Nintendo: Paid DLCs On 3DS And Wii U

After trying to hold out for as long as possible, Nintendo has had to yield to the pressures of looking into paid additional content. At the end of the year, first the 3DS followed by the  Wii U in the course of 2012, will introduce comparable systems to those already used on other consoles.

Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, confirmed to investors in the Kyoto company that the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U would now be charging for DLCs (downloadable content), much to the pleasure of third party developers.

This system will be introduced on the 3DS before the end of the year and on the Wii U as of its release. A DLC platform, comparable to Sony's Playstation Network or Microsoft's Xbox Live, will be set up but, with a view to protecting the brand image, will not be open to all comers. Activation keys, free to play games (paid options) and paid improvements will not be admitted by Nintendo. This is all very honorable but not necessarily realistic as most paid additional content falls into these categories.

For his part, the father of Zelda and Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, believes it would be interesting to extend the lifespan of games with new levels and other options.

This announcement comes shortly after the price cut announced for the Nintendo 3DS and is part of an attempt to reassure investors following the revision of financial projections for the current year (down by 82% on initial figures for the period March 2011 / March 2012).

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