Nintendo reveals more Revolution, Wi-Fi details

We referenced this article earlier, but just to highlight more interesting tidbits from the interview with Merristation, Nintendo of Europe’s Jim Merrick also revealed (and reaffirmed) some details regarding Nintendo’s foray in online gaming. The most intriguing bit of information is that LAN gaming with the Revolution will be analogous to the Nintendo DS (and somewhat the Game Boy Advance) feature that allows multiplayer action with one copy of the game (though it may be a stripped-down version to quench potential buyer’s thirst). The launch window across all regions is set for 14 weeks - although a larger window than Microsoft is attempting, it is still smaller than the historical 6 months between regional console launches.



For the downloading service, players can download their games from all regions. So, presumably, a US gamer could download all those Final Fantasy and Mother titles that never made it stateside. If you download an N64 game, Merrick continues, expect an improvement in framerate, but that is about it in terms of graphical upgrade. Oh, and do not expect any Revolution games to be shown in 2005 - that would seem to falsify the recent rumor of Mario 128 being revealed on December 2nd (then again, he could be playing coy).

For European gamers, Nintendo is planning to set up 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots all across the continent. According to NOA Rufus on the Nintendo forums, the Nintendo Wi-Fi website will be up and running as of next monday, November 7th, claiming that the site will have “all the info you need.” The Merrick interview will just have to satisfy us until then.