Nintendo to Microsoft: THIS is how you do online gaming

[Dogasu]

From IGN:

According to Nintendo, in one week more than 45% of the people who have purchased Mario Kart DS have taken their game online via the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

In just one week, more than 112,000 copies of Mario Kart DS have been sold in the US. Of that number more than 52,000 unique system/game pairs have connected to the online service for Wi-Fi multiplayer gaming.

"We are ecstatic with the results, and this definitely sets the standard for future Wi-Fi online gaming," said Beth Lewellyn, Nintendo's senior director of public relations. "Mario Kart should easily be a million seller in its life cycle, and we'd love for everyone with the game to touch the Wi-Fi experience. We've got Animal Crossing just around the corner, and Metroid Prime Hunters next year, with more to come."

Comparatively, Microsoft reported last year that after three weeks on store shelves, just 18 percent of Halo 2 owners had played that game on Xbox Live.

 

[Nekusagi]

It helps that it's free, apart from connector costs.

 

[Kadabra]

There's nothing surprising here:
1) It's free, anyone can afford it.
2) You're not restricted mobility-wise. Most people have their X-Boxes in the living room. I don't know about you people, but not all of us have Ethernet access down there.

 

[Doctor Oak]

To be fair, the 360 will be WiFi capable. Just not out of the box like the Revolution will be or the DS is.

And also, I guarantee that there would be no online Mario Kart DS if the people that did buy into Xbox live weren't there. Nintendo would have simply sat on the online fence for another generation.

It's not so much a slap in the face for Microsoft as a success for Nintendo. They said their online would be free, easy and safe and the numbers show it.

The only big problem coming from those without existing wireless connections - the entire plan behind the USB adaptor seems completely bungled. In America you can only buy it online and over here it hasn't even made it to any market yet.

Considering the fair profit I expect Nintendo will gain from Mario Kart DS - I really don't see why the adaptor wasn't available bundled.... Even at £10-£20 more at least it would have meant it was possible for EVERYONE to go online.

Especially if Nintendo plans to meet it's online target of 90% set by Reggie at E3.....

 

[GrnMarvl14]

Yeah, I'm confused by the adaptor only being available online as well. It's certainly not like they have a high standard for peripherals, and they had the GBA wireless connectors in stores, separate from the few games that they worked with (at least two of which came WITH the device bundled in). I wonder if it has anything to do with their McDonalds partnership. Make it harder for people to get the adaptor and force them into McDonalds (thus making it a profitable endeavor).

All I know is that if I don't buy my own wireless network, I'll at least buy the adaptor. I'm too addicted to the idea to bail out now.

 

[Kadabra]

To be fair, the 360 will be WiFi capable. Just not out of the box like the Revolution will be or the DS is.

Hmm...I haven't seen too many people walking outside, carrying a 360 around with them in an attempt to find an access point. My point was that given the mobility advantage, anyone with a DS can step outside and find an open access point to connect to. There are 3 open ones on my street, and my buddies have have found similar numbers. So, really, the only DS users that won't be online are the ones who will either not buy one of the required games, or ones that never set a foot outside. Achieving that 90% goal won't be difficult at all.