Nintendo’s Takashi Aoyama announced a new Pay to Play program during a Game Developers Conference session called “Planning the Wii Menu”. Aoyama explained that the service itself will remain free, but upcoming games may require a few to play online. These online services will go under Nintendo’s New Pay to Play program. Games that take advantage of the new service will have a logo that similar to the Wi-Fi logo, but the color orange and having the words “Pay to Play” at the bottom. Aoyama didn’t go into specifics on what game would use the service, but Nintendo is trying to ensure that consumers do not buy these games by mistake without knowing the added cost.

It does seem odd that Nintendo’s online service is starting to charge for future specific online components. One can only hope that the online system will benefit from the money spent to keep it running.

Source: IGN