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Internet Wii Going Online With GameSpy
Marcus Yam (Blog) - March 13, 2007 1:16 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 25 comment(s) - last by Milliamp.. on Mar 31 at 1:11 AM
Nintendo reveals its plans to take Wii online

To this day, Nintendo remains quite cautious about jumping into online-enabled games. Seemingly unfazed by Microsoft’s (and to a lesser degree, Sony’s) move to take multiplayer gaming to the Internet, Nintendo was criticized by some as not embracing ‘the wave of the future.’ The built-in Internet capabilities of the Wii thus far primarily served to bring simple weather updates and old virtual console games. But today, Nintendo is taking a step into the online arena with news of its online matchmaking technology.

As part of an ongoing partnership with Nintendo, GameSpy is developing middleware technology to enable Wii titles to offer community features, such as friend rosters, advanced matchmaking capabilities and comprehensive rankings data. Prior to this development agreement for Wii, GameSpy and Nintendo collaborated on online gaming with the Nintendo DS.

“This partnership will expand our wireless community of players on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Millions of Nintendo DS users have already logged on using GameSpy’s technology, and now Wii owners will be able to do the same in a fun and easy-to-use environment.”

“Nintendo has been an invaluable partner and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them in the future,” said Jamie Berger, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products and Technology for IGN Entertainment. “Our goal is to extend our ground-breaking work on the Nintendo DS to provide Wii users with the social, community and multiplayer tools that we believe will expand the online gaming experience to the mass market.”

Pokémon Battle Revolution, launching on June 25,  will be the first Wii game to utilize the technology.

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By UNCjigga on 3/13/2007 2:00:44 PM , Rating: 2
Seriously, is GameSpy even relevant on PCs today? I have no idea, since I'm not much of a gamer anymore. Still, I figured most PC gamers either use their game's built-in matchmaker service or Steam.

What GameSpy should've done is developed a Windows/Mac compatible client for Nintendo's Virtual Console, taking a share of the revenue in return for building the client and hosting multiplayer virtual console games.

I imagine that emulating Nintendo's older hardware on a modern PC is a cakewalk (especially with development support from Big N) and Nintendo could tap into a whole new market for their classic games. Sure, we've had the emulation scene for over a decade but emulators for N64 and GameCube are buggy and don't do multiplayer well.

Anyways, I expect Nintendo will eventually expand their Virtual Console to PCs and/or mobile phones at some point if their hardware sales ever slow down--with or without GameSpy's help.




By Milliamp on 3/13/2007 2:18:01 PM , Rating: 1
I think mobile phones would be a good expansion for porting the older NES games.


By Rollomite on 3/13/2007 2:27:44 PM , Rating: 3
I think mobile phones are horrible for gaming. Why would you want to play Metroid or Super Mario on a 2" screen? I can only imagine the headaches and vision impairment that would cause. Mobiles are far better suited for your basic puzzle game, or poker game. Beyond that, a waste of their time and our money.

Rollo


By Milliamp on 3/31/2007 1:11:10 AM , Rating: 2
The iPhone and clones have a ~3.5" screens. The PSP runs PS1 quality games and graphics on a 4.3" screen.

I think some of the cells with larger screen could run NES quality games without too much eye strain.


By Lakku on 3/13/2007 2:31:18 PM , Rating: 2
Not sure what N64 emulator you are using, but there are ones out there that work just fine. Maybe not for multiplayer, but eh, what do you expect.


By FITCamaro on 3/13/2007 3:07:36 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. I've even flawlessly played N64 games on my Xbox. There are bad emulators out there but there are a few good ones.


By OrSin on 3/13/2007 3:00:49 PM , Rating: 2
Alot of games use Gamespy as thier in game matching sevice. Unless you plan on sell 1 million+ copies (and most games dont) you can't afford to run your own servers.

With that said i hate gamespy too. ALthough thier comrade service is not bad. I can see who is online and playing in any game I got a buddy list for with having to load up the game.


Let's hope
By regnez on 3/13/2007 1:54:28 PM , Rating: 3
I really hope that the Wii does not take the same path as the DS with "friend codes" and random selection when not using friend codes. Here's to hoping for lobby's and something more simple than 12-digit friend codes that differ for every game.




RE: Let's hope
By Spivonious on 3/13/2007 2:58:12 PM , Rating: 2
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the DS has one "friend code" for the system. The Wii is the same way. It would be nice to have usernames though, and I imagine the whole Gamespy client will implement that, perhaps attaching usernames to the system code.


RE: Let's hope
By ViRGE on 3/13/2007 6:33:41 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Correct me if I'm wrong

Alright, I'll correct you. The Wii will have a central backend that allows the service to get away with 1 code per system, the DS backend is completely ad-hoc, so each game on each DS has its own code.


Gamespy? Really...
By WhiteBoyFunk on 3/13/2007 2:31:27 PM , Rating: 2
I've never been much of a gamespy fan as it was slow, took up resources and just didn't seem to have the greatest user interface. I guess it's good though that they are using a name that most gamers know.




RE: Gamespy? Really...
By jmke on 3/13/2007 2:53:12 PM , Rating: 2
I really liked the original QuakeSpy, so you did not have to type the "connect IP:port" command in the Quake console;)


RE: Gamespy? Really...
By jkostans on 3/13/2007 5:16:29 PM , Rating: 2
QuakeSpy was badass. GameSpy was pretty good, online server lists and all plus support for all the quake 2 mod filters etc. GameSpy arcade ruined everything, turned into a money making scheme.


crap!
By Moishe on 3/13/2007 4:04:38 PM , Rating: 2
Gamespy sucks... but hopefully the Wii will use the service without the bloat. Congratz to Nintendo for not trying to run a race against MS and Sony. If they just build up their arsenal at their own speed, they will probably be more successful.

For pc games I generally use the in game matching, but when I don't, I try to use xfire. Xfire is a pretty good program for what it does.




RE: crap!
By ViRGE on 3/13/2007 6:36:13 PM , Rating: 4
The only problem with the GameSpy service is the stand-alone client they churn out. The actual GS SDK and backend are actually quite well done, I'm sure you used several games and never known that you're actually using the GS service. I don't foresee Nintendo's alliance with GS being a problem here.


ugh...
By yacoub on 3/13/2007 2:51:59 PM , Rating: 3
PC gamers almost universally hate GameSpy and groan everytime a game is released that uses GameSpy as its unique in-game server browser / matching service.

Just hope GameSpy's bloated, cumbersome, unergonomic interface doesn't make its way to the Wii and you'll be fine.




RE: ugh...
By grimdeath on 3/13/2007 3:03:10 PM , Rating: 2
Id be highly surprised if nintendo didn't do their own unique UI setup to take advantage of the wiimote. I could see it being on par with some of the other channel setups they have now.


Yucky....
By Fubar0606 on 3/13/2007 4:03:07 PM , Rating: 2
Gamespy is awful... I dont like it one bit and back in the day all I found from it was lots of spyware and viruses... why dont they go with something like Xfire. or better yet creat there own like PS Online and Xbox Live, they control the product line and the money and stuff...




RE: Yucky....
By danskmacabre on 3/14/2007 2:24:30 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed, using gamespy is a mistake, unless it's completely transparent from teeh Wii console.


Its worth Noting...
By Xavian on 3/14/2007 3:01:39 AM , Rating: 2
Its worth noting that the Nintendo DS games used gamespy for its online backend too. Now when i played games online on the DS i didn't even know that gamespy was running the backend, but the service was smooth (when you could get on, but that was a router issue).

I expect it will be the same with the Wii, they certainly wont use any gamespy clients for their console, but rather create their own client and merely use gamespy's considerable backend , SDK and server datacentres.




RE: Its worth Noting...
By danskmacabre on 3/14/2007 3:57:35 AM , Rating: 2
OK that's interesting, I play games online with my DS.
Nice to know how it works.


Sony's response
By FITCamaro on 3/13/2007 3:05:32 PM , Rating: 2
"It, like Xbox Live, has text menus and therefore sucks."

I do agree though. Never been much of a fan of Gamespy. The only time I ever used it was with Battlefield 1942 and Desert Combat. With Battlefield 2, I was never able to successfully join a game using Gamespy. I just used the multiplayer server select interface in the game itself.

I don't think I ever noticed it slowing down my system though.




nuh uh...no way
By TinKerGiGGz on 3/13/2007 3:22:48 PM , Rating: 2
no way...no way....no way, am I EVER going to go through gamespy arcade, it's a terrible program, and it keeps getting worse, now they have something called Comrade....I wonder who the numbnut is that decided such a thing :/ really disappointing news :/




**yawn** did someone say Fragmented Online support?
By xuimod on 3/13/07, Rating: -1
By jon1003 on 3/13/2007 7:49:30 PM , Rating: 2
I feel like Nintendo didn't really want to deal with it, so it just sold us out to GameSpy. They're underestimating the power and desireability of a great online playing experience.


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