Nintendo and ESPN give Seattle Mariners fan DS owners an upgrade this year, adding sports news to the list of special features available on the handheld during home games.
The Nintendo Fan Network kicked off in 2007, giving DS-holding visitors to Seattle's Safeco field access to game stats, video, and remote food ordering during the home games of the Nintendo-owned Mariners. Now Nintendo has teamed up with ESPN to deliver even more convenience to Mariners' fans, with the addition of sports news, ESPN columns, closed-captioning for PA announcements, and a special ESPN Zoom photo matching game.
"ESPN has a long heritage of embracing emerging media platforms to deliver unique experiences to fans," said John Zehr, senior vice president, digital media production and product development. "Our collaboration with the Nintendo Fan Network is a direct extension of the ESPN mission to enliven the sports experience, no matter how or where fans are consuming sports."
In celebration of the Nintendo DSi, the first 150 fans attending each Mariners home game will receive a free DSi rental in order to partake of the special features.
I really wish they would roll out this sort of feature at more ball parks, but I suppose Nintendo would have to buy more teams before that could happen. Oh well.