What Does Valve Mean For Wii U Online?

With the other day’s news about the possibility of Valve distributing their software on the Wii U, my brain won’t stop buzzing.

It’s exciting enough just to have the option of playing Valve’s great software on a Nintendo system, but there’s a lot more to take away from this news, namely, how Valve might take advantage of the Wii U’s controller and online capabilities.

We heard from Nintendo earlier this week that the company isn’t interested in becoming the number one online gaming company in the industry. This is understandable; Nintendo hasn’t had enough experience in the online field to reach this goal yet. As usual, Nintendo will focus on the gaming experience, and I’d rather they do so becuase that’s what they’re good at. I still want them to get their act together when it comes to online features, but I rather they not sacrifice the gaming experience to do so. Luckily, while being the best in online may not be their goal, Nintendo still stressed that online is still very important to the Wii U, and Valve’s interest may confirm that.

Valve head, Gabe Newell, was very optimistic about utilizing the Wii U for his companies software. This could just be becuase the Wii U has the processing power to run Valve’s software, but I think it’s more than that. Nintendo has stated that online gaming will be very important to the Wii U, and online gaming has never been more important for games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Team Fortress 2. Whether or not this means Steam will be available on the Wii U remains to be seen, but it gives me high hopes for how well the Wii U’s online features will work, despite failings on Nintendo’s previous consoles.

Nintendo is all about the gaming experience, and it sounds like, at least this time around, that this includes the online gaming experience as well.

But while we’re on the subject of Valve, can we just bring up Team Fortress 2? I cannot express how happy I would be if this game was made available on the Wii U, especially now that the game is going to be free-to-play. I know, I know, Iwata just talked about how there wouldn’t be free-to-play games on the Wii U, but I think it’s safe to say that there will be exceptions to this rule. I mean, come on, Four Swords is going to available for free in the 3DS’s eShop later thus year. It is about the cost of the game, but the quality. Iwata was mainly commenting on excluding the low-quality free games that flood the internet. Just look at the free greatness below:

That screams nothing but high-quality to me, and that is the professional opinion of an animator.

With characters like those from Team Fortress 2 and the level and gameplay design of Portal, Valve really is a perfect fit of Nintendo. And if any company can think of a unique and interesting way to utilize the Wii U controller it most certainly is Valve. Let’s just hope the Wii U’s online capabilities are accommodating.

Readers, what do expect from the Wii U’s online side, and how would you like to see Valve take advantage for the Wii U’s controller?