Nintendo is still not letting Wii third-party publishers include online

[_skitzo_]

Ben Herman, president of SNK's American division, has spoken to UK rumormongering site Spong about Virtual Console. In so doing he has spilled many interesting tidbits about how Nintendo is running things these days. The info:

* Nintendo has all the data. "I know that Nintendo has all the code for NES and SNES titles, all of the manuals and so on. They have a pretty good filing cabinet and all they have to do is seek permission from the IP holder to put the game out over Virtual Console, then share the income."
* No online party? "Nintendo is still not letting Wii third-party publishers include online capabilities in their games and it doesn't look like they will during 2007."
* Arcade sticks? "Nintendo has told the games community to go out and developer peripherals that will work with whatever games are coming out for the Wii."
* SNK's high-def ambitions. "There will be new arcade development, and the arcade development that was announced last year at the Tokyo Game Show, will include high-def content because unless you have a high-def product, you're not going to put out a PS3 of an Xbox 360 game."

Wired