Nintendo boasts one million unique users for DS Wi-Fi

Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection service for the company's DS handheld has reached one million unique users, with more than 27 million connections logged since the service launched last November.

Figures have been boosted by a continuing global increase in the availability of the company's public access Wi-Fi 'hotspots', which currently total more than 20,000 in Europe alone, located at airports, coffee shops, bars, hotels and a range of additional venues.

Laurent Fischer, marketing director for Nintendo of Europe, commented: "We are delighted to have experienced such a high take-up of our Wi-Fi Connection service in such a short period of time. The accessibility of the service is a key factor in its success - we have made Wi-Fi gaming simple and affordable to everyone."

The service iniitally gained its popularity with the launch of Mario Kart DS, allowing players to compete with gamers around the globe at the various free-to-play Wi-Fi hotspots. The millionth unique user was a player in Japan, who logged on to play Animal Crossing: Wild World, a relaxing community-style game which is scheduled for a European release at the end of the month.

New Wi-Fi enabled games for European DS owners inlcude Tetris DS, which hits stores on April 21st, offering up to four player competition against friends or strangers in any of the games multiple modes, and Metroid Prime Hunters, which launches on May 5th and promises multiplayer combat with a variety of characters and weapons.

Nintendo recently launched the redesigned DS Lite in Japan, which sold out across the region within hours of stores opening their doors, and continues to perform exceptionally well in spite of a massive user base for the original handheld. No firm date has been revealed for the European launch of the new handheld, although speculation places the unit in stores some time around the beginning of summer.