Don't forget your login details

Although Wii is rapidly fading into a borderline retro status with gamers, do you remember how simple it was to play its small collection of online games on the web? Sure, connection drops were common on the humble hardware and friend codes were a ponderous way to organise things, but a lot of the time you pressed a button and, hey presto, you were playing online.

Many have been agitating for much more, though, and despite some early concerns and hiccups it's expected that the use of Nintendo Network on Wii U will bring its gamers more in line with those on Xbox 360, PS3 or PC online games. Still, you should be careful what you wish for, as it's been discovered that to play EA games online, such as FIFA 13 or shooting things in Mass Effect 3, you'll need to set up an account on the company's Origin service that will link into your Nintendo Network id. This is from EA's privacy policy.

If you sign up to play EA games through a Nintendo Wii U console, your Nintendo account information will be provided to EA so that we can establish an Origin Account for you. You need an Origin Account to play EA's titles online. By signing up to play EA's titles, you agree that limited user account information can be transferred to EA. Information transferred to EA includes your Mii information, email address, Nintendo Network ID, friend list, country, language and date of birth but does not include credit card number or other financial account information.

This is expected and replicates the experience that other HD consoles owners have, and we doubt this'll be the last account or system that you need to link to in order to play some online multiplayer. We seriously doubt this is anything more significant, after all of that talk around E3 2011 of EA being involved in Nintendo's online network for Wii U, but it is the cost of having a more modern online system. It does at least sound like Origin will do most of the work for you, though if you need a separate username and password you may be reaching for the notebook to keep track.

So, does setting up multiple accounts to access online gaming make sense to you, or do you pine for the simple but limited ways of Wii? Let us know in the comments below.

[source officialnintendomagazine.co.uk]