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1000 DS HotSpots By End of Year

Posted by Zonk on from the dogs-everywhere dept.

Nintendo has announced that they will impliment up to 1000 DS wireless hotspots by the end of the year in Japan. No word yet on international wireless initiatives, though the article states there are many countries interested in the project. Iwata also repeats an earlier belief that online gaming has yet to really take off. From the article: "Iwata said online gaming had yet to take off and spread to a wide audience of users because of various drawbacks, including a laborious process to get connected to a network and consumers' unwillingness to pay a monthly fee for access."

5 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Gotta still have faith in Nintendo by defkkon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Nintendo was heavily criticized for not jumping into the realm of online gaming. I criticized them as well. I was sitting there playing my PS2 online and my Xbox Live thinking "Geez, I wish Nintendo would do this!" Nintendo's defense was that it "wasn't the right time." I called bullshit, along with many many others.

    Now I'm ashamed that I had lost faith in them. Nintendo truly doesn't go with the majority. They really were waiting for the "right time" to do something unique with online (and specifically, wireless) technology.

    Between the DS hotspots and the proposed online service for the Revolution, it just goes to show you that Nintendo will take whatever the competition is doing and find a unique way of adapting it.

  2. Hotspots by kutsu119 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm all in favour for hotspots, they sound like an imaginative way of solving a problem of folks not having broadband. Can't see myself hanging around one of these "hotspots" though, as much as I want to play it online. I question how many other folks would say the same.

    1. Re:Hotspots by theREALMcCoy · · Score: 2, Informative

      The DS will work from any hotspot, including one in your home.

  3. Revolution as a wireless hub? by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Interesting
    In some of the other articles covering the Nintendo Revolution, a few people kicked around the idea of the Revolution serving as a wireless hub for the DS. This would literally create millions of such hot spots around the world if every Revolution was open to be used as a hub.

    Would be even nicer if they had WiMax in them. Would cost a hell of a lot more, but think of the range. You could play your friend across on the Revolution or DS without either of you leaving home. Would be interesting if they offered the ability to upgrade the network card in the console.

  4. 1000 in Japan == a lot by nobodyman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Granted, 1000 hotspots is alot of hotspots in and of itself. But to have 1000 DS hotspots in Japan is staggering. To give you an idea, Japan is a little smaller than California. There are less than 1000 mcdonalds in california (and in Cali, there's a friggin McDonalds EVERYWHERE). So I imagine you wont be able to walk down the street in Japan without passing by a DS zone.