Game Boy Advance 2 set to stun E3 – DS to evolve into PDA

That's the point I was making a while ago. I don't think that this shows a "wind-down" for the DS, just that Nintendo Europe can't be arsed to advertise anything. We all know of NOE's reputation when it comes to promotion, releases, customer service and PR.

We haven't had a "wind up" for the DS yet. I had to check around the office to make sure it was the 11th it launches on. What's the bloke in the street going to think?

I think there's going to be many a broken heart over this, by not pushing the DS many people are going to buy it as a Nintendo handheld expecting it to be the next GB. When GBC games don't work in it, they'll be pissed off and when Ninty drop it to being a PDS, they'll be pissed off again!

<sarcy>
With this blitzkreig of marketing, it gives the impression Ninty regard the DS as their pioneering product...
</sarcy>

:)

Let's hope this isn't a fatal mistake by Ninty.

Here's a giant "oops". The last company to release two "next-gen" systems at the same time was Sega, giving us both the 32X and the Saturn. Look what happened there. I find it even more bewildering that Nintendo would do this - all their R&D is centralised in Japan, whereas Sega's hardware conflict was caused by the Japanese and American teams going in seperate directions.

Nintendo's "third pillar" argument is one that I've simply never bought. If it was truly independent of the Game Boy lineage, there should have been no need to include a GBA cartridge slot. Here's the thing: the DS on it's own may not have survived. Adding a GBA cart slot puts an audience of over 50 million on the natural upgrade path, hopefully stopping them from defecting to the Sony camp. The frustration the Johnny Q. Nintendofan will face when his natural upgrade path is split into two is huge. NIntendo's guaranteed sales booster may just have become the issue that causes public confusion and kills it.

I can easily see a situation now where the less creative developers (and there's a lot of those) will simply make stripped-down versions of GBA2 titles for the DS, implementing some lazy minigames and perhaps touchscreen menu selection. The DS doesn't deserve that, of course. If it does happen, the gamble of creativity oveer power will be a losing one.

Have you seen what those clueless l0s3rs over at lameindustry.biz* are saying now? That GBA2 will be a re-worked GBA, and that Nintendo will not face a PR battle over this latest move.

Do they just swallow everything companies tell them without even basic consideration of the facts.

1. Why would Nintendo release ANOTHER re-worked GBA?
2. Nintendo is hardly likely to admit that they face a PR nightmare, are they?

Sheesh.

<blah>
I have read on a couple of other gaming sites that a re-worked GBA is in the offing... this time to incorporate some kind of encryption (like DS). The reason stated was to combat the extremely easy means of piracy.
</blah>

I think this is already beginning to happen from some of the 3rd party offerings I've seen (use of the touchscreen shouldn't have to be mandatory), but hopefully the DS will produce more innovation from 3rd parties than the GBA/GC connectivity ever did (I only ever used that cable for pacman vs).

The GameBoy Evolution (or whatever), is definately in the works, and on the way, but I really don't see it coming out this year, I expect it in the next 2 years, but this year... I just think it's not gonna happen.

DS isnt gonna die,
it has 150 games ahead, and it remarks a couple of diference with the next Game Boy, so game developers who like inovation game designs are enjoing this DS hardware, creating its own niche games, . I find the PDA function interesting too,
Nintendo was VERY confident when they sayd that DS will be the 3th pilar.

I'll take your word that you picked this stat from a reliable source, but these figures are usually derived from developers who have games at varying stages of the development cycle. This can include early concept, beta testing or whatever. Even complete games might not ever find a publisher. Games get panned all the time.



Well that's OK then... and I seem to remember from a leadership course that "Confidence breeds success". My faith in Ninty is restored!

*Edited from original posting.

Games can very easily be canned once news like this gets out. Publishers are a fickle bunch, and any hint of a platform owner dropping or side-lining their product will give them the shakes. Even completed games get binned - it's not unheard of. Vivendi/Havas cancelled the Dreamcast version of Half-Life:Blue Shift despite the game being 100% complete and ready to ship.

If publishers start to get cold feet with DS, Nintendo might as will drop it and concentrate on GBA2

LOL. There's an echo in here ;)

Well there must be at least one piece of horsesh*t in this article. I don't belive that Spong has been given entirely accurate data here.

Revolution prototype? maybe, Evolution prototype? maybe, but Gamecube graphics? starts to sound a bit dodgy here, and so soon on the back of the DS too, maybe the DS was a PSP spoiler maybe not.

As for the DS using Palm Software... this old horse has been flogged around the forums for ages now, Palm hasn't listed Nintendo as a licensee on their website and many argue the pointlessness of nintendo paying hefty licensing fees to Palm when they can just build their own PDA software solution.

Why do they have to keep torturing us with rumours!, roll on E3 then we'll see what's true and what's brown and smelly.

OK Chr*st! this is P*ssing me off now, this rumour and speculation is apparently fed by the mumblings of some
corprated-assed "Technology Research analyst" called P.J. McNealy, well apparently PJ thinks that based on his "research" its about time for another gameboy.

Well that's set in stone then! Somebody better tell Nintendo because according to eurogamer nintendo has said... "There is always speculation on what the next Game Boy will be, however, at this time there are no announcements about a new Game Boy SP product."...

That said there is another rumour that a remodellef GBA SP based on existing hardware might be launched but including the music/movie functionality of the Play-Yan device recently launched in Japan.

GBA SP but with an SD slot? looks like The Handheld Gamecube Idea remains a fanboy's wet dream.

Well done again Spong on some top class "information"
you rumour-mongerers you!

I don't actually think that will happen. I don't see very many people playing GB/GBC games in their GBAs. I also don't think that Nintendo will ever drop the DS to just a PDA. It doesn't make sense. It makes sense to continue to support it as an established platform.



Yeah, but the DS is still a good console in it's own right.

I was always confused by the whole "third pillar" thing in terms that it will confuse customers. Nintendo will have to very carefull makret both products to avoid this. Based on previous experience, there's no way NOE will be able to avoid customer confusion.



So in addition to customers having to choose between GBA2 and DS developers must too. Ninty has basically diluted it's one strength on portables, massive third party support, by half and fragmented the market, meaning more developers will probably skip to PSP.

In reality we'll need to wait for official news from Nintendo. SPoNG could have got the wrong end of the stick in some matters (no offence) and I just can't see this PDA business happening to the extent you're emphasising it.