Great games have been fueling the DS' advance on the marketplace in 2005, culminating in "sold-out" status in Japan this holiday season. That's great momentum for the DS as it heads into 2006. But what does the future really hold for the dual-screen wonder? We place our bets below.
DS Prediction #1: Titles that take advantage of the DS will increasingly come from Japanese developers. Cultural differences aside, lazy North American developers will increasingly produce lackluster content for the DS. Expect more ports and retro projects from America's best when it comes to the DS. But, never fear, the Japanese developers are here. They will continue to push the envelope and develop games that demand the DS' talents. We may just have to wait until 2007 for the next batch of revolutionary games to hit Western shores.
DS Prediction #2: No price drop. It seems like a no-brainer that we would see a price drop for the DS in 2006. But we won't. Even in the face of a PSP price drop, Nintendo knows that it has the momentum and knows that it has a portable game library that is second to none. Nintendo isn't branching out beyond games (and into the world of multimedia, for instance). You can expect Nintendo to hold their current price point in a market where the only real competition for portable gaming comes from the Gameboy Micro.
DS Prediction #3: The DS will show off some unique connectivity capabilities with the Revolution. Think streaming. Think about streaming Goldeneye from your spankin' new Revolution to your DS, whever it is in your house. Retro games are coming your way, wherever you are. Wirelessly. Ok, maybe we won't get something that cool, but expect "something" uber-cool from a connectivity stand-point.
DS Prediction #4: No DS redesign until 2007. Yep, this could be proven wrong on Monday. I just like to make myself vulnerable like that. But, the fact is that the DS won't see a redesign until 2007. Sure, you may see an announcement on a redesign sooner, but you're not going to be buying new product for at least a year. The DS is selling like hotcakes (it's sold out in Japan, for example). Why mess with something that you can't even keep in stock? And the Revolution is headed our way in Spring/Summer. Why release something that will compete directly for the gamer's dollar in the exact same timeframe? Nintendo will bide its time on this one.
DS Prediction #5: There will be a sequel to Nintendogs this holiday, but it won't be Nintencats. Think Nintenpets. You'll get to manage a household of canaries, hamsters, cats and your favorite imported canine. They'll interact with you and they'll interact with each other, leading to new ways to play and new challenges to overcome. New animal AI research has been going on for sometime.
There you have it, 5 predictions for the ages (or at least 2006). Agree, disagree? Have your own predictions? Join the fun and comment below.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-14-2006 @ 1:05AM
Will said...
Those all sound about right, My prediction is that Metroid Prime Hunters will prove successful on the DS and more FPS will follow in its footsteps.
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1-14-2006 @ 2:22AM
shiftup said...
this WILL not happen in this decade an probably the next, at least with nintendo. But it would be cool if the games you downloaded from the internet on your ds. like nintendo would know on the internet what games you have downloaded by your account and any where you could play nes or snes games. this could be possible by a firmware upgrade on the ds??
but I dont think so
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1-14-2006 @ 3:28AM
Probot said...
I pretty much agree with the predictions, except for number 3. I could see Nintendo saving Revolution connectivity features for the next GameBoy.
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1-14-2006 @ 4:08AM
Powerbomb said...
I thought it was already announced that you would be able to downoad DS demos through the revolution. I might be wrong.
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1-14-2006 @ 7:32AM
Lolios said...
I could see Nintendo saving Revolution connectivity features for the next GameBoy.
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1-14-2006 @ 9:00AM
al said...
again, what if the ds shortage in japan is because a new ds is on its way?
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1-14-2006 @ 1:22PM
Grant said...
Here's something I thought of relating to the connectivity between the DS and the Rev. We know the Revolution will be able to emulate a DS' wireless signal, because it's been confirmed that the DS will be able to download demos from it, through DS Download Play presumably. So if that's the case, it should be a simple matter to make it possible to play multiplayer wireless DS games, like Meteos and Advance Wars and a billion others, through the Revolution's connection to the Nintendo WiFi service. The Revolution just fools the DS into thinking there are other DS's in the room when really they're miles away. So every multiplayer DS game could become a Nintendo WiFi game, if you have the Rev. Like there could be a "Meteos Lobby" in the Revolution's internet portion, and you could go there, wait, turn on your DS and tell it to wait for a multiplayer game to start over the WLAN, and then when enough people enter the room on the Rev., the Rev. tells your DS that 3 (or whatever) other people with Meteos are in the room and the game starts. I don't know a ton about technology but it seems to me that this would be really easy to pull off, especially given that it's confirmed that the Rev. will be able to interact with the DS already.
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1-14-2006 @ 6:04PM
Josh said...
That sounds like a pretty good scheme, Grant, but the games that use wi-fi now also take some measures to restrict the normal gameplay to limit the data that needs to be sent. For instance, only four racers in MKDS and a few cut tracks (not to mention losing the ability to hold items behind you), while local play allows eight. You'd have to fool the games into only accepting four players or so, and that'd have to be taken care of on the Revolution's end, because that's not already programmed into the old games. That's saying nothing about limiting (or not limiting) variables in the game that might require extra data to be sent.
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1-14-2006 @ 6:14PM
karurosu said...
I would actually prefer a prediction like:
Every Phoenix Wright game will be ported to NDS and released in america.
But I guess dreaming is free :D
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1-14-2006 @ 6:54PM
Grant said...
Josh, are the limitations in DS Wi-Fi games due to inadequacies of the processing power of the DS itself? If so, I'd think the Revolution would be powerful enough to pick up the slack. If the limitations are due to the amount of data that can be transferred through the internet, regardless of the hardware being used to transmit it, then I guess the Rev. couldn't do anything about that, you're right.
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1-15-2006 @ 7:12PM
shiftup said...
also wouldnt the ds see the revolution as on ds since the code its recieving is from one piece of hardware?
also, why is everyone so anxious to get the new gba. nintendo will not relese it in lease than 3-4 years. ds is still going strong and why would you make a piece of hardware obsolete if it is selling well? isnt that the idea behind prediction #4?
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1-17-2006 @ 11:59AM
Dr. Defeatless said...
It'd be real easy to make Nintendcats. Just have eight cat breeds animated on the screen, none of which pay any attention to you whether you yell on the microphone, swish with the stylus, or mash on the buttons. They will wander in a virtual house ignoring you constantly. Their only reaction will be to come running when you click the stylus on the can opener.
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1-18-2006 @ 2:44PM
Grant said...
"also wouldnt the ds see the revolution as on ds since the code its recieving is from one piece of hardware?"
I'm sure it would be easy for the Rev. to produce a signal that's equivalent to that of 3 DS's.
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1-23-2006 @ 3:40PM
rubaiyat said...
Re: Prediction #4
The original GBA was selling like hotcakes prior to the SP. While there was a legitimate hardware issue with the original GBA, the fact remains it was doing fine and they still released the SP.
Not only that, but guess when the GBA came out? Almost exactly the same time as the Gamecube. Which is why I see a redesign to capitalize on some type of Revolution connectivity by getting some design cues from the home console and releasing at almost the same time.
That's just my take on it.
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1-24-2006 @ 1:31PM
Guy said...
And the King said: Let there be Katamari and let it be controlled like
a rollerball. And it was made for the DS so that everyone can really
push around their katamari on the touchscreen.
That and
(hopefully soon) the folks at Criterion will plough a Mac truck
through the offices of Visual Impact and shoot whoever survives for
their shameful rendition of Burnout Legends. They will then loot the
office and make Burnout DS the way it was meant to be: Crazy,
exciting, and violent. That's one crashbreaker I'd love to see.
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