Spanish gaming site MeriStation has an interview with Nintendo Europe director of marketing Jim Merrick, quite possibly the most informative person in the entire Nintendo organization.
Merrick reveals several interesting pieces of news in this interview:
- Nintendo will be establishing 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across Europe
- Wi-Fi Connection profiles will be stored in the Nintendo DS's settings area rather than on each game, allowing the connection profiles to be shared across Wi-Fi Connection games
- The Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Adapter will retail for 39.95 Euros
- Mario Kart DS will permit chat between users who are playing as friends, but will not permit chat between randomly matched players, to protect minors playing the game
- No online update of PictoChat is planned
- Nintendo's upcoming console, Revolution, will have a Download Play-like mode to enable a multiplayer game to be played across multiple consoles with only one copy of the game (it is unclear whether this mode is compatible with Wi-Fi Connection)
- Merrick "guarantees" that Revolution will release worldwide within the same quarter
- Games from Nintendo's retro catalog may see more stable framerates as well as localizations, but will not be made to work with Revolution's unique controller
Thanks to N-Forums member L.J. for tipping us off to this very revealing interview!