Can you even name five 3rd party games that will be released before early 2007 that would even be worthwhile in online play?

Even though it was capable of online play out of the box, the DS had to wait a lot longer than just a few months before it got any online games. Who is even buying a Wii for anything online aside from Smash Bros, anyway? (Don't worry, Excite Truck is by Nintendo anyway, so if it's meant to have online play, it will. ;))

Well I named 3 in my original post, and the article linked to a Tony Hawk Downhill Jam article, so...

How many handhelds are known for their online play? It isn't like online is just some minor feature that's just NOW being added to consoles. And the best online games I played were third party games...I honestly wouldn't give a crap about online Nintendo games on the Wii if games such as Call of Duty 3, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 4, or even Monster Hunter (god I sunk a lot of hours into that game) were online for the system.

Honestly, I'm still hoping this is just some kind of misunderstanding between IGN and the developers they talked to. It's just inconcievable that a new console wouldn't have any online third party games at launch when that console is coming out a year after the Xbox 360. I mean really...the PS2 Call of Duty games had online play, but Call of Duty 3 on the Wii won't? Whyyyyyyyyyyy?

I bet money they want Brawl to be first in the online extravaganza, thusly it won't get hogged by any third parties in the spotlight.

That doesn't stop them from being bastards though.

As badly as I want a Wii, I think everything about their online plans is going to disappoint.

- WraithTwo -

NWFC is really awesome. It could do a little better at preventing things like people quitting out of an unwinnable match, but then again I've only played Mario Kart online. Since Wii is Nintendo's second crack at it, it should be vastly improved.

The only disappointing thing is this no-online-games-for-half-a-year bullshit. I don't even care about online games that much. It's just a retarded move that only hurts them.

Well, it sounds like Nintendo hasn't had time to work over the Wifi system and finalized it yet. So it looks like they're going to go ahead and release the console so everybody can have a taste first while they quickly finish up the Wi-Fi system. The Wii's strong point is not the online play (if that's what you were looking for, go X-Box 360, arguably the best online system, maybe behind PC). If you're going to buy a Wii and focus on online play, you'd be better off buying it when online play is setup and good to go. Besides, there'll be more games out by that time which actually are worth going online.

The price point doesn't matter anymore. Everyone already knows it'll be cheaper than it's competition and under $300, and that's all that matters to most people.

No online 'til next year from third parties sounds like bad news. I'm sure they have their reasons, such as making sure any problems that crop up during online gaming will be stamped out before the third party games are released, and such. But, I'd assume they'd have most of those problems handled before launch.

That's pretty weird, but it doesn't change much. Outside of Crystal Chronicles, which may not even be available at launch, I haven't seen that many (or any) interesting online games set to be released this year anyway.

*Steers in a different direction*

System 3 has really taken a liking to the Wii. Both Gottlieb Pinball Classics and Leaderboard Golf will be released in November (in PAL territories), more than likely just rushed PS2 ports. But now they've announced 2D remakes of California Games and Impossible Mission for the Wii (both also appearing on PSP and DS).

Best part is California Games will also include SUMMER GAMES AND WINTER GAMES. Best multiplayer game confirmed forever.
internets.

Also Play It!, a hilariously low budget publisher has Super Fruitfall listed as an upcoming Wii game. A PAL only release for PS2 a while ago, you basically rotate mazes to get stuff to fall on fruit. The sort of thing you'd expect to find on a dodgy spyware infested Flash game site. It was like $15 new. See guys, I always bring you the most exciting news ever!

PAL regions always get the best games ::cry::

Remember guys with the exception of 360, every console released made it's owners wait a while before a successful online component really kicked in. It's normal. Even though it's kind of a let down to know that Red Steel, Crystal Chronicals, and Super Monkey Ball won't have online capabilities, above all, I'm just glad that Super Smash won't be affected by this issue.

I'm not even an avid online gamer anyway, so even though it was a nice extra feature to have right away, it's not that big of an issue. I guess this mostly hurts fans of sports and racing games...

Actually, that may be why Smash Bros. was pushed back until 2007? Just guessing. I personally don't mind the lack of wifi as I find it much more fun playing with physical people next to me.

So is there any conclusive evidence whether this "no third parties getting wifi stuffs" thing affects the downloadable content part of the Wii? Cause that's the part I'm really interested in online-wise: small teams making fun games on the Wii could be pretty awesome.

Assuming it'll have something like that...

I'm buying the Wii with the hope of Crystal Chronicles being online.

I have no peticular "OMG ORGASM" online desires...but in general, it's nice to have it in general. They may still be working the VC and ensuring it's working properly. As much as I'd love to play you guys online with Battletoads, things can just wait. :p

You can't spell ignorance without IGN. Take all this negative news with a grain of salt before flipping out. If I remember correctly, they said that they would unveil the release date and price last week at LGC too.

IGN's all about writing "confirmed" reports.......and at the end, quoting someone from Nintendo in regards to it being speculation. I wish though that anything that's regarding "new news" about this console...comes from ONE site.

www.nintendo.com

I'm pretty sure that'll be delayed until everything online is ready. If it ever comes out, FFCC DS was supposed to exist by now but we don't even have any info. Square are the slowest developer of all time.

You forgot about Rare.

It's not really a problem that games don't have an online mode when they are released: Don't forget about WiiConnect24. It'll be easy to implement one long after the game came out.

That honour goes to 3D Realms. No explanation needed.

here's the first images of FFCC: Ring of Fates for the DS
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...crof-multi.jpg

and a short & a little longer trailer of the DS game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGZ17Ito4a0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7DyOCPXvZc&NR

here's the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles -- Crystal Bearers (Wii) trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkmDdyiSfZs&NR

What's this "half-a-year" crap? By the time the Wii launches there'll only be 2-3 months remaining in the year, and "early 2007" could be as soon as January for all you know. It's not so far off.

I personally think Xbox Live is a perfect example of what a console's online service should entail. Rankings, Optimatch, ease of use, social encouragement... much better than the "friend codes" system.

Uhh, yeah, and what about the development time for the games? Online modes won't magically appear the second Nintendo gives them the wifi libraries, they actually have to use them to DEVELOP an online mode first. I think we'd be lucky to see online third party games half a year after the Wii launches, it's probably going to end up being substantially longer than that.

Uh, they'd already be developing them and have them completed as soon as the start of next year? They DID say "early 2007", after all... I doubt very much that they meant anything past Q1.

Looks like Tecmo will be providing games on the Virtual Console. Yay for Tecmo Bowl!

Sure, that'll be a great idea. With the wealth of options available and the possibilities that may come up in the future, Xbox360 is gonna rock in the online sense. Nintendo, however, is so eager to tap into this "undiscovered waters" thing that it's sacrificing the complete package. For the people who hardly play games, who's gonna use the X360 online system? Nintendo's using friend codes to keep it simple and undaunting, and although it's a bite on the ass for us gamers it's so they can have everyone utilizing the online capabilities.

That said, they could allow more options for the population more comfortable with technology. Not to the extent of Microsoft but maybe they could "sophisticate" the system somehow.