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As Timesplitters 2 abandons its plans for online play, due to sony’s inability to provide firm technical details about what will be happening for their network, you could be forgiven for thinking our chances of online gaming moving beyond the dreamcast and pc any time soon are up in smoke.
The attitude publicly expressed by Nintendo, ‘work out how it can be done profitably before rushing in’ – which seems to translate to ‘wait and see how everyone else does it’ – doesn’t exactly offer hope that they have things moving either.
However, for those who pick up on the right details, there are signs to suggest that things might be moving a little faster than the blank face of Nintendo would have us believe.
The evidence?
Of course, Nintendo first released pictures of their 56k and broadband gamecube modems before the console’s release. News also seeped through of a Phantasy Star Online conversion.
Take a look about a third of the way down the following page:
http://www.lan-kwei.com/gamecubeE/
What you’re looking for is the (3rd party) gamecube keyboard, bundled in with a modem and PSO trial edition.
A little further down the page you’ll see the official modems mentioned earlier. And you’ll also notice their expected date of availability – a rather vague 2002. That’s to a domestic Japanese market, of course.
Things are moving forward, and internet-specific peripherals being readied at this stage must be a sign of progress.
Exhibit B:
This September America get Animal Crossing. We get it sometime later it would seem. Details are on:
http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/games/description.
jsp?ElementId=79b8d8f7-a0ec-488c-9a7c-c3723cc3e587
(spaces)
While the GBA link and some memory card swapping offer the most noticeable linked features, notice the line: “Write letters to both your human- and GameCube-controlled buddies…”
Would those letters be written using a keyboard, perhaps? And although the game does feature multiplayer mode, would there really be any point in writing someone a letter if they were sat next to you. As opposed to being on the end of a networked connection?
Okay, it’s speculative, but it’s also available in Japan and soon to land in America. If online play were put into the game, it’d be there to be used in the very near future, not a number of years down the line.
The third piece of evidence – or rather an absence of evidence.
Mario golf, tennis and kart. What do these games have in common? After being confirmed by Nintendo as underway, nothing has been heard. PD0 and Donkey Kong Racing from rare. The former? Nothing heard. The latter? Taken back out of sight.
What do all 5 games have in common? A great multiplayer mode. Perhaps even ideally suited for online play?
The Rare titles seem to envolve rather more speculation, not least because of the company’s questionably changing relationship with Nintendo, but next to Kameo, of which news and screenshots have been gradually trickling out for a long time, and which won’t be released perhaps for over a year, it seems there must be a reason for Rare’s tight-lipped approach.
Nintendo’s games? Well, they could be saving news for a dry spell, when little else is happening, but the relative torrent of Zelda info alone suggests reasoning lies behind ninty’s silence. And the company isn’t the best for preventing leaks of info under normal circumstances.
My theory? The games are going online, and they’ll be doing it, in some parts of the world at least, next year. We’ve heard little about 2003s release schedule, but the aforementioned games could be the cornerstones. Ninty aren’t about to reveal their hand in such a vast, untested field as online play until the last possible moment, so they keep quiet.
But the clues are there.
The attitude publicly expressed by Nintendo, ‘work out how it can be done profitably before rushing in’ – which seems to translate to ‘wait and see how everyone else does it’ – doesn’t exactly offer hope that they have things moving either.
However, for those who pick up on the right details, there are signs to suggest that things might be moving a little faster than the blank face of Nintendo would have us believe.
The evidence?
Of course, Nintendo first released pictures of their 56k and broadband gamecube modems before the console’s release. News also seeped through of a Phantasy Star Online conversion.
Take a look about a third of the way down the following page:
http://www.lan-kwei.com/gamecubeE/
What you’re looking for is the (3rd party) gamecube keyboard, bundled in with a modem and PSO trial edition.
A little further down the page you’ll see the official modems mentioned earlier. And you’ll also notice their expected date of availability – a rather vague 2002. That’s to a domestic Japanese market, of course.
Things are moving forward, and internet-specific peripherals being readied at this stage must be a sign of progress.
Exhibit B:
This September America get Animal Crossing. We get it sometime later it would seem. Details are on:
http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/games/description.
jsp?ElementId=79b8d8f7-a0ec-488c-9a7c-c3723cc3e587
(spaces)
While the GBA link and some memory card swapping offer the most noticeable linked features, notice the line: “Write letters to both your human- and GameCube-controlled buddies…”
Would those letters be written using a keyboard, perhaps? And although the game does feature multiplayer mode, would there really be any point in writing someone a letter if they were sat next to you. As opposed to being on the end of a networked connection?
Okay, it’s speculative, but it’s also available in Japan and soon to land in America. If online play were put into the game, it’d be there to be used in the very near future, not a number of years down the line.
The third piece of evidence – or rather an absence of evidence.
Mario golf, tennis and kart. What do these games have in common? After being confirmed by Nintendo as underway, nothing has been heard. PD0 and Donkey Kong Racing from rare. The former? Nothing heard. The latter? Taken back out of sight.
What do all 5 games have in common? A great multiplayer mode. Perhaps even ideally suited for online play?
The Rare titles seem to envolve rather more speculation, not least because of the company’s questionably changing relationship with Nintendo, but next to Kameo, of which news and screenshots have been gradually trickling out for a long time, and which won’t be released perhaps for over a year, it seems there must be a reason for Rare’s tight-lipped approach.
Nintendo’s games? Well, they could be saving news for a dry spell, when little else is happening, but the relative torrent of Zelda info alone suggests reasoning lies behind ninty’s silence. And the company isn’t the best for preventing leaks of info under normal circumstances.
My theory? The games are going online, and they’ll be doing it, in some parts of the world at least, next year. We’ve heard little about 2003s release schedule, but the aforementioned games could be the cornerstones. Ninty aren’t about to reveal their hand in such a vast, untested field as online play until the last possible moment, so they keep quiet.
But the clues are there.
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Ninty go online, wohoo!
Sibs wrote:
> I thought they already launched an online FF game and someone at Ninty
> slammed it as it wasn't very successful...
Yeah, the FF online game in Japan is failing miserably, nobody wants to buy the hard-dive and other stuff it requires. In your face Sony :P
> I thought they already launched an online FF game and someone at Ninty
> slammed it as it wasn't very successful...
Yeah, the FF online game in Japan is failing miserably, nobody wants to buy the hard-dive and other stuff it requires. In your face Sony :P
I'd guess none as yet... But I'd guess Mazza Kart will, whenever that gets released, maybe Mazza Party 4 will be too...? Possibility, although I spose it wouldn't have the same 'party' atmosphere over the phone line...
Nintendo have announced a date for the Japanese release of their modem/broadband adaptor (just 2 weeks away!), but other than Phantasy Star, how many games support it?
You'll have to excuse my timing when i started this thread, posting it the day before sony announced their network plans, rather than waiting a week for the day before ninty announce theirs.
You'll also have to excuse me feeling infinitely smug right now :^)
You'll also have to excuse me feeling infinitely smug right now :^)
The original post, written only days ago, was based on an optimistic look to the future at a time when, to the best of my knowledge, no companys had announced anything firm/important by way of online plans.
Since then of course, we've had sony announce their american network launch for the end of the month and now x-box is getting return to castle wolfenstein when they go online (november in america, i think).
Although neither have offered a date for a uk launch, and sparse broadband coverage won't help things, it's definitely on the horizon. The first half of 2003, and that's just my prediction for a ninty overseas launch, now looks a long way off. Expect uk nintys to be at the back of all the queues for online play.
Ah well, at least we should get the pick of classic ninty multiplayer. Eventually. If that's any consolation.
Since then of course, we've had sony announce their american network launch for the end of the month and now x-box is getting return to castle wolfenstein when they go online (november in america, i think).
Although neither have offered a date for a uk launch, and sparse broadband coverage won't help things, it's definitely on the horizon. The first half of 2003, and that's just my prediction for a ninty overseas launch, now looks a long way off. Expect uk nintys to be at the back of all the queues for online play.
Ah well, at least we should get the pick of classic ninty multiplayer. Eventually. If that's any consolation.
Don't worry, I would take it easy on him, give me Ryu, a Snes pad and I'm sorted. :)
It would be great to play you lot at games, I can remember everyone getting excited about it before when online plans were mentioned before the release of the GC.
It's good playing against people you know, I'm not into online gaming at all but I have played a few games against people on here and it's good fun. Anyway I don't like playing online games against experienced people, I once tried to play Rainbow Six online and within 10 seconds of joining a game I died, I never bothered again. My modems fault, too slow :)
I'm just afraid someone on here will beat me, my ego would never live it down. :)
It would be great to play you lot at games, I can remember everyone getting excited about it before when online plans were mentioned before the release of the GC.
It's good playing against people you know, I'm not into online gaming at all but I have played a few games against people on here and it's good fun. Anyway I don't like playing online games against experienced people, I once tried to play Rainbow Six online and within 10 seconds of joining a game I died, I never bothered again. My modems fault, too slow :)
I'm just afraid someone on here will beat me, my ego would never live it down. :)
I wouldn't want to see starlight and cooky fight. Imagine the injuries two XBOXs would cause. Horrible.
Shocking stuff... ;-)
Just saw starlight and cooky discussing their abilities with beat-em-ups.
Put the thought in my head, i'd love to see them go at it, head to head.
Then i thought of this. SR forum online tournaments, how cool would that be? Especially if you could watch matches you weren't competing in.
Better still, teams. Like pd multiplayer, but with all human players. Even better, multiformat online, us vs ps2 vs xbox forum members :^)
Maybe online play against people you have no connection with could be a bit of a let-down, but against people you know...
oh, to be able to unload a few clips into TOSH
just kidding mate :^D
But in the last two minutes i've gone from being curious about online play to actually being excited about it :^)
Put the thought in my head, i'd love to see them go at it, head to head.
Then i thought of this. SR forum online tournaments, how cool would that be? Especially if you could watch matches you weren't competing in.
Better still, teams. Like pd multiplayer, but with all human players. Even better, multiformat online, us vs ps2 vs xbox forum members :^)
Maybe online play against people you have no connection with could be a bit of a let-down, but against people you know...
oh, to be able to unload a few clips into TOSH
just kidding mate :^D
But in the last two minutes i've gone from being curious about online play to actually being excited about it :^)
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