Animal Crossing MMOG / DS Flash Card Rumored

Though there are no official announcements at the moment, Next Generation is reporting on two interesting possibilities for the future of Nintendo products. In a report filed yesterday, the site hints that Nintendo may be considering a MMOG version of Animal Crossing , to be released on the Wii console. Also exciting: the possibility of a Flash Card for the DS that would allow classic Nintendo games to be (legally) played on their handheld console. "The uncontrollable homebrew and piracy communities that use the DS rely on similar devices ... this should, in the long term, allow Nintendo to exercise some control over at least the former through the simple step of offering a path to publisher-supported content. Compared to the slightly vague WiiWare proposition, this has the possibility to revolutionise homebrew development - at least in terms of distribution and the possibility of mainstream success - but how far the notoriously controlling Japanese giant will allow that community the creative freedom it requires to flourish will only be seen in practice."

Fantastic

[68030]

An MMOG version of Animal Crossing might be enough reason to convince my wife we need a Wii. I think the outline of the clock is burned into the corner of our television.

Flash Carts are at least "tolerated" if not legal

[webmaster404]

I have a flash cart and guess where I bought it... Wal-Mart here in the US. It was a Datel branded "Max Media Player" and it had a NoPass-like device to put in Slot-1 and a Compact Flash card reader on the bottom, its not the greatest for homebrew as it doesn't contain any extra RAM, but I have a NES and SNES emulator working fine on it, along with a few homebrew games, I don't believe commercial games will run on it though, but recently I saw a Datel product "Games and Movies" that was another flash cart-like device. So they aren't as hard to come by as Nintendo makes you think they are.

MMORPG or Animal Crossing: Visitors

[WillAffleckUW]

One wonders if this is just a chrome PR spin on the original plans to have Animal Crossing on the Wii have an online component that allows you to visit your friend's villages, or is it more of an attempt to allow multiple players to all take trains to the next town so they can whap the locals with their nets?

The main question - are we talking true MMORPG or are we talking multi-instance MMO where each time I visit your village it's a virtual copy, so that I can't jack your fruit (the stuff is always nailed down, even though you can turn it on or off)?