BNM-
Sorry, I thought you were speaking about general company philosophies there. My mistake.
Strictly regarding online services, it doesn't cost Sony any money to provide those bells and whistles? They don't require any additional processing power? The 360 can be used online without a subscription fee?
mmm...
As for the long history, online simply hasn't been a focus for Nintendo. Their focus has been on game quality, and local multiplayer. I know it would be awesome if every company was great at everything. But do you think Nintendo's focus was a mistake?
As time has moved on and the popularity of online is increasing, yes, Nintendo is starting to focus on it more. So, what's the problem? For most people when a Wii/DS game has online functionality they are interested in, they've enjoyed it. That's why Brawl and Kart and Tri and Animal Crossing and CoD have been as popular as they are on the platform. And in the future, it looks like it will only get better. So, yea, I'm happy with that.
Actually, I've never played Brawl online, but that's only because of how bad I heard the online experience is for that game. (and how bad I would probably get my ass kicked against NWR veterans
: )
But I'm not even talking about gameplay and local multi. I'm strictly speaking about the online network in it's entirety. Over 25 years ago Nintendo started dabbling in online. Even with baby steps they should be farther ahead of where they are today especially when others (such as MS with XBL & Valve with Steamworks) have already paved the path.
There are certain games where the online works fine, but there are others where it's just slow, broken and completely ruins any willingness to put up with it.
I can't tell you how many failed attempts there were at playing The Conduit way back when, or how bad the SSBB online was. Even if you counter with how well online was handled in MKWii or maybe a game like MH3 (haven't played it and don't know how the online turned out), it doesn't change the fact that Nintendo's Online Experience is a very broken and inconsistent system due to the way it was set up.
Every game is independent of the system, there is no unification of anything, everything is really damn slow, you have no way of scheduling anything with anyone without using some outside system and even when everything comes together, it's a C+ effort at best.
I'm not saying that there is no enjoyment to be had in any specific individual game, but I'm looking at the big picture here, and we Nintendo customers are not getting what we deserve on the online interface front.
It's like buying a DVD player that is technically as capable as any other DVD player out there, but only has a play, stop and skip forward/back buttons on the remote. Yes, it works and I get to watch my movies, but what if I want to pause or skip to scene or access the menu, turn on subtitles, replay in slowmo and actually navigate the menu.
That would be pretty unacceptable in most peoples point of view even if you can still watch and enjoy the movie like everyone else. That gimped lacking remote is like Nintendo's Online efforts to this point in time. It could and should be so much more.