Wii U Online Service To Cost Nothing

Nintendo may have largely neglected online functionality with the original Wii, but that won’t be the case with the Wii U. At Nintendo’s E3 2012 press conference, the company revealed that social networking will be a big part of its online service, suggesting that the company is taking online a bit more seriously this time around.

While we still don’t know a whole lot about how all of that will work, we do know how much the Wii U’s online service will cost: nothing.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed as much in a recent meeting with investors, reported by Andriasang, saying that the Wii U would not make use of the subscription model employed by Microsoft. Instead, all of its Wii U online offerings will be available to all users at no extra charge.

“Iwata said that he doesn’t necessarily reject the idea of a paid service that allows not just Wii U but various other devices to connect to Nintendo Network. However, when considering Nintendo’s users, a paid membership service is not the best approach,” Andriasang reports.

“By having everyone use the Miiverse together, word of mouth will more easily spread. This will lead to greater hardware and software sales.”