http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/157413_nintendo21.html
. . .
What!?
Excuse me, but what the hell is this? A new portable, from nintendo, that is designed to be a standalone product from the Gameboy? Dual screens? Something is juuust not quite adding up. I'm as big of a fan of nintendo as the next gamer, but this is just wierd. I'm very, very curious as to the kinds of games that get developed for this...platform will be, and how the support for the Gameboy will fare in the wake of this new system. Assuming, of course, that this new system doesn't turn out to be a total piece.
Nintendo, you better have something up your sleve with this...
Nintendo Co., which has been alluding for months to a secret video-game product in the works, last night identified it as a new hand-held device with two separate screens for game-playing.
The company said the portable game system, code-named the Nintendo DS, will launch worldwide by the end of the year. The company said it considers the device an entirely new product, not a successor to the Nintendo GameCube console or the hand-held Nintendo GameBoy Advance.
Nintendo doesn't think the Nintendo DS will take market share from either of those existing devices, said Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Redmond-based Nintendo of America. The GameBoy Advance currently dominates the hand-held video-game market.
"There seems to be an insatiable appetite for portable play," Kaplan said, citing steady growth in that portion of the market.
Nintendo did not release an image of the new product, but it said that the dual screens will let a user view games from two different perspectives, such as an overview map and a close-up of a battle. In a news release, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., said the Nintendo DS is "based upon a completely different concept from existing game devices."
Kaplan said software developers will receive kits that will let them create games to take advantage of the two-screen setup.
The screens on the Nintendo DS will be 3 inches each, about the size of an existing GameBoy screen, the company said. Nintendo promised more details at the E3 game convention in May.
Nintendo has said it is also working on successors to the GameBoy Advance and the GameCube, which competes with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2.
. . .
What!?
Excuse me, but what the hell is this? A new portable, from nintendo, that is designed to be a standalone product from the Gameboy? Dual screens? Something is juuust not quite adding up. I'm as big of a fan of nintendo as the next gamer, but this is just wierd. I'm very, very curious as to the kinds of games that get developed for this...platform will be, and how the support for the Gameboy will fare in the wake of this new system. Assuming, of course, that this new system doesn't turn out to be a total piece.
Nintendo, you better have something up your sleve with this...