[TheGame]

Like I said in the other thread, get a killer App online and things will change...

People were getting on Sony's case for losing $200 with each Ps2 sold in Japan and $150 in US... then what happend? It payed off. Nintendo isn't willing to take a risk, period. At the end of the day, the online gaming community is getting bigger and bigger by the day. When (and it will) online gaming becomes profitable, do you realy think Nintendo could just step in and steal sales??? Hellll no.

It will be too late... By next Gen (or the gen after) MS and Sony will have a list of life-owning online games, what could possibly make someone follow Nintendo at that point?

Null may be correct, charging extra could be a rip-off... but they should charge while it's still being introduced instead of waiting. If Nintendo doesn't want to charge they will only be hurting themselves by not entering with some killer apps NOW.

Online may or may not be huge, but ever person who has liked an online game knows that this is the next step. Null, if you had to pay a monthly fee for every online game on earth (PC and Console), would you pay or just go back to playing no games online? It's easy to say that Sony and MS shouldn't risk going online if you have never tried it, but after you play a game online it's hard to stop... and it's somthing that most won't be willing to give up.

The thing is (in consoles at least) this is the introduction stage, online play won't sell the games, games will sell the online play at this point. Nobody gets addicted to online play until they get a great game to use it with. Once the first game pulls you in you realize how great online play is, thus making you want to buy more and more games just because they are online. This has been the story with most people who are into online gaming, it only takes one game to get you started.

I think before this gen ends, there will be some games out that turn MANY people... Halo 2 and FFXI are my best bets right now. By next gen, MS will be able to charge whatever they want to for people to play Halo online, because if you started playing it online, you will never get the full effect again without it. I'm sure Null can agree with me here, take online play away from some games that we now consider killer apps, and it becomes crap quickly.

As much as all of us may hate it, charging will only help the companies, especially if they have the great games to back it up. The problem is, there isn't anything spectacular online on consoles yet, so yes, right now charging is retarded... but people will buy the Xbox live service JUST for Halo 2, and buy other games that work on Xbox live just because Halo 2 pushed them into it... do you see what I'm saying?

But for now, it just stinks, no point in charging a dime to play online... once the Killer Apps come, charging will be justified and will be a smart move... AND online gaming in the end will be a smart move because it will solidify sales to a whole community of people.