For all the questionable calls that Nintendo has made in the last few years regarding their approach to online gaming, the Big N still recognizes that a free online gaming network is the best path for the Wii U’s Miiverse. Hooray for sensible decisions!

Andriasang‘s Anoop Gantayat sat in on Nintendo’s annual shareholder’s meeting to listen in as CEO Satoru Iwata fielded questions about a variety of topics.

When the subject of discussing turned to Nintendo’s online network with the Wii U, Iwata noted that the idea of a paid service has been floated around during the console’s development. Luckily, they opted for a free model:

Iwata said that he doesn’t necessarily reject the idea of a paid service that allows not just Wii U but various other devices to connect to Nintendo Network. However, when considering Nintendo’s users, a paid membership service is not the best approach. By having everyone use the Miiverse together, word of mouth will more easily spread. This will lead to greater hardware and software sales.

Most notably—and perhaps, most predictably—Nintendo also denied that they any new models of the Nintendo 3DS were in the pipes for the future. Of course, take that with a grain of salt.

Although Iwata said that Nintendo didn’t want to “confuse” people with too many models of the 3DS, this is the same company that released four different versions of the Nintendo 3DS. And that new 3DS XL? Insanely dumb design. Why isn’t it just plain bigger, with two Circle Pads built-in?

Source: Andriasang