January 27th, 2012

More details about Nintendo Network

55 Comments

Satoru Iwata revealed more details about Nintendo Network at a recent investor’s briefing in Japan, sharing that this new system (and yes, it is a new system, rather than a re-branding) will be implemented in the 3DS and the Wii U. The new services under this new system include downloadable content (which we were already aware was coming to the 3DS). There is also the possibility of full retail game download though. But Iwata did note that Nintendo has not decided when it will roll out this feature.

  • Mike S

    YES :D

    • http://mayker.tumblr.com Mayker

      Seconded.

    • Don’ttroll
  • Noah J.

    Cool! No going to the store to get some of my potential favorites :)

    • Mike S

      I think that kind of proves the Wii U might have a hard drive, I think it would be difficult to download a full game with a small amount of flash memory :)

    • AM

      @Mike S

      Sadly I do not think that will be the case (although nothing is official until Nintendo has said so), because when Iwata was speaking of the ability to download retail games he brought up SD cards and portable hard disks, which makes me think that you can connect your own hard disk but the system will not have an in built one. Maybe Nintendo will provide some sort of SD card or external hard disk.

      To be honest though I have never liked internal hard disks, they have tendency to fail and they are much slower (albeit more cheap) than solid state drives or NAND flash. Perhaps the idea of an external hard disk is not that bad after all (at least when it fails you do not have to open your console up or send it to the Nintendo, and it will not take up precious component space).

    • Noah J.

      Yeah but… Games! :D

    • Mike S

      If it does have flash memory, is it possible to have like more than 8GB of memory? cause I don’t want to be too dependant on external memory. I’m not very tech savvy in case you haven’t noticed.

    • Mike S

      *dependent

    • Letat

      why cant it save on the SD card? plenty of space there :O

    • AM

      @Mike S

      Yeah it can, but it all depends on what Nintendo thinks is sufficient, reliable, and most importantly less costly. I’ve seen internal NAND chips that are well over 64 GB but they cost more than $100.

    • Mike S

      Thanks, that’s very good to know :)

    • I am Error

      Does this new system also means better gaming network for online play?
      I’m curious cuz, recenlty I got MK7 (Awesome BTW)
      but I haven’t been able to complete a single online match in comunities (Complete the first lap and *poof* An error ocurred you’ve been disconnected) and, in online mode, My 3DS barely finds more than 3 other players.
      Other than that, the game runs flawless and the spot pass features work.

    • Zimmer Remmiz

      Actually you can hook external hard drives up to the system, so storage isn’t a problem at all for Wii U, only an issue for 3DS, but smaller titles might be feasible…

    • Don’ttroll

      I have a 8 gb sd card so I don’t worry about space

  • Vizardavalor

    For once I’m glad David was wrong. YAY!!!

    • Zack

      Of course. And he said he would gladly admit to being wrong. Which means he hopes he’s wrong, but realistically speaking, he doesn’t think it would happen.

      I think we’re all glad he was wrong! :D

    • mrgrimrjs

      I think he didnt want to say anything at the chance of being wrong and or as a jinx so he just disbelieved it so that he could feel secure, I think there was a chance he really believed in it

  • millsy

    I think it would be kinda good because you buy the game, upload it onto a memory card, then take the card to a friends place.

  • JD2995

    I would love to be able to download games online, because in my country the games are worth double the United States. Yay :D

  • Binh Vu

    Downloading games is all fine and good, but it’s sucks when they don’t let you play it on another system. Say you download a bunch of games and want to trade or sell them to someone else, you can’t do it. Unless they figure out a way to transfer your license to another person, it kind of sucks. The good thing is portability. I hate having to bring several cartridges with me everywhere I go. Physical cartridges make it easier to share the games though. They should have a system that allows you to put the user’s friend code, so you can transfer the license either temporarily or permanently, that way you can buy games from other people easily, though I guess that would make it harder for them to sell games, since people who are tired of them, will just transfer the license to someone else. Not to mention someone will eventually figure out how to hack it and get all the games they want. Always a risk with digital content.

  • adrian12369

    f*** yes :)-altough i do prefer physical copies over digital, the full retail games sounds sik!

  • Letat

    David the downloadable games is deff in the works- Iwata just said they havent decided when to roll it out, but its confirmed and comming. But he also said the game download feature was already within the 3DS, thats the interesting part. Seems Nintendos been thinking ahead :]

    • Ty

      Yeah, I think they’ve been planning it for a while. After the last major update, all the “retail” games on the eShop had an unavailable on the eShop label put under their titles- making it kind of seem like they may offer them for download in the future.

  • Harris42

    Good to see Nintendo heading in the right direction. All of a sudden have a feeling I need to be looking to external harddrives to see what will be most suitable. hmmm 2 TB = £90, not bad.

  • http://www.youtube.com/kfd056 kfd056

    David you were wrong. Just saying ;) You’re still awesome!

  • http://gravatar.com/jacknzack27 JacknZack

    if i copied everything in my 2GB sd card to my computer and then copied it to an 8GB sd card, would the new sd card have everything (downlodable games, pictures, save files, streetpass data ect…) on it and work exactly the same as sd card before it?

    • Harris42

      Yes, I have done it myself

  • Ty

    This could mean revamped online for the 3DS- I mean, it is a new service, and i hope they do. They really need to add accounts for the eShop so that your purchases are permanently tied to your account- not the system.

  • miiworld2

    Please make that full retail download available. PlayStation and XBOX are already doing it, so I don’t see why they should drop the idea :D

    Oh… and that will shut Pachter’s face off for dissing Nintendo.

  • George Tirebiter

    Given that Nintendo Network will be cross-system, I think Nintendo has a golden opportunity to use play coins in an achievements system.

    It works like this: If an achievement (I’m calling them 1-Ups) is accomplished, along with some token of recognition, the player is rewarded play coins. This can be used to unlock content in that game, other games, or to use in system apps. Obviously the Wii U wouldn’t offer the option of walking for coins, but otherwise the two would work the same way.

    This would address those who consider achievements nothing but pointless padding by making it something they can use. Of course some would then say developers were “holding the game hostage” with these restrictions, but that would be a story for another day.

    • JD2995

      I like that idea

  • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

    First the 3DS has a more better GPU foe the Graphics.

    PS Vita = 300 MHz

    3DS = 400 MHz (and to add insult to injury, it is underclock from 1 GHz)

    And now the 3DS can also Download Full Retail Games.

    The 3DS has the better Graphics and it can now download Full Retail Games, like the PS Vita.

    Except the PS Vita has worser Graphics than the 3DS.

    At least these are the CPU (Processors):

    3DS = 3.5 GHz 100% Effectively

    PS Vita = 4.7 GHz 100% Effectively, but it is most likely running at 4.8 GHz, which would explain the Freezes and malfunctioning Multi-Touch Screen.

    BITE MY SHINY METAL ASS!

    • Han

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WAOxY_nHdew

      that about sums up my feelings for this comment

    • hinkik

      Dude you are so wrong. It’s not clock frequency that makes a gpu better. It’s other stuff. Like number of cores and the architecture. The ps vita’s gpu is a lot stronger.
      Besides the vita has a four core processor.

      For people who thinks 3ds is stronger than vita is terribly wrong. Facts is facts.

    • AM

      Dude, if any of these things ran at anything near 3.5 ghz or 4.7 ghz in such a small package without any cooling you would better start fire proofing your hands and whatever pockets you use to carry them in. Also, the 3DS has a decent graphics chip but it is not as powerful as Vita’s chip, the Vita’s graphics system has more cores and pipelines. The processor in the Vita is also better. A better way you can crticize the Vita’s specifications is by criticizing its storage, as the Vita has no internal storage, and external storage is proprietory, expensive, and slower than regular SD cards (it is said to be around 2mb/s).

    • uriel

      your a complete idiot you dont need to do all this research … Just look at its games graphics … there better than the wii… and the 3ds is almost as good as wii…..what does that tell you……also just use your eyes and stop blinding yourself with fanboy goggles… there really is no comparison dont lie to yourself. even resident evil rev looks like poop compared to that gravity game and uncharted. ……anyways did you people notice in the resident evil demo the 3d does nothing and bugs your eyes …still cool …ill be playing it with 3d off since it looks nicer with it off …framerate problems

    • http://NintendoWorlds.net TurboPikachu

      @Kaizar: Sorry, but you are a bit off on your information there…

      The following specs of these systems are more in-line:

      3DS CPU: Modified dual-core ARM11 MPcore (Nintendo ARM 1048 0H) Running at 266MHz (Max clock rate 1GHz)

      PS Vita CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPcore running at 800MHz (Max clock rate 2GHz)

      ———————

      3DS GPU: Modified dual-core DMP Pica200 running at 133MHz (Max clock rate 300MHz)

      PS Vita: Quad-core SGX543MP4+ running at 200MHz (Max clock rate 400MHz)

      ———————

      3DS RAM/VRAM: 64MB/4MB

      PS Vita RAM/VRAM: 256MB/256MB

      As I typed this comment, I came to realize that though the PS Vita has immense power, the 3DS isn’t that far behind…

      Another thing I realized, was how many times more powerful these handhelds are than their predecessors.

      The PS Vita is about 7 times more powerful than the PSP

      And the 3DS is about 12 times more powerful than the DS.

      It’s awesome to see how great of a technical jump each generation makes. :)

    • Ty

      @TurboPikachu
      Actually, you got the RAM amounts wrong. The Vita has 512mb, and the 3DS has 128mb. You halved it for some readon. Not sure if the VRAM is right or not, but everything else looks about right.

    • Ty

      @TurboPikachu
      Actually, you got the RAM amounts wrong. The Vita has 512mb, and the 3DS has 128mb. You halved it for some reason. Not sure if the VRAM is right or not, but everything else looks about right.

  • manny

    wii u and 3ds just got way better, and if there going to start doing full games they need internal memory

  • JustinGleek

    Yay a full retail game download!!! This is so amazing!!!

  • Smash Girl

    Throw in achievements, online leader boards, and XP system and I’m in :D

    • http://nintendo3dsblog.com ThunderB

      and partyy chat

  • TheUltimateKoopa

    I’m too lazy to check if this is posted but:
    ”
    …“Nintendo Network” Service

    The Nintendo Network service is our network platform which will cover the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.

    Unlike Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which has been focused upon specific functionalities and concepts, we are aiming to establish a platform where various services available through the network for our consumers shall be connected via Nintendo Network service so that the company can make comprehensive proposals to consumers.

    For example, competitions and communication among users, as well as the sales of digital content, will be covered within the Nintendo Network.
    …“Nintendo Network” Service

    The Nintendo Network service is our network platform which will cover the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.

    Unlike Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which has been focused upon specific functionalities and concepts, we are aiming to establish a platform where various services available through the network for our consumers shall be connected via Nintendo Network service so that the company can make comprehensive proposals to consumers.

    For example, competitions and communication among users, as well as the sales of digital content, will be covered within the Nintendo Network.”

    • kamkid

      double paste!

    • TheUltimateKoopa

      Also I posted that in the wrong article :P — I thought this was the one that said “Nintendo Network is Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection”

  • Spazzy Cactus

    so its pretty much a nintendo version of xbox live? YAY :D

  • TechTris

    If the downloadable retail games are a bit cheaper, I’m in.

    • uriel

      mii 2 … :)

  • Its over 9000

    david u missed sometyhing they are gonna make it like psn or xbox live they said u can make accounts and other stuff like ps3

  • Kayriss

    I’d be nice If It had Remote play like PS3 and PSP.

  • asdfghjkl

    also been confirmed is personal accounts source:http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1217360p1.html

  • http://nintendo3dsblog.com ThunderB

    I want party chat when this comes out

  • Ashlynx

    im willing to buy anything to improve nintendos wifi