Downloadable retail 3Ds games, DLC plans, and more for Nintendo Network

Along with announcing a new Mario sidescroller for 3DS, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata talked about his company’s new online platform, Nintendo Network, which acts as a PSN-like service that works across 3DS and Wii U.

You’ve already seen its upgraded capabilities (over the DS’s dinky Nintendo WiFi Connection) in Mario Kart 7 with how the game handles communities, but Nintendo Network will also introduce features like “competitions and communication among users”, and paid downloadable content for both eShop/retail games.

One discussed feature that’s been a long time coming for eShop, though, is downloadable retail games, which Iwata says Nintendo is considering for the future:

“This concept was built into the design of the Nintendo 3DS, and we already have the necessary infrastructure. We will prepare the same infrastructure for the Wii U.

However, we have not decided the concrete timing of when we will start it. The decision must be made by taking into consideration such factors as the relationship with the wholesalers and retailers, and the best way to be embraced by consumers, as well as the environment surrounding the market and consumers, such as the required memory capacity on consumers’ SD memory cards.

However, as an option for the future, the significance of this business field will increase.”

Of course, he hasn’t guaranteed retail game downloads, but Nintendo is considering it — the last time the executive hinted at a 3DS feature that was under consideration, it was 3D video recording, and that was eventually released with a firmware update 11 months later.

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tags / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / gaming / eshop / ec