Japanese DS owners are going to be bathed in WiFi goodness by the end of the year. Nintendo plans to launch 1,000 WiFi hotspots in Japan allowing DS owners to play online for free. While Nintendo Pres Satoru Iwata told a news conference that his company is planning to do the same thing in other countries, he didn't go into the details. Iwata went on to say that 25 game developers have already expressed an interest in developing WiFi games. WiFi enabled games Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing DS will both be out by the end of the year.

WiFi hotspots for DS handheld [Reuters]