While Microsoft and Sony have taken expertly to the realm of Internet connectivity, networks, and DLC content with their consoles, Nintendo still seems to be lagging far behind in getting wired. It looks like with their slumping sales, the console behemoth is finally coming around to hook up into this vast economic springboard and that the “Nintendo Network” might be coming out alongside the Wii-U.

During an investor assembly last week, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced the Nintendo Network. The adoption of such a network will end the gaming company’s long history of failing to engage users across the Internet. With Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network already in the marketplace, this will be an uphill climb for Nintendo but it’s a climb that they must make if they want to retain their position in the console ecology.

The plans are to bring the Nintendo Network live across two platforms: the Wii-U and the Nintendo 3DS. In addition the service will bring access to “Communities for Mario Kart 7,” “add-on Content Sales” (DLC), digital distribution, and “Introduction of Personal Accounts for the Wii-U.”

Already the Wii, DSi, and the 3DS allow for downloadable games and content and having a content network will bring an entire extra library of games to Nintendo consoles that do not currently exist. Also, a result, Nintendo benefits greatly from having a huge supporting cast of retail titles that will only be filled out with the opportunity to access and download digital content.

The modification to add personal accounts is particularly welcome—people who experienced the “Friend code” phenomenon with the Wii can attest how terrible that approach to social networking went. Instead of allowing people to sign up for an online service with a handle and a password, Wii’s exported a 12-digital hardware code that mapped the console itself into the service (irrespective of whomever was using it at the time.)

The advent of a cross-Nintendo-platform personal account on their service will open the gaming company up into being able to break into modern social gaming.

All that said, Nintendo does have a long-hard-trek to make if they want to get noticed for their interconnectivity, DLC content, and social gaming network versus the powerful networks of Sony and Nintendo. Although Sony’s network is best known for the debacle of their nearly month-long shutdown last year and the massive hackfest; the Xbox LIVE network continues to thrive, grow, and push its way into the living room cloud as well as the mobile cloud.

Nintendo, with their pressure to produce well-produced and highly adopted handheld devices already has a market in the mobile venue that companies like Microsoft and Sony must buy their way into and that could be the leverage that Nintendo needs to make it big.