Hey, the DS CAN do better-than-N64 graphics!

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo is just totally insane. Their position on internet gaming makes absolutely no sense. I know the arguement is 'it won't make money', and they pull out numbers that say things like how most people that want to play games online would rather do it on their PC, and how most people have never paid to play online games (and, I bet, if they wanted to, something showing how relatively few people have WiFi)... and while those stats are accurate they are misleading because it's only relatively recently that online games on consoles became anything more than a niche market, while they have a long history on the PC. As for paying, on PC it's admittedly niche, and for any console game with a pay-to-play for just one game it's similar, but X-Box Live? Pay once, and only $50 for a year, is just about as good a way to do pay to play as I can imagine... is it a barrier? Yes. But it's a lower one than any other online network, and it's one that Nintendo really needs to see has worked well.

Or, of course, they could do it like Sony (or Sega on the Dreamcast) and just makes some of their own free online games... I think that that alone would hugely improve things. I mean, there is no logical reason that Madden is online on PS2 and not Gamecube when I am certain that they could make the network compatible with both versions. Or Splinter Cell, or whatever. The reason is the companies see no reason to spend money on the things they'd need to to expand the network the gamecube when they see no benefit as far as sales go, and no interest from Nintendo. All Nintendo would have to do is act a bit more like Sony and publish some online game, and bingo, I'd bet that we'd start seeing online games on the Cube. That won't happen, of course, but it's just a (depressing) thought.

As far as the DS goes I really meant it when I said that if they weren't going to put in wired online they are just as good to not have bothered.