Nintendo can’t promise all Wii U online services will be free

It’s safe to say Nintendo’s never going to charge people to play games online against each other, but other and more and unnamed services may cost you.

Speaking to shareholders at a recent meeting, Nintendo president has said that “We cannot promise that Nintendo will always provide you with online services free of charge no matter how deep the experiences are that it may provide. However a subscription based service like Xbox Live isn’t going to happen.

“We have a wide variety of consumers, from the ones who enthusiastically play video games to those playing more casually, who are not always interested in them, but try to play a game only when it has become a public topic or play it just during certain periods, like a year-end season and summer vacation,” he said. “We therefore believe that services which ask our consumers to obtain paid memberships are not always the best.”

Nintendo already charges for some video services and downloadable content is on the way for not only its own games but also third parties.