|  The DS will sell alongside today's Game Boy Advance, not replace it, according to the company. Nintendo has not announced a release date or price, though analysts predict it may sell in the $150 range. One of the two 3-inch screens is touch-sensitive and works with a stylus — like Palms and Pocket PCs — to control the action in some games. In one demo, players guide a toddler-age Mario as he falls from the sky by drawing clouds. Other games give multiple views of the action. The DS also has Bluetooth wireless communication to connect with other units within range for cordless competition. DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards. DS is largely viewed as Nintendo's response to Sony's PlayStation Portable, or PSP, a new system that will play both movies and video games stored on mini DVD discs. Sony has announced plans to release PSP in Japan later this year and in the USA in 2005.
"I have not seen the PSP," says Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the famous Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong characters. "The screen, I believe, is bigger than a DS screen, and I am sure it will have excellent graphic quality." But, he adds, "the PSP will not be able to display anything that you cannot do on a current system. ... We want to do things that you could not do before. We are looking at the creative end."
The DS has slightly more processing power than the Nintendo 64 console released in 1996. While that's nowhere near today's top game-system graphical capabilities, two- and three-dimensional game images, when viewed on DS screens, are surprisingly crisp. Nintendo DS Lets Players Touch the Future; With Dual Screens, a Touch Screen, Voice Recognition, Wireless and Chat, Nintendo Redefines Game Play For 15 years Nintendo's Game Boy(R) line has dominated the hand-held video game market. But today at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), the new Nintendo DS creates a whole new category by radically altering the way people will play games. Nintendo DS remains on track to launch in Japan and North America before the end of the year, and in Europe the system will launch during the first quarter of 2005. |
| With its two screens, Nintendo DS instantly shows its innovative face. But capabilities like a touch-screen input, voice recognition and wireless communication set it apart from every other game device, and again demonstrate Nintendo's passion for groundbreaking originality. "When Nintendo came down and presented the DS platform to us, I think everyone was in shock," says Will Kassoy, Activision's vice president of global brand management. "It was amazing. Our technical guys were drooling at the abilities and wanting so much to dive into programming for the system." | Aptly code-named Nintendo DS, this "Developers' System" provides developers a newfound canvas not only to create new games today, but also shape the future of the entire industry. Developers -- and the public -- need only use their imagination to see how the DS promises to transform the portable game industry by changing the way gamers relate to their games -- and each other. Two screens offer two perspectives on the action at once. The touch screen could make accessing items, moving characters or navigating menus as easy as a tap or drag on the screen. Voice recognition could let players simply tell the game what they want it to do. Chat software will let users transmit text messages, handwriting and even drawings to one another. And wireless functions could link players in the same room -- or across the country.
"This has a huge potential," says Yoichi Haraguchi, Namco's vice president and executive officer. "It is very nice that we can create games using DS that were not even possible before." Nintendo DS also will include two processors, 3-D capabilities on both screens, 16-channel sound and a rechargeable battery that features a low-energy-consumption design. One media bay handles new DS game cartridges that hold one gigabit of information and more. The second media port allows for compatibility with Game Boy(R) Advance games, as well as a host of possible future accessories. "While others plan to let you go a little faster down the same roads you have always traveled, Nintendo plans to take you down incredible avenues you've never seen before," explains Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president, sales and marketing. "We understand the hand-held market better than anyone else, and Nintendo DS paves a new path of originality and success." Indeed, Nintendo invented and perfected the hand-held video game market with its unrivaled Game Boy line. And Nintendo has always been known for introducing innovations that radically reinvent the industry. It was the first company to install ports for four controllers, the first to create a rumble pack, the first to move from joysticks to modern controllers and the first to enable characters to roam freely in true 3-D environments. The unique features of the Nintendo DS build on that tradition and hold a wellspring of potential for the future. Game players will be wowed. |
