Rumor: Project Cafe Moving to Account Based Online Play

This Rumor, which is being claimed as a certainty by Sam Kennedy from 1Up’s Oddcast, is indeed the sort of news we want to hear. While the 3DS has taken steps towards ditching friend codes and moving towards account based play, it’s still reliant on a code hardwired into each console. One assumes the natural progression from that is for Nintendo to finally admit that account based systems are not only better, but are far more popular for very good reasons. So, when we hear some “confirmation” that “there won’t be friend codes on the new console”, forgive me if I get a little giddy.

One thing that is very neat about this tidbit was the cast was recorded before the big wave of rumors even hit the net, yet that little piece took until now to get out to the public. I think most assumed friend codes would be gone (given how they just use the console codes on the 3DS), now it’s just a matter of Nintendo taking that next step. Even if the console is powerful, supports good controls for classic gamers, and adds a little innovation with some touch stuff… it really needs to flesh out the online system to attract actual 3rd party support.

Right now, playing online games on the Wii is a chore in that of itself. The navigation is usually atrocious, and finding people to play with and/or finding your friends to play with just sucks. Imagine if, for instance, instead of adding a username “Legend12890” you have to input “8901748901845900139” – then stop imagining because that’s how it actually works on the Wii. It’s silly, and Nintendo seems to have did it just to be different. Of every rumor out there about the screen, the power, and the ability to still do motion gaming, this is truly the one I hope is true. We need a fleshed out online system from Nintendo, and going into the future where the console will likely last until 2017 if not all the way to 2020, they can’t ignore online gamers anymore.