Conduit "Probably Will" Use Friend Codes

Friend codes on the Wii are enough of a pain in the ass for casual titles that those anticipating the few multiplayer FPSes on the console — like, say, The Conduit — are positively dreading what they'd do to that online experience. Exchanging codes with one friend is bad enough. Sixteen? Oh, lawd.WiiHD, which has been an impassioned anti-friend code voice in the past, delved into and transcribed a podcast from Nintendo Radio, regarding The Conduit, and it doesn't like what it hears. The title "probably will" require them for multiplayer, according to developer High Voltage Studios. High Voltage insists it's going to lengths to make this process as easy and streamlined as possible. But it points out that this is Nintendo's field and they have to play ball on it. Although the two designers interviewed said they are no fan of the codes, "it's [Nintendo's] console, which we have to have their permission and their sign-off for whatever we put into the game. And if Friend Codes are what is, [that's what it] is gonna be." The Conduit is still publisher-less, which means High Voltage would have less leverage on the Friend Code/No Code question — and close to zero if that publisher turns out to be Nintendo itself, as WiiHD surmises. Death of The Conduit? [WiiHD] Full disclosure, I do not own a Wii and so I'm talking a little out of class about the Friend Code experience. I do know that Googling "friend codes suck" returns about 1,000 pages.