Nintendo says no DS redesign for you!

If you hadn't noticed by now, today is the 16th, and those rumors of an updated DS being announced today are looking pretty slim, what with there only being four or five hours left for Nintendo to make an announcement. Another factor in these increasingly slim odds might be the fact that Nintendo has straight out denied that a redesign might land this week. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo Europe calls the reports to the contrary to be "pure rumour and speculation," which really cuts us to the core, while at the same time being a completely accurate assessment of the situation. Oh well, we've still got around 49 weeks or so left in '06 for our dreams to come true.

[Via Eurogamer]

[Matt @ Jan 16th 2006 8:48PM]

how does the ds do against the psp?

[Dave @ Jan 16th 2006 9:04PM]

That headline is hilarious...

[Niccolo @ Jan 16th 2006 9:07PM]

Nintendo DS spanked the PSP last year in sales. Big time. It also spanked the PS2 in sales at times. But the PSP finally beat the DS last week in sales - the first time in many week of being 2nd. But so far, the DS is way more successful in both US and Japan. The games sell like hotcakes in Japan. Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS sold the most copies in Japan in 2005 - over any other game for any console, including the PS2.



Ok. I am a fanboy, get the joke?

[Stan @ Jan 16th 2006 9:13PM]

Too bad the PSP doesn't have any games worth a crap. But you can always buy movies for it.

[Monk @ Jan 16th 2006 9:25PM]

I guess it makes good business sense to not replace a product that they can hardly keep on store shelves. Still, I'll probably wait till the sexified one comes out before I get a DS.



Online Mario Kart sure is tempting, though...

[Jody @ Jan 16th 2006 9:26PM]

I wanted a redesign, but it is okay.



And the title comes from Seinfeld from the Soup Nazi.



I don't care about the PSP, because I just don't like it. If Nintendo redesigned the DS, it could have attracted more buyers.

[secret_asian_man @ Jan 16th 2006 9:42PM]

More for PSP!

[crazihouse @ Jan 16th 2006 9:53PM]

Matt, in terms of specs and speed, PSP is the obvious winner, however the DS has many capabilities that PSP doesn't like the touch screen and signature Nintendo games you cannot find on the PSP. And the DS is much cheaper...



On the contrary, the PSP has homebrew and such (which I personally enjoy :) ).



I personally have both, but find myself MUCH more on the PSP.

[Shade @ Jan 16th 2006 10:11PM]

A bad move by Nintendo. The DS has already all but won the handheld battle, but there is still no reason to leave it as ugly as it is.



I look forward to a DS that is designed as beautifully as the revolution. I just hope we don't have to wait more than four months to have it in our hands.

[Shade @ Jan 16th 2006 10:16PM]

#1



The PSP hardware is far superior than the Nintendo DS hardware.



However, the Nintendo DS has a host of brilliant games, while the PSP has virtually none.



Consumers have decided in the DS's favor. The DS became the fastest selling console of all time recently (faster than PS2, even) and has the PSP cornered.



That could change once development for the PSP picks up. If it ever does.

[Brian @ Jan 16th 2006 10:36PM]

I heard Mario Kart DS 2 is going to be announced by next week. Is this true? Sorry to hear about the delay in the redesigned DS. I'm sure Nintendo will get it right when the time finally comes.

[David O @ Jan 16th 2006 10:38PM]

I have both a PSP and a DS. I really like Mario Cart on the DS... and that's it.



On the PSP I have a lot of titles I enjoy. The ONLY other one I want for the DS that I've seen so far is Metroid that THAT one is a year overdue...



So.. the DS might be nice, but it's library is just so laughable... and no redesign will correct that.

[Mr. Magoo @ Jan 16th 2006 10:40PM]

Jody (#5), Thanks for clearing up where the title came from. I'll bet there's hardly anybody here who ever watched that show, what did you call it? Sign Fold? Oh, yeah, Seinfeld.



I, for one, am very impressed that you were able to decode that veiled reference to the distant past.

[mike @ Jan 16th 2006 10:43PM]

That could change once development for the PSP picks up. If it ever does.



---



yeah.. they're waiting for the marketshare to get SMALLER...

[Sarah Brabazon-Biggar @ Jan 16th 2006 11:02PM]

I'm constantly amazed by my DS; I never expected to like it this much. The graphics are nice, the battery life is outstanding, and the games are phenomenal. Phoenix Wright alone has kept me glued to the thing for hours, totally ignoring my PS2 and GC. That said, it is a little clunky-looking. I'd buy a redesign in a heartbeat.

[Joe @ Jan 16th 2006 11:27PM]

It'd be way way to early to get a ds redesign. What could they do differently at this point besides make it look alittle nicer or something. If they're gonna do a redesign they need the technology to make it small like the sp impared to the advanced or something.

[wunderbar @ Jan 16th 2006 11:32PM]

Why would they spend the money to re-design a device that they can't make fast enough? The DS is still selling like hotcakes, with no signs of slowing down. If people are stilling willing to buy it as is, they will not re-design it.

[Bearxor @ Jan 16th 2006 11:44PM]

Here's hoping the redesign includes a analog stick. It could come without effecting game designs and future games could take advantage. I know the chance are slim to none, with slim packing up to leave town, but here's hoping.

[Ken Crockett @ Jan 17th 2006 12:35AM]

I am glad they didn't I just bought my DS on Friday last week and I love the thing Getting on Nintendo Wi-Fi to play is freaking awesome.

[Alan Berman @ Jan 17th 2006 12:46AM]

Call me crazy, but I don't get the accepted wisdom that the PSP is sex incarnate and the DS is some clunky Fisher-Price toy. Yeah, I've seen a PSP up close and the screen is pretty, but the whole design is about as sexy as a PS2 controller. It's a nice screen that someone barfed a bunch of buttons and itty bitty labels around. It's not especially sleek or streamlined, it just looks like any other Sony gizmo. Eh. Make it look like something other than Memory Stick Holder Pro and maybe it'll sell better.

[Kevin @ Jan 17th 2006 1:39AM]

The PSP is great and all, but I am not going to pay 300+ dollars for a hand held.



The DS is cheap and hey, I can play Mario Cart DS with my friend and I don't have the game. Not bad Nintendo, I was surprised by the DS.



But a redesign is needed.

[fuzz @ Jan 17th 2006 2:27AM]

#18



the redesigned system will most probably not feature an analog stick, what people forget is that future games must be playable on the older system, that means no extra/changed buttons, no resolution change and no change of the distance between screens(or else games like metroid pinball would no longer work).

[Cem @ Jan 17th 2006 3:48AM]

I think it would be great to have a redesigned/slimmer DS with the superb Game Boy Micro screen! Widescreen would be awesome, but that's something for the successor of the GBA SP I think.

[Serge Pajitnov @ Jan 17th 2006 5:19AM]

Nintendo said exactly this almost a week ago (http://news.spong.com/x?art=9508)



Even the laggards at gi/eurogamer could *guess* this was garbage ... given that by 9am in the UK it's 6pm in Japan, and this supposed announcement by Nintendo Japan had not been made.

[PSPFanboy @ Jan 17th 2006 8:34AM]

Sales aside, the PSP is better.

[Jjeff @ Jan 17th 2006 8:52AM]

#3: You forgot to mention that the DS was outsold by the PSP because Nintendo RAN OUT of them in Japan.



#8: There is homebrew on the DS, just not as much as the PSP which is pretty strange because Nintendo really hasn't done anything to lock it out.



#12: There are at least 269 titles released for the DS (international, etc.. those are the number of ROM rips at least) how many for the PSP?

[no3rdw @ Jan 17th 2006 8:53AM]

Bearxor - I doubt the redesign - whenever it happens - will include changes to the controls. Then you'd have all previously released games optimized for one version of the system, and all newer games optimized for the new version of the system. The design is going to be more like 'Lets make it smaller, white, shiny, and with rounded corners And even comfortable to hold!' Which, you know, wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Jjeff @ Jan 17th 2006 9:00AM]

no3rdw: I think my DS is plenty comfortable to hold... only thing I would change on it is the buttons and Dpad... the Dpad needs to be raised up and designed to be easier to move diagonally and the buttons could be raised up a bit as well..



one thing I've seen is that everyone is crying about Nintendo removing the GBA slot... why would they do that? Even if it was to save space it doesn't really take up that much real estate in the design...I doubt the DS could get any smaller without seriously sacrificing playability. That said, I would've rather seen two wider screens but if it meant raising the unit price up $100 to compensate I would have passed it by.

[x23 @ Jan 17th 2006 9:34AM]

Sales aside, the Lynx is better than the original Gameboy.



see the hilarity?

[Paul @ Jan 17th 2006 9:54AM]

I loved the Atari Lynx!!! Technologically speaking it was far superiour to the Game Boy and Game Gear, but it was owned by Atari. Just goes to show again, the most technically superior game console rarely wins the war.

[Jjeff @ Jan 17th 2006 10:07AM]

x23 - I wish there was a Lynx emulator for the DS... I'll just have to console myself with the Genesis emulator and the Genesis version of Todd's adventures in slime world.

[Eggplant Glue @ Jan 17th 2006 10:29AM]

The DS is superior to the PSP for the following reasons:



1) Better games

2) Lower price

3) Longer battery life

4) Better quality control

[Ender @ Jan 17th 2006 10:41AM]

#28 That was great. Spot on.

[raindog @ Jan 17th 2006 1:31PM]

There are a lot of good PSP games still in the pipeline that haven't made it out the door yet. Some of them, like Katamari Damacy, kind of make me want a PSP (though in that one case I know they've been working on a DS version too.)



And the PSP homebrew market took off a lot faster because you can get a Memory Stick anywhere but finding a Supercard or M3 or even a GBAMP for the DS is an exercise in Chinese-import hell.



In the end, though, nothing available for the PSP at present can rock my world as much as Animal Crossing has (and I'm an electronic musician, so I can't wait to get my hands on Electroplankton next.) Hell, I don't think any of the PSP titles out there could rock my world as much as Bomberman DS, which is mediocre for a DS game. It's just a completely different kind of gaming. I don't even like playing console games that much anymore since getting my DS.



I really figured that Liberty City Stories would be the turning point after which the PSP would completely spank the DS.... and it didn't. Sony's even had to fall back on reporting shipped numbers against Nintendo's sold numbers, which is frankly embarrassing. So I guess a lot of people feel the same way I do.



Maybe we've been looking at this the wrong way and it's Sony that needs to put a redesign out there. A less fragile, more reliable PSP with a screen guard, longer lasting battery and a better analog stick, with a 512MB MSP included for under 200 bucks, with some really unique games that cost less than 50 bucks a pop, might get me to actually buy a PSP just to hack it. It's like the Xbox of portables.

[boberto @ Jan 17th 2006 3:51PM]

Coming from the UK, I have to say I'm glad I've got my PSP. Whilst I agree that the releases for the PSP are few and far between, at the moment anyway, It's nothing compared to the DS. We may have had to wait on the release of the PSP, but Nintendo make us wait constantly for games, and always have done. Europe is like Nintendos afterthought.

[Niccolo @ Jan 17th 2006 11:18PM]

"26. You forgot to mention that the DS was outsold by the PSP because Nintendo RAN OUT of them in Japan."

Interesting. It's funny how they only went ahead because Nintendo ran out. It's like someone claiming they won something when there is no competition during that time.

My only problem with the DS is that it cramps my hands (my hands are big and holding down the A button while playing Mario Kart really kills me.)

The A button is really to close to the edge of the system and I have to hold my thumb in an awkward position (anyone else have this problem?)

The thing is, Nintendo doesn't even allow you to customize the controlls! Man their development team is cutting back on usability!

Another problem is that I'm a User Interface designer and the DS has so many games with usability issues they don't resolve. Every game I pick up and play on the DS I get so many idea on how to improve the menu's and navigation of the UI.

[GovSilver @ Jan 18th 2006 2:04PM]

I am also a musician (amateur) and my interest in the DS is due to Electroplankton as well. Tell me about PSP music-making software and I might be more interested in the PSP.

[matt @ Jan 27th 2006 4:21PM]

The DS redesign has been announced. The face buttons are in a diamond and the thing is less than 2/3 the size, 20% lighter, brighter screens w/brightness controls, and start and select are right along the right side of the touch screen. This also looks like an Apple product(like Revolution) and comes at the system's original price.