Nintendo plans to set up 1,000 WiFi hotspots in Japan by the end of 2005 where owners of its DS portable game machines can play with others online for free.

The company is planning a similar service for overseas markets (when? when?), aiming to expand sales of the DS and protect its leading position in the handheld game console industry.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference that online gaming had yet to take off because of various drawbacks, including a laborious process to get connected to a network and consumers' unwillingness to pay a monthly fee for access.

"Because of these hurdles, only a small percentage of people that have bought online-compatible games have actually connected to a network and played online," Iwata said.
"We would like to create an environment where more than 90 percent of the people that buy our WiFi-compatible games have tried them at least once online."

Thanks, Nintendo, you're so magnanimous!

Via Reuters.