Thus far, Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service has been free for all games. But that's going to change in the future, at least for some games.
Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama revealed at GDC that Nintendo will be instituting a "Pay to Play" feature for some Wii games in the future.
This seems a bit strange, as Nintendo has always taken a firm stance in the past about their online service being completely free.
Fees will be paid for with Wii Points, and to avoid confusion, Pay to Play games will have a red icon instead of the blue "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" icon.
No specific games have been announced to use this service yet, but if I had to guess, I'd say that there's a fair chance that the next Animal Crossing game (if it features online) will use this service. It just seems like a perfect fit.
That's merely speculation on my part, though. One thing's for sure though. It'll be interesting to see how this service pans out for Nintendo.
Source: siliconera