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Nintendo DS Network
Kamalot writes "It looks like Nintendo is preparing a wireless peer-to-peer network of Nintendo DS ' to allow a new way of playing games online. Each Nintendo DS could includes a repeater hub to extend and share an 802.11 signal. A thread on GameCubicle unveils more, including a service called MarioNette and some disturbing marketing pieces with hidden images and messages." As with everything involving the new handhelds, take this one with a grain of salt.
As I've said over here, If this repeater stuff is in any way true, it really could be a killer app for handheld gaming.
The potential hinted at by these new revelations totally trancends your basic "sit around in a group and play wirelessly" functionality. If this (the repeater functionality) is in any way true, then it will make the touch-screen part of the DS look about as groundbreaking as MP3 support on a Sony player, and it makes the PSP's infra-red wireless gaming look like a silly kids' toy.
Seriously, wide-area gaming would be the killer app for handheld consoles. Imagine some sort of asynchronous MMPORG-style game whereby when a fellow player's DS is detected, some form of battle can take place. Some sort of modern take on the old style Campus 'Assassin' games.
Not to mention the facilitation of true munchkin-style ubiquitous networking.
Just like the pricing turned out to be a rumor, I seriously question the truth behind this. They're saying that, this late in the game, Nintendo intends to strap a non-trivial piece of hardware onto a system that I'm pretty sure works already. Also, the wide-area integrity of a network based entirely on systems that are A. irregularly distributed, B. probably moving around, and C. turned off much of the time doesn't sound like it'd be worth the effort to set it up.
I guess it could work to automatically network to any other DS's within a set range, but over a wide area, what happens when some dipshit turns off his DS and breaks the very tenuous chain of DS's transmitting through the rural area between two urban areas (where there are more people and probably far more DS's floating around)? I admit I'm not as knowledgeable about wireless networks as wired ones, but I don't see this working on a large scale, and on a smaller scale, why even bother with building a hub into every DS?
With all its problems, the N-Gage probably was closer to the spot with a wider area gaming network. The cell phone network is already there, and although it's not 100% reliable (especially if you're moving around between cells), it's got far less random factors involved than a p2p DS network.
Just sounds too cool to be true. At least the hoax about the PSP price was believable. The PSP will be a lot closer to $350 than the DS will be to this p2p distributed network.
1. Early adopters will get spottier connection capabilities than those that wait til tons of people have them? (much larger network based on the repeater concept).
2. What if I am connecting via John D.S. and suddenly he drops off of my range? Will I lose my connection and game? This would um...whats the word? Oh yeah...suck.