Nintendo Takes Free WiFi Connection to Europe

Technology News reports that Nintendo "will also offer its new wireless gaming service for DS handheld game console users in Europe and Asia." According to the article, there will be "more than 7,500 hot spots in the United Kingdom, including McDonald's restaurants, Coffee Republic coffeehouses, Hilton and Ramada Jarvis hotels, Road Chef and Welcome Break service stations, railway stations, airports, football stadiums." Nintendo has not yet named where else in European and Asian the service will be available.

Yankee Group Analyst Mike Goodman thought DS gamers are likely to embrace the wireless service, "particularly in Asia where online gaming is more popular than in the U.S."

Goodman said, "It's not just cutting deals that enable wireless game play, it's also having multi-player games,. That's where Nintendo is way behind the PSP because essentially every PSP game is an online capable game. That is going to be the next step for Nintendo."

I think it's misleading to think that all PSP games are online capable. Yes, most games will allow players to play wirelessly against other PSP owners in the same area via ad-hoc mode. But how many times have you seen more than one PSP in the same room at the same time?

For a chance to play wirelessly against others in different locations then the selection gets smaller for PSP owners. Burnout Legends or BattleFront II would have been great in this respect, but all they offer is ad-hoc mode, which is a disappointment...