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NYT Report Inaccurate on Full DS Downloads Via Wii

Posted by Zonk on from the close-but-no-cigar dept.

Kotaku notes that the report from the New York Times, that full DS games would be downloadable via the Wii, wasn't entirely accurate. "That's right, according to Nintendo, the Wii will NOT be able to transmit or download full DS games. Apparently the New York Times confused DS demos with WiiWare titles. So you can download full on Wii games (which we knew), but only wireless DS demo games (which we also knew)."

27 comments

  1. Shock and awe by kevgaxxana · · Score: 1

    Totally shocked (knew it wasn't accurate from the beginning)

    --
    In Soviet Halo, the game kills you (socially anyway)
  2. Already Two Corrections by Palshife · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Correction: January 1, 2008

    Because of an editing error, an article in Business Day on Monday about Nintendo's video game consoles misstated the capabilities of one of the devices. A statement about movie-playing should have referred to the PlayStation Portable or PSP, made by Sony, not to the hand-held Nintendo DS. (The DS does not play movies.) The article also misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America. He is Reggie Fils-Amie, not Fils-Aimee.

    Correction: January 3, 2008

    An article in Business Day on Monday about Nintendo's video game consoles misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, and a correction in this space on Tuesday gave another incorrect spelling. He is Reggie Fils-Aime -- not Fils-Amie or Fils-Aimee.

    Maybe this reporter just...sucks?

    --
    Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
    1. Re:Already Two Corrections by jandrese · · Score: 1

      Maybe the reporter was seeing all of these possible stories about international conflict, Iraq, or even the presidental primaries but was given an adverstory on an already popular gaming console and just phoned it in.

      Or it was the holidays and he was hoping to whip out a story quick to spend more time with the family.

      Or he just sucks at actually getting facts correct.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  3. good thing by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Good thing we never see inaccurate stories or typos around these parts, right?

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:good thing by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Yeah so what's your point? That Slashdot shouldn't have reported the error? Because Slashdot reported the original inaccurate NYT article, this is essentially a correction of the inaccurate Slashdot article as well.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You tell em, Corky!

  4. It's a shame though by Orange+Crush · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I figured as much, but it is kind of a shame they won't give us FULL downloadable DS games. I was hoping they'd release something along the lines of a writable flash cart that would let us take VC games and DS games on the go from the Wii.

    I'd really like to see much more interaction between the DS and the Wii. What have they done so far? The Pokemon game is the only thing I've heard about.

    1. Re:It's a shame though by Bibz · · Score: 1

      Well there is some interactions between them in Geometry Wars Galaxies.
      You can download a demo from the Wii. You can also link the DS and the Wii together to unlock things and share high scores, but i haven't tried it yet.

      --
      I didn't found something funny to put here.
    2. Re:It's a shame though by morari · · Score: 1

      Things like Pac-man Vs. and Four Swords Adventure don't seem as iffy with a DS. Since it's all wireless, you don't need to run out and buy link cables for everyone to play. :P

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    3. Re:It's a shame though by Hatta · · Score: 1

      You can already do that.

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:It's a shame though by jgoemat · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? There's already a device like that and a place to download the games...

  5. The list goes on... by ExE122 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Correction: Jan 4, 2008

    An article in Business Day on Monday about Nintendo's video game consoles which misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America as Reggie Fils-Amie, not Fils-Aimee, the correction of which was later given the correct spelling as Reggie Fils-Aime, not Fils-Amie or Fils-Aimee, was actually published on Tuesday.

    Correction: Jan 5, 2008

    An article in Business Day on Monday, which was later corrected to Tuesday, about Nintendo's video game consoles which misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America as Reggie Fils-Amie, not Fils-Aimee, the correction of which was later given the correct spelling as Reggie Fils-Aime, not Fils-Amie or Fils-Aimee, was actually published in Business Weekly.

    Correction: Jan 6, 2008

    An article in Business Day, which was later corrected to Business Weekly, on Monday, which was later corrected to Tuesday, about Nintendo's video game consoles which misspelled the surname of the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America as Reggie Fils-Amie, not Fils-Aimee, the correction of which was later given the correct spelling as Reggie Fils-Aime, not Fils-Amie or Fils-Aimee, does not actually exist.

    --
    Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
  6. haha... by emeraldfoxx · · Score: 1

    I think he was suppose to yell April Fools...must have missed the memo

    --
    We're in college now. There's girls here. They do stuff....
  7. I'm shocked by faloi · · Score: 2, Funny

    With their subscription rates skyrocketing and their history of rock solid journalism, I wouldn't think the NYT would be capable of mistakes.

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
    1. Re:I'm shocked by badasscat · · Score: 1

      With their subscription rates skyrocketing and their history of rock solid journalism, I wouldn't think the NYT would be capable of mistakes.

      Oh, I knew this was coming...

      What, because Kotaku (who are linked here) are so much better? That story's been up 12 hours now without a correction. If it's somehow corrected by the time you read this, at the moment the headline reads "Xbox Live: 10 Million Gold Subscribers" which is incorrect according to Major Nelson himself - it's 10 million *total* XBL subscribers, including silver.

      Or how about Slashdot, which just parroted the original NY Times story about the DS games without doing any fact checking at all?

      I would wager that, even with the short little blurbs that most blogs post, and with a smaller number of stories per day, blogs like Slashdot and Kotaku probably make double the mistakes that a major publication like the NY Times does. I find at least one major mistake on Kotaku every day. And really, that's what you'd expect given that the NY Times is made up of trained and experienced journalists while Slashdot and Kotaku editors are mostly college kids, but the point is people criticize the Times as if there are better sources of news. There aren't. I mean, not unless you lean right, in which case I guess you consider sites like Drudge to be the bellwether - as if he's never posted an inaccurate story either.

    2. Re:I'm shocked by Aladrin · · Score: 1

      Oh, don't forget their other major blunder from early this morning:

      http://kotaku.com/341375/microsoft-360-on-track-for-biggest-game-year-in-history?cpage=2

      "Bach says that Microsoft sold 17.7 million consoles this season, surpassing their expectations and putting the 360 on track for the biggest year in video game history."

      Suddenly their 17.7mil total is 17.7mil this season. Like, in the last 2-3 months. It's so obviously wrong that I couldn't believe they could write it. Every other source that I saw got it right, including joystiq and engadget. -sigh-

      --
      "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  8. NYT as the national gospel? by Morris+Thorpe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm concerned that as more of us turn to the internet for news, the influence of the NYT grows. Not a day goes by in which one or two stories here are about an article published in the Times. Same goes for other sites such as this.

    It'd be interesting to see a graph of newspaper sources in stories discussed here. I'd bet the Times would outnumber the LA Times, Detroit News, Miami Herald, Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and dozens more put together.

    The effect of the Times is enormous. Not only is it becoming the U.S. national newspaper, but its influence on local news outlets is also growing. What is (often erroneously) reported as a trend in the Times is picked up by local outlets and localized, thereby spreading this misinformation. What might be of interest to liberal-leaning white folks in New York all of a sudden is reported nationwide.

  9. For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by Crash+Culligan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I got Geometry Wars: Galaxies for the Wii first, then picked up the DS version for the unlocks (and yeah, I guess for the portable play). It turns out you only get one system and seven planets out of it, so I don't feel it was quite worth it.

    (Oh, and the unlock is mutual -- introduce GW:G on the Wii to GW:G on the DS, and you get the bonus levels on both editions. This would otherwise be seriously interesting, but more on that later.)

    And it doesn't share high scores because the game experience between the two is so radically different that the scores just don't convert over properly -- not just the way it plays (lots of enemies slow the DS down), but the layouts of some of the play spaces are different.

    That said, there is a big heaping chunk of potential here. GW:G demonstrated it with the "Retro Evolved" demo download to the DS. And then they demonstrated a twist on it with the mutual unlock of special levels.

    1. Imagine a free download through the Shop Channel to turn your Wii into a demo kiosk on steroids. Not just two or three but twenty game demos. Right there in the comfort of your home, Nintendo could give you the first hit--er, sample of bunches of software. Consumers see what's out there and develop the want, stores are set to provide, let the stampede begin.
    2. Imagine a download ($20 or so) which turns the Wii into a DS game server -- something that'll serve up individual levels or stages on demand to a large number of DSes, and when a round of play is done with it would collect and store the results for comparison or competition. Yes, the DS can do some of this already (Mario Kart DS does networked play), but only one person would need to own the "original game" and that would be on the Wii. 1 Wii + this software + 20 DSes with no games in them = DS LAN Party.
    3. Or how about a free download for the Wii that will allow it to connect to the DS and download content from it? You'd buy a DS game marked "Wii-Enhanced," take it home, and use the loader to get bonus content from the DS that you could play on the Wii?

    Disclaimer: I have no idea they'll ever attempt anything like these. I'm just saying it could be cool if they did.

    --
    You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
    1. Re:For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by spyrochaete · · Score: 1

      FYI, the DS is limited to 10KB/s transfer rate over Wifi which is a pretty narrow bottleneck. Also, the Wifi really kills the battery. I wouldn't expect anything too fancy with the wireless cross-platform features.

    2. Re:For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by Burpmaster · · Score: 1

      FYI, the DS is limited to 10KB/s transfer rate over Wifi

      No it isn't. It's limited to 2 megabit/sec, which amounts to a throughput of around 100k/sec. That's why Download Play never takes longer than a minute to download a game into the DS's 4 MB of RAM. It's completely feasible to do this because the DS already does it with other DS systems.

    3. Re:For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by spyrochaete · · Score: 1

      No it isn't. It's limited to 2 megabit/sec, which amounts to a throughput of around 100k/sec. That's why Download Play never takes longer than a minute to download a game into the DS's 4 MB of RAM. It's completely feasible to do this because the DS already does it with other DS systems.

      Really? I've tried some homebrew FTP and web browsing apps and I've never ever downloaded faster than 10KB/s. Perhaps this is an imposed limit to improve battery life, but it's odd that all the apps I've tried used that specific bottleneck. Maybe download play uses a protocol other than 802.11?
    4. Re:For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by Burpmaster · · Score: 1

      It could be an issue between your router and the DS, or it could be that the WiFi driver for homebrew software just doesn't perform well yet. If it's the first case, try setting your router to 802.11b speed (11 Mbit/sec). I think a lot of the compatibility issues between routers and the DS are simply the routers not correctly handling devices that only go up to the original 802.11 speed (2 Mbit/sec) since they are so rare, but limiting the router to 802.11b speed seems to help.

    5. Re:For what it's worth (and it could be a lot) by spyrochaete · · Score: 1

      I'll give it a try. I appreciate the advice!

  10. Obligitory Monty Python by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The reporter who originally reported this has been sacked.

    The editor who incorrectly corrected the reporters report has also been sacked.

  11. Couldn't of happened, DS doesn't have the space by Bazar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Its obvious that only demo's can be copied over via wifi.
    If i'm not mistaken, the DS has 4MB ram, which can be shared for storage of wifi games.

    With modern ds cartridges using up-to 64MB games, it'd be impossible to copy them into the DS, let alone having remaining space left to run them.

    Then theres the fact that most people would find it annoying, having to to wait 2-3 minutes for even the smallest of games to load a 3MB game over wifi.

    It'll be fun for downloading DS demo's, but actual games are only practical with a cartridge behind them.

    --
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    1. Re:Couldn't of happened, DS doesn't have the space by grumbel · · Score: 1

      The DS has plenty of slots into which you can stuff SD card adapters and gigabytes of SD cards. It would be trivial to release such an official add-on, dozens of unofficial ones already exist.