Nintendo Conference Today

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php...count=1463

Time to Recap


Nintendo DSi
- 3.25 inch screens (DS = 3 inch)
- Has an inside and outside camera, 0.3 megapixels
- Has SD slot on right-hand side.
- Has onboard memory
- Comes with web browser
- Comes with app to detect some DS hotspots
- Has Apps store like iPod
- Apps are free/300/500/800 points
- Other apps include an app that allows you to make flipbooks using the cameras
- No GBA slot
- 18900 yen
- 1000 points for free if you buy before march 2010
- Possibly minorly upped resolution
- November in Japan, 2009 elsewhere.
- Black and white versions.

New Software:
- DS Pedometer, Miis on DS
- Mario and Luigi 3
- 3d Picross
- Let's Tap by Prope.

Wii:
- storage solution involves making SD card easier, coming in spring 2009
- you get 500 points if you help a friend set up their wii online
- wii comes with video explaining wii online functions

Wii Software:
- Punch-Out Wii
- Trace Memory Wii
- Sin and Punishment 2
- Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) coming to Wii.
- Animal Crossing Wii interacts with AC DS
- New mainline Tales of.

- Wii getting re-releases of GCN titles. Not ports. Not ports. Not ports. Not ports. Do not appear to have waggle or any changes. Not ports. Re-releases. Should be budget. Starting with DK Jungle Beat and Pikmin.

This information is probably accurate, but we'll see for sure.

... And a couple other game announcements, maybe.

More on the new DS:
http://ds.ign.com/articles/915/915507p1.html

[A Black Falcon]

So the question is, for 18900 yen (about $178), is this a new system, or an upgraded DS? That is, same games, or not... the other additions are obvious (and listed above), but this I'm not clear on... is it the same resolution? (3.25" screen instead of 3", but that doesn't mean the resolution is higher... the official site suggests that it is the same res, maybe...) Same CPUs? More powerful? Since it doesn't say it is my guess would be that it is not though I don't know for sure, but because of all the other additions, I'd still think that there would be exclusive games -- download stuff unless a plug-in solution is offered, anything that uses the camera, etc. I'll bet there will be games that require it (download games, things that use the camera, more if it's a fully new system), but... I don't know, I need more details.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/dsi.html

Oh, and of course, I think that leaving out the GBA port is stupid. Who cares if it's 12% thinner? At that size, it makes no difference, and the GBA port is a great, great thing to have... it's not like that lets them take out any chips inside, the DS uses them. Annoying decision, really, and it's too bad that the rumors that it'd be left out are true. Oh well...

Oh yeah, another recent annoucement is Klonoa 3 for the Wii... awesome!

[Dark Jaguar]

Also can't use the rumble pack any more, unless they made it built into the new model.

It's to be expected though. Much like the GBA Micro, removing compatibility was just done to save money.

They did miss an opportunity to sell GBA games on an online store accessible via the DS.

Oh, just so it's clear, this is just an updated DS, not the "DS 2". In other words, if you don't like it you can skip it.

I must compliment the SD card slot. It's about time, and internal memory means it can potentially get upgraded firmware features.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, just so it's clear, this is just an updated DS, not the "DS 2". In other words, if you don't like it you can skip it.

Sure, but unless the original DS somehow gets camera and flash card addons, it'll most likely have exclusive games... which, of course, would make it pretty much the same thing.

Also can't use the rumble pack any more, unless they made it built into the new model.

It's to be expected though. Much like the GBA Micro, removing compatibility was just done to save money.

It's quite annoying, though. It's not just no GBA, but also no rumble, no paddle controller, no guitar controller, etc... :(

[Dark Jaguar]

The original DS did have an SD card addon.

The camera is unlikely to be used in games directly. At most, they'll be able to load saved pics. Import the SD card adapter and you have that covered.

Nintendo is extremely unlikely to ever design games to use an exclusive feature of a mere remodel. They've never done so before as it splits the market. They can't leave out whole groups of people who bought older versions.

[A Black Falcon]

We will see, but I think it really could go either way... it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turns out that there are exclusive games for it, and not just a few.

[Dark Jaguar]

Admittedly we're talking about the biggest revising of hardware Nintendo has ever done. I mean, they added a feature. However I'm pretty sure it's meant as a user gimic outside of games. Besides there's no way to make a game "exclusively" use a camera.

Next up: Perfect Dark DS with new face skinning.

[Dark Jaguar]

Did anyone else watch that Punch Out video? He punched out ol' Frenchy Glass Joe and croissants went flying everywhere! I love it!

[A Black Falcon]

A comparison I saw on NeoGAF and wouldn't be surprised to see hold up is "Game Boy Color vs. Game Boy". That is, it really is a new console, they just haven't fully admitted it yet, and some games may be dual-mode... but we'll see.

[Dark Jaguar]

The GBC actually had real new features, like a double speed processor. This does not have that. The hardware is identical. All it has is a camera.

[A Black Falcon]

Actually, we do not know that the hardware is identical. At minimum, it must have more RAM, becuase it has a built-in web browser while the DS required a add-on cartridge with RAM in it to run the browser. Are the other tech specs any different too?

We simply don't know. Nintendo has not released the tech specs of the DSi.

[Dark Jaguar]

I think we have an educated guess. Why the heck would Nintendo not STATE that it was a more powerful successor if it was actually more powerful? They'd have every reason to advertise it that way. So far they haven't. Also, the lack of any special "camera games" to sell the system or anything at all listed as a "DSi enhanced" game is a pretty solid indicator.

As an example, the remodels of the PSP have had no "exclusive games".

Actually, come to think of it, weren't you strangely suggesting exclusive games for the DS Lite system?

[A Black Falcon]

Hmm... we will see.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/10/post.html

Wired.com: Is Nintendo going to introduce retail cartridge software that's only playable on the DSi?

Dunaway: There are no plans, no announcements right now. But certainly, as we've historically done, you’ll see us do interesting things with software to take advantage of the hardware capabilities. As Mr. Iwata talked about last night, this new memo pad is one of the cool technologies. It's not necessarily a game, but it certainly enables people to act as an animator and use their photographs in an interesting and entertaining way.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...tory=20525

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Opera...7-580.html

The DSi has region locking, and DSi (downloadable only for exclusives, so far) are region locked. As usual, this means Japan will get two to four times more games than we will, with no significant compensation (in our own exclusives) to make up for it, and no way to play the games without getting an import DSi.

Also, the DSi has more RAM than the DS, of course (given that the browser is internal, it had to have more RAM to make up for the loss of the GBA slot RAM cart). What are the other stats, the same or different? Will this mean card exclusives too, or games with DSi exclusive features? They haven't announced that yet, but we'll see... either way though, we now know with more certainty two suspected-but-not-known facts about the DSi: Region locking and some spec improvements.

... Region locking, in a handheld. Leave it to Nintendo to pioneer new forms of limiting what its customers can play!

[lazyfatbum]

WOOPY

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