New Nintendo DS to Include Camera, Music 261
BobB-nw writes "Watch out Apple, here comes Nintendo. Nintendo plans to launch a new version of its popular DS portable gaming device with a camera and music player function, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily. The new version will have better wireless capability for connecting to the Internet and will cost under $189, the report said. It will be offered first in Japan, it said. The DS first went on sale in 2004, and a second version, called the DS Lite, debuted two years later in 2006. Both have sold extremely well, with worldwide sales of the DS products at 77.5 million units as of the end of June this year."
Color me skeptical. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nintendo has generally been about not bloating its systems in the past. Why would they release a new DS with all this crap while it's still going strong?
To kill demand for R4, SuperCard, M3, CycloDS, etc (Score:5, Insightful)
adding all this extra stuff to a portable gaming console is just bloatware and evidence that the company doesn't have its priorities straight
We've discussed rumors of this on gbadev.org and pocketheaven.com. Consensus was that Nintendo might do this to make it less likely that people will buy adapters like SuperCard DS One, CycloDS Evolution, or M3 Real for video and then end up using them to pirate games.
Aftermarket accessories (Score:2, Insightful)
When the DS Lite was introduced, the supply of aftermarket accessories for the DS dried up completely. I wonder if the same thing will happen to DS Lite accessories. It would make sense as it will help to drive sales for this new hardware release.
Re:Cool (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't count on this report being correct. Nintendo has had a pure cash cow [gonintendo.com] with the Nintendo DS. Since it market does not appear to have slowed significantly or run into serious competition, why would they refresh the hardware? A few folks have suggested the iPhone as competition, but I don't see anyone purchasing iPhones as DS replacements. Instead, they appear to use their iPhone as a spectacular networked handset and the DS as a gaming platform. The market does not appear ready to confuse the two.
Perhaps the most damning evidence is that out of all these reports on a new DS, they all cite the same source: Nikkei Business Daily. No one has yet independently confirmed this. So take it with a very large grain of salt.
Better wireless? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully that means WPA capability (finally...)
Arrr 4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Since it market does not appear to have slowed significantly or run into serious competition, why would they refresh the hardware?
To reduce demand for R4, as I mentioned [slashdot.org].
Rumor lacking details (Score:5, Insightful)
I think most of us saw this one coming, but the article is completely devoid of any information. First it's still just speculation that this is going to be the new announcement. For all any of us know it could be another new device to interact with the Wii. The only evidence the article even presents is that another news publication carried the rumor yesterday.
There's no mention of how they're going to add music and make it easy to put music on the device. There's no details on the camera either or even if the physical dimensions of the DS are going to be further reduced. Wouldn't it have been better to wait until Thursday when the product is actually announced and all of the details are released?
I don't mind a little speculation, but this had absolutely no substance to it at all. It's just a rumor repeated from another publication without anything of value added. Without the rest of the fluff about sales figures and release dates this article would have been one or two lines at most. What a complete waste of time.
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Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer (Score:4, Insightful)
They threw Game Boy Advance backwards compatibility in there, though. If they were trying to call it something besides a Game Boy (successor), they sure stirred up a lot of confusion with that move.
When the Nintendo GameCube was priced at $149.xx, some units were shipped with an accessory that ran Game Boy Advance games. Yet it was still called a GameCube.
Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer (Score:5, Insightful)
The GameBoy line of portables ended with the GameBoy Advance.
GameBoy Advance begat GameBoy Advance SP, which begat GameBoy Micro...
Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer (Score:4, Insightful)
They threw the backwards compatibility in simply because it was convenient (the DS has an ARM7 processor that can be clocked down to behave identical to GBA hardware) and because the folks who actually care about such compatibility will know to look for it. Amusingly enough, Slashdot is the only site that I've ever seen confuse the name of the system... this isn't the first time they've done it.
Re:Cool (Score:2, Insightful)
As long as I can play my homebrew on it, I'm up for a hardware refresh. On the other hand, I have a feeling if this were actually true and not a rumor, I'd be stocking up on DS Lites right now.
Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer (Score:2, Insightful)
They wanted to distance themselves from the old brand - just by dint of the name, GameBoy has connotations of a (male) child's toy.
Or they wanted to protect the "Gameboy" brand from the (then) threat of Sony's PSP with what they called the "third pillar" [kombo.com], a handheld with gimmicks like two screens, touch sensitivity, and a microphone. Only after DS exceeded all expectations ("It prints money!") did they let the Gameboy line quietly die.
Re:Arrr 4 (Score:3, Insightful)
To reduce demand for R4, as I mentioned.
If we were talking about a BIOS update, I might believe you. However, Nintendo makes a profit on these machines. They're keeping it 'fresh and exciting'. Slowing 'arrr 4' isn't going to make them more money, at least not in comparison to how much they'll make if the features of the system are interesting to the market.
Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer (Score:3, Insightful)
They threw Game Boy Advance backwards compatibility in there, though. If they were trying to call it something besides a Game Boy (successor), they sure stirred up a lot of confusion with that move.
Calling their console the "wii" shows nintendo has some odd ideas about names.
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Re:Arrr 4 (Score:5, Insightful)
I somehow doubt that many people are buying these addon cards for Video. I mean, does anyone really watch movies on that tiny screen?
The DS Lite's 3" screen is bigger than an iPod Nano's 2" screen.
Re:Cool (Score:2, Insightful)
The expected reply. Many companies have a policy to never support or deny rumors except with official product announcements so noone can fill in the gaps (e.g. if they were to deny all or most false rumors a refusal to comment will mean it's more likely the rumor is true).
Re:Arrr 4 (Score:4, Insightful)
Nintendo won't make more money if it keeps losing customers to the rom sites.
Do you really think millions of people are exclusively using DS ROM sites and not paying Nintendo a cent?
Re:Cool (Score:3, Insightful)
Or considering the source maybe even a grain of rice.
Hooray for racism!
Hooray for being overly politically correct!
Honestly, why is changing a grain of salt to a food that's a staple for the area that the news is coming from considered racism?
Ahead of the piracy game (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Arrr 4 (Score:3, Insightful)
Those crazy nintendians and their "rational business models", why I tell ya..