From Nintendo this morning comes the news that a full 45% of Mario Kart DS owners have played their game online.
Nintendo quotes sales of more than 112,000 units since the game released on Monday, November 14. Through Sunday, November 20, 52,000 unique users have logged on to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection with their copies of Mario Kart DS.
Nintendo cites (and I firmly agree with them) the reason for such high penetration is the near-zero effort involved in signing on from a game perspective. Gamers don't have to log in, register, or even visit a website to play -- the hardest part of the setup is configuring your wireless connection, and that's only if you don't happen to be using the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector or one of Nintendo's sponsored free hotspots.
Of course, the service is not without its trials; incompatibilities abound for some users, especially those unfortunate enough to have their own wireless equipment that doesn't play nice with the Nintendo DS. Hopefully, wireless manufacturers will be issuing firmware updates in the future to correct some of these problems. Also, probably due to the high number of players online over the past week, the service has been occasionally unstable, but on the whole works pretty well.
Kudos to Nintendo for pulling it off. I think I can safely say we all hope they get the last few bugs ironed out and provide a richer experience for future titles.