Nintendo’s Online Solution to Suck?

Nintendo Wii Fanboy just reported that it sounds that the upcoming online service for Nintendo’s new console, is going to have game specific friend lists. Their information comes from an interview from Go Nintendo.

According to Go Nintendo, the interviewer, Falafelkid, is trustworthy.

Falafelkid: Just one last question to make absolutely sure I have got this right, please. If I have a friend roster in one game, that roster will not be available to me in any other game. I have to build up an entirely new list for each title, right?

GameSpy: The answer to your question is yes, for the Wii friend lists are game-specific.

Why? Why!? I just can’t fathom why they would decide to do something like this. I’m no coder, but it can’t be that hard to have a unified friend list, as opposed to individual ones for each game. In fact, having all of that information stored in a single place, seems like it would just be easier.

The only good thing about this interview is that it isn’t exactly to be taken as fact. Go Nintendo is reputable, but the word of Falafelkid is not exactly the same as it coming from the likes of Reggie. We can only hope that Nintendo is smart enough to know that individual friend lists is only going to be a hassle. I will say though, if this is true, I am completely under whelmed by Nintendo’s online strategy. The whole friend code thing is a debacle in itself. Why would you ever make everyone try to memorize a (12 digit? 15 digit?) number, when it would be much smarter to allow everyone to create a screen name, just like every other service out there?

I just hope it all gets sorted out and Nintendo makes some good decisions.