Nintendo joins IGN to bring DS an Online`Wi-Fi gaming service

http://ds.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3140263
Nintendo, IGN Team Online
GameSpy tech. to power the Nintendo DS' new service.by Patrick Klepek
05/10/2005 Confirming rumors, Nintendo and IGN Entertainment, owners of
GameSpy, have announced a partnership to create a network infrastructure for
the Nintendo DS hardware using IGN's GameSpy Technology.
Nintendo has worried about the complexities of setting up Internet gaming in
an easy-to-use format for consumers, and the aim of this partnership appears
to be accomplishing just that. "With minimum setup procedures, Nintendo DS
owners will be able to enjoy Wi-Fi gaming just as easily as if they were
playing with their friends in the same room," said Reggie Fils-Aime,
Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Animal Crossing DS, scheduled for a fall release, will be the first game to
take advantage of the service, though reportedly more games will be
announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The service is IGN
GameSpy's first entry into the portable gaming market.

"We're honored that Nintendo is choosing IGN's GameSpy as their middleware
partner, and look forward to a very long relationship," says Mark Stieglitz,
general manager of IGN Entertainment's GameSpy Technology Group.

More details on the online service are expected at Nintendo's pre-E3 press
conference next Tuesday.





http://gba.gamespy.com/nintendo-ds/a.../611337p1.html
Nintendo DS ready to go online (DS)
Nintendo and IGN Entertainment partner to create new portable gaming
network.
By GameSpy Staff | May 10, 2005



After some initial rumors and rumblings at the recent GDC 2005 show in San
Francisco, Nintendo has officially announced today a brand new portable
gaming network for its Nintendo DS handheld games system. In a new
partnership with IGN Entertainment, the DS will use IGN's GameSpy Technology
to allow users to link seamlessly together for multiplayer gaming
experiences via the DS's WiFi capabilities




http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=6849

NINTENDO, IGN ENTERTAINMENT JOIN FORCES TO CREATE A NEW PORTABLE GAMING
NETWORK

Nintendo DS Service Provides an Easy, Seamless Transition to Wireless Wi-Fi
Gaming


REDMOND, Wash., May 10, 2005 - Nintendo is partnering with IGN Entertainment
to create an innovative network for portable video games that is not only
expansive but also extremely easy for everyone to use. Set to debut later
this year, the wireless service for Nintendo DST will use IGN's GameSpy
Technology to let people around the world link easily and wirelessly to play
games, just as if they were playing face-to-face.

"With minimum setup procedures, Nintendo DS owners will be able to enjoy
Wi-Fi gaming just as easily as if they were playing with their friends in
the same room," explains Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive
vice president of sales & marketing. "To realize this simple and seamless
transition to Wi-Fi gaming, we're partnering with one of the leaders in the
multiplayer gaming world. Accessing the service will require no added
Nintendo subscription charges, whether users hook up using a home broadband
Wi-Fi connection or access a Wi-Fi hotspot at a coffee shop, library or
elsewhere. It doesn't get any easier than that."

The service will be used by a variety of upcoming games, including the
previously announced Animal Crossing® DS. Other titles will be revealed in
the coming weeks. When using the service, DS owners can choose whether they
would like to play with friends or strangers, whether nearby or on the other
side of the world.

The service represents the first foray by IGN's GameSpy into portable games.

"We're excited to bring the technology that powers more than 300 PC and
console video games to Nintendo's innovative wireless platform. Now
developers can easily and confidently add advanced matchmaking, community
and other multiplayer services to their Nintendo DS games," says Mark
Stieglitz, general manager of IGN Entertainment's GameSpy Technology Group.
"We're honored that Nintendo is choosing IGN's GameSpy as their middleware
partner, and look forward to a very long relationship."

About IGN Entertainment: IGN Entertainment provides many of the Internet's
leading destinations for video gaming, entertainment and community targeted
at teens and 18-34 year-old males. The company's properties include IGN.com,
GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, GameSpy Arcade, GameSpy Arena,
Direct2Drive, TeamXbox , 3D Gamers, more than 70 community sites and a vast
array of online forums. IGN Entertainment is also a leading provider of
technology under its GameSpy brand for online game play in video games,
providing developers and publishers with cost effective solutions for
matchmaking, community building, piracy prevention, and in-game marketing.
The company's paid content, download and game play services are among the
most popular game-related subscriptions available on the Internet. The
privately held company has its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area,
with offices throughout the U.S.

About Nintendo: The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of
interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures
and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video
game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling
Game Boy® Advance SP, Nintendo DST and Nintendo GameCubeT systems extend
Nintendo's vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a
rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the
release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more
than 1.9 billion video games and more than 336 million hardware units
globally, creating enduring industry icons such as MarioT and Donkey Kong®
and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid®, ZeldaT
and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in
Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the
Western Hemisphere.

For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at
www.nintendo.com.











http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-...ork-102965.php
Nintendo Teams with IGN/GameSpy for Wireless Gaming Network
Nintendo has teamed up with IGN/Gamespy to offer a Wi-Fi gaming network to
allow gamers to compete across the internet. This is vaguely interesting,
except for the fact that they've announced their first game: Animal Crossing
DS. The first Animal Crossing was a love-it-or-hate-it thing, but I'll give
you one look inside my Animal Crossing lunchbox to determine my position.
Being able to trade things wireless over the internet will finally give me a
reason to turn on my DS again.


_______
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.as...AIL_ADDRESS%3E
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Wi-Fi gaming

IGN to Bring the Nintendo DS Online

More details about Nintendo's online plans for the DS have emerged as they
have selected IGN's GameSpy technology to help create the handheld's online
infrastructure. Nintendo will not charge anything extra for the online
service, which is slated to launch later this year. Animal Crossing DS and
other online DS titles are currently in development. More within... [Update:
we speak with IGN]


Update: Following the announcement, we caught up with IGN Entertainment's
Vice President of Marketing, David Tokheim. The brief Q&A follows below.

GameDAILY BIZ: So how did this partnership come together? Did Nintendo come
to you or did you guys propose the service to them?

David Tokheim: We've been working together with the shared vision of a new
portable gaming network. We're honored to have the opportunity to move into
the handheld space with a partner like Nintendo.

BIZ: Why do you think they partnered with IGN Entertainment instead of just
creating a network on their own?

DT: By partnering with IGN Entertainment for their in-game technology,
Nintendo can do what they do best - make great games. As you know, we are
seeing a major change in the game industry when it comes to middleware. All
software used to be custom created for every game. Today, the increasing
move to middleware is allowing developers and publishers to focus on
creativity and gameplay. Additionally, as development costs spiral, anything
that can help save money and speed up time to market is a good thing!

BIZ: How much input do you have in Nintendo's online plans when it comes to
features like friends lists, etc.? What can you tell us about the
matchmaking, anti-cheating measures or any other possible features the DS
online network will offer?

DT: I'll let Nintendo comment on their online plans. Our role is simply to
provide and host the enabling technology that will empower Nintendo to
create a seamless online gaming experience where gamers can find friends to
play with and compete against.

BIZ: Some would argue that IGN's partnering with Nintendo presents a
conflict of interest for editorial. What do you say to that?

DT: IGN Entertainment is involved in the videogame industry in many ways.
Although gamers best know us for our editorial content and services, we have
other areas of business that we are involved in -- one being our publisher
services group that creates amazing In Game Technology Solutions for
publishers. Most online gamers will recognize this by the "powered by
GameSpy" brand that they see on the back of their online games. In fact our
technology is currently in over 300 games on both the console and PC. What
is significant is that we are now using our technology for the first time on
a handheld device.

- -

IGN Entertainment and Nintendo announced today that they have partnered to
create the portable gaming network for the Nintendo DS handheld that
president Satoru Iwata talked about during his keynote address at the Game
Developers Conference. Nintendo and IGN say that the online service, which
will launch before the end of the year, will be "extremely easy" to set up
and use and that it will allow for a "seamless transition to wireless Wi-Fi
gaming."

Powered by GameSpy
According to the agreement, Nintendo will utilize IGN's GameSpy technology
to enable Nintendo DS gamers across the globe to link up and play one
another, whether using a wireless connection at home or a hotspot at any
public venue. This also marks the first time that IGN/GameSpy will be
working with portable games, as the technology up to this point has largely
been used to power online PC titles and also some console games.


[ "Accessing the service will require no added Nintendo subscription
charges, whether users hook up using a home broadband Wi-Fi connection or
access a Wi-Fi hotspot at a coffee shop, library or elsewhere," Reggie
Fils-Aime, executive vice president of sales & marketing, Nintendo of
America ]



"We're excited to bring the technology that powers more than 300 PC and
console video games to Nintendo's innovative wireless platform. Now
developers can easily and confidently add advanced matchmaking, community
and other multiplayer services to their Nintendo DS games," commented Mark
Stieglitz, general manager of IGN Entertainment's GameSpy Technology Group.
"We're honored that Nintendo is choosing IGN's GameSpy as their middleware
partner, and look forward to a very long relationship."

A number of DS games will be playable online when the service launches later
this year. The only title confirmed so far, however, is Animal Crossing DS,
which is scheduled to ship on November 21. Nintendo said that several other
titles will be unveiled in the next few weeks, and the company undoubtedly
will go into much greater detail on those games and the DS's online plans in
general at E3 next week.

Play DS online anywhere at no charge
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales &
marketing, says that Nintendo DS gamers will feel just "as if they were
playing with their friends in the same room." And DS owners won't have to
pay anything extra in order to play online.

"To realize this simple and seamless transition to Wi-Fi gaming, we're
partnering with one of the leaders in the multiplayer gaming world.
Accessing the service will require no added Nintendo subscription charges,
whether users hook up using a home broadband Wi-Fi connection or access a
Wi-Fi hotspot at a coffee shop, library or elsewhere. It doesn't get any
easier than that," adds Reggie.

Although Nintendo won't charge anything, it's possible that certain titles
from third-party publishers could come with nominal fees, particularly for
online RPGs or for downloading extra content. At the moment, though, no
third parties have discussed their online plans for the DS.

Nintendo thus far has sold over 5 million DS units worldwide, and with a
solid online strategy and an attractive price point of only $150 they hope
to remain at the top of the portable games market. Sony's PSP, which is also
capable of Wi-Fi play, has shipped (but not necessarily sold through) close
to 3 million units.





http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05...s_6123887.html
Iwata warms up on topic of DS hot spots

DS users will go online at home or on the road; Nintendo games to be free,
but third parties may charge for the pleasure.
Back in March at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nintendo
president Satoru Iwata revealed that his company was planning to launch an
online service for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming console. In a recent
comment to Japanese site Impress GameWatch, Iwata revealed some additional
information about the service, which Nintendo plans to launch later this
year.

"Since we are hoping to make this a widely used component of the system, we
have decided not to charge monthly fees for our games using the service,"
Iwata said. "However, in order to encourage third-party software makers, we
do not plan on banning monthly subscription fees. We will be establishing a
subscription system in which users will not have to worry about being
charged without their knowledge."
Aside from connecting via Nintendo's "hassle-free" hot spots, Iwata revealed
that users will also be able to connect to Nintendo's online service from
home, as long as they have a Web connection and a Wi-Fi router. He said set
up "won't be too troublesome," as long as a Nintendo-approved router is
used. Iwata did not reveal whether Nintendo plans to offer a branded router
of its own.

As for the number of hot spots that Nintendo plans to set up, Iwata didn't
mention specific numbers for North America, but he did reveal that in Japan,
Nintendo currently plans to set up access points in more than 1,000
locations.

He added that the official name of the online service will be announced at
E3.