Did Nintendo Overpromise on WiiConnect24?

Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer posed a question to readers about how they feel Nintendo’s WiiConnect24 service has performed. After sharing some choice quotes, it’s hard to imagine anyone is satisfied.

Totilo wrote:

Have you been to the official Nintendo website and read that “WiiConnect24 enables Wii to stay online 24/7 and download updates – even on standby”?

Have you checked out the WiiConnect24 description on Nintendo of Europe’s website? The description that states that “WiiConnect24 delivers new content even while users are sleeping or not at home, presenting ‘new experiences that anyone can enjoy every day,’ and laying the foundation for a lifestyle in which everyone in the family can relate to Wii on a daily basis.”

Best of all is a quote from Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata in 2006:

I’ll give you a specific example we are planning for. Let’s say your Wii is connected to the Internet in a mode that allows activation on a 24-hour basis. This would allow Nintendo to send monthly promotional demos for the DS, during the night, to the Wii consoles in each household. Users would wake up each morning, find the LED lamp on their Wii flashing, and know that Nintendo has sent them something. They would then be able to download the promotional demo from their Wii’s to their Nintendo DS’s. This will, of course, be possible in gaming stores too, but I think users will enjoy being able to do this within their homes. The key merit here is having promotional material delivered to your home, instead of having to go collect it yourself.

Yes, the Everbody’s Nintendo Channel did launch late last year in Japan which brings DS demos to the Wii. But the rest of the world is still waiting and wondering just when – if ever – WiiConnect24 is going to evolve into the type of service that Nintendo made it out to be. WiiWare and Everybody’s Nintendo will certainly help, but downloading demos and XBLA-style games is a far cry from “new experience that anyone can enjoy every day.”