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Nintendo Launches Wi-Fi Campaign for DS
The Inquirer has the word that Nintendo has launched a massive theatre-based advertising blitz for the DS. The campaign launch features a trailer length film entitled "The Sad, Agonizing Tale of Bhuvan Ganguly". From the IGN Story: "'There is a great element of surprise to this ad,' says Nintendo's advertising manager Kelli Koenig. 'The spot opens on a very dramatic situation that you just wouldn't expect to be related to video games or Nintendo. The spot clearly demonstrates Wi-Fi as it relates to the Nintendo brand with a nod to Mario Kart DS and it does this in a magical, clearly ownable by Nintendo kind of way.'"
Talk about the wrong time to invest in a multi-million dollar cinema ads, when cinema attendence in general plummeted some record breaking 20 weeks in a roll.
Exactly how does one get to use Nintendo Wi-Fi? I don't think the articles or the Ad let me know. Do I go sign up somewhere and hunt for hot spots around town or do I go out and get a Wireless router? Since I already have a DS, inquiring minds want to know.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Commercials aren't telling us what they're selling any more. If I'm going to be a good little consumer, I have to know what I'm supposed to drop my desposible income on. Bananas? Old guys with carts?
It reminds me of the movie "Alone in the Dark" if you've seen it, you may understand why:
Alone in the Dark opens with a long text crawl explaining the movie (because Uwe Boll is an idiot, but that's not the point). They added it because nobody in the test audiences knew what the fuck the was happening in the movie.
If you have to go back and say "Oh, this is what's going on" or "This is what we're selling" you should probably re-think what you're doing.
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Just what we need, more advertising before movies start.
Nothing like wasting your customers time (up to 20 minutes) to get them to come back for more.
I hate the arrogance and huberis of making someone spend a punishing amount of time just to get the "privalage" of spending their hard earned money.
I think that this is going to be a fantastic feature for the DS and its games. I can not wait untill more Wi-Fi games it comes out for it. I know most geeks like the PSP but the DS has fantastic games for it (Kirby) and now the Nintendo is seeing online games as a good thing, I think that it will only make their games better.
if you think about it a bit more, it's not just 'throwing things on the ground causes car accidents miles away" (the cars never hit each other anyway). it's more that the car slipped (on the bananna peel) and then spun out. much like what would happen if you drove over a bananna peel in mario kart (hence the mario cart clips at the end).
and the fact that the guy throwing the bananna and the guy driving the car are miles apart is meant to highlight the wireless connection feature. you can play/affect other people miles away...etc.
the ad is very mario cart specific, not generic at all..
although, imo, the 'for every action, there is a blah blah reaction' tag was kinda lame.
my 2c
The ad in question, for those who didn't bother to click on the IGN article.
This campaign isn't too bad of an idea so far. The ad is a little obscure, but the launch of the WiFi network is still two or three months away. Something like this may pique the interest of fans, but it will be explained in more detail closer to the holidays. Besides, if the launch of Nintendo WiFi Connection is as successful as many people expect, news should spread rather quickly by word of mouth. I know a lot of people who are eyeing the DS to see how Mario Kart and Animal Crossing will turn out as online games.
step 1: buy a DS. step 2: connect to the internet and do all sorts of cool stuff. step 3: get arrested for stealing someone's internet connection. ...talk about the worst time to introduce WiFi to a bunch of people who don't know what rights they don't have.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
It was actually very cool; you wouldn't know that it's an ad about video games until the voiceover announces it, and you wouldn't "get" how everything connects until the last second. Not that ads have much of a "plot" to them, this was refreshing to watch.
Nintendo will be a releasing a little USB wifi router of sorts, that you plug into yoru computer, and it shares your internet connection. you might be be to use normal wifi routers aswell.
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If the advertised SSID is "nintendo" (i.e. at a Nintendo official hotspot) or the like, or if the player has previously used this SSID for a game, put a green light. If the advertised SSID is "linksys" or some other well-known default brand name, put a red light. Otherwise, put a yellow light.
"I'm color-blind, you insensitive clod!" Even color-blind people know from experience that stop comes first and go comes last in a traffic signal.
the commercial just plain sucks.
plus it doesnt let any uninformed consumer know what 'wi-fi' is or how it makes a game better and teases any one that does with a feature that won't be available for at least 3 months with 0 details about that feature...
(btw i can't believe 'crotch' is my word to verify in posting this message...)
There seems to be some questioning here around Nintendo's Wi-Fi plan. It just happens that Nintendo Power's August issue discusses it, so a quick summary is probably called for. If you're wondering why I have Nintendo Power, hey cut me some slack, it was free:
"The wait for Wi-Fi is nearly over. And if you're wondering if it has been worth the wait, consider this: In a few months, you'll enter a cafe in your home town, plop down with a cup of joe, fire up your DS and challenge a group of friends across town or strangers scattered across the globe to a friendly Mario Kart DS race."
Sift through the marketspeak and, to me, it seems to indicate that Wi-Fi will begin rolling out by having hotspots in public venues, probably through arrangements between Nintendo and those venues. I think there's real potential in that kind of play, making it into a kind of quasi-arcade experience -- it drags portable gaming out of the living room and basement and out into public, which could turn out really cool. Think about it -- videogaming originated, as a mass-market phenomonon, in arcades, where you had spectators and a ready environment to talk games with people you never met. This could go a long way towards reviving gaming in a social context. (It could also crash and burn, but I'm so happy to see Nintendo trying something really risky for a change.)
A little further along, the article talks about Wi-Fi on Revolution, seeming to imply that eventually it'll be available at home.
And that's about it; one page on the tail end of three on the new DS Mario Kart.
Do you really think Nintendo is going to roll out a wireless network? Of course they aren't, they are going to be smart and just piggy back on all the existing hot spots so it will work just like wireless for any other device does currently.
The infrastructure Nintendo will provide will be more geared towards the game servers themselves and there is also talk about them releasing a wireless router of sorts that people like my parents that have broadband but only one computer with no wireless router can just plug into a spare USB port.
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My wifi router has a feature to not only use wep, but to maintain a control list of allowed and blocked MAC addresses. Currently its configured to block anyone not on the list, so only my own computers can connect. will this work with the DS? does my DS even HAVE a mac address?
Do you really think Nintendo is going to roll out a wireless network?
Well since you ask...
I figure (okay, guess) what Nintendo will probably do is offer some kind of proprietary access point hardware, first to those installations they partner with, then roll it out nationwide. It'll probably use a standard internet connection, but the wireless part will likely be encrypted by their hardware.
This way, even though they don't make money off of access to their servers they still earn some cash, from access point sales, from their network capability. Of course, this is purest speculation, but it seems like the kind of thing they'd do, for better or worse.
"Do you really think Nintendo is going to roll out a wireless network?"
Well, they will in Japan. It's probably much less practical in the US, due to the smaller population density. The best implementation would be as you suggested, to use standard WiFi hotspots. But if, for some reason, the DS requires a proprietary protocol, the only solution would be for Nintendo to place their own hotspots or provide users with a USB dongle that lets them use "NiFi" over an existing connection.
"...there is also talk about them releasing a wireless router of sorts that people like my parents that have broadband but only one computer with no wireless router can just plug into a spare USB port."
Actually, I think they could simply buy any wireless networking card or a USB wireless adapter, and use it to share their broadband network wirelessly. It should effectively turn their computer into a WiFi hotspot, or more specifically a software access point.
I cant wait for all the "online haters" who dissed xbox live and ps2 to no end for years, suddenly will be stand and say "Hey playing online is great!" ;) sigh.. well good for them.
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Nintendo does NOT use a proprietary protocol for it's internet service. It uses plain old 802.11b.
Portable gaming. I can see the Nintend DS in a unique position to become very popular through WiFi.
Two things work in its favor: the stylus (Which allows for at least a few RTS style games. Imagine versing your friend in a game of Pikmin on the DS)and the mic (Hey, you could talk to people real time through the DS).
If anything, this might spark a golden age of handheld innovation.
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Mario Kart and Animal Crossing are the only two games I've seen mentioned in connection with online play.
Are there any other games coming out before the end of the year that will have online multiplayer?
Online gaming is still crap. I'll make an exception for Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, though :-)
Just kidding. Hopefully, this will get more people to play online. And hopefully, it won't just be an excuse for crappy AI in Mario Kart.
There's a good article on this at http://www.revolutionreport.com/ too. Here's the link. http://www.revolutionreport.com/articles/read/40