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Handhelds Portables (Games) Entertainment Games Hardware

Nintendo DS to Play Movies? 56

Posted by CowboyNeal from the positioning-tactics dept.
swisener writes "An article at CNN speculates that the Nintendo DS could have multimedia playback, making it more of a competitor to Sony's PSP. If true, it will be interesting to see whether or not the big N can be successful with something other than a pure gaming machine."
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Nintendo DS to Play Movies? More

Nintendo DS to Play Movies?

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  • And it's got two screens, so... (Score:4, Funny)

    by jwriney ( 16598 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:36PM (#8476723) Homepage
    ...you can watch two movies at once. Oh boy!

    --riney

  • What is the movie format? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hambonewilkins ( 739531 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:50PM (#8476875)
    From the article:
    two-hour movie (fit onto a 128 MB flash cartridge

    That's roughly 1MB a minute, not too shabby compression though probably really tiny resolution. Considering that the cartridges for the DS are likely to be proprietary, don't get your hopes up that you'll be able to toss your own movies on the system. In addition, Nintendo will have to scare up some relationships with hollywood to get movie rights.

    All in all, it sounds like this one will likely sputter out due to the (likely) proprietary nature of both the cartridges and the movie compression and the difficulty of getting studios to sign onto a new format (does anyone remember how FEW 8mm hollywood movies were released (meant to compete with VHS late in the game)).

    • Re:What is the movie format? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by metroid composite ( 710698 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:03PM (#8477028) Homepage Journal
      (does anyone remember how FEW 8mm hollywood movies were released (meant to compete with VHS late in the game)).

      Strange, I don't even remember 8mm. A few things are different this time, though; the big thing being that install base is widely expected to be at least decent (whereas why would people change their 20-year-old VCRs? Consoles are one of the few formats which seem to get people to update hardware) and it's portable without being pirated, which is something the movie industry has a stake in pushing these days.

      All that said, yeah you're probably right.

    • Someone will probably design software for playing videos on flash carts. That's exactly the case with the GBA, although the video-playing isn't exactly top-notch and I'm yet to succesfully encode one to work on my GBA. :/ You can download *.gba format trailers for The Matrix and Ice Age that don't look too shabby.

      I'm sure that cartridge size will increase too.

    • Let's not forget that Sony is one of the biggest movie producers around. I'm sure that they'll jump right on putting their movies into this Nintendo format.</sarcasm>

  • Movies, who needs them.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ihtagik ( 318795 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:50PM (#8476881)
    I think what Nintendo should focus on is improving the gamer's *gaming* experience otherwise they stand to lose the very users that made the Gameboy as successful as it is today.

    Just ask Nokia, they forgot that their core market was cellphones and instead of leveraging their effort at polishing up their cellphones they ventured off into gaming with less than satisfatory results.

    In addition, movies on the go demand a lot more from the DS including copyright protection etc which, Nintendo shouldn't IMHO delve into...

    In short, Nintendo should put their boffins to good use figuring out how to take advantage of the dual screens for gaming and not for movies.
    • I'm sure (or at least hoping) that they will focus on gaming for the next SERIOUS Game Boy successor.

      Nintendo has already admitted multiple times that the DS will be an experiment, and that people won't understand it. This is Nintendo's latest toy, and they're going to try every last "good idea" on it they can come up with.

      I for one am glad they're adding this to the DS. Now if they add it to the Game Boy Super-Advance, I'll be annoyed.

  • FMV anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:02PM (#8477016)
    I wonder if those reporters ever stopped to think that the movie was just a demonstration of the FMV capabilities? It seems unlikly that Nintendo is going to be able support movie distrobution on a new format in such a short amount of time. Not that this is particularly a bad thing. A compressed movie running on a 3" screen with low resolution using expensive cartridge media does not particualrly excite me.

  • Comparison to Gamecube (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:03PM (#8477018)
    One of the reasons that Nintendo was able to market the Gamecube for a lower price than the PS2 and the XBox was precisely because it didn't have multimedia capabilities, such as DVD or CD-ROM playback. World-wide the Gamecube is #2 (behind the ubiquous PS2); in other words, this hasn't hurt their market share.

    Now, WHY OH WHY would they bother with a portable that could play movies too? It's a proprietary format which means that you couldn't (legally) pop a cart into your computer and copy a movie over, so this means that either 1) the film industry would have to adopt a new media format, or the more likely 2) there would be five or six films tops for the DS.

    I don't think this is exactly a bright idea. Nintendo has *always* focused on making a gaming device and not a multi-use media centre; I have a hard time believing that the Big N is going to deviate from 25-odd years of success *now*.

    • I agree completely. That's why I think that this quote, from the article, is a buch of hooey.

      "The lack of a DVD player hurt GameCube sales tremendously when the console was first released."

      Says who? Where are the industry statistics on this one? I consider the lack of a DVD player a strenght in the product. I already have a DVD player, and so do many people. Keeping DVD's out of the GameCube meant that it stayed nice and small and cheap, exactly what I was looking for in a gaming device.

      • "I already have a DVD player, and so do many people."

        But they're not talking about the present. The quote was in regards to the initial release of the Gamecube. Over the course of the Gamecube's lifetime, the price of DVD players has dropped significantly. Not having DVD playback available at the time of release probably did hurt sales of the Gamecube. Consider that DVD player market penetration was not as high as it currently is and also consider that both the PS2 and XBox could play DVDs and you can see

        • "I don't know if I agree with the statement that it had a tremendous effect."

          You're right, that's my main problem with the statement - you can't just go throwing around adjectives like that unless you're willing to back them up. Sure, it had *an* effect. Was it tremendous? Depends on who you ask.

    • I don't think this is exactly a bright idea. Nintendo has *always* focused on making a gaming device and not a multi-use media centre; I have a hard time believing that the Big N is going to deviate from 25-odd years of success *now*.

      Actually, Nintendo started out as a playing card company. No doubt when they started making gaming devices there were plenty of people saying 'Nintendo has *always* focused on making playing cards; I have a hard time believing that the Big N is going to deviate from 75 yea

  • film at 11:00 (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    CNN makes silly speculation and gamers promptly blame Nintendo for creating such a dumb idea.

    This is why Nintendo is dying.
  • as the article states, why hasn't a description of the unit beyond "2 screens" been released? Obviously they've got a prototype they're showing to select individuals... time for someone to start sharing the info with the rest of us.

  • yawn (Score:1, Troll)

    by MORTAR_COMBAT! ( 589963 )
    somebody wake me up when I can pre-order a DS of my very own. until then it's a bunch of vaporware mental masturbation.
  • .. the big question mark is wether there will be movies available, as Nintendo hasn't been very supportive of letting it's users mangle with what gets executed.

    and meanwhile theres 3rd party software that lets you watch movies(that _you_ have encoded and transferred to the device) for various pda's and phones(series60 among others).

    (I was going to say big N but then I realized Nokia starts with N as well..)

  • Nintendo is scaring me. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JMZero ( 449047 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:04PM (#8477703) Homepage
    Here's some hypothetical plans:

    1. Make a handheld that plays GameCube games.
    2. Make a handheld that supports reasonable 3d games and wireless gaming.
    3. Make a portable system that plays GameCube games and DVD's.
    4. Make a portable system with two screens (increasing cost/size), don't say why, don't release any information while PSP eats your mindshare lunch, don't give any re-assurance about specs/capabilities, and have vague, horrifying rumors that it plays movies in some wacky, proprietary format

    Please, Nintendo, don't kill your fanboys like this. Have some mercy. Or shame. Or something.

    My dream advice? Co-brand the next X-Box with MS (call it XCube) - it's new architecture should make it easy to make it GameCube backwards compatible. Then make a handheld that's GameCube compatible. You can sell the great new software for the XCube, while also making money on GameCube/PortaGameCube/Also-Playable-on-XCube games.
    • Sony entered the console market because the other console makers were not being creative enough, they knew 3d was where it's at, now look where they are.

      The chances of them demolishing Nintendo with it's pathetic gameboy are pretty good, the psp is going to have PS2 games and the DS, well it'll have 2 screens!

      Adding movie support for a proprietary format is going to be easy, it's just allowing a game's intro cutscene to run for 30 min with a little menu :) Easy, the FACT that Nintendo doesn't know anythin
      • the psp is going to have PS2 games

        How are those huge PS2 DVDs going to fit into that tiny PSP?

        there might be liscencing costs involved with using DVD's

        There are. You know who makes money from those licensing fees? Sony. Why should Nintendo give money to Sony for everyone of their consoles sold. That's why the DVD functionality costs extra on the XBox.

        NOT using standard sized disks is huge

        What size are the PSP discs going to be, again?

        Sony entered the console market because the other
        • How are those huge PS2 DVDs going to fit into that tiny PSP?

          Actually I've read that the psp CAN handle ps2 games and that ps2 games are REALLY easy to port to the psp. the psp will use a sony propietary disc while small has a large capacity (just look at the gamecube's disk).

          What size are the PSP discs going to be, again?

          The fact that Sony 'has' made the cd AND dvd a standard already, I wouldn't doubt whatever they have planned for the psp wouldn't be far from standardizing too if they really belie

      • The chances of them demolishing Nintendo with it's pathetic gameboy are pretty good, the psp is going to have PS2 games and the DS, well it'll have 2 screens

        and, yet, every company that has released a handheld since the original black and white gameboy came out has come nowhere close to equalling or demolishing Nintendo and their "pathetic" technology. It's easy to claim that superior hardware should win, but it's much harder to prove it. X-box has far superior hardware to the PS2, yet it's sold maybe 1

  • This is a double edge sword (Score:4, Insightful)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:23PM (#8477896)
    Sony can release PSP for $399 or something ridiculous. If this DS handheld is a true competitor, then Sony will likely lower the prices to compete. PSP being cheaper = larger audience.

    On the other hand Nintendo not releasing DS will force Sony to keep the price at $399. Sony might end up shooting themselves in the foot.

    • Re:This is a double edge sword (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MORTAR_COMBAT! ( 589963 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:45PM (#8478101)
      The $399 price point would definitely kill the PSP, which is why Sony is likely to sell it at a loss to eat into the GBA share. Although, more likely, the PSP is going after a nearly completely different demographic than the GBA. The GBA caters to the under-16 crowd almost exclusively, the PSP will likely cater to the over-13 crowd. Some sizeable overlap to be sure, but the crazed Pokemon GBA players aren't likely to be interested that much in even a $299 PSP, whereas the people able to drop $399 on a PSP aren't interested in playing Pokemon, either.

      The portable GameCube player made sooooo much more sense, and would actually give Nintendo owners what they want. Natural, then, that Nintendo isn't planning to do it. More than likely, the next GameCube generation won't be backwards-compatible either.

      Sony's PS3 is going to kick the crap out of both the XBox2 and the next Nintendo console, if for no other reason than at launch they'll have thousands of playable titles already, and it is a natural upgrade path for the millions of PS2 owners. It doesn't even really matter if the PS3 is more powerful than the XBox2 or next Nintendo console, or even if it offers better first-, second-, and third-party games at launch or not. Being backwards compatible and a natural upgrade path... gee, that didn't hurt Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2K/XP, did it?
      • Few facts for ya: Next Gamecube is confirmed as backwards compatable by Nintendo. Same with the next Gameboy.

        Backwards compat appeals to people who do not already own your previous console(it adds value for first-time buyers or people who didn't buy the previous console). I already own a PS2, why do I need a PS3 to play PS2&PS1 games? It's slightly nice to be able to trade in the old console to cut down some of the cost of the new one(while still being able to play the old games), but there need to

  • The entrepreneurial hacker... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MORTAR_COMBAT! ( 589963 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:49PM (#8478144)
    would do well for themselves to build a nice, portable GameCube-compatible gaming device, including mini CD-R MP3 player into it, and mini-DVD video player (or just bite the bullet and increase the form factor slightly and play regular DVDs and CDs, or, just forget both CDs and DVDs entirely and focus on GameCube compatibility).

    A subnotebook-sized GameCube device would be pretty durned successful, one would think? Complete with broadband adapter and GameBoy player compatibility? Heck, you could probably do fairly well hacking up used GameCubes and re-selling them after remanufacturing.

  • Screw movies, focus on games (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Man In Black ( 11263 ) <ze-ro&shaw,ca> on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:52PM (#8478165) Homepage
    All I want is for my consoles to play games. Why do companies think adding the kitchen sink will make me want to buy their game system? I don't care about PDA, cell phone, or movie/mp3 functions. When I buy a game system, I buy it TO PLAY GAMES! If I want a portable movie player, I'll go buy one of those portable DVD players and at least be able to play media I already have. If I wanted an mp3 player, I'd go buy a REAL mp3 player.

    So if this nonsense means that the DS will cost more money, then my advice to Nintendo is: Forget about it. I'm not paying more for a feature that I don't want.
  • It would be interesting that the DS could also function as somethign simple, like an MP3 player. For Nintendo's purposes, its probably not very hard to add in mp3 support, but it could go a long way in marketing. Perhaps They could also use it as an extension to a digital camera; multimedia is a very broad term. They really just need to avoid falling into the same pitfall that N-Gage did. While it would be interesting to see what they come up with, inside, I hope it stays a gaming machine.
  • ...then the whole DS thing might just make sense. People have speculated that the PSP will be priced around $199. Of course, they'd be a public outcry if the next Game Boy cost anything more than $99. So they might need something higher-end to compete with the PSP. If they do add video and music playback, then it will be the same "handheld media center" thing the PSP is. I still don't get why they're putting two screens on it, but hey...maybe it's just an excuse to charge more for it (people have gotte

  • the second screen: touch screen? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by raindog2 ( 91790 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @05:34PM (#8480052) Homepage
    Hearing about the possibility of movie playback made me think, "Gee, controlling video playback with a D-pad and a few buttons will be kinda lame." Of all the baseless rumors I've heard about the DS (wireless gaming, 3D LCD, analog stick, GBA compatibility, etc.) no one seems to have considered the possibility that they could stick a pressure-sensitive surface over the second screen (meaning the one people assume will be "the map screen" or whatever) to provide extra soft buttons, not just for applications like this but to do things like make item selection easier.

    It's as farfetched as any of the other speculation about the DS, but the video connection makes this possibility interesting.
    • That sounds very cool. While all the buttons certainly couldn't be done this way (the joystick if it has one, L and R), it would allow the majority of the controls to change with each game. I would love that, and it arguably makes more sense that what Nintendo says they'll do with it.

      The problem is, just that - Nintendo has already mentioned some of the possibilities for this second screen (two views of a soccer game, etc.) which basically counts out this possibility. I would love what you're talking

  • Remember the early GBA demos? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by edwdig ( 47888 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:21PM (#8480521)
    Before the GBA game out, Nintendo did various demos to show the screen quality of the GBA. Those demos included showing two N64 games - Yoshi's Island and Rogue Squadron - on the GBA screen. People misinterpreted this to mean the GBA could play N64 quality games. It's probably the same deal here.
    • Well, in the case of Yoshi's Story, at least (don't know about Rogue Squadron) the GBA could play it. For real. YS is a 2D game, and most of the polygonal bits were prerendered as sprites. In fact, I'm suprised Nintendo hasn't sold Yoshi's Story Advance by now.
      • Part of the reason Yoshi's Story hasn't progressed beyond a demo is that there are much meatier 2D platformers in the library. YS is cute and fun, but lacking in both longevity (necessary for a new game) and nostalgia (necessary for a ported classic.)

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