Coming Soon: DS Wi-Fi

Nintendo to celebrate with nation-wide marketing splurge.

Posted by Staff
Coming Soon: DS Wi-Fi
If you’re a Nintendo DS owner, you’ll doubtless be aware that your machine, or more correctly, your "DS experience" isn’t quite finished yet. And nor will it be, until the launch later this year of the Wi-Fi network that will allow you to interact with other DS owners outside your current 10 metre range.

The completely free service will be realised by a mini Interweb of ‘hotspots’. Thankfully nothing at all to do with Michael Barrymore, these hotspots will cover key areas that, if you’re really lucky, may even include your home. Good news for those of you who live in vibrant, thriving metropoleis, rather less exciting should you happen to be the sole inhabitant of Dunny-on-the-Wold.

In case you’re not aware of this huge step forward in handheld gaming, you soon will be, even if you haven’t being paying attention to this article. Nintendo are launching a huge marketing campaign, centred around a minute long advert coming soon to a cinema near you. Quite, er, cinematic in style, the advert features a character who is rather unlikely to own a DS. And while the references to Mario Kart and global connectivity are clear enough to us geeky types, we’re not so sure that ‘normal’ people will understand exactly what they’re being sold here. The whole ‘Touching is good’ campaign went over a lot of their heads you know. However, these same people - the non-gamer girls and grown-ups that the Big N are seeking to target these days - are in our experience generally pretty impressed when they see the DS in action. It’s odd that the adverts don’t have a little more of the infomercial about them, rather than this more obscure nudge and wink approach.

But if you are a regular cinema-goer, you’ll see for yourself soon enough. Unless, like us, you always arrive 20 minutes later than the listed programme time to avoid the evangelical promotion of consumerism.
Companies:

Comments

soanso 2 Aug 2005 08:50
1/1
I've not been impressed by Nintendo's ad campaign for the DS. I don't think it has really shown what the console is all about.
The recent ad in the cinema did at least show games in action (it was pac-pix and need for speed I think) but I still found it off putting. It didn't make me want to buy one. All the ads are just a bit too smug.
I'm curious about how this online service will work and I am actually looking forward to it as long as the games arrive. My experience of online games so far has been IDIOTS and more IDIOTS so I'm a wee bit aprehensive about it.
But so far, I've had a lot of fun with my DS so I don't see why this should be any different.
Posting of new comments is now locked for this page.