While Nintendo refrained from going into great detail over the online capabilities of Wii U during this year’s E3, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the upcoming console will support free-to-play titles. The tidbit was revealed in an unlikely source, namely an investor Q&A.

“We have designed the system from a technical standpoint to allow developers to freely take advantage of things like free to play and micro transactions,” noted Iwata.

Additionally, Iwata revealed that publishers will have the option of releasing retail-bound titles digitally from launch day. To that end, Iwata was keen to note that there are “no restrictions.” It’s great to see Nintendo isn’t bogging down publishers with unnecessary restrictions when it comes to distribution. Xbox Live has been notorious for being hard to work with in this area, it’s one of the reasons why 360 owners missed out on free DLC from Valve – as well as Steamworks support in Portal 2.

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