Nintendo has never shown interest in free-to-play games in the past, likely due to their requirement of support from sophisticated online infrastructure. And ... that is unlikely to change. Speaking to AllThingsD, Satoru Iwata said flatly that "Nintendo is not interested" in freemium games, alluding to the same discussion of maintaining the "value" of games that he mentioned at GDC.

"I'm not interested in offering software for free of charge," he said. "That's because I myself am one of the game developers, who in the future wants to make efforts so the value of the software will be appreciated by the consumers." Although freemium games can make money through ads and microtransactions, Iwata expressed concerns about "[destroying] the value of game software."

So, uh, don't expect that Wii U version of Ghost Recon Online to be free-to-play, even though the PC version is.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/15/iwata-nintendo-is-not-interested-in-free-to-play/

Posted: Jun 26, 2011 11:45 am