Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo DS Release Date Moved?
galaxy300 writes "Apparently, the Nintendo DS is being released one week earlier than previously expected, on November 15th. Gamestop has updated the release information on their website, and there is discussion on the official Nintendo boards." Update: 11/10 16:52 GMT by Z : In the time it took for this story to crawl onto the games page, the Gamestop link was corrected and reposted with the original ship date. Hence the "?" in the original title. Sorry to get your hopes up.
Gamestop has changed its date back to 11/21. The Nintendo DS discussion board (which makes Slashdot posters seem downright intelligent) also admits today that it was all a mistake. The release date is 11/21, there is no doubt.
I sent an email to EBGames asking about what kind of deal they might have going on a trade-in of a GBA SP for a Nintendo DS. If I could get a DS for ~$80, I'd take it. Nothing back from them as of yet.
THIS ACCOUNT IS OFFICIALLY RETIRED/RETARDED.
Where's the "Nothing to see here. Move along." when you need it?
how come i see the game prices at $50 a pop!
All the previous articles i read said that DS games wre going to be something like $25 per game, even cheaper than GBA games (apparently in response to gba games being too expensive....)...
Unless those clever dickens over in Hong Kong come up with a utility that plays older carts, I may just give the DS a miss.
Nintendo allowed stores to sell the Gamecube early. I wouldn't be surprised if they did that again. As long as the games were in stores at the same time.
I mean how could it hurt them?
Anyone else noticed how odd of a release date the 21st is? That's a Sunday. Considering most delivery trucks don't run on Sunday, they're either getting the system on Saturday, in which case they'll probably start selling it early (like the Gamecube sold early), or the 21st is a placeholder date, and they're not real sure when it's going on sale.
I've been thinking about that too, but if you look at the different-shaped GBA and old-style GBC/GB carts, you'll see that a slot could be made to accept a GBA game but a GBC one physically wouldn't slide in. Nobody who's got their hands on a DS has revealed whether that's the case or not, at least to my knowledge.
I hope the physical limitation isn't there, so that a future DS card with emulation software on it could make classic GB/GBC games playable on the DS, but it wouldn't surprise me greatly if the old carts physically just don't fit. The fact that the DS plays GBA games at all is a little confusing, since it's supposed to be a third platform and not a replacement. I personally think it will serve as a replacement anyway, and in that case, one-generation backwards compatibility is better than none, but that's been one of the really cool things about Game Boy over the years -- all the old stuff would just work with newer sleeker systems.
Anyhow I'm just rambling at this point, but I would advise not to get your hopes up for emulation until you hold a DS in your hands and verify that you can physically stick a GBC game into it.
The shipping date for the DS is indeed the 15th, which means they will probably arrive in stores on the 16th. HOWEVER, there is a street date of November 21st which is indeed a Sunday. Same goes for all of the launch games. I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts selling them next week...somewhere. Nintendo has yet to even give my store an interactive, which I had expected weeks ago. Oh well. We can all be using one soon enough!