Next Nintendo System Announced - Nintendo looks to undercut PSP

Nintendo Announces Dual-Screened Portable Game System
            "Mystery" Product to Launch Later This Year

    REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2004--An unprecedented
approach to video game play -- holding two separate game screens in
the palm of your hand -- hits the scene later this year when Nintendo
introduces a new portable game system, code-named Nintendo DS.
    From information made available today, players can look forward to
being able to manage their game progress from two different
perspectives, enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge.
For example in a soccer game, users can view the whole game on one
screen while simultaneously focusing on an individual soccer player\'s
tackle or goal on the other screen.
    Players will no longer be forced to interrupt game play to shift
perspective, such as moving from a wide shot to a close up, or
alternating between a character\'s ongoing battle and a map of the
environment. Nintendo DS makes it possible to perform the tasks in
real time by simply glancing from one screen to the other.
    Today\'s announcement is but a glimpse of the additional features
and benefits that will be shown in full at the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in May. Once fully revealed,
players will see innovative advances in game interaction.
    "We have developed Nintendo DS based upon a completely different
concept from existing game devices in order to provide players with a
unique entertainment experience for the 21st century," explains Satoru
Iwata, Nintendo president.
    Nintendo DS features two separate 3-inch TFT LCD display panels,
separate processors, and semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit. It\'s
scheduled to launch worldwide before the end of 2004.

I\'ll editorialize later, but the one interesting thing is how well the system will be able to handle graphics when it\'s pushing them out on two screens.

-Eik

Didn\'t they state in their announcement that this new system wasn\'t about the most advanced specs, but about innovating
the way we play games...hence the dualscreen concept ?

The more important questions will regard stuff like battery life becuz of the dual backlit screens ; and how quickly will devs come
up with good game concepts for a dualscreen ( and then I\'m talking 3rd party devs). The 2nd screen acting as just a radar or inventory screen isn\'t what i consider to be THAT innovative.
I rate EA and the likes low enough to pump out loadsa cheapskate lame dualscreen games, just to get quick extra cash.
But I guess Nintendo itself has accumulated enough solid dualscreengame concepts already to justify such a businessplan.

BTW, the more i read about PSP, the more i have the feeling it\'ll
be in a whole different price range and generally in another segment than \'just\' (and I ain\'t judging that by no means) a portable gaiming device. If Sony plays it smart, they\'ll incorporate just the \'necesary\' into PSP and sell seperate \'plugins\' for additional media functions. :thepimp:

When you think about it, it really does open up for more creativity in game design. With some ingenuity, you could practically play two games simulataneously, and the characters could interact with each other when they came nearby.

A first person shooting game could be neat if the second screen showed you the first person view of the enemy.  It\'d be like playing split-screen multiplayer, but with AI.

Anything competitive, like a one-on-one racing game could show your view and the opponent in the other screen.

But what about being able to interact with the second screen.  Throw something off one and it lands on the other.  That could lend itself to some fun little innovations in gameplay.

It\'ll be interesting to see the path Nintendo leads in game design for this new system.

Hopefully there\'s room in the market for it, but I definitely think if its flashy and substantial, it could take away from the PSP\'s impact with its innovative concept.

-Eik

I can see it now...

PONG MAKES A COMEBACK!

I learned the screens will be aligned vertically and developers can use them as one big screen if they want to.

Sounds a little stupid to me, but I\'ll reserve judgement until E3.

-Eik

Would that make for a 4:3 or a 16:9  screen ?

Anyway, I still see no logical reason as to why or how PSP and DS would compete head to head with each other. Like I said before, I think PSP will be aimed @ a whole different market segment within the portables market. Assessing the odds of DS\'s potential as a PSP \'killer\' is therefor imho quite silly.

- Nintendo DS : redefining/ innovating portable gaming

- Sony PSP : high end portable multimedia device capable
of delivering games with graphics close to PS2.

Nintendo has a lot of explaining to do. So many questions..

Anyways, they must have something clever up their sleeve with the DS.. because I can\'t see them designing a ~$100~ portable based on the idea behind the GCN/GBA link cable and Dreamcast VMU..

It\'s much better hardware than the GBA, so it\'s possible (despite their denial) that the DS is GBA2. Maybe.

They did say that PSP isn\'t a competitor to DS, though.. which might kill the above possibility.

^Ugh.. c\'mon... all of the resources Nintendo assigns to the project will most likely focus on getting the dual screen concept
working as efficiently as possible. This is crystal clear logic. They need an efficient and relatively cheap solution to make 2 screens work on portable batteries and a processor which can handle that.
Sony, on the other hand is pumping all effort into getting the best specs into PSP. They even listened to the devs and increased PSP RAM from 8 mb to 32 mb, just like that. This indicates single focus on high end portable gaming graphics and multimedia. PSP won\'t likely sell for less than $ 150,-
The odds of DS incorporating both that dualscreen concept AND high end graphics, such as PSP is aiming for, are imo nil. The fact that PSP uses the UMD optical disc and DS cartridges is even more \'proof\' for that. Is it a bad thing that PSP and DS differ in such a way ? No. They\'ll both cater to very different portable markets. Nintendo wants anyone, gamer or nongamer to be able to pick up DS and have fun. Making DS pricy, by incorporating high end specs and accordingly pricelevel like PSP, would be in direct conflict with Nintendo\'s vision : DS being accesible to anyone and everyone at any gaming skill level at a reasonable price level.

There will be separate processors, one for each screen.

If I had to guess, I\'d say they\'ll just go with a rechargable lithium battery again, or maybe just put two in it.

-Eik

[Living-In-Clip]

This just came in on the wire...

Nintendo plans on losing a lot of money on a really stupid idea. Come on ! They have the portable market andled, why bother with this? It\'s a terrible idea altogether. There is no need or room in the market for another portable and when you take in account how well the GBA is doing for Nintendo, why would they even think about cutting their own arm off like this?

Aye, LiC. When I heard what the mystery machine was, that was the first thing that came to mind: Why?

The answer to that will come at E3 when we see the games and the functionality.

Despite what they say, I think they\'re trying to steal any of the PSP\'s thunder.  It\'s too timely to be a coincidence.

Sony will be touting specs but Nintendo can just point to the thing and go "Look, it\'s cool!"

Assuming it is, in fact, cool.

-Eik

^well...if THAT is really the sole purpose of it, then I\'d say it is indeed an illfated attempt by Nintendo, to do such a thing.
Are they SO scared ?  :eek:
PSP will probably find it\'s own marketshare anyway, cuz it\'s concept
by specs and design isn\'t going head on with GBA sp, nor the DS.

PSP is a more a direct competitor of Nokia\'s NGage than any of Nintendo\'s portables. All the facts we have on PSP point to that
conclusion.

[Living-In-Clip]

This is a terrible idea. Now only is Nintendo cutting into a market it dominates with the GBA and it stands a huge chance of loosing quite a bit of money on the device, just like they did when they tried to market the Virtual Boy.

It\'s a moronic idea and I just cannot understand why Nintendo would take such a risk.

[Jumpman]

Answer-because they might be on to something.

All we know about it is it has two screens. Let\'s wait for E3 before we make retarded assumptions.