Xbox Live and the Nintendo Wii

Whenever Xbox Live is brought up, fanboys from all three consoles leap to the fray and spout their opinion.

"Xbox Live owns! Sony online sucks!"

"Sony online owns! Wii's online (or lack of it) sucks!"

"All online sucks! PCs own!"

"etc. etc. etc."


But, opinions aside, let's talk about something that pretty much everyone can agree is important: cost.

How much does your console cost you when it comes to being online?

Well, I've done some digging and some research, and I want to point out some strengths of the Wii's online system that might not be readily apparent:

- No cost. It's free. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, but not having to pay an annual fee means 1 extra game that year. For the tight-of-budget, that means MP3, Galaxy, AND Smash Bros Brawl, instead of having to choose two out of those three.

- Game-led, not Nintendo-led. What does this mean? It means that the scope of each game's online experience seems to be up to the game devs, not necessarily Nintendo. We've seen a prototype verion of this in Elebits, where - despite the fact that there was no "online" yet on the Wii - players could swap maps using just Friend Codes. As we've seen on Strikers Charged, the game has its own, self-contained online matching system.

So, it is wholly possible that as 3rd parties bring their own games into Nintendo's online arena, they will bring their own ideas and concepts with them. It won't be restricted to a centralized online matching system, but instead it will allow devs to experiment in their own ways. Is this good or bad? Well, take a look at the PC, where a similar situation resides. On the PC, it is game devs, not Microsoft or Apple, that decide how their game will operate on the internet.

This also extends into the arena of user-made content. As we've seen with Elebits, it is entirely possible for Wii users to swap content over the internet. How far will this go? Who knows? One hurdle that Nintendo must overcome is the lack of storage space. SD cards only hold so much. However, an external harddrive, though clunky, would easily solve the storage problem.

Why does this affect cost? It makes it cheaper for both the consumer and the developer when they produce their own online system. It costs money for Live games to cash in on Microsoft's online system.


Now, I want to point out some shortfalls that I see in Xbox Live. Flame all you want, but these are cold, hard facts.

- Cost. Xbox Live costs you money. Now, Live players will argue that the cost ensures a quality experience, but is that true? Let's take another jump over to the PC world. Look at games like StarCraft, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, Diablo I and II, and Guild Wars, some of the biggest online games of their time. How much did they cost to play these quality games online? Nothing.

Cost is a big issue.

What about freebies? We've gotten Everyone Votes and the Internet Browser for free, and though these titles aren't exactly stellar system-sellers, they are still free. What about Live? Well, nothing is all that free.

Want new Gears of War maps(which were originally going to be free until MS forced Epic to charge for them)? You'll have to pay.

What about free games? Did you know that the popular Live Arcade game, Geometry Wars, was intended to be released for free by the game devs, but Microsoft stepped in and demanded a bare minimum of a 400-point price on it?

Want new Guitar Hero songs? Well, it comes at a price, too. Roughly $2.00 per song, twice the price of an iTunes download. And not only that, but the songs don't come alone. They come in three-packs, so if you want a new song, you might have to overpay $4.00 for two songs that you didn't want in the first place just to get that ONE song you wanted.

And what about user-made content? Even FarCry had a built-in map maker, but how far is Microsoft allowing user-made content to go on the 360? That remains to be seen.


What does the future hold for Wii, PS3, and 360 owners? Well, we'll just have to wait and see with our fists wrapped tightly around our wallets.