Nintendo DS?

[bamcgee]

Gamespy is reporting that Nintendo's newest system will be an enhanced gameboy with two display screens.

um... what? This is what they came up with to go against the PSP? Sony must be absolutely salivating. Sure, I could see a few gameplay uses for two screens, but it's hardly the step forward necessary to get me interested or excited in dropping $200 more. With a few more of these astute hardware decisions, maybe I can look forward to playing Zelda and Metroid on my Xbox.

[cincyreds]

2 screens??

[bamcgee]

here's the article (http://www.gamespy.com/articles/january04/nintendods/)

[rkmsuf]

2 screens? Are you sure?

[Fidatelo]

I can see this as another VirtuaBoy disaster. Novelty does not sell systems, when will people realise that?

Another thing I'm curious about is the power that thing will suck up. The original GBA didn't even have a lit screen because they wanted to extend battery life. How will 2, hopefully backlit screens, not just suck the crap out of batteries?

[hukarez]

Well, thinking of how long the GameBoy has been around...they must be doing something right. I think the whole 'handheld' market has really been controlled by Nintendo anyways; especially after the N64 debacle and the Sony PlayStation's arrival...I think this is a niche of the market that Nintendo's trying real hard to cling onto.

In any case, is it just me, or does anyone think that the fellow pictured in the link (Satoru Iwata) looks a lot like MadTV's Bobby Lee? :)

[kingnebwsu]

Yep, this'll flop. Will it even come out in the US? Or will it be like the N64's DD? Bless Nintendo and their many wonderful ideas.

[MikeVic]

Yeah, I was disappointed also.. they said they were going to release soemthing that is a "pillar" for both the Cube and GBA.. something like that at least.. I thought it would be a cool add-on.. this, I'll have to see for myself. It'll use new games and everything? What the hell? I'm not buying another system right now. I hoped it would be GBA and Cube compatible.. damn them. This better be better than it sounds.

[Kodos]

I get the feeling that the PSP is going to come in and annihilate Nintendo in the handheld market. The reason Nintendo has thrived thus far has been the lack of a serious opponent. Those days are coming to an end...

[McSweeny]

well that article said that this is not replacing the current game boy, but it's just another line. I'd take that to mean this is experimental and NOT what nintendo will be using to counter whatever Sony does

[Fidatelo]

I think GameBoy Advance still has a lot of life left in it. The Sony handheld could be a challenge, but I thought the same thing about the Sega GameGear and a couple of the other handhelds that have come and gone.

To be honest, as much as I feel competition is good, I want Sony to fail. I love Nintendo and right now the GBA is basically proping the company up. If they lose that market, they will go the way of Sega :(

[Daimyo]

There has to be more to it hardware wise. They said the DS will have 128MB of memory compared to 8MB on the PSP.... They haven't really revealed much other than the novelty of two screens. It might actually be a very powerful system.

[MikeVic]

I think GameBoy Advance still has a lot of life left in it. The Sony handheld could be a challenge, but I thought the same thing about the Sega GameGear and a couple of the other handhelds that have come and gone.

To be honest, as much as I feel competition is good, I want Sony to fail. I love Nintendo and right now the GBA is basically proping the company up. If they lose that market, they will go the way of Sega :(

Yeah, same here. If Nintendo loses too much of its handheld market, they'll g the way of Sega. I also don't think this DS thing is any sort of counter to the PSP. It's just a new toy they are putting out.

[sterlingice]

I can see this as another VirtuaBoy disaster. Novelty does not sell systems, when will people realise that?

Another thing I'm curious about is the power that thing will suck up. The original GBA didn't even have a lit screen because they wanted to extend battery life. How will 2, hopefully backlit screens, not just suck the crap out of batteries? I'm really reluctant to say anything good about this. Still, I guess I'm curious about their plans. Still, N is already spread too thin, they don't need a third system to support. They're already developing for the next gen Gamecube and next gen GBA. I have no idea where they are going to get talent to develop for this without diluting their already saturated market.

As for the "lack of competition in the GBA market". How many of you who are planning on getting a PSP actually have a GBA? Even more importantly, how many of you who are getting a PSP plan on stopping support for your GBA? The GBA is a completely different market than the consoles at the moment. A huge portion of the business is generated from kids. That's why they haven't had any problems in the hand held market- it's a market much more dominated by younger demographics. Right now, they make a huge profit because they get a decent amount from other gamers, but if you look at the business model, they could easily be profitable even with just the kids buying stuff. And the Gamecube has shown that if even the teens and adults buy up other systems, they still have kids in their back pockets because they are the only ones who develop for kids. Remember, 3Q 2003 was the first non-profitable quarter in the history of Nintendo and, if not for a suffering yen, they would have been in black not red. Not only that, but 4Q is pretty much guaranteed profitablity.

Again, like Gamecube, their biggest problem will be if they can keep 3rd party development when there are other parties in town. The GBA had an amazing year last year- it was the number 2 system for the year, barely behind the PS2 and well ahead of everything else (PS2 20M, GBA 17M, XBOX 6M, NGC 6M). It's a shame because this really was a benevolent monarchy- $100 for a great system with good system power and battery life (GBA SP) and it's a system that had more A Titles last year than any other system. They had great games and kept the price low and now those A games are going to be split between systems and the price will invariably be higher as they have to piss away cash in advertising and higher rights for games since there is competition.

Again, this system sounds like a bad idea. Haven't they seen that GBA connectability really doesn't do much. And now they want to make something else like that... still, I'll reserve some judgement until after I see it in action.

SI

[Eaglesfan27]

There has to be more to it hardware wise. They said the DS will have 128MB of memory compared to 8MB on the PSP.... They haven't really revealed much other than the novelty of two screens. It might actually be a very powerful system.

The Sony PSP has announced that they never committed to only 8 MB of memory and that they will in fact have 128MB memory. I can't remember where I saw this, but I'm fairly sure that I did see this information (likely on gamespot's web site - although I can't find the specific story right now.)

[SackAttack]

I dunno. I read the step up was from 8 MB to 32 MB for the PSP (which is still more than the PS2 has, if I recall).

A jump from 8 to 128 is fairly drastic, and would more likely be calculated to counter any moves Nintendo might make than simply because the developers said "hey, we need more."

[Eaglesfan27]

It's possible I am incorrectly remembering the info and it was only an upgrade to 32 MB.. I'm not as sure now that I've read your post and tried to remember for sure. I do know I read it was being upgraded significantly.

Edited to add: I just realized this was my 1,000th post.. I never thought I would make it to 1000 when I first joined this board and I want to thank each and every one of my fingers which made this possible.

[Blade6119]

congratulations man!