Because that would make too much sense. I've said it here and I'll say it again: Nintendo doesn't understand the Internet. The SNES had more online support than the Gamecube if you consider the Satellaview. Yeah, you could have a unified profile that is based on a name instead of a 20 digit number, but then children would get preyed on by pedophiles or something.

Can't really say I'm surprised : /

:(

Friend codes, at their core, are not that bad. In fact they're fine, because it allows you to create a "character" name for every game. So in Pokemon, I can still be Doc, not DrRandle, or Panda_Convoy. I kind of like that flexibility, plus it helps keep anonymity. It's kind of a hassle, but the REAL problem is that Friend Codes are not console specific, their game specific. So to find friends for Pokemon and Animal Crossing and Mario Kart requires 3 numbers rather than 1. If they make it Console specific, that will be perfectly fine with me.

I kind of assumed they'd do this. I think they use friend codes rather than user names because anyone could type in a likely user name (e.g. Jack) and find any random player out there. Nintendo don't like people communicating with random individuals because then people run the risk of running into the kind of unsavoury people that plague services like Xbox LIVE.