I haven’t been around much lately, because we’ve been in the process of transitioning to a new place. Between that and a severe lack of internet at home due to the move, internet-ing has been relatively light these past couple of weeks. But I did take the opportunity yesterday to check out a bit of the coverage following Nintendo’s press conference.
Man, was that ever lame. I’m a Nintendo fanboy, through and through, but their showing was absolutely ridiculous. Some 3DS stuff we already knew was coming, and then showing off a whole bunch of Wii U mini-games and core titles that are already available on other systems. It was pretty pathetic.
(With the exception of Ubisoft’s ZombiU – that looked kinda interesting, I’ll have to admit, but not enough for me to buy the system day one)
But probably the most interesting thing was all the online stuff they talked about. New eShop, potential transfer of your existing Wii Shop and Virtual Console purchases, chat and organize games with friends, NO FRIEND CODES. The Miiverse, while pretty simple-looking, was proof Nintendo was finally entering the 21st century.
Wait a second. Hold on. This is Nintendo we’re talking about here. Let’s not jump to conclusions.
As a result, there will probably be a delay between the time a user creates a post and when it appears in the Miiverse feed. How long depends on how many posts are created and how many people Nintendo has to do the work.
“The attraction of a social network is the immediacy of the feedback,” Iwata said. On the other hand, it’s absolutely essential that parents need to feel comfortable with Miiverse as a safe place for their children, he added.
That raises the question: What is an acceptable time lag that satisfies both requirements? Is it 30 minutes? Or three hours?
Iwata said that the company will monitor feedback from its users when the service launches to answer that question. “But personally, I think 30 minutes should be acceptable,” he said.
Thirty minutes from the moment I press “send” until my friend gets the message, and it’s been thoroughly reviewed by hundreds of Nintendo staffers? Yep. There’s the Nintendo I recognize.
Welcome to the late 19th century, Nintendo. You’re going to be awfully lonely there.