Sad day, Nintendo gamers, although one that we’ve probably all seen coming for awhile now. Nintendo, no doubt eyeing up the cash raked in every month by X-Box Live, has decided that it is probably high time they start taking away your money in exchange for online game play. Well, they call it “Wii Points,” but the rest of us call it money. However, Nintendo insists on pointing out that it’ll only charge for some online gaming — apparently they will indicate titles which will charge you by putting a red dot somewhere on the case.

Nintendo is currently being a bit vague on exactly how the charging will work. They call it “Pay and Play,” and make a point of drawing a distinction between that service and their usual Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection services. Early descriptions make it sound like a pumped up, extra fancy version of the current service. Whether or not basic services will be available for red dot games is unclear, with extra cost for extra services, but it is not beyond reason that Nintendo will expect you to shell out some sort of cost for any online access with some games. Monthly? Yearly? By the usage?  Don’t know yet, but stay tuned to Wii Centre for updates.

[via Spong]