Nintendo online services ‘may not always be free’

Nintendo cannot promise that it will not charge for some of its online services in future, the company’s CEO has said.

Speaking to shareholders, Satoru Iwata said that whilst it would consider charging customers looking for more online features, it would not make users pay for ordinary services through subscription fees.

“We cannot promise here that Nintendo will always provide you with online services free of charge no matter how deep the experiences are that it may provide,” he said.

“But at least we are not thinking of asking our consumers to pay money to just casually get access to our ordinary online services.”

Iwata added that given the wide variety of customers Nintendo has to cater for, particularly more casual users of its consoles, having a service that asked consumers to obtain members was not always the best option.