Whilst browsing my usual sites, I noticed this register item.

It appears that ol’ ninty has been casting a somewhat lustful eye at Microsofts’ XBL cash cow and has decided to get in on the action and charge people for playing online.

You’ll apparently be charged using the wiipoints system to pay for the subscription, giving an incentive to actually use them now (since the virtual console is simply too expensive for what it really is).

There’s no details on when their “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay and Play” (note to marketeers, please give us something less of a mouthful. Wii friend codes were bad enough, now this??) will be implemented, how much it will cost and what the subscription will cover – whether it’s a pay once and play on any game or if it’s an a la carte style with each game having its own subscription.

There’s the claim that this will only cover some titles (translation: the good ones that we know will tempt people to play them *cough*super smash brothers brawl*cough*) and that there will still be some titles where you won’t have to play (translation: the cutesy stuff that won’t get much in the way of replaying).

Whether this will retroactively cover games already sold is not clear, but I’d doubt they would go that far.

In order to inform the gamer which title is covered under this money grabbing scheme, you’ll find a virtual red sticker slapped on the dashboard icon, I’d expect a real red sticker on the title box on the shelf too.

Could this also be the implementation of a payment system for games such as runescape to be ported to the wii? That one will prolly remain an elusive rumour until more details trickle out of the usually schtumm Nintendo PR department.