Do We Really Need a New Nintendo DS?
Do we need another version of the Nintendo DS that isn't just a lipstick-colored eye-catcher wrapped around the same-ol-same-ol hardware? How about the ability to play back music and movies either via increased local storage, wireless streaming, or perhaps even both, along with a new slot for external hardware plugins? The wireless streaming bit's my own speculation, but the original rumor about media playback and the plugin slot was started by Hirokazu Hamamura of magazine publisher Enterbrain. Last week you maybe read about a "new and improved" Nintendo DS showing up at E3 in July? That was these guys.
How credible is Hamamura's claim? No one knows. We on the one hand have Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime stirring up hype like "All I can tell you is what we announce during E3 is gonna be fantastic." On the other, we have the fact that Nintendo last updated the DS in 2006--two years after the original in 2004--along with Nintendo's history of updating its portables at two year intervals back and through its GameBoy line. With Apple's iPhone hypothetically vying for handheld gamers' coin and Sony's PlayStation Portable in the ascendant (it's actually outselling the DS in Japan) 2008 certainly wouldn't be too soon for Nintendo to give it's gaming mainstay a booster shot.
The current Nintendo DS dubbed the "DS Lite" and true to its name (smaller, cute as a button, etc.) but functionally identical to the original DS, set the handheld world ablaze. Since 2004, it's sold around 70 million units worldwide, making it the second bestselling platform going after Sony's PlayStation 2.
You could certainly make the existing DS Lite "lighter," but I doubt anyone would notice, and it's possible to make something like this too light. People associate a certain amount of heft with quality, and the DS Lite already feels a little flimsy and breakable to me -- especially around the hinges -- compared to the PSP.
The question, then, is whether anyone's really going to care if they can use their DS as an audio-video playback device. Most of you with audio needs have miniscule iPods (my Shuffle's the size of a postage stamp), don't particularly care to watch movies on tiny 2-3 inch screens that run any longer than a YouTube clip, and by the way, didn't we already see portable movie playback fail with Sony's attempt to put movies on UMD discs? Let's get serious. It's been possible for years to load movies on PSP memory sticks, but I don't know anyone who does it regularly. I'll be on a plane to Budapest come Wednesday toting both my DS and PSP, but even in economy class the airlines make it so easy to watch dozens of the latest movies and TV shows on the backs of the seat in front of you that squinting at a handheld electronic device for hours at a time sounds about as appealing as having my eyeballs massaged with a leather strop.
Now what would be interesting? Let's shoot the moon: A power boost, something that would let the DS compete directly with the PSP in raw horsepower. And how about a resolution bump for seconds? The current DS has two screens running at a mediocre 256 x 192 pixels. The PSP's single widescreen runs 480 x 272 pixels at up to 16.7 million colors. Wouldn't it be something if Nintendo released a "DS Advance" with two PSP-like screens and the processing oomph to deliver a game as complex as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in your pocket?
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"DS Advance" sounds awesome. They do need a technological jump to make the DS pop out and sell madly. With advances in technology these days, the DS upgrade should be more than mere looks.
POSSIBLE UPGRADES
1. update the resolution to outdue the PSP.
2. SCREEN: should be bigger also, along with making BOTH SCREENS TOUCHABLE.
3. TOP SCREEN: swivel 360 degrees.
4. SOUND: make it surround sound (BOSE STYLE)
5. BATTERY: use newest techonlogy to make last a very long time with added strain of upgraded technology on the power.
6. TEMPERATURE SENSOR: possibly for use with games
7. WEIGHT: make it easy to hold with enough weight to allow for feel in the wrist but not enough to tire quickly.
8. WIFI: extend the capable range
9. CUSTOMIZABLE: make covers in many colors, designs, textures not offered before
Just let the ideas flow and go with it. Don't let the market slow you down.
Why not compete with Apple's Iphone, Add cell phone functionality, touch screen's already there, expand it to full surface.
Fight back! If it had all of Iphones ability along with it's own. Well, who could resist?
You guys think too small.
DS + ability = non-existant. The DS sucks plain and simple. it is only useful for 30 year olds or 9 year olds that dont know what real games are. dont get me wrong, i have played and own a DS but the games are for kids and adults that dont know that there are real games out there with 100 times more entertainment value to them.
I think Nintendo is scratching tooth and nail to avoid dropping the long-standing $130 price tag and a refresh is the easiest way to justify it. They love making money on old hardware.
The DS is proof that it isn't all about horsepower, but any boost there wouldn't hurt. Higher res multi-touch screens would be great. I'd also put my money on Nintendo equipping the DS with Wii Remote accelerometers and allowing its use as a controller with the console. They're really into this idea, although I don't think gamers are that fired up about it.
no we really don't need a new one. the only way that we would need a new DS is if the new were on the same level as a PSP and had a bigger screen and better games
Maybe they could incorperate a web browser to work with the wi-fi in a hot spot ,so youi could browse or play games on the web.Instead of just with people in your immediate area.
In my opinion, the new NDSL is much more better than the NDS,
1. Can Adjust 4 Brightness where NDS only 1 type of brightness
2. Slim And Light, Compare to Old NDS
Others Function is all the same compare with old NDS
I strongly recommend to have a NDSL, this is because it has at least 2000 games to play, and the games is all typte, compare to psp, NDSL has a good mind games like big brain academy, and has a unique game call TRAUMA Center, ( This games is fantastic, you are a doctor and you make operation on your NDSL), games for NDSL is unlimited and with full of creative.
from: allen
To answer the title question: nah. I'm down with the old school feel of DS games, something that enhanced hardware would draw developers away from. Big games are best on a big tv with a slumpin system!
As far as added features: I already have a cell phone, a music player, a camera, a toaster, etc and they all work fine on their own. Modern marketing has coaxed society into accepting "instant gratification" as the norm, meaning we feel the "need" to be able to listen to music, play games, take pictures, and such at any time, even though we probably don't use them very much.
The iPhone has potential for some awesome games, but I got my DS and that's plenty for now.
Nintendo could come up with a vastly improved DS Lite just with software changes. An MP3 player would be nice. I'd like to be able to see the names of the songs and what is coming next. Also, I don't need another gadget. One that can do many is far more likely to be carried by me. They could also make this into a compact media browser, JPG. MP3, MPG etc with a simple memory card for Slot-2 (which already exist from other companys). Improve the terrible range of the Wifi, perhaps one antenna in the flip up screen and the other in the base. This would also help ensure proper polarization of the antenna's. Lastly I'd like to see NiFi over WiFi tunneling. This would be great even if it was limited to a few or even one friend in your list. We all have tons of games set up for the local Nifi and we don't always have someone next to us to play with. Nintendo could also offer firmware upgrades either mail in or at certain center to make even more money.