Nintendo has been notorious for its slow adoption of online gaming. While the Sega Dreamcast and later Microsoft's Xbox emphasized online capabilities, playing online on the GameCube was more like an afterthought; only a few games supported the broadband adapter peripheral. With the DS Nintendo has finally warmed up to online gaming, but even now the selection of online titles is pretty limited. And unfortunately that trend may continue with the Wii, at least initially.

According to a report from IGN, which cites "multiple development sources," Nintendo is not planning to make its Wii Wi-Fi Connection libraries available to third parties until early 2007, meaning that there will be no online Wii games during the console's launch window this year. Furthermore, if the developers don't get the libraries until early 2007, it would seem that online third-party games will be sparse until later next year.

The disappointing news was revealed in a preview for Activision's Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, which apparently will not run in 16x9 widescreen or progressive scan on the Wii—features that will likely be standard for most Wii games, even though the console will not offer true HDTV resolutions. It's unfortunate that the game won't sport these features, but remember that these are the same people (the same publisher, that is) that brought a lackluster port of Gun to the Xbox 360 at launch.

Concerning the Wii third party online news, however, please keep in mind that Nintendo has not officially confirmed the report. We've contacted Nintendo and will let you know what we hear.

If the news is true though, gamers will still have Nintendo's first party offerings that utilize the WiiConnect24 service to look forward to. Nevertheless, Nintendo has shared very little about its full online plans and even first party Wii games at launch may not necessarily offer anything more than downloadable content. More information will undoubtedly trickle out as the console's launch nears.