GameSpy + Nintendo = Wii Online Multiplayer Goodness
Word on the street (yes, the street) has it that GameSpy and Nintendo are getting in bed together again for some steamy middleware action. IGN's super sleuth-y GameSpy middleware division will be bringing technology to crank up friend lists, matchmaking and ranking to publishers wanting to incorporate online multiplayer features into their Wii games. This following the address by Shigeru Miyamoto at GDC that, while possibly dull to the press and gamers-at-large, was clearly targeted to motivate game designers to reach for a new level of creativity...which, naturally, should lead them to developing third-party games for the Wii.
The more third-party business the Wii can get, the better, and GameSpy's work with the DS infrastructure has been a success, as any of you Animal Crossing fruit-swappers can attest. No mention was made about how the GameSpy tech would interface (or interfere, I suppose, but that would be silly) with the existing Wii online systems, like friend codes, but June 25th's Pokemon Battle Revolution is the first confirmed Wii title to declare its incorporation of the GameSpy tech.
IGN senior VP Jamie Berger towed the reassuring but routine company line:
“Nintendo has been an invaluable partner and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them in the future. Our goal is to extend our ground-breaking work on the Nintendo DS to provide Wii users with the social, community and multiplayer tools that we believe will expand the online gaming experience to the mass market.”
Mass me, baby. Market me, baby. Just gimme more Wii games!
Nintendo, GameSpy Partner For Wii Online Multiplayer [Gamasutra]
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 13 March 2007
Other stuff like this: ds, gamespy, middleware, nintendo, pokemon, wii
