Wi-Fi Mario Kart Zooming

According to Nintendo, in one week more than 45% of the people who have purchased Mario Kart DS have taken their game online via the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

In just one week, more than 112,000 copies of Mario Kart DS have been sold in the US. Of that number more than 52,000 unique system/game pairs have connected to the online service for Wi-Fi multiplayer gaming.

"We are ecstatic with the results, and this definitely sets the standard for future Wi-Fi online gaming," said Beth Lewellyn, Nintendo's senior director of public relations. "Mario Kart should easily be a million seller in its life cycle, and we'd love for everyone with the game to touch the Wi-Fi experience. We've got Animal Crossing just around the corner, and Metroid Prime Hunters next year, with more to come."

Comparatively, Microsoft reported last year that after three weeks on store shelves, just 18 percent of Halo 2 owners had played that game on Xbox Live.

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