of course it is more powerful than the PS3 and 360, the problem is that it will have to compete with PS4 and 720.

[princejb134]

I guess you would know since you already own a wii u

[madjedi]

@metriod More powerful online? Video chat and miiverse, why the hell are you bragging about features the competition had 5-6 yrs ago.

Hell i guess all you can talk about is features after that meh conference, your supposed to bring your A game, when your showcasing new hardware not your c or d game.

Maybe in a month these multi account trolls will get tired of making new accounts and stop spamming their bs. I really don't believe anyone that joined in the last 2 months just now discovered n4g, a few maybe.

[kuntryboy]

Miiverse? LOL and Nintendoland? As far as what we have seen it don't even come close to Sony's Home. Video chat? LMAO... how long has that been out? That's not light years. All you need is the freaking camera on the PS3 and bam you got video chat. Hell don't cell phones do this now? How is it light years ahead of something that's several years old?

[bahabeast]

we will see and nintendo has always been a company to do as they feel and not follow what the crowd is doing.

[Moncole]

Who is the ugly guy in your avatar?

[bahabeast]

thats the beast from the bahamas who creampied all the females of your family, i guess you can class him as a terror threat.

[Calm Down Sunshine]

I shuddered at the thought of Moncole having a female hamster after reading your comment, bahabeast.

[rmedtx]

With all the money they made with the Wii. They should have been able to do it. They are just underestimating their consumers thinking they will but their product regardless of that...the sad part is... they are right.

[WitWolfy]

Just cant see them nailing it without having a decent sized HDD in the console. Would be a bitch to swop out SD cards or whatever just to play a certain game every time

[jay2]

Of cause they can lol just remember we're not babies needing 10000000000000000 numbers, we need features, we need apps, we need what they've got done better.

[gamernova]

Nintendo just isn't in the same class in gaming when it comes down to hardcore gamers when you compare with Sony and ms. That is obvious. What caught my attention is how they compared a gaming console like to ios and android. Even Nintendo is miles ahead.

[mike1up]

Nintendo has been doing a lot of talking about digital distribution, so I think that their online infrastructure will be fine.

Microsoft and Sony have done a great job in this area, however, we have to be fair. This is new territory for Nintendo, and they should be encouraged to put their own personal "spin" on a serious network.

...if the online is better than the Wii, and free, then I really don't care.

[CustardTrout]

Nintendo are very family friendly, they could have done some stuff differently but at the end of the day 70% of the internet are poo heads, and the other 20% are idiots. (See what I did there?)

[neutralgamer19]

They cant catch up with online capabilities but can catch up with the seven year old tech lol.

[ARIJayden]

I'm sure Nintendo can, they just gotta put more priority towards it.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

When it comes to online capabilities, I'm sure Nintendo will offer a service that's, in between XBL and PSN's capabilities not better or worse, but even.

I saw some people saying PSN is "equal" to XBL. You guys have all the exclusives , but XBL is better. Communications are faster, more apps, invite system is better, video chats, just a much faster and neater experience's. But as a "whole" yeah, they pretty much do the same things. You guys are gonna say I'm "trolling" or "flaming" but XBL isn't having random outages like PSN.