Nintendo today announced via press release that their online wireless gaming service hit 2 million users last week. Nintendo’s gaming service has also hosted more than 70 million game sessions. Nintendo’s online offerings aren’t as sophisticated as Microsoft’s Xbox Live service for friend matching, but the service is free. Nintendo’s more simple approach and friend-code based gaming make online gaming a little easier for the casual gamer. Nintendo also took the opportunity to hype the release of the upcoming Star Fox Command for the Nintendo DS, which should ship today. Star Fox will support up to four player combat online.

The full press release continues below.

AT 2 MILLION STRONG, NINTENDO’S WIRELESS GAMING COMMUNITY GROWS LARGER THAN 15 U.S. STATES

Numbers Expected to Soar with Release of New Star Fox Command Dogfight Game

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 28, 2006 - Late on Thursday, a Nintendo DS™ owner logged onto Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection for the first time. That person unknowingly became the 2 millionth unique player to use Nintendo’s wireless gaming service. To put that number in perspective, the population of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection users now surpasses the population of 15 different U.S. states, including Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico. In addition to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection surpassing 2 million unique players, the service has also logged more than 70 million individual game sessions in just more than nine months of operation, a number expected to soar as more and more Wi-Fi-enabled titles are released.

“Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection continues to set the standard for easy, fun and safe wireless gaming,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Our hand-held leadership will continue unabated with today’s launch of Star Fox Command and the anticipation of our upcoming Wi-Fi titles.”
Today the hugely popular Star Fox series goes wireless with Star Fox® Command for Nintendo DS. The sci-fi space combat game marks the first-ever portable, Wi-Fi-enabled Star Fox game. Up to four players, be they friends or strangers, can meet up on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to blow each other out of the sky in white-knuckle dogfights.

In addition to multiplayer Wi-Fi dogfights, the 3-D space shooter Star Fox Command also lets players use the DS touch screen to draw out their flight plans, steer their Arwing fighters and drop bombs on enemies. Rubbing the touch screen sends the fighter into a barrel roll. The game uses elements of both real-time combat and turn-based strategy games, and includes a familiar array of popular animal characters from the Star Fox universe, including Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Krystal and Slippy Toad.

Star Fox Command, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older, blasts off today. For more information about the game, visit www.starfoxcommand.com. For more information about Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, visit www.nintendowifi.com.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems, and upcoming Wii™ console. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 375 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.