Wii U online will be free

Nintendo’s Wii U Miiverse will be a free service.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said he feels a subscription-free service will benefit the Wii U in the long run.

According to Adriasang, Iwata told an audience at a recent shareholders meeting that a fee to access the Miiverse would only stunt the growth of the Wii U.

He feels word of mouth will easily spread about how good the Miiverse is and this will lead to stronger hardware and software sales.

This would leave Xbox Live as the only service that charges for online play.

Nintendo recently revealed the Miiverse wouldn’t connect with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.