Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, has stated at the DICE roundtable in Las Vegas that online gaming lacks a profitable model and hasn't appealed to a wide enough audience.
"I think from where we stand it looks to us that it's going to be fairly niche for a long time," said Kaplan. "I think some of our interests instead lie in building community on the wireless play front as opposed to the online one."
Although often berated for their lack of online support Nintendo’s position on online games does make more sense in the light of
recent figures that show that there are only a combined 1.7 million online console gamers on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox world-wide, out of a wider market of 77+ million console owners.
Source:
IGN
