Despite Nintendo’s sketchy (at best) history with that whole “online community” concept, they continue to be optimistic with the potential for their whole “channels” idea on the Wii dashboard. I think we can all agree that there are a lot of fun things Nintendo can do with those channels, and Nintendo is already beginning to experiment. Their newest planned channel is something of an extension for the already existing Virtual Console, which allows users to purchase classic video games for download to their system. Nintendo, in an effort to encourage yet more gamers to connect their Wii to the Web, intends to build a channel which will allow users to purchase virtual games for other people — friends and family and the like. This channel will presumably be used both to send and receive purchased games. Nintendo hopes we internet users will buy games for our buddies who haven’t yet plugged in, thus compelling them to hop online to receive their new gift.

So what do you think, gamers? If Nintendo gave you the chance would you cough up some Wii Points to send a game to a friend? I can certainly envision buying Streets of Rage II and sending it to my little brother — dude and I spent so many hours playing and re-playing and re-playing that game when we were younger; it’d be great to send him a virtual console version of the game for nostalgia sake.

[via TechWhack]