Hopefully this expands to other markets, providers, and platforms.

This does not provide any capability that these devices did not already have (smartphones already offer tethering and 3DS can connect to it like any other Wi-Fi hotspot). It only makes it easier to do a thing you could already do.


Nintendo needs this in Japan because fewer and fewer people bother subscribing to any home internet service at all (they don't see the point, when cell phones are so good). That means there is no Wi-Fi in the home. And free public Wi-Fi hotspots never really caught on in Japan like they did in the US. So that's a problem for Nintendo, if people have no way to connect to the eShop to buy stuff.


The point of this application is to make it easier to tether (again, a thing you could already do, if you knew how) to encourage people to do it and to make up for Wi-Fi becoming less common in Japan.

Two questions:

1) Since Japan isn't as forward looking with their cell phone providers as the rest of the world (I think they got the ability to move their phone numbers to different providers in 2011), what are their data plans like for mobile data?

2) Does using this count against said data plans? (Given this is Docomo, I suspect the answer is 'hell yeah it does', which means nobody would be crazy enough to download a full game this way.)

Wait...couldn't phones do this already? Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I could have sworn I've tethered my 3DS to my HTC phone before just to check the shop.  :Q

Without getting too political, the smart thing would be for Nintendo to pay carriers in exchange for allowing free data via this app and 3DS.  But then, you get the whole "Net Neutrality" thing going on that upsets so many people, so...

3DS LTE coming for e3!

It's kind of strange that they're doing this now. About 3-4 years ago, tethering wasn't allowed by many of the mobile phone companies here but recently, it's been a thing. I have no idea how many people know about it (there are plenty of people I talk to at work, etc. that had no idea that was a thing).


But yeah. This is just an easy, yet limited way to get more people online with their 3DS.

It's also an easy, yet limited way to try to appease shareholders who want Nintendo to support mobile phones.