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No More Friend Codes! Wii U Online Details Revealed

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently revealed Nintendo’s online strategy with the Wii U in another one of their Nintendo Direct videos. The new system will do away with Friend Codes entirely and replace them with an account system, allowing twelve users to access the content of one registered Nintendo ID. This means that eShop purchases will be usable by all Miis registered on a console.

Also detailed in the video was the WaraWara Plaza and video chat capabilities. A new addition to Nintendo’s string of odd names, WaraWara Plaza — Japanese for “bustling” — will be the first thing you see when you boot up the console. This will show the popular titles currently being played by Wii U gamers, with Miis scurrying about and displaying messages from various online users. The video chat, as demonstrated by the most awkward conversation possible between Iwata and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, shows how video chats will work, as well as showing off the ability to draw messages on the Wii U Gamepad.

More details are provided in the videos below. The first video is the Japanese Nintendo Direct video with subtitles from Nintendo World Report, and the second video is direct from Nintendo themselves, an English presentation provided by Bill Trinen of Nintendo Treehouse, focusing on WaraWara Plaza and Video Chat. The Wii U hits North American stores in less than two weeks on November 18th. My body is ready. Is yours?

Nintendo Direct 11.07.12 (Nintendo Network Accounts)

Wii U - WaraWara Plaza and Wii U Chat

I've been gaming since my dad made the bad decision of buying me a Nintendo when I was four years old. Every day I'd find myself with my face glued to a TV screen, punching away at buttons, getting furious with Bowser, Dr. Wily, and those freakin' birds in Ninja Gaiden. Since then I have failed to get my parents to play any board game with me, I sold my full copy of Earthbound with box and guide for $300 to some dude in Austria for rent money, and I still believe in Nintendo even after all these years.

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