It’s not what you know, its who you know. Connectivity is a huge part of all new technology, whether your fragging 12 year-old boys on Xbox Live or producing a kick-ass podcast with your colleagues over Skype on your PSP.

It has always been at this hurdle of connectivity that Nintendo has traditionally stumbled, offering remarkably lackluster online experience compared to its competitors. But no more! As of December 5th, Nintendo is done with just bringing people together in the living room, it wants bring people together from across the world. At the centre of its efforts to do this is the company’s latest branded gizmo, WiiSpeak.

WiiSpeak enables Wii owners to communicate with friends for the first. Connected directly to the console, the device will pick up the conversations from an entire room of people. Which means unlike headsets, everyone you’re with can get stuck into the flaming exciting social experience!

The new WiiSpeak Channel, accessed from the Wii’s main menu, allows up to four consoles connect together to chat, share pictures and send text messages.

The first game to use the full capabilities of WiiSpeak is Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City. Which, in the run up to Christmas, will be bundled with the WiiSpeak microphone. Nintendo is still keeping it all family friendly though. Users will still have to share Friend Codes to be able to communicate with each other. At the end of the day, it’s all about keeping the little ones safe.