Why are my headlines always so weird? I don’t know, but this one’s true. Actually, they’re pretty much all true. ANYway…

McDonalds is certainly no stranger to Nintendo due to the Nintendo Zone service (also for the DS) and all the crappy old GameCube games that now make up most McDonalds Playlands. Man, I remember when they had jungle gyms! Ahem, sorry. Moving on!

So, according to Nikkei, McDonalds Japan recently announced that they’re planning to implement this new program later this year. They’ll be installing about two DSes per site countrywide. At about 3,700 shops, that’s nearly 8,000 DSes! The expected cost for this little venture is around 200 million yen.

The new DS training program, dubbed “eSmart,” will be used to train part-time (and possibly full-time) employees. McDonalds claims that this new software can cut training time by half over conventional methods, citing among other factors the familiarity of the DS system. With a shorter training time, McDonalds can save a lot of money, and pass the savings onto us. Nah, just kidding; it’s all going in the execs’ pockets.

Still, using video game consoles to train people is a pretty cool idea. As the line between gaming and functionality continues to blur, we should see more things like Wii Fit in schools, RPG “book” reports, corporate “raid” projects, and FPS’s as training for basic survival in south central Los Angeles.



Naturally, this being McDonalds, the whole training venture is a precursor to an implanted “McChip” that, when planted directly into the cerebral cortex, will allow McDonalds workers to flawlessly complete their job tasks without feeling the need to complain about unpaid overtime. Embrace the future!

Would you like fries with that?

Source: Andriasang