mrpayroll

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080928/bs_nm/us_nintendo_1


This seems like the next logical step for the DS. I wonder how big the HD will be? 8GB & 16GB models to keep up with the iPhone?

Chris

Baron Of Hell

Good idea but they should have made pda apps for this thing also. I wonder if they are going to make an adapter to use SD cards or maybe make a their own memory cards.

spainlinx0

I need a new DS, and have been holding off on buying one. Maybe I'll pick up this version.

Keith6601

I just picked up a DS for my son the other day and have been thinking I need my own since it's so much fun. This will probably only make me want one more.

dvdsteve2000

I bought my son a DS when they first came out. Six months later I bought my other son a DS-Lite. Nintendo decided that they would no longer make any accessories that work on the regular DS (All for the Lite), so I bought another DS for my son to replace his regular DS. Nintendo will not be getting any more of my money for a handheld.

It was really frustrating buying accessories for my son that had the Lite because we couldn't buy anything 'cool' for the original DS. He wanted the skins, didn't fit...the 'Mario lunchbox carrying case', didn't fit, new stylus, didn't fit, etc... Screw you, Nintendo!

Supermallet

What's the purpose for this? Whose cellphone doesn't take pictures and either streams or stores music?

mrpayroll

Well, most cellphones don't have the type of games that the DS has.

Chris

Kelkee

They are losing sales to PSP and adding these things allow for another model to go to market. Plus its just in time for Christmas rush.

Kelkee

Why did you not upgrade the DS to a DSLite when it came time to replace it?

Nintendos track record of refreshing the portable lately is about every 8-12 months.

Jay G.

I imagine it's targeted at kids who are too young to have a cellphone.

Jay G.

dvdsteve2000's wording is a bit unclear, but I was under the impression that he did get a DS Lite to replace his son's "regular" DS. I think his point was that the older DS was still functioning, so technically didn't need to be replaced, but since no accessories existed for the older DS anymore, he had to re-buy a functioning device so that his sons would be on equal footing as far as DS accessories went.

So he has 3 DS systems, 2 DSLites that his sons use, and one regular DS that still functions but nobody uses.

dvdsteve2000

Thanks, that's it exactly. When the Lite came out I didn't see a reason to upgrade because they were using the same cartridges, and I thought the brighter screen was the only real difference. When we started getting some cool accessories for the Lite, my other son was more than jacked that he couldn't do the same. It actually got to the point that I felt bad enough to buy him a Lite to match his brother's. The big disappointment was the stylus. The Lite ones didn't even fit in the slot of the regular DS, and all of the 'fancy new ones' were designed for the Lite also. And yes, I have an extra 'regular DS' that's just collecting dust for no real reason. We talked about selling it off, but the value is so low, because of the DS being newer/better, that we figured we'd just hold onto it for them to use if their battery is dead or something.

The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth...kind of like having to double dip for a DVD that just came out a couple months prior to a Das Boot release.

Drexl

Hopefully this one will support WPA encryption for the wireless networking.

tanman

I'm not sure about this upgrade. I still have the DS Phat waiting on a big upgrade on the DS Lite. I think it might be time to talk about a real successor to the DS. I would want to go forward especially with the power and size of the screen of the DS before adding accessories.

Cameras are cheap enough to put in and it could be useful gameplay wise. However a music player doesn't add anything and to me, depending on how big the push it, could harbor bad things. Like a push towards multimedia to compete with the PSP. The DS doesn't need that. Just focus on games. Again it's not the feature itself but the mindset of Nintendo that I'm worried about.

I guarantee it won't have a built in HD. Maybe some on board memory with a possible optional SD, maybe micro SD card slot. I thought I read something about it communicating with the Wii through an SD card.

Things that I would like to see:
Bigger better screen.
Built in software ie web browser or pda functionality. Pictochat WiFi.
Built in rumble.
Standard mini usb charge plug
Built in memory with SD card slot. Maybe to open up the virtual console to GB, GBC and GBA games.
If they are giving us music they should give us video too.

Or just give us a brand new platform. Rarely do I push for a next generation to come sooner then it does but the DS is kind of at the power of the ugly 64 era. I'd like to see it push past that.

Chris_D

Yeah, a good looking PSP game makes the 3D DS games look really cruddy. Of course the 2D stuff is still fine, but I'd also like a bigger screen. And the PSP 2000 is lighter than the DS lite so I'm sure there must be some room to drop a few more grams from it.

mmconhea

1. Nintendo is not losing sales to the PSP.
2. What's wrong with trying to improve on a product? Would it be better keep the same hardware for th life of a platform just so the people that are bitching about it can stop bitching.
3. Nintendo may be trying to take advantage of this trend: http://gizmodo.com/5054092/third-par...tching-the-psp
and put the PSP away for good.

fujishig

I was going to ask, I hadn't heard of any DS sales being lost to the PSP... was there a killer app that was launched recently that I didn't know about? I have both, but the DS still seems to get a lot more great software (or at least stuff that I'm interested in) than the PSP, graphics aside. Looking at the Target aisles, for instance, there are two cases full of DS titles, and one half-full glass case of PSP titles, with some slots still taken up by UMD movies... however, the article does mention that PSP sales in Japan have been over DS sales for the past 5 months. That's astonishing... did another Monster Hunter come out or something?

However, this is par for the course for Nintendo, giving incremental improvements to their hardware designs. As long as the majority of games don't force us to upgrade to use the new features, I'm fine standing pat with the Lite.

Kelkee

So the article is wrong and the PSP is NOT outselling the DS in Japan?

Michael Corvin

What? The DS has only been out for what, three years? They floated on the Gameboy for 15 years. GBA was a good 5-6 years. I don't think we'll see a true successor for a few more years. They'll probably stick to this incremental shit (Gameboy -> GB Color, GBA -> GBA SP) for a while.

rennervision

They need to make a DS that can take pictures, play music, AND place cellphone calls.

Drexl

It's been nearly 4 years, and the time between the GBA and the DS was about 3 and a half years, so there was some overlap. They claimed the DS was a "side" system and not really a successor to the GBA.

However, with the DS still going strong, it will probably be a couple more years before another platform is released. Also, given that the DS is essentially the competitor to the PSP (despite being such a different system), it may take a new competing platform to spur on a new Nintendo handheld.

mrpayroll

http://gizmodo.com/5056499/are-these...ew-nintendo-ds

Are These Screens from the New Nintendo DS?

Seems 'bulkier' this way, if this is true.


Chris

Chris_D

The article is quite correct. Basically the Japanese market appears to be saturated with the DS, and even software sales have been lagging a little of late (although games like Dragonquest rereleases are still selling boatloads).

Drexl

Widescreen wouldn't make sense now, but it would be nice if the next system had two wide screens, assuming it would be backwards compatible. Then the current DS games would take up the 4:3 area on each screen, and next-gen games would use all of both.

fujishig

Uh... where are the controls (dpad, buttons)?