More DS news/speculation and N5 specs at E3?

[OB1]

From CVG:

Friday 2nd April 2004


NINTENDO: MORE ON DS, CUBE 2 SPECS AT E3?

Seems Nintendo is shifting its target audience with the DS...

16:49 More info on Nintendo's DS is gradually coming to light; this time the source is Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aime, who gave away a few more details on the portable console in an interview with business site CNN.
When the DS is publicly unveiled at May's E3 showcase, Nintendo will specify a release date as well as a price for the unit. Previously Nintendo has only confirmed plans to launch the console worldwide before the end of the year.

However, it does seem as though Nintendo has opted to move away from its previous "games only" stance; the DS is rumoured to feature an Instant Messaging facility and movie playback capabilities.

Nintendo has so far refused to comment on those rumours, but Fils-Aime admitted that the company is seeking to attract "early adopters who are looking for more complex gameplay and the gamer who has a little more money to spend."

The VP of marketing also commented that "the gamer needs to see it, to see the games, to see the full functionality of the machine. We're reticent to give details until we can show it."

Nintendo will also "discuss" its next-generation home console at E3 according to Fils-Aime, though quite how much information the ever-secretive company is likely to make available is unclear. "Comment will come from the highest levels," said Fils-Aime. "The focus and commitment we have on this will be shown at E3."

Steve Colton

Now I'm pretty much totally convinced that Nintendo plans for the DS to be a direct competitor with the PSP. PALM-like functionality, and Nintendo's comment of it being for gamers who want something more complex and are willing to pay more for it. That's certainly a huge contradiction from Nintendo's usual "games only" stance and Iwata's recent comments that more complex games are not the answer, but whatever, maybe that was just to throw us off. Nintendo also said that the DS would be a sign of things to come, and I sincerely hope that's true. This could mean that Nintendo is prepared to make the N5 offer everything that the PS3 and X-Box 2 could be offering, gaming and non-gaming.

I'm just worried that the DS will be weak compared to the PSP (N64 specs vs. PS2 specs? Yikes!), and the recent news that the PSP will be out in the U.S. and Europe in August, which would give Sony a six-month head start in Japan and a few months head start in the U.S. (that is if the DS makes it out here in 2004).

[Dark Jaguar]

I still don't trust that spec sheet, which as far as I know was never confirmed, so the specs are still unknown as far as I'm concerned.

The medium is what I wanna know.

[Great Rumbler]

Medium will probably one of the most importants things, just behind graphics.

Nintendo has so far refused to comment on those rumours, but Fils-Aime admitted that the company is seeking to attract "early adopters who are looking for more complex gameplay and the gamer who has a little more money to spend."

It's about time!

[OB1]

Well from all of the various reports I've read it looks like that spec sheet could be right, at least at one point in the DS's lifecycle.

[A Black Falcon]

N64 vs PS2 is an issue if they're trying for direct competition on graphics. PSP obviously wins that. Nintendo needs to do things to differnentiate it and fortunately the hardware, if that spec sheet is accurate, does that with the touch screen, microphone input, etc... we just need games that use those features... :)

[OB1]

If the DS is going to be Nintendo's answer to the PSP-which so far that's what it looks like-then N64 specs are definitely not going to cut it.

[OB1]

Here's an intereview with the guy behind the super awesome Rez, from Gamespy:

GameSpy: Are you considering making games for the new portable systems, PSP and DS?

Mizuguchi: I am watching PSP and Nintendo DS. I am watching Keitai, also. There are small-sized games and big-sized games with high resolution, and to me, these are completely different kinds of projects.

GameSpy: Will you also consider making games for Game Boy Advance?

Mizuguchi: No.

GameSpy: The technology is too old?

Mizuguchi: Yes. To me, yes.

The PSP is exciting. It has a wider screen and better sound. I think that the sound quality is better than PS2. The resolution is high. I like the power and the sound technology. This is the reason I have been watching the PSP.

DS is not gorgeous, I think. I mean the technology will not be gorgeous, but it has two screens. As a game designer, I like the challenge of trying to figure out how to design two screens. It is an interesting experiment. It is a new kind of experiment.

GameSpy: You always liked experimental games.

Mizuguchi: DS is an experiment in multitasking. It's a brain experiment. I am very interested in both PSP and DS, though I envision completely different games for each.

Hmm, just as I feared. The DS won't be able to compete with the PSP, graphics-wise. Very unfortunate. Let's hope E3 proves this wrong though, eh?

[A Black Falcon]

OB1, hoping for more than looks like will happen is an excersise in getting let down... but I for one don't mind that much that it's N64 level. If it means longer battery life, I'll gladly take it...

[Dark Jaguar]

Hey, shoot for the moon ya know?

Really though, considering we ARE paying a LOT more for this than a normal handheld, they BETTER give it decent power. It would be nuts for an N64 level piece of hardware to cost over twice the cost of a Gamecube.

[OB1]

Tell me about it.

[A Black Falcon]

Even with the other stuff it has?

[OB1]

The PSP is also going to have all of the other stuff, minus the touch pad.

[A Black Falcon]

And second screen. :)

[Great Rumbler]

I like to think that in the handheld industry graphics mean a lot less than they do with consoles, but the a DS with N64 graphics is going to have a tough time against a PSP with PS2 graphics, no doubt about that. Still, I don't think the DS having N64 graphics will necessarily cripple it, either.

[A Black Falcon]

It will also depend on how different its games are, for sure. I mean for me the graphics aren't a problem but for a lot of people they could be...

[lazyfatbum]

N64 graphics Vs. PS2 graphics wont mean jack on a tiny screen, especially if they're both high-res.

It's also funny that they brought up the sound capabilities of the PSP; The PS2 sound capabilities suck complete ass.

[OB1]

And according to most developers the PSP sound hardware is much better. :)

The DS is going to use two GBA-sized screens, and while that's not the best for 3D gaming, the PSP has a very large, wide screen which will display PSP-quality graphics quite nicely.

[lazyfatbum]

I hope the sound is better.

Is it really that much larger? I dont know how big it is, but you make it sound huge. <---

Someone PLEASE use this out of context.

[OB1]

Hahaha...

The screen is very big. 4.5 inches diagonally, while the GBA's screen size is 2.9 inches diagonally.

[lazyfatbum]

That's good size but it's still not going to make a difference in games like Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 3, Dead Or Alive, Soul Calibur, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metroid Prime 2, etc where half the fun of the game is the detail in the graphics. The detail would only be apparent when and if the portable systems get the chance to play on larger screens. I played Rogue Squadron (N64) on a tiny high res pocket TV at Circuit City, it was crazy because playing it was rediculous... you couldn't see enemy ships until they were on top of you. So i thought Rogue Leader would make a difference and it didn't. It looked exactly the same. The only time I noticed a difference is when I saw dynamic lighting effects like the water reflecting the sun in RL. Even the cut scenes looked exactly the same except for draw distance. On a 4.5 inch screen, Perfect Dark will look like Halo with a choppy frame rate. When you play Twin Snakes imagine trying to see *anything* in that game on a 4.5 inch screen! Let alone any detail such as individually rendered hair, particle effects, or any effects for that matter.

The PSP will no doubt allow users to simply plug it, or the game disk in to their Playstation 2 or 3. So graphics power would then be understandable, but you would still only be enlarging the image, so all that detail they packed in would become pixelated, just as Zero Mission does on my TV. You could program alternate graphics modes for hand held play and television play which would be a higher res and more details, but why not release the same game for the console with those extras? No matter how you slice it, anything more powerful than a PSX or even a N64 is a waste of time and space on a hand held. Graphics detail can bring alot to the game experience, but only when you can see it.

[OB1]

You played on one of those shitty third-party LCD screens. The one Nintendo showed at E3 a few years back was reportedly very crisp and clear, and you could make out the tiniest of details.

Remember that you play a handheld close to your face, and the screen size is roughly the size of a nice big tv from several feet away. And the PSP's resolution is greater than that of a normal TV's, so the visual difference won't be as great as you may think.

[A Black Falcon]

I played Rogue Squadron on N64 once and was amazed by how BLURRY the graphics are! Its so sharp on PC... the graphics are far, far better there.

[OB1]

Ok...

[Great Rumbler]

He's trying to make a point about screen resolution...maybe.

[OB1]

Yeah.

[A Black Falcon]

Screen resolution and graphical detail. :)