Wii U to Have “System-Level” Achievements, Will Still Use Friend Codes

While Nintendo has officially revealed the Wii U at E3, there's still a ton of questions that they haven't answered. Chief of these are: how much does it cost? When's the ship date? Sadly, they've yet to answer those questions yet, but Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed a few more details regarding their upcoming console and it might be what you want to hear.

First up, he talks about Achievements. Yes, in-game score Achievements/Trophies are big things to gamers nowadays, so will Nintendo be following suit? 

The good part? Yes, they will implement Achievements, but one that's on a "System-Level" plan. Think of it as the Nintendo 3DS and how Nintendo rewards people for stuff inolving the unit's Street Pass networking functionality. In regards to Achievements in-game, they will support it but not every developer has to follow suit.

Once you start getting into game-specific [Achievements] that's developer driven. Microsoft may require every game to have Achievements but that is not our philosophy.

And now, on to the bad news. Nintendo will still implement Friend Codes when it comes to online gaming! If you don't know what Friend Codes are (lucky for you!), they're 16-digit codes that people had to exchange and enter in the system before being linked as "friends" virtually. Yes, it was that obtrusive.

In saying that, here's the good news. Nintendo will be changing how the Friend Codes system will work. While Fils-Aime was coy on the exact details, he did have this to say.

There are friend codes, but it's not the existing friend code system. Here's what I mean: you will be able to identify people as friends and have a certain level of interaction vs. a different level of interaction for the more general population. The method by which you identify someone as a friend is a lot simpler than what's happening today with Friend Codes.

The interview doesn't stop there. Give the whole interview a read to find out if the Wii U will have a big hard-drive (it won't) and a few more important details.

Are you happy with what you've read so far regarding the Wii U or is Nintendo stll stubbornly sticking to its outdated mentality?

Source: Kotaku