$20 upgrade to Nintendo"s China-market home system will let users download, play games online.
Nintendo is going online, but not in the way you"d expect. iQue, the China-based joint venture between Nintendo and former Silicon Graphics president Wai Yen, has announced that it will release a peripheral device that will let owners of the iQue Player download and play games online, specialist import game retailer Lik-Sang reports today.
Launched nearly one year ago, the iQue Player is for all intents and purposes a micro-sized Nintendo 64 system built into a largish control pad. All games are run off of rewriteable Flash cards; iQue kiosks in Chinese supermarkets will write new games onto the cards. Users pay for them with special paper vouchers that cost about $8.