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Nintendo To Take On Apple With DSi App Store
Dave Allen writes "Despite Nintendo publicly claiming no direct competition with the iPhone or iPod Touch with its new DSi console, reports have been leaked about the Big N actively encouraging developers to begin work on small form gaming and non-gaming applications for the DSi's download service.
This is the first step toward Nintendo putting together a direct App Store rival, and could be the marketing hook it's been desperately searching for to convince gamers to upgrade their DS." It seems only fair that since the iPhone is now a gaming platform, the DS is becoming a PDA. And, if the only difference between them is a 3G wireless connection, the rivalry can only get more fierce.
How about Dual Screens, Dual Cameras, expandable memory, clamshell design. Not to mention the thing plays DS GAMES!
The DS has a totally different resolution, control structure, a minimal API set, and the big thing: no WWAN connectivity. It's just not even the same thing. It is much better at playing games, though.
How does providing a download service for DSi "directly compete" with Apple's Appstore (to paraphrase the summary)? If you own an iPhone, you won't be able to access the DS store, and if you own a DSi you won't be able to access the iPhone Appstore, so how is that competition?
People won't be choosing between iPhone or DSi. They are completely different devices.
Not in the slightest. Nintendo has been operating their Wii online store since before the iPhone App Store was a gleam in Jobs' eye. Their DSiWare track appears to be something they've been working on for some time. The iPhone App store and the DSiWare store are coincidental competitors, not reactive competitors. i.e. Nintendo no more reacted to the iPhone than Apple reacted to WiiWare.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
So, will there be SDKs for download?
Are there already SDKs for download, and I just didn't know about them?
Education is the silver bullet.
Nintendo's online game store is probably going to be a precursor to a full-blown AAA-title download store for them. They're not interested in making the DS into a PDA, they're interested in cutting out Walmart as a middle-man.
(You don't have to look very far to see how digital distribution is changing the gaming market. Eg. XBox Live Arcade, Steam, D2D, etc. Nintendo wants a piece of the sweet sweet pie that Valve cooked with Steam.)
Not at all. The Nintendo DS has sold over a hundred million units; that's 2-3 times more than Apple has sold iPhones. The moment Nintendo begins competing against Apple in the 'portable gadget' field, they will immediately become one of Apples biggest competitors.
Plus, Nintendo has a similar emphasis on quality and user experience as Apple, and much moreso than most of Apple's other competitors. However, I think Nintendo isn't interested in direct competition, but is probably trying to exploit an untapped market (like they did with the Wii).
The fun part is that Nintendo actually saw the tamagotchi as a very direct competitor while designing Mario 64.
I'll read the rest of your post in a sec, I forgot to feed my Mario 64... brb
Yet another additional surplus extra "me too" in the market.
I think you mean "mii too!"
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DESPITE claims? That implies that it goes against their complains of not being "direct competition." The DSi is still not going to be a phone or an mp3 player, which are what the iPhone and iPod are, respectively. So it's still true, this isn't direct competition. Oh no, a small hand-held PDA-like device that plays games and can connect to the internet. Apple is doomed. Nintendo is lying by claiming they aren't directly competing with Apple...
Nintendo have been trumpeting the DSi Store as a WiiWare equivalent for the DS for ages, I don't see why someone would "leak" the fact that they're - gasp - getting people to develop games for it.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
There are some specific differences between the GBA's 2D video and that of the DS that would get in the way of bug-for-bug compatibility. The extended rotation modes (3, 4, 5) act significantly different on the GBA and DS. The different row pitch alone screws things up.. The sprite priority . You'd need to use some sort of window system to hide an 8px wide border at the sides and a 16px wide border at the top and bottom, and you'd need to change all the scrolling register writes and all the mode 7 HDMA writes to offset the position by (8, 16). Trust me; this has already been hashed out on the board at Pocket Heaven.