Nintendo Smashes Into Online Gaming

Mario Kart DS ushers in Nintendo's go at making a success of online gaming, and so far things are looking good.

In the battle for online supremacy, Microsoft has been the runaway victor with Xbox Live - until now. Nintendo revealed this week that nearly 50 per cent of its audience has tried its new DS online service.

Mario Kart DS was released in the US on 14 November and since then it has sold about 112,000 copies, by Nintendo's reckoning. Of that group, 52,000 have already gone online to savour Mario's latest (and many say greatest) karting title.

This nearly 50 per cent adoption rate is well below the 90 per cent Nintendo had hoped for, but it's also nearly five times as much as the current market leader - Xbox Live.

A large part of this rapid uptake is the result of Nintendo's aggressive campaign to get gamers online as easily and cheaply as possible. There are no fees to play Nintendo games online and the company has also signed deals with several companies to get DS owners online for free.

In the coming months, Nintendo (and some third parties) will be releasing even more games, such as Animal Crossing: Wild World, to entice people to sample the free online gaming awaiting them.

Nintendo has similarly high hopes for Mario Kart DS and online gaming in Europe. In the UK alone, Nintendo has arranged for 7,500 hotspots to be made available for DS gamers.

Mario Kart DS will be on sale across Europe on Friday, 25 November.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games