Wii U might be taking online play a little more seriously than its older brethren, but it might not be enough to make both developers and consumers happy.
While speaking at a Namco Bandai roundtable meeting, Producer Katshihiro Harada shared some skepticism in Nintendo's implementation of online for the Wii U. He specifically said:
Not quite sure at this point. I don't fully understand it. We’re still working with Nintendo to find out about their network.
Online multiplayer is extremely important in this day and age. The Wii's buddy code system made things a lot more difficult than they needed to be for Nintendo fans, and the lacking feature-set of the console's online experience certainly didn't help.
The biggest selling point of the Wii U is its ability to inherit multiplatform games. Call of Duty: Black Ops II was recently confirmed for the console and many other competitive games will be sure to follow. But if they aren't nearly as fun to play as on consoles made over five years ago then what's the point?
Then again this is just the impression of a single producer out of many in the industry, so nothing's set in stone.