The Wii U console will support microtransactions, according to Nintendo top dog Satoru Iwata. However, he pointed out that Nintendo has no plans of offering first party titles as free-to-play games, nor do they have any plans of offering their games on phones and tablets. Iwata did confirm that they are looking into bringing DLC to their games, though. Speaking at an investor briefing right after E3, Iwata said,
“We have designed the system from a technical standpoint to allow developers to freely take advantage of things like free-to-play and microtransactions”
Free-to-play games have gained in popularity over the past years, which are generally supported by microtrasactions and/or advertising. These types of games are becoming such a huge deal that major developers like Crytek have said that all of their future titles will be free-to-play, with the exception of the upcoming Crysis 3.
It’s a big deal for Nintendo to support DLC as well as microtransactions, since DLC has become a big business for publishers. It hasn’t come without criticism, as some publishers restrict access to content that’s already shipped on the disc, and sell it later as a “DLC”. It’s also good to hear that Nintendo has plans of offering DLC to their own Wii U games. One can imagine adding extra mini games to titles such as Nintendo Land, or new content for Pikmin 3 and others.
