This article was written for last issue of Pure Nintendo magazine. Make sure to check out the next issue of Pure Nintendo magazine.

Earlier this year Nintendo announced they are looking into NFC technology for the Wii U and possibly more. If you are like me you may know more about the National Football Conference then the Near Field Communication.  Let us take some time and learn what NFC technology could mean for Nintendo and the Wii U.

 

To put it simply, NFC uses radio waves to communication electronic devices together. Users can remotely (possibly in the cloud) save credit card information for quick purchases. According to European site that specializes in NFC technology, NFC can be used in a variety of ways.

 

  • Paying by mobile devices like cell phones (or Wii U)
  • Credit card integration into a mobile device
  • Electronic money integrating with prepaid cards
  • Electronic ticketing for transport usage
  • Personal electronic document
  • Download of data from kiosks such as railway time-table
  • Flight and hotel booking
  • Music and photos download from camera, cell phones, multimedia readers
  • Connections P2P (peer to peer) for an easy information transmission between wireless devices

 

Lets take a look how the Wii U can use this technology. Let us start with the obvious; this technology can use their U-pad to quickly purchase digital content for the Wii U. A quick swipe of the U-Pad, near the console, could easily download anything the heart desires. More impressively this technology can be used to fully integrate your home. Technically, if this technology is used the right way, users will be able to connect multiple NFC devices to each other and share information. A cell phone could communicate with the Wii U, share pictures or music, ect. More likely, players could share information stored on their personal U-pads with each other’s; save data, Mii’s, pictures, ect. Nintendo did something like this with the ability to save Mii’s to a Wii-mote.

 

Let us take the hypothesis a little farther. What if Nintendo adds the NFC technology to the 3DS? This could promote better communication between the Wii U and the 3DS itself. The 3DS could also be used to make payments at stores or interact with other NFC devices.

 

There are a ton of things Nintendo could do with the NFC. Probably things we have never thought about. Up to this time the NFC technology has been manly used for electronic payments form mobile phones. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo actually does with the service.