14 DAY TRIAL // If you thought you had seen and heard all about the Wii consoles, think again - out of the blue, Nintendo Japan decided to offer its fans the chance to take their Wii addiction to the next level by developing a service which allows you to create real paper cards with your Miis and Wii friend codes. I must admit that I find this to be a really, really strange service, but I am sure I'm just one of the few - I'll keep my eyes open for the sales figures and ready for a shocker.
Anyway, the thing is that now, thanks to the Digi Cam Print Channel, you can purchase large 89 ? 127 mm prints from Fujifilm for 30 yen ($0.28). Also, you have the option to buy custom 20 pages photo books for 1,575 yen ($14.75). However, these two things can be done basically in any store or home featuring a printer. The unique offering of the channel is, however, the 30 business cards set personalized with your Mii and contact information - all these for 500 yen or $4.80. According to Siliconera, all the orders are handled by e-mail and shipped to your house.
So, this is it! The first step towards the new era has just been made. Soon, we'll probably be allowed by video games to create characters 100% similar to our looks, and we'll be able to make business cards of them. The world will be filled with Lara Crofts, Master Chiefs and... Hitlers (unless console manufacturers actually manage to ban them all before they turn into a phenomenon). And I consider all these weird. But, once again, many people probably considered the idea of non-linear games (just a random example) strange 15 years ago, and now a linear game is criticized by everybody. Things change, things keep evolving and Mii business cards seem to be the first step.
However, as I've said, this option is available in Japan only at the moment and, since Nintendo said nothing about the offer, we have no idea whether the other regions will get similar services.