Unified single accounts are coming ! Lakitu cloud service

I'd love to see them do this with Monopoly also.

It may not be so possible, but games like Call of Duty could use cross-play with the MS and Sony system versions so that there could be a much larger pool of players online.

Sony and Microsoft don't like to acknowledge that the other one exists.

Hm.  Interesting.

I'm definitely for this, as it might spur more sales of Wii U versions of games...if gamers knew they could get online and have a huge crowd of gamers from other consoles to play alongside.

This is a great move, as just about the only way the Wii U is going to GET an online community at this point us to piggyback off the consoles people actually want!  :P

All warranted snarkiness aside, this really IS a nice development, and it's one I wish the entire industry would get behind on multiplatform games.

Now, if only they could figure out how to make Virtual Console games cross-platform. It's a stumper!

I'm so glad Nintendo finally opened up those letters we sent them 4.5 years ago.

but...

ummm yeah. that.
Let's put this one on the priority list too while we are solving cross platform play...

Super Mario Kart with online between both Wii U and 3DS would be boss.

I wonder if Smash Bros will have cross-play. Sure, the stages might be different, but I'm sure Sakurai could come up with a set of stages that would accommodate it.

Sakurai's already said the upcoming Smash Bros. won't have Cross-Play. Maybe things have changed since then, but he was using the different stage lists as an excuse to not do it.

I don't really see why that be a problem in its own way except online with a 3DS person would be obvious because you use the stages geared toward the smaller screen so people could be HUGE.

except you would be using the game assets for the system you are playing, not the one they are playing. you would simply be sharing location and input data between games if this works as I've imagined it should oh so very long ago.

Think about New Pork City and then think about almost any other stage in the game.  Compared to how people look on that one they look huge on the other stages.

I don't know what level you are talking about, but the way I see it working is that regardless of what system you are playing on, the game will be optimized for that system

SO if your game is optimized to be viewed on a small 3DS screen, that's not going to bother me because me version of the game is optimized to be played on a regular TV screen. so as long as the levels are identical, the amount of zoom needed for you to see your level wouldn't matter as I would be using my games assets to combat you, and the system are simply exchanging our location and input data to be rendered on the other other persons screen, just like same-system online play.

Does this work any differently?
Have I misunderstood something somewhere?

http://supersmashbros.wikia.com/wiki/New_Pork_City

The only levels you could play are the Small-Medium Small Levels.  Which make the Characters look fairly big in relation to the levels.

that gives a pretty nasty advantage to Wii U owners if I'm reading that correctly.

if by playing on the  TV you see more of the level then 3DS owners the TV user has a quick advantage.
if the TV player zooms to compensate then that remedies the situation unless there are multiple people on one TV.

The way I imagined it, it would have to just use certain, smaller stages. New Pork City is right out. But Something like the Kid Icarus stage or Super Flat Zone could work. The 3DS user experience would have have to be shifted, I suppose to accommodate to the smaller screen. The Wii U user is likely to see much more, so I guess the 3DS user is going to need to see at least half the screen at a time, unless there was some other way to make up for it.

Well if they do it correctly and at it's full potential (and it's Nintendo so they won't), then the 3DS owner would have a zoomed in view focused on their character, the #1 player on the Wii U could have a zoomed in view for their character on the Gamepad and the entire level up on display on the TV screen where Wii U player #2&3 could be playing as their only display & Wii U p#1 could look too for a full screen view (for a total of 4 players).

Cross-play with the Virtual Console is a dream that needs to come true.

That still puts players 2 and 3 at an advantage with a full view of the stage and opponents.

What if only certain stages were available for cross-play? Both games will have Final Destination and Battlefield. I'm sure those won't be the only choices. Sakurai said each game will have specific stages so those could be off limits. The stages available in both versions would behave and zoom the same way.

player 1 also, and I don't see the problem. The 3DS person should also have the option to match make with only other 3DS players if they feel it's a disadvantage.

But I suppose in the name of fairness, they can do a split screen for player 2 & 3 on the Big screen. showing stats, or everyone elses screen in the other 2 boxes.