Mario Kart drives WFC uptake

By Tom Bramwell Published 23 November, 2005

Online bit's popular, apparently.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is quite popular, says Nintendo, amazingly - a week after Mario Kart DS launched in the US of States, more than 52,000 unique users had logged on to the service. More probably, if you count the twins and clones.

That's out of some 112,000 people who bought the game during its first week on sale, according to Nintendo's figures. According to Nintendo's maths, around 45 per cent of people went online (we've got 46 and a bit).

Perfectly understandable, of course - Mario Kart DS is a wonderful game, and the Wi-Fi Connection service works remarkably well, as does the "regular" wireless multiplayer.

As you'll know by now, Mario Kart DS is out in Europe this Friday, November 25th, along with the USB dongle (sold separately) for folks who haven't got wireless access at home and want to give the thing a bash through a wired broadband PC connection.

Friday will also see our network of Wi-Fi Connection hotspots turned on - you can find details on where your nearest one is by reading our preview coverage.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 6 years ago

    Online popular??? Surely not!

  • Psi #2 6 years ago

    guess thats my online nick stolen now? should have pre-ordered the american version...

  • Azu87 #3 6 years ago

    Psi you can use whatever nickname you want. And it doesn't even have to be like Psi123. I don't quite get it myself but Nintendo has done some kind of system where everyone can have the nickname they want, even if there are two or more of them. I guess there is some way to know who is who but I can't really say anything because I haven't tested the system myself.

  • Nemesis #4 6 years ago

    Got the wireless tested out with THPS and it's rather natty ; WEP keys do have to be 13 chars to get through some routers though; oddly enough.

  • caligari #5 6 years ago

    I know Bengali, I can smell it

  • tonynibbles #6 6 years ago

    "US of States"

    o_O

  • Carlo #7 6 years ago

    Yes MrT

    But make sure you use WEP not WPA security, or get the dongle.

    52,000 users! Is that USA only or does it include Japan?

  • kangarootoo #8 6 years ago

    I'm pretty sure it is 11b, but I'm not 100% on that.

    EDIT: Further to that, it seems to support 802.11b AND some Nintendo proprietary protocol. I'm seeing reports that the 11b function doesn't work straight out of the box.

    I am a bit unclear at this point after looking into it more, maybe an EG staffer can give you some decent info? Anyone?
    Edited by 1 at 23/11/05 @ 13:55

  • Psi #9 6 years ago

    Azu87 cheers m8, looks like they are using something else as the uniqueid :) finally some sense is seen :D

    I can see me playing mario battle with 3 players called 'Neo' very soon :D

  • Carlo #10 6 years ago

    Not out in Japan...

    Oh... My Bad, thanks Bengali!

  • Lothar Hex #11 6 years ago

    And Nintendo said online gaming wasn't popular enough at one point. ^^

  • jellyhead #12 6 years ago

    Nintendo actually said they were looking into online and multiplayer but they felt it wasn't worth releasing anything as it wasn't prevalent enough in peoples homes but that they would go online when they were ready.
    They're ready i think. :)

  • spazmo #13 6 years ago

    "
    And Nintendo said online gaming wasn't popular enough at one point. ^^ "

    Hehe, and i said the same thing in '85. I was right at the time though.

  • smelly #14 6 years ago

    Is 112,000 copies of the game sold in a week good.

    For a mainstream console.. no.

    For a DS/GBA or PSP game.. yes.

    (handheld games dont sell as well).

    But 52,000 users online (almost 50%!?!?) in the first week for ONE console game, is the stuff of microsoft's wet dreams... That's a LOT!

  • Tonka #15 6 years ago

    But 52,000 users online (almost 50%!?!?) in the first week for ONE console game, is the stuff of microsoft's wet dreams... That's a LOT!

    It is a lot, and I can't wait till I get to try it.
    But in all honesty, if MS Live was free I think they would achieve similar stats for big titles on their first week.

  • oerhoert #16 6 years ago

    Probably not. You know, you can't log onto Live on McDonalds. :)

    Impressive numbers, anyhow.

  • Repsode #17 6 years ago

    To put this in perspective only 18% of all Halo 2 owners were online 3 weeks after its launch!(Source: ds.ign.com)

  • jawolf #18 6 years ago

    Mr-T the Netgear DG834G works...

    You must broadcast SSID (when I turned it off ... DS don't connect!) and it didn't work on the old firmware (using V3.01.25 as the original firmware didn't work)
    You can do mixed b & g mode. Use WEP (using 128bit... so there is a long string you have to type in!)

    But it works a treat. I saw just how bad I was at the game by playing online (after setting up... went on... played so badly that the other person didn't even do the second race ;o) I suck!

  • Genji #19 6 years ago

    I think the fact that it's free is a big factor. Also, there's comparatively little hassle to get it connected. All you do is press a couple of buttons. It doesn't require an existing broadband connection, either. Most people are still on dialup, you know.

  • Burton2000 #20 6 years ago

    i got the game today and best mario kart game ever. yet to try online