Nintendo president Satoru Iwata isn't too happy with Nintendo's current crop of online services.
Nintendo have experimented with various online technologies over the last decade or so, tinkering with different apps, means of online chat, a Club Nintendo membership scheme and much more. The core issue with these various services was the lack of a cohesive account system, where players could use their Nintendo ID across multiple networks and devices.
This has been remedied, in part, with the Nintendo Network ID and Miiverse on Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and through a browser. However, Iwata still feels that "when we look at Nintendo's current network services from this perspective and others, they look like patchwork."
Iwata admitted that each of these services were constructed one at a time, and how Nintendo perhaps "did not have an overall vision as to what the final and comprehensive format should be like."
He also touched on the increasing use of smart devices, and how there was a feeling that Nintendo "could not foresee that smart devices would have increased in significance to be the dominant window through which consumers connect with one another and society."
Going forward, through the Nintendo DeNA partnership, the integrated membership service will be worked on between both companies so "that the 'bridge' will be built more cleanly, because even though we will not be able to perfectly define the requirements in advance, or even when we are faced with further environmental changes, we will be able to construct a structure which can flexibly deal with these changing requirements."
Nintendo aim to relay more concrete information "around the end of October" to investors.
Which existing membership systems do you think Nintendo should take inspiration from?