The Miiverse – Nintendo's noble stab at an online service – is in simultaneous development alongside the Wii U. The network will launch on Nintendo's new console and eventually on the 3DS. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata shared that the Miiverse will serve two major purposes for the company.
First, the new online service will hopefully boost game sales. Instead of charging a subscription fee to members, like with Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus, players will be able to recommend games to each other, giving free marketing to good – and presumably already popular – games.
The second major goal of the Miiverse is to bring players together, not necessarily through a strictly cooperative atmosphere. Iwata spoke to Kotaku and explained his interest in creating a network where players can share their experiences in games, along with tips and various stories, as we once did before the advent of the internet.
“Of course we’re going to have that service of head-to-head [multiplayer, when you are] on at the same time playing games against each other,” Iwata says, “but what we really want to do is create a place where folks who are playing by themselves will not feel like they are playing by themselves. They’ll be able to share those experiences and have that empathy that we mentioned earlier.”
Nintendo is looking to morph the Miiverse into a type of social network, connecting not only Wii U and 3DS players, but also through PCs and phones.
Via Kotaku