New Nintendo DS to Include Camera, Music

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."

Comments

To kill demand for R4, SuperCard, M3, CycloDS, etc

[tepples]

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.

Re:Cool

[AKAImBatman]

I wouldn't count on this report being correct. Nintendo has had a pure cash cow 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?

[Chris Pimlott]

Hopefully that means WPA capability (finally...)

Arrr 4

[tepples]

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.

Re:Arrr 4

[tepples]

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:Arrr 4

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

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?

Rumor lacking details

[alvinrod]

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.

Re:Gameboy DS is a misnomer

[tepples]

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

[poot_rootbeer]

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

[Bagels]

Actually, it makes perfect sense. They wanted to distance themselves from the old brand - just by dint of the name, GameBoy has connotations of a (male) child's toy. The DS has seen success in much broader markets, just as the Wii has, and at least some fraction of that is due to the more approachable branding. Yes, people really do get hung up on names that much.

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

[squiggleslash]

You don't stay ahead of the game by standing still. If the DS wants to avoid competition springing up, it has to be a moving target.

There are some critical flaws in the DS that I'm surprised they've done nothing to fix. The most major is the lack of WPA support, forcing anyone who wants their DS to be network enabled to use WEP WAPs. (Say that five times...)

It's also not hard to see ways in which it could be improved while keeping within its mandate - the music feature seems more of a "me too" thing, but the camera sounds like something I can see Nintendo adding just to create another input device for DS developers to find new and original uses for. (If anyone has difficulty understanding what I mean here, then take the microphone on the DS. There's a subgame available for the DS where you inflate balloons by blowing into the microphone. Yeah. Now, think about that kind of lateral thinking applied to a camera.) Motion sensors would strike as obvious enhancements too.

I'm disappointed that Nintendo isn't doing more to enhance their current offerings. Releasing a more advanced Wii for a slightly higher price, while keeping the current one in production, would do much to manage demand for the unit while keeping sales and profits high.