Initially they were all like “Oh we have to be family friendly and ensure all our young gamers are safe, so we keep them anonymous and have no fixed identity and force them to use multiple friend codes for multiple games.”
Now with the 3DS they are like “Well, the other companies have found a niche in online, so we better do it just to fit in with the market…but just one friend code…forget gamertags”.
Then with the Wii U they are like “Maybe we will get someone else to do it for us.”