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[Toad-fr]

Hi there,

We managed to speak to Jim Merrick at the Games Convention in Leipzig: this man is Head of European Marketing and knows a lot about Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service.

We posted the interview in english for you guys, so don't miss this chance to know more about how this whole thing is going to work:
http://portables.p-nintendo.com/articles/I-89-2.html

Have a good time, we think you'll love it

Cheers,
Xavier.

 

[gohepcat]

The Elephant man?

 

[TTP]

Puissance Nintendo : How does it work between Nintendo and the third-party publishers, if they want to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service. It will be free for the players, but will it be free for them to bring their games to the service?

Jim Merrick : Yes, it is free. They have the option to charge for their service if they choose to do so. It depends on the game architecture : something like Mario Kart doesn't require servers since the DS speak directly to each other when the match-making is done.

It's very low-cost to operate. But a Massive Multi-Player Persistant world-type of game is a very expensive thing to operate: they may decide to charge for something like that, it's entirely their option. But we will not take a percentage of what they charge. That's their business.

PN: Does it mean they will own their own network-infrastructure?

JM: Yes, that's right. But to use the match-making has no cost associated.

Thank you Microsoft.

 

[Jeff-DSA]

WOW!!!

I read the entire thing and it sounds amazing.

 

[shuri]

More 4th rate site pimping. Can someone just repaste the interesting part of the interview?

 

[gofreak]

Then if you have a friend with whom you can't meet personally but want to add to your buddy-list, there's of course a way to do that online.

Phew. I know there was talk about this "have to know the person in real life" stuff before, and maybe it was clarified before, but this is the first time I heard that you can still just do it online which is a bit of a relief.

The single identity/multiple nicks sounds interesting.

 

[Memles]

Mario Kart, you get there, set up a tournament and find somebody to play with, but you never really see a user selection on the screen.

Man, I really wish he could have kind of explained this out a bit more. Does he mean some sort of Tournament, or just a series of races like Best of 3/5/7? Either way, at least it appears by that terminology that it isn't just random races.

 

[skip]

nice interview, thanks.

 

[sangreal]

What is with the bold? I find it rather distracting. I can make up my own mind as to what I think the important bits are..

 

[Jeff-DSA]

More 4th rate site pimping. Can someone just repaste the interesting part of the interview?

Enough with the witch hunts. If you guys keep acting like pricks to honest people who are just working hard to build a credible and prominent site, nobody is going to be posting anything anymore.

Thanks for the post, that interview was one of the most informative reads I have seen in quite some time.

 

[GaimeGuy]

and he confirmed that the accounts will be linked to mynintendo and nintendo-europe.com .

 

[Teddman]

Awesome, you have a buddy list in Mario Kart DS and can choose to play invite-only games. That's all I needed to know!

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

The Elephant man?

Read my mind :lol

 

[jman2050]

Hmm... a transparent service... that should be interesting, though a bit unsettling to me. Sure sounds simple enough, especially if it does end up being as easy as remembering a telephone number. Nevertheless, no screen names? I'll wait and see how that works out.

 

[Teddman]

Nevertheless, no screen names? I'll wait and see how that works out.

If it's just a unique number that everyone is assigned when they first log on, that should work fine.

 

[Krowley]

very good interview. i think this is the most detailed info i have heard about nintendo's online service... it actually sounds really good. A service like the one described could be a great asset to the revolution.

 

[gofreak]

Hmm... a transparent service... that should be interesting, though a bit unsettling to me. Sure sounds simple enough, especially if it does end up being as easy as remembering a telephone number. Nevertheless, no screen names? I'll wait and see how that works out.

Not sure if you're asking the same thing, but you'll have "natural" names in-game, the number/pass is simply for uniquely identifying yourself on the network and for buddylists etc. You can call yourself whatever you want in each different game.

It'd be interesting to see if Rev and DS share a common online network. It'd be cool to sync buddylists between DS and Rev, messaging between both, common online components in games etc.

 

[jman2050]

Heh, -1 reading comprehension for me XD . I completely glossed over the part where you could identify yourself differently for each game. So in essence, you still do have a 'screen name', it's just game-specific. I like that idea.

What wasn't clear to me was the match-making service. Simple question: Would it be like Halo 2's?

 

[Mama Smurf]

Great stuff. I really didn't mind what we got as it's free, but they seem to be going all out.

 

[Orgen]

PN: Talking about match-making, how does it really work? We're quite interested in that, especially since Mario Kart DS will use this feature!

JM: We don't know exactly, we haven't finished the game yet. The essence is, first of all, that you can choose to play only with your friends, and friends we define as people you know in the real world. So there's a couple of different ways you can build up your buddy-list. One of the first ways is to personally interact it : I have my DS, you have yours, and we sort of exchange our contact information and add each other to our buddy list through the LAN. So when I go online, I know who you are and how to reach you. Nothing to worry about like screen name or things like that. Then if you have a friend with whom you can't meet personally but want to add to your buddy-list, there's of course a way to do that online.

So you can restrict your play only to people you know, or you can go and say I wanna play against people in Europe and I don't care about the skill-level, or I want to play against people around the world who have similar skills to mine. Anyway you wanna go. We know from our research consumers are concerned about the fact that if you're not the first player on the game, you get online and there's already someone being an expert. It's not so much fun to lose again, and again, and again... It's up to you to choose how you want to compete online, that's it.

Bufffff, this sounds fantastic!!!

PN: What is happening with Animal Crossing, now with a 2006 release date?

JM: In Europe, it has always been 2006, so there's no change for us. What's important to me in Europe is the delay between the launch in Japan, in the US and in Europe. The strength of this franchise is not that strong in Europe because of it was soooo late. People lost interest and Nintendo lost credibility taking so long to bring that game. We won't make that mistake again. It's a huge amount of text to localize, but we already have teams working on localization.

Yes, this was a tremendous mistake (/me looks at Doshin the Giant... u_u)

PN: To summarize, which games will use the WiFi Connection Service?

JM: Mario Kart, then Tony Hawk might be second, followed by Animal Crossing as third, and there's a number of projects that we haven't announced yet.

So Metroid: Hunters "no Wifi" is confirmed ¿new wifi projects? ¿Smash Bros DS and Pikmin DS maybe?

Great interview, thanks.

 

[gofreak]

What wasn't clear to me was the match-making service. Simple question: Would it be like Halo 2's?

The skills-matching sounds very like Halo2 at least, hopefully it works well. In hindsight it seems obvious Nintendo would have something like that, since it'd be a key concern for maintaining new players' interest.

 

[Memles]

I wonder how exactly the Skills-Matching will work...will there be detailed stat-tracking to determine the skill of a player (Hell, you could do it from Time Trial times if you had to) or will it be the player's choice of "Beginner, Intermediate, Expert"?

 

[Mashing]

For anyone who is confused it sounds like the Buddy-list system works nearly exactly like ICQ (not sure if it still works this way as I don't use it anymore) where you gave your ICQ # to someone and then then send you a response asking to add you to their buddy list. You can then either accept or deny the request. You were identified by a unique # but your profile name would show up on their buddy list instead of your ICQ #. This sounds exactly like that.

 

[TTP]

Sound like a very good mix between MS and Sony's solutions. Hope this becomes a standard. I like to have different nicknames in different games and still be trackable by my unique #.

 

[ejdonk]

Very nice iview, thx! Should also have asked him why there is no online battle mode in Mario Kart DS though. ^^

 

[strikeselect]

Does anyone know how communication will be handled on Nintendo's WiFi Connection service?


good interview btw

 

[sangreal]

For anyone who is confused it sounds like the Buddy-list system works nearly exactly like ICQ (not sure if it still works this way as I don't use it anymore) where you gave your ICQ # to someone and then then send you a response asking to add you to their buddy list. You can then either accept or deny the request. You were identified by a unique # but your profile name would show up on their buddy list instead of your ICQ #. This sounds exactly like that.

That was my impression as well

 

[John Harker]

Fantastic interview!

Thats the most straight-up, honest, informative interview I've read from Nintendo in an age!

Thanks

 

[Tiktaalik]

Great interview. Sounds like Nintendo's Wifi service will have quite a few great features. I was sort of concerned it was going to be completely barebones, but I think we're in for a pleasant surprise.

 

[BuzzJive]

Excellent. It even mentioned stat tracking through nintendo.com. That's pretty cool.

All I really wanted was a bare bones buddy list that would work across multiple games. Sounds like Nintendo is delivering something more.

 

[Drakken]

Great interview; sounds like Nintendo has thought this out well. Thanks, OP!

 

[Oblivion]

Awesome interview, Toad. Don't pay any attention to the trolls, they'll turn to stone when the sun rises anyway.

 

[Firest0rm]

Nice interview, GJ.

 

[WindyMan]

The only negative that I can see from this interview is that there is currently no way to add a person to your buddy/friends list unless you physically encounter them offline. I can totally understand why Nintendo wants to do it this way, but they should also have some way of doing it through online ways, like through nintendo.com.

Still, if Nintendo nails this right, Microsoft is going to look silly charging $15 a month for Xbox Live Gold when Nintendo will have similar and comprable services for free, presuming they use the same service for the Revolution.

 

[Flakster99]

Indeed, quite the interview. Many thanks for the link.

 

[Wario64]

nm

Nintendo Wi-Fi actually sounds pretty cool, hopefully they can launch without any problems

 

[gofreak]

The only negative that I can see from this interview is that there is currently no way to add a person to your buddy/friends list unless you physically encounter them offline.

He specifically says you can do this:

"Then if you have a friend with whom you can't meet personally but want to add to your buddy-list, there's of course a way to do that online."

 

[tenchir]

The only negative that I can see from this interview is that there is currently no way to add a person to your buddy/friends list unless you physically encounter them offline. I can totally understand why Nintendo wants to do it this way, but they should also have some way of doing it through online ways, like through nintendo.com.

JM: We don't know exactly, we haven't finished the game yet. The essence is, first of all, that you can choose to play only with your friends, and friends we define as people you know in the real world. So there's a couple of different ways you can build up your buddy-list. One of the first ways is to personally interact it : I have my DS, you have yours, and we sort of exchange our contact information and add each other to our buddy list through the LAN. So when I go online, I know who you are and how to reach you. Nothing to worry about like screen name or things like that. Then if you have a friend with whom you can't meet personally but want to add to your buddy-list, there's of course a way to do that online.

edit: Beaten!!

 

[jman2050]

The only negative that I can see from this interview is that there is currently no way to add a person to your buddy/friends list unless you physically encounter them offline. I can totally understand why Nintendo wants to do it this way, but they should also have some way of doing it through online ways, like through nintendo.com.

Still, if Nintendo nails this right, Microsoft is going to look silly charging $15 a month for Xbox Live Gold when Nintendo will have similar and comprable services for free, presuming they use the same service for the Revolution.

The impression I got was that, for example, I could get my password, PM it to you, then you put it in your DS's buddy list. Thus, I become an online buddy. I certainly didn't gather anything different from the interview anyway...

What I didn't see was a way to have someone be put on your buddy list when you play with them via matchmaking. Oh well, we should know more as time passes.

 

[Ranger X]

Free online gaming, even match making, etc etc. Way to go Nintendo, that's the way to do it.

Nintendonline +1

 

[Krowley]

for me, i prefer to play online with random people. skill matching is the best sounding part of it for me.. especially the fact that you can specify how you are matched.. sometimes i would want to play against people that are better than me so i could learn. this sounds like it has a good ammount of flexibility. i don't have a DS, but i'm thinking about buying one eventually. My favorite mario kart was the SNES version, and the ds version probably plays pretty similair, considering that the button/control layout is identical. This sounds like a service that is on par with what microsoft offers (maybe without as many bells and whistles, we'll see). on the basic fundamental aspects, it seems similair, and even better in some ways... but in this case, when it comes to the rev, you also have the nintendo back library as a draw and the service itself is free.

obviously, it will have to be seen and tested in action before anybody makes a judgement, but the fact that they are partnering with gamespy is encouraging...

 

[empanada]

Wow, this is alot better than what I was expecting! Great interview.

 

[Leatherface]

DS+REVOLUTION Get.

 

[Frankfurter]

I only read the quoted parts in this thread so far, but it sounds really FANTASTIC. I'll read the rest of the interview later

 

[Polari]

The Elephant man?

The picture confirms it. :lol

(Actually, the Elephant Man's name was John Merrick, not Jim)

 

[mj1108]

Great interview. Very informative. See, they really have been thinking this through the entire time.

 

[Memles]

While this is a great little interview, I really wish that someone would clarify the status of the Nintendo Wireless USB Adapter. It would certainly make the Online service much more accessible for me, as my dorm rooms don't allow routers and thus I would be forced to other parts of campus to partake in online DS gaming.

 

[Mayor McCheese]

Nintendo has given us the tools for the first handheld MMO. Now who's going to give it go? What type of MMO would work on the DS? Ultima Online level graphics maybe?

Maybe the first Mario based MMO? Maybe some fucking Nintendogs dog park?

 

[argon]

Probably the most honest and informative Nintendo interview I've ever read. I hope he does some more interviews before Nintendo finds out about this and muzzles him.

 

[WordAssassin]

Of course Nintendo's online service will kick ass, they've been working on it for almost twenty years.