In a rather odd announcement, sources have revealed that Nintendo has teamed up with America Online (AOL) for all of their current and future on-line plans. This comes as a surprise as Nintendo have made it pretty clear that they don't see online gaming as the way forwards. Even in our interview with the product manager of Nintendo of Europe, no desire to move Nintendo online was expressed, rather the opposite in fact.

The news came via an e-mail sent from Nintendo to the online publication IGN.

The contents of the letter are below:

We are writing to inform you that we have recently entered into a new business agreement with America Online. We would like to explain what the relationship represents for the gaming community and Nintendo licensees.

The agreement means that Nintendo licensees who choose to create online games for play on the Nintendo GameCube will be licensed AOL connectivity software that will enable such online games to connect to the Internet via AOL. It also means that, should Nintendo announce any online games of its own during the term of the agreement, they will be created for play using AOL as the preferred ISP. At this point we are not announcing any new online games.

To be clear, this does not indicate the unveiling of a new online gaming approach from Nintendo. Nor does it signify that we have changed our position on the current business viability in the online console gaming field.

In addition, as part of our co-marketing relationship, online promotions of Nintendo products and services will be featured on several AOL and AOL Time Warner online properties. Nintendo is also discussing with AOL potential marketing promotions for the new AOL for Broadband service, which may include bundling of demo disks with the Nintendo GameCube.

I'm unsure as to exactly how this will affect us european gamers, but it's still an interesting announcement. I personally do see online as the way forwards regardless of the revenue it is creating at this current moment. I'm sure many people will agree with me when I say that some of my best experiences of console gaming have involved more than 2 players.

Unfortunately, Nintendo have no announcements about what they plan to do with AOL, but it looks pretty obvious to me. We're Netbound... and it got about time too.

- by Matt Plummer