Nintendo: Online VC play out, voice chat possible

NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime squashes speculation of significant upgrades to Virtual Console games; "would not be surprised" if chat functionality comes to Wii.

Pokémon Snap, released this week as part of Nintendo's weekly Virtual Console update, lets gamers share photos taken in-game with their online friends via the Wii's new photo-sharing functionality. The online photo-sharing capabilities caused a stir after they were initially revealed, with speculation running rampant as to whether Nintendo would be making a regular habit of adding online functionality to Virtual Console games with features such as leaderboards or the type of multiplayer modes found in select Xbox Live Arcade classics.

However, that speculation was squelched today during a phone conference held by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Although the official cause for the occasion was to address the Wii supply shortages heading into the holiday season, Fils-Aime also offered up a few nuggets of information in relation to Nintendo's future online plans for its hot-commodity console.

"In terms of Virtual Console, our approach has been predominately to leave those legacy games alone and to not do any significant upgrading or changing of that core game as we make it available," he said. "One of the small exceptions to that, we did make some small changes with Pokémon Snap, for example. We do not anticipate making online gameplay available for virtual console games."

However, it wasn't all ill tidings coming from the House of Mario. Fils-Aime also dropped hints that online voice chat may be in the cards for the Wii, once an appropriate peripheral to accommodate the functionality is settled on.

"In terms of online voice chat, as you know, we are constantly making updates and changes available," said the exec. "Certainly our system has the capability for online voice chat; what it comes down to is finalizing the peripheral that would allow you to speak during gameplay, and the fact that we make this available on the DS certainly suggests that it is something we value and something that we are constantly looking at, and I would not be surprised to see that capability come on our system."

238 Comments

  • jlee14

    Posted Jan 20, 2008 5:32 pm PT

    It sounds good but 1 question... WHEN IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN?!?

  • mishary85

    Posted Dec 20, 2007 6:40 am PT

    i just hope wii make massively multiplayer games [ online role player ]

  • Chief_Kuuni

    Posted Dec 18, 2007 2:10 am PT

    sweet

  • Sexy_Yofu

    Posted Dec 18, 2007 12:21 am PT

    You all realise it's just going to be "friends only" communication again, right?

  • S_Pac_316

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 8:54 pm PT

    Sounds great except for all the immature losers that can't get enough of swear words and bigotry or whatever form of harassment...
    I would hope they would make it so the headset would be wireless and would not require to be plugged into the Wii-mote.

  • p00phead

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 8:26 pm PT

    Soon there will be trash talking wii owners

  • bestgamer92

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 5:13 pm PT

    Voice chat is a must for Brawl.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 4:43 pm PT

    sooo.... we're going to need another thing to plug into the wiimote?

  • lilj0e777

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 3:48 pm PT

    That would be AMAZING if there was voice chat for the wii...improved sales, etc. I mean, if nintendo makes an online game with voice chat, such as Halo, that would be really cool

  • BulletBrigade

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 1:03 pm PT

    Cmon Reggie! They would be sooo much better if you did make them Wifi!!!

  • acerazer

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 12:45 pm PT

    I don't know about profanity, I'm sure Nintendo would find a way to block out all the "bad words" like in Animal Crossing. I'm still mad I can't make the chicken say what's up f***er

  • townsenda1

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 11:53 am PT

    Bring on the voice chat, every other system has it. As far as online VC gaming is concerned it would only help sales. Any additions a company can make to give gamers another experience or enhance the gaming experience is a plus.

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 10:36 am PT

    it bet it will be a little attachment that will be between the wiimote and the nunchuk, they don't like to make things with batteries, look at the classic controller

  • Zam_basic

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 10:25 am PT

    wow profanity on all systems now

  • Humikimi

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 10:12 am PT

    I just hope the voice chat comes out in time for Brawl and the game enables it. The Snap feature is pretty neat, but besides leaderboards, I personally would prefer to have untouched versions of the original games. If I want upgrades I'll to to the XBLA or PSS or remakes on other systems. I am very happy with being able to get the original copies of these old games I used to play.

    I know this is asking a bit much, but it would be cool to have some kind of achievement system on the Wii, 360 has it, PC is starting to have it, PS3 will have it, and really it gives players something to shoot for, rather than just trying to beat a game. I don't care about points, it just makes for more goals to shoot for in a game and gives it more lasting value. At least that's my opinion, and either way, Nintendo generally delivers to its customers so I'll just patiently wait and see what they have in store for us.

  • Rect_Pola

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 9:40 am PT

    tyzwain, well said.

    And that's just the added bonus to actual gameplay with such people. But I'm one of those freaks who has never been enthused with online gaming.

  • Mariofan1314

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 9:18 am PT

    Lol. The guy below me is funny

  • tyzwain

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 9:12 am PT

    With xbox we'll have 10 year old american kids screaming at us, and now with the Wii we'll have old grannies telling us about their day.

  • monty_4256

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 9:09 am PT

    noamatt128, by your logic we'd then get online VC and no online chat... or there would be online chat with no vc console online
    both are ok with me...

  • noamatt128

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 8:24 am PT

    They usually do the opposite of what they say : )

  • MasterChief725

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 8:08 am PT

    virtual console is getting betterrrrrr

  • Gigglefitz

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 7:43 am PT

    My PS2 online chat trials were largly filled with 14 year old sounding kids, screaming things completly unrelated to the game. Judging by their reputation, there is going to be more of the same on the Wii. Yawn. I'd rather invite friends over, have a couple beers, and play / trash talk / co-ordinate in the same room. Much more fun, MUCH less suck!

  • chad_m

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 6:01 am PT

    voice chat, well its about time

  • Brainy142

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 5:58 am PT

    nintendo stop delaying and give us z voice come on is it THAT HARD to make a bluetooth/(or if nintendo wants to be cheap) a passthrough device that goes between the wiimote/nunchuck

  • ahyumifan

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 3:23 am PT

    Learn Japanese and voice chat while you play Brawl

  • Lunar52

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 2:38 am PT

    voice chat? THANK GOD wii online is starting to get better and better......w00t

  • 02sfraser

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 1:58 am PT

    It would be good to see voice chat come to Wii. The Wii was never really a hardcore online gaming console but its good to see it now changing

  • Darkness-zora

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 1:55 am PT

    it sounds like it will be easy to update the wii for voice chat, its just getting the head set on the market.
    i would think they would bring it out before mario kart , voice chat on mkwii would be killer

  • MetroidBounty

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 10:21 pm PT

    Voice chat would be good before super smash bros, and why not add online to the VC games....everyone else is doing it!

  • WiiMan21

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 9:46 pm PT

    Alright Voice Chat! =D Finnaly.

  • burnttoastman06

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 9:43 pm PT

    Upgrading old games wouldn't be that bad. They've already done it to a few of the Virtual Console games and it's not that big a deal. As long as they don't change the plot (which I think is illegal anyway), enhancing the graphics, adding in online capabilities or adding a few features is a good idea that Nintendo should look into.

  • Oni-roku

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 9:37 pm PT

    EvilResident:

    That doesn't make sense to say that Nintendo would charge you for online features. They don't charge for wifi, unlike Microsoft.

  • Alphamale001

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 9:19 pm PT

    Mario Kart 64 online would have been great. Perfect Dark online would be too. I love playing The TMNT Arcade game online with friends on XBL. I don't think it ruined anything. Oh well, Nintendo dances to it's own beat.

  • saberwolf102002

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 8:54 pm PT

    C'mon Nintendo!!!!!u HAVE to make the VC games online enabled!!! or else how would the Wii be in the future!?! ugh....i hope hat Nintendo will see the light soon especially for the voice chat! that would be freakin AWESOME if Brawl and Mario Kart were voice chat enabled =D THEN the Wii would reign number 1 IMO =D can u say "campaign"? =P j/k

  • p0rkp1e74

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 8:34 pm PT

    it would be nice if nintendo did care enough about the past games to enhance them with online functionality and some other online features since they are finally getting it thru their heads that this is the future of gaming

  • JiminycricketX

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 8:04 pm PT

    Good, now release a downloadable patch for MOH: Heroes 2 that adds voice chat.

  • sew182

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 7:17 pm PT

    GodzillaX8:

    EXACTLY! That's what I was trying to get at it in my post, the game doesn't have to be changed. That's why Nintendo's response was a big piece-of-crap-cop-out. "We don't want to change these classic games" = "we are too lazy to make VC games online even though it wouldn't be that hard and our LOYAL Nintendo fans would love it."

  • Sants412

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 7:09 pm PT

    C'mon Reggie, make it happen soon.

  • rounder617

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 5:51 pm PT

    hyrule-master they cant have bluetooth headsets becasue the wii is blue tooth enabled

  • bibbo

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 5:07 pm PT

    Wow. Cool. How very 2001 of you Nintendo. For a company that can at times be so innovative, they seem to totally not have a clue when it comes to the standard options that gamers expect.

  • spike6958

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 3:19 pm PT

    Now if only Nintendo can come up with some good online games that will use the headset, sure SSBB would be good and so would MKwii, but i want to see Nintendo make something new, maybe a whole new franchise or as allready suggested a Pokemon MMO

  • Hyrule-master

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 3:19 pm PT

    PLEASE BE WIRELESS HEADSETS, BLUETOOTH PREFERABLY......

  • EvilResident

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 1:45 pm PT

    I hope no one was actually expecting VC games to have online. Freakin' Wii games barely have online. Besides, even if they did, Nintendo would probably force players to pay for another online enabled version/.

  • ReeceBrown

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 12:55 pm PT

    if you think about it with Wii Ware coming out next year, rather than getting a VC game with online, developers could just put an old game with online on Wii Ware, then do whatever else they wanted such as graphics. So i am quite excited but if Wii Ware has no online i dont really care

  • Shishio817

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 12:24 pm PT

    BigDaddy973, a Pokemon MMORPG would be the greatest thing EVER.

    Anyway, voice chat would be so frickin' awesome in Brawl and Mario Kart. Also, I don'[t unterstand how adding an online play component to an older game would be changing. I have a friend who lives quite a bit aways from me who loves Nintendo. It'd be awesome if I could actually play with him, instead of just his Wii, if you know what I mean (I mean like talking and all this stuff). Pokemon Sanp, woohoo! I never beat it all those years ago, and I love that game, I might actually get it.

  • ArchAngel2284

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 11:51 am PT

    god i hate voice chat. i certainly wont use it with my wii if it happens.

  • killjoi

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 11:39 am PT

    It's totally their loss. I'd sold my Wii in disinterest, but I'd be inclined to buy one again if I could play classic 2-player games online with old friends.

  • GodzillaX8

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 10:55 am PT

    So, um, why can't Wii do online play WITHOUT changing the games? Emulators have done that for at least 10 years now. You make the users connect online with a netplay mode, then load the game. It assigns one person as player one and the other as player two. Game not changed.

  • TissueShoe

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 10:41 am PT

    All I ask is that it's available by the time Smash Bros. comes around! That'd be cool!

advertisement

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!

Recent News

See All News »

Site Blogs