Earlier today, Sarah posted an article about Nintendo's "Wii Pay to Play" feature.

It was announced today that Nintendo will be extending its wi-fi services with an expansion called “Wii Pay and Play”. What does this mean? According to Nintendo’s Takashi Aoyama, Nintendo will be “collecting fees for some services,” which in turn will allow the company to “adapt flexibly.”

 

Gamervision sources have found out more information on the “Wii Pay and Play” feature that was hinted at today at Nintendo’s GDC press conference. While we can not confirm this fact 100%, we can validate that the source is indeed close to Nintendo (not some friend’s cousin’s gardener).

 Apparently the main focus is charging for downloadable content, with Professor Layton and the Curious Village being the example given. As of now, there are free, weekly downloads available for the title, expanding its playability by a good amount. According to the source, this is a temporary feature that is, and I quote, “free for the first six months.”

This would go with the idea of downloading content for the Nintendo DS from the Wii, thus explaining why it is tied into the “Wii Pay and Play” concept. This makes much more sense then WiiConnect24 going the way of Xbox 360 unless they plan on doing a massive overhaul of their service. If they do decide to let us have names instead of codes and voice chat instead of hitting up to say “Good Job!” I would gladly pay a few dollars a month. As for giving Nintendo money to have me do their math homework? Not so much.

 

Related Articles:

Nintendo To Begin Charging For Online Content

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Footage

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - DS