Nintendo’s Wi-Fi at 5 million users — let’s keep it in perspective
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 12:34pm by Jack
My my my. What do we make of today’s online news? Seems Nintendo’s completely free Wi-Fi connection service reached 5 million users. To me, this represents the abysmal failure of the Friend Code system. Yes, class, that was sarcasm. But only a *little* sarcasm, not my usual levels by any means.
I’m certainly not going to say these numbers mean Nintendo has a wild success on its hands, but at 5 million people online in this short amount of time, their first effort into a mass audience online network is something to take notice of.
Some basic info on the service to date courtesy of Joystiq:
Nearly 65 games support online multiplayer through the service, accumulating over 200 million gameplay sessions since its launch in late 2005. Not surprisingly, the five most popular games are all from Nintendo: Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mario Kart DS, Metroid Prime: Hunters, and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
First of all, I had no idea 65 games had access to the Wi-Fi service. Guess I need to start looking around for the games worth buying beyond the five listed above.
A lot of the recent success of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service can be attributed to the new Pokemon titles that dropped on the DS last month. I say that because nine months ago the service stood at approximately 2 million users. While I’m pro-Nintendo through and through, I’d be a fool to think a surge of 3 million users in nine months was due to a wave of mass nostalgia for Clubhouse Games.
To keep this seemingly large number in perspective, we need to examine a few things. First, as I said earlier, this is an impressive start for a company that considered online gaming the anathema to a successful video game business model. That said, the fact that this network is provided completely free makes it tough to compare it to something like Xbox Live. As a commenter said on Joystiq, people like free. They’ll fire up the service, play a few rounds, and then forget about it. With Box Live Gold, people are paying for a service and are more apt to put time into it because they have something to lose if they don’t.
The next point to be made to keep things from spiraling into wild speculation and baseless fact land (we’ve been there before, haven’t we Internet?) is that 5 million users means only 12.5% of all DS owners (and now Wii owners, with Strikers out in Europe). This to me speaks to the fact that actually finding a game, like Darts in Clubhouse for example, sometimes takes a while. And by a while I mean all night.
So, before anyone goes off the deep end and starts calling this the bane of Xbox Live, just stop right there. The comparison might be there in the future, but for now each is its own beast. Regardless, 5 million on your first shot is something to take notice of — Friend Codes or not.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Most of the WFC games are japanese, and most of them are games for casual gamers like the recipe/brain/behavior games.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
“With Box Live Gold, people are paying for a service and are more apt to put time into it because they have something to lose if they don’t.”
Yes, they will lose $50 bucks. If they don’t use it for a whole year! Fifty bucks a year is not something that will send you to the poor house. Plus, the Silver service is free, like Nintendo Wi-Fi, and right now offers just as much as Wii online. So, no, I don’t think people who jump into Xbox LIVE are doing it to make sure their $50-a-year don’t go to waste…
I believe that without the Friend Codes, Nintendo could boast four times as many sessions, easily… but that is internet speculation, so don’t take me too seriously.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
But I promised I wouldn’t dump on Friend Codes anymore, so I apologize…
The problem with Nintendo’s online play isn’t Friend Codes, anyway, but the lack of a gaming hub where you can meet new gamers and exchange codes. The fact that you require a channel of communication outside of the gaming system, such as e-mail, or a phone call, or forums, or talking, to get a gaming session going is what makes this system so awkward. That has nothing to do with Friend Codes…
May 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
yeah built in wireless- it’s a beautiful thing and a great way to introduce normal people (ie casual gamers) to internet gaming.
so, while friend codes will always be clumsy, i
May 30th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
“less than three my ds” (pls. append to above message)
May 30th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
That’s amazing considering XBox Live only has about six million subscribers (as of march).
May 30th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I agree with Invisibleman. A central hub where you could meet gamers and exchange codes would be great. All in all though, the low percentage of people using WiFi and Xbox Live shows that Nintendo were absolutely right with not pursuing on-line gaming with the cube. People complain about Nintendo not having on-line with the Wii right out of the gate, but the reality is that many people just don’t care about on line gaming.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:15 am
The DS dont have more ppl online because there is only a few games capables of doing so ,I would like to see more third party games that will support wi-fi more often.
can anybody named all the DS games that has online functions in the U.S ?
We have tetris ,Mph , MK , AC ,Tony hawk,those are the one I can remember from top of my head.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:27 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_DS_Wi-Fi_Connection_games