Newly announced DS games

[Drewbacca]

It seems to me, looking at the evidence, that Nintendo has diverted resources away from GBA. Not surprising, really, and Im sure many developers are eager to stop coding for fucking 1991 technology and will jump at the chance to move up to 1996. But it does make you wonder whats gonna happen when GBA2 comes around... which isnt too far away.

Coding is coding man. You don't see shit while you're doing it in anything but physics, which most people just get from the Havok engine anyway. Programming a platformer can and is just as fun as programming for a first person shooter. They're just different.

Yes, Nintendo is fucking dumb. JUST FOCUS ON MAKING THE SECOND GAMEBOY AWESOME. Fuck the DS. Incorporate the two displays and whatever you want into the new GBA, and give us backwards compatability in the form of a cart port. Or maybe don't do that and make us just keep our SPs so they have a purpose.

The DS is so pointless and needlessly idiotic I can't fathom how Nintendo thinks that they're going to be relevant anytime soon. They're going to have to swallow their pride and go third party.

[Jeremy]

There is absolutely no reason for them to go third party right now. The DS? Pointless? The system already has some neat, innovative games on that that simply couldn't be done on any other system, like Sonic DS, for just one example.

[jarrod]

The DS is so pointless and needlessly idiotic I can't fathom how Nintendo thinks that they're going to be relevant anytime soon. They're going to have to swallow their pride and go third party.

Sorry to say that the market at learge seems to disagree with you. Every major 3rd party publisher has already signed on with DS, Square Enix, Konami and EA rather enthusiastically it seems. It had an overwhelimgly positive response at E3 as well... things seems to be doing better than anyone imagined for DS honestly.

If Revolution is a bust I could see Nintendo dropping out of consoles entirely and just becoming a handheld company though. I don't think you'll ever see Mario or Pokemon on Sony or Microsoft platforms however...

[Damian79]

The DS is so pointless and needlessly idiotic I can't fathom how Nintendo thinks that they're going to be relevant anytime soon.

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Well, the DS is made undewr the assumption that there are people that find gaming too complex and for gamers looking to see what else is out there.

[Drewbacca]

There is absolutely no reason for them to go third party right now. The DS? Pointless? The system already has some neat, innovative games on that that simply couldn't be done on any other system, like Sonic DS, for just one example.

My point is why did they feel the need to make this a whole other system and not just incorporate these features into the next GBA? I could be wrong, the GBA 2 could be completely different. But as it is right now the DS seems like a far superior Gameboy.

Not having to buy 2 Nintendo portables to get all these features would be great.

Sorry to say that the market at learge seems to disagree with you. Every major 3rd party publisher has already signed on with DS, Square Enix, Konami and EA rather enthusiastically it seems. It had an overwhelimgly positive response at E3 as well... things seems to be doing better than anyone imagined for DS honestly.

They don't disagree with me because they've signed on, as if their motive for signing on were that they were going to prove this point. They want to make money, the DS will probably make them lots of money. My point was never about this.

I said that it seems needless when they have another portable coming out so soon after the DS in GBA 2. Why not just make one amazingly awesome portable?

It feels like they heard about the PSP and just put the DS on the market to compete with it, like a rush job or something. I don't know for sure but having to buy 2 portables (which I won't do) in order to play games is dumb.

That's why I'm upset as the DS.

If Revolution is a bust I could see Nintendo dropping out of consoles entirely and just becoming a handheld company though. I don't think you'll ever see Mario or Pokemon on Sony or Microsoft platforms however...

I think people may get confused by all the Nintendo hardware in the portable market so close together. Do they buy a DS or a Gameboy Advance or a Gameboy Advance 2? What kind of features are we going to be missing out on if I buy one over the other? Sony has just one boasting a ton of features and a solid library of games.

Yes, I was talking pretty much exclusively out of anger in that post, but at this point is just seems like Nintendo is not thinking clearly about market positioning and business strategy. It doesn't make sense to me, but oh well.

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Well, the DS is made undewr the assumption that there are people that find gaming too complex and for gamers looking to see what else is out there.

I don't understand this either. Gameboy has a lot of simple platformers on it, and a lot of not so simple platformers on it. I can understand what they're talking about on consoles, but the portable market has always been 2D, so the gameplay has always been as simple as ever, and as fun as ever.

I suppose where I'm getting this from is Sega releasing thing after thing after thing. The Genesis, the 32X, the CD, the Saturn and the Dreamcast (although DC doesn't count because it was later). People just got confused as to why they'd buy all of this stuff and eventually didn't. And god forbid if you did buy the 32X and then realized you probably wasted hundreds of dollars on something irrelevant in a year.

[Damian79]

Gameboy has a lot of simple platformers on it, and a lot of not so simple platformers on it.

It isn't about the games being simple, rather it is about making complex things simpler. For example, with the adhoc keyboards we were using all these years that requires like six button presses befor you could input a single letter, you can do tht no with a single tap of the stylus. I know a ton of people that find gaming too complex. This maybe the kind of thing that interests them.

[jarrod]

They don't disagree with me because they've signed on, as if their motive for signing on were that they were going to prove this point. They want to make money, the DS will probably make them lots of money. My point was never about this.

Actually going by the developer comments we've seen, it was the unique features, interfaces anbd capabilities that attracted most to DS. Though I'm sure they want to make money as well.

I said that it seems needless when they have another portable coming out so soon after the DS in GBA 2. Why not just make one amazingly awesome portable?

Well, exactly how soon is the next GameBoy coming? Why make an argument that hinges on an unkown?

It feels like they heard about the PSP and just put the DS on the market to compete with it, like a rush job or something. I don't know for sure but having to buy 2 portables (which I won't do) in order to play games is dumb.

More likely I think the DS chipset was intended for the next GB (rumors of a N64 level GB started surfacing back in 2001) and Nintendo went with the novel display/input add-ons to try and differentiate itself from PSP rather than compete on technology alone. And it seems to have worked so far.

I think people may get confused by all the Nintendo hardware in the portable market so close together. Do they buy a DS or a Gameboy Advance or a Gameboy Advance 2? What kind of features are we going to be missing out on if I buy one over the other? Sony has just one boasting a ton of features and a solid library of games.

Well again, you're guessing the next GB will release soon, which isn't looking to likely right now... what if DS performs like GBA? What if the next GB is 4 years away? What if PSP sinks? There's too many variables...

Also given that Nintendo's successfully released 4 different GameBoys in the past decade alone, I'm not sure consumers have a tough time with rapid upgrades in the handheld market. How often do people upgrade their cell-phones, pdas or portable music players?

Yes, I was talking pretty much exclusively out of anger in that post, but at this point is just seems like Nintendo is not thinking clearly about market positioning and business strategy. It doesn't make sense to me, but oh well.

Really, I'm not sure we have enough information to come to that conclusion.

[SmoothCriminal]

Andrew go ahead and argue again when Nintendo personally tells you their release strategy and what the specs are on the "GBA2" and when it comes out. Otherwise you're just speculating on your own made up information.

[Bacon McShig]

They've actually bumped up the release to Q2 2005

What a way to:

-piss off DS buyers

-shy away DS purchases

-undercut DS influence

-undercut GBA2 influence

-confuse the hell out of consumers

-confuse the hell out of developers

If another GBA is really that close to launch, why wasn't it shown at E3? Moreover, why in blue hell would Nintendo decide to make ANOTHER portable that they already have a stranglehold on with the Gameboy name?

If all of this is true, Nintendo may piss off enough people to give PSP a fighting chance. Way to go guys - it's like your only downfall is yourself.

Psssst, he was joking.

[Kbu Chan]

I think the DS could be the most successful system of all time. Kids are gonna go freaking crazy over the local lan and Pictochat, and then it's gonna spread like wildfire. I'm personally looking forward to it more than anything else. right now.