Iwata: No Free-To-Play Or Freemium Games On Nintendo Wii U [Speaking About The Nintendo Wii U, Iwata Says They Won't Give Into Free & Cheap Games, Trying To Protect Value Of Software]

Published on TFTS by Kevin Schram, 16 June, 2011 at 6:05 am

Do you like to play “freemium” free-to-play games on the computer like Champions Online, Battlefield Play4Free and other games? Well, don’t expect such games on the Nintendo Wii U. In an interview with AllThingsD, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that they won’t be offering free to play games on the Wii U, because he sees them as destroying “the value of game software.”

Speaking to AllThingsD’s Trica Duryee, Iwata said:

I’m not interested in offering software for free of charge. That’s because I myself am one of the game developers, who in the future wants to make efforts so the value of the software will be appreciated by the consumers. [...] My point is about how we can keep the public’s perception of the software.
If we are going to destroy the value of the game software — once we have done so, it’s a difficult job to recover from that situation.
Yes, it is true. There are great examples of advertising and doing the microtranscactions [sic], and several companies who have come up with that kind of system. But on the other hand, if you ask me, is this the system that can be sustatined [sic] for the long time? I don’t know the answer. And, my point is that I’m not willing to go that direction, as well.

Iwata is, of course, talking about the increasing opposition that Nintendo is facing from mobile phone games, specifically the iPhone and iPod Touch, which has replaced the Nintendo DS at the top of many kids’ wish lists for holidays and birthdays.
While Apple and their fans enjoy tons of free and $1 games, Nintendo seems committed to offering full games with a more fulfilling experience. This seems to be the way they’re going to approach on the Nintendo 3DS as well as the Nintendo Wii U.
This raises the question about Ghost Recon Online, which is free to play on the computer. It was shown and announced for the Wii U, but does that mean that Nintendo and Ubisoft will be making Wii U gamers pay for a game that’s free on the PC? Doesn’t sound like a good way to launch a more “hardcore” friendly system to me.

Read: Iwata: No Free-To-Play Or Freemium Games On Nintendo Wii U [Speaking About The Nintendo Wii U, Iwata Says They Won't Give Into Free & Cheap Games, Trying To Protect Value Of Software] | TFTS