The next installment of Electronic Arts' Madden 08 will feature online multiplayer but will not be using Nintendo's friend code system, according to associate producer Damian Zerr in an interview with IGN.

"Madden Wii doesn't support the Wii friends system during online play," he said. "This is something we're still working on with Nintendo. For now our online play uses your EA Nation Persona to search and manage your EA Messenger account." IGN does not press further as to why EA made this decision, leaving us to only speculate the reasons why. Perhaps EA is as distraught with the system as many Joystiq readers have conveyed.

No voice chat will be available during online play, relying instead on EA Messenger for communication (details on how were also not given), but alongside DS connectivity was not ruled out for Madden 09.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Those oft-discussed Nintendo friend codes may be more universal than previously thought. In an interview with Gamers.fr, Mario Strikers Charged producer Justin Dowdeswell of Next Level Games said that the friend codes used for online games are tied to your Mii character and does not change between games.

"Each Mii created generates a Mii code that never changes. This code will thus be used for all other online games in the future," said Dowsedell (according to a translation done by Joystiq).

Each Wii console can hold 100 Mii characters. There are one trillion possible 12-digit friend codes; some quick number-crunching reveals that Nintendo can only build ten billion Wii consoles in its lifetime. Only ten billion? Way to limit your sales, Ninty. (We're going to spell this one out: that's sarcasm.)

Update: Falafelkid at Wii: Definitive speculation contacted Dowdeswell via phone, who said that "he never intended to comment on any other titles, nor would he know about how they implemented online features."

Dowsedell comments as they appear above were a translation of his original words done by this writer, which we should have made more clear. However, we feel our translation was accurate to the best of our knowledge. As it was written in the interview: Chaque Mii créé génère un code Mii qui reste invariable par la suite. Ce code servira donc pour tous les autres jeux jouables en ligne dans le futur.

We have contacted Dowsedell ourselves to learn that, indeed, he is not sure and was not speaking for how online will be handled with other games. "We're just aware of how we're handling Strikers stuff ... That's not to say it won't happen, but I'm not aware of that," he said to Joystiq via phone.

We apologize for any misunderstanding of Dowdeswell's words specifically stemming from the phrase "all other online games in the future" (intended to mean Strikers Charged matches and not other Wii games).

[Via The Platformers]

Friend codes. Nintendo's self-imposed restriction on online gaming has been a burden to many who want to play with their friends without having to share a different 12-digit friend code for every game. When the Wii was revealed to have a console-specific friend code, we thought Nintendo had somewhat listened to the community's grumblings. When Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first online Wii title, launched in Japan with friend codes, we realized the folly of our optimism.

Square Enix's Senior Vice President Hiromichi Tanaka empathizes, highlighting the friend code system as the primary reason they haven't brought an online game like Final Fantasy XI onto the console. In an interview with Cubed's Adam Riley, Tanaka reveals that the RPG powerhouse is now in negotiations with Nintendo about "resolving this point of contention." A publisher of Square Enix's magnitude does not necessarily guarantee Nintendo will listen, but perhaps Nintendo will ease off or at least allow exceptions for some titles.

Then again, Final Fantasy XI on the Wii would surely be profitable even if gamers were required to enter over 300,000 12-digit codes to fully experience the world. That's how much, we suspect, Wii owners our clamoring for Nintendo to join the rest its brethren in this generation.

[Update 1: As White Rose Duelist and others have pointed out, Pokemon Battle Revolution's extra friend code might be an exception and not a rule, and Elebits is a cited example where one can exchange in-game pictures with Wii friends. However, as we do not have any other details from impending online games, and Nintendo has not readily clarified, we're just not sure.]