Take Your DS Out to the Safeco Field Ball Game

With Nintendo DS the highest selling video game system worldwide month after month, Nintendo is devising new ways to work the device into its owners lives. Currently, the manufacturer is testing a program it calls the Nintendo Fan Network, to which baseball fans can subscribe while attending games at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field. When downloaded to a DS console through the stadium's wi-fi network for a cost of $5, it allows owners to watch a live feed of the game with replays, order food and drinks to their seats, and browse through detailed scores, statistics, and trivia. Nintendo has operated the service throughout the Mariners' current season. The Mariners are owned by nearby Nintendo of America, as represented by team CEO and former NOA chairman Howard Lincoln. "Once we created the technology of the DS, we started looking at other applications to use its wireless features," said Nintendo's J.C. Smith, according to an AP story. "[It] became so popular...so we sought other ways to make this a fun system for people to have." According to Smith, Nintendo plans to continue improving and adding features to the system, and hopes to expand it out to other stadiums going forward.