Nintendo sez DS successor will sport motion control, better graphics; Wii Vitality Sensor in July
By Christopher Grant 
posted January 6th 2010 12:20PM
posted January 6th 2010 12:20PM
In an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata provided some rare commentary on what we might expect from a DS successor – not just another DS revision, mind you – whenever the gaming giant gets the urge to upgrade its golden goose. "[It will have] highly detailed graphics," Iwata said, giving ample (but obvious!) fuel to those NVIDIA Tegra on DS rumors. "And it will be necessary to have a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing." Now, before you do that annoying cough thing while saying "iPhone" under your breath, we'd like to remind you that Nintendo isn't really an also-ran to this motion-controlled gaming thing. Iwata made a point of saying that an iPhone-esque monthly cellular data plan wasn't in the works; however, that doesn't rule out a Kindle-like data service for the future handheld, as the executive previously mused about, providing for "free" gaming downloads on the go.Now that the boring kid stuff has been put to bed, we can take the mature news out of the cabinet: The pulse-detecting Wii Vitality Sensor will make an appearance at a press conference in July (hey, that's E3 time) with plans for a release "as soon as possible." We trust you guys can take care of the old people jokes yourselves, right?
It better not be that piece of crap in the picture
@Dapman02 ahahah!
@Dapman02
+1
@Dapman02 LOL that shit will never fold up.
@Dapman02
Victory!!!!
@Dapman02
Awesome name fit w/ that pic too "New Nintendo BS" ... maybe people did really want something like this @2004 eh
@Dapman02 Picture was from the days when everyone was still making fun of the DS when it was first announced :P.
@Dapman02 You are joking right? Welcome to the "Internets"!
@Dapman02
A clue for my friend over there please...
@(Unverified) Nintendo could find a way. These people sell games with the same exact characters every year and are still making bucko bucks. Can we say "miracle worker?"
@Dapman02
What are you guys talking about? It looks freaking awesome!!!
I bet it would fly off the shelves if it was branded, "Transformers Edition"
@Crazy J
Yea, and just like transformers, I wouldn't be able to get it back together once opened up
@Dapman02
I find that concept so sexy and geeky...
Perfect for strategy and simulator games :) But yeah terrible for everything else....
That picture is full of win. :D
om my lord, those split screens would bust right off in the hands of any kid (or a pissed off adult gamer)
wow that picture was way back in 2004 lol, also if I recall Nintendo created the first touch screen handheld and had games way back with proximity sensors on the GBA so I am betting again this new handheld will be more innovative than a cell phone with touchscreen and sensors like the IPhone/Pre something we never seen in a portable device before just like when the DS debuted.
@dachiefmizzy
Ah, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, those were good times, good times.
Im all for it having better graphical capabilities, but motion control and a vitality sensor seems useless to me.
@TheHeretic
It might as well have an accelerometer in it. They should also put in a GPS and a compass. That way it can know its exact position in space and orientation.
@TheHeretic
I'm all for the motion control, if done right, it could make for dome very interesting games. The vitality sensor is for the Wii, not the Ds successor, and yes, it's definitely useless.
There is no release date for the DS2, right? Is it possible that it will have a 2010 release? If not, I wonder if it will ship with the Tegra 2 SoC. Probably just the Tegra, but that in itself would be a huge graphics improvement.
However, with 3D gaming being much more possible, I sure hope that there is still a big focus on 2D games. 2D games rock.
2D games definitely rock but lots of great games on current DS already use 3D graphics even when they're basically 2D games (e.g. Zelda Spirit Tracks, GTA Chinatown Wars). So the availability of 3D doesn't stop people - at least on DS - from making 'classic' game types - and having a faster processor would definitely make them look nicer.
(Of course if you're specifically after hand-drawn 2D and only hand-drawn 2D then, well, what can I say - sorry... but at least you're already used to it.)
I'm with you on the 'probably [the original] Tegra' guess, unfortunately :) Maybe if it's 2011 it would be Tegra 2 though, that would be nice. Higher-resolution screens (I'd guess 2x for BC) sound like a cert, which is good news too.
So is this the DSi2 or is it the DS Lite2 or is it just the DS2. I don't get it, they just made a revision and now they're already talking about a sucessor?
I was going to get the DSiXL, but forget it I'm just gettin this new DS 2 thing (if it is a DS at all. No revisions I guess).
@shintopig
Its a completely new DS successor, like the jump from GameBoy to DS
it probably wont be even called 'DS'
not a revision like DS > DS lite, or GBA to GBA SP
@(Unverified)
Yeah, I figured. I'm just not sure what to expect. I mean why are they talking about a sucessor if their current DSi is selling great?
@shintopig
maybe because the DS is over 5 years old? Just a thought.
I'm curious to see what nintendo brings us. Maybe they will force Sony to up their game with the PSP.
What an appropriate name if this is in fact what it'll look like. What a BS system. Really why the hell would I need all those screen attached to a GBA SP?
@NYNY
hi, welcome to the Internet, you must be new here. Sometimes people use a computer "program" called Photoshop to make funny pictures.
@NYNY
Really?...REALLY?
@DTJ
Photoshop? Looks more like 3DS Max, to me. You must be new to computer software entirely. Sure PS CS3 is now capable of 3D modeling to an extent but nobody really uses that feature, if you're going to model (in a professional manner), you need a stand alone application.
Welcome, you have a lot to learn.
@Schmerzlichtod
Welcome. You are a douche....... Welcome.
imagine nintendo releasing a bigger version of that
I'VE FALLEN...AND I CAN'T LEVEL UP!!!
I'd love to see Nintendo step it up, but I'd also love to see Microsoft give the Zune HD a controller add-on of some sort to turn that beast into a bona fide game machine.
I wonder if the Tegra 2 will make it in, or if it will just be the current batch.
@Nitesh
Let's hope it's the Tegra 2, cause there's no sense putting outdated tech in something that's still in development. Besides, it would be a good chance for Nvidia to showcase Tegra 2's capabilities, since the DS sells well. If Nvidia and Nintendo are in a partnership for the new DS, I doubt either one is stupid enough to pass up the chance to show their best, or just plain showoff.
Actually, coughing and saying ''iPhone'' didn't come to mind. But you go ahead and do it, Mr. Grant.
Something like this would definitely make me upgrade, my DS Lite is over 4 years old and falling apart. Bring on the Tegra and a couple of analog sticks and I'm game.
And Nintendo being Nintendo, they will come out with a slightly better/slightly faster/better backlit/more colorful version 6 months after the DS 2.0 gets released.
Nothing like milking your loyal fans for every last dime, eh Nintendo?? :rolleyes:
@Hazdaz
I'm a loyal fan and still haven't gone beyond a DS Phat 5 years later.
Am I the only one who noticed the idiotically spelled "sez"? It's amazing how badly a language can be butchered... I don't care about the news, after reading "sez," that pretty much made me feel like I'm getting my information from a little 8 year old hax0r wanna-be.
Seriously, and america's lowering their educational standards AGAIN?
Unless you're writing in some sort of humourous jamaican slang, it's spelled "says".
@Schmerzlichtod
Or you're writing headlines for Variety.
However, I'd save my rage on cute intentional misspellings and use it on Engadget's unintentional non-cute typos.
How does your dentist attach that thing to your retainer?
I'm already set on buying the PSP2 or the rumored portable Xbox thing....
I may keep my DS lite, but I really want next-gen gaming... I want to play strategy games and Pro Evo Soccer on the subway, in the airport and on a plane...
Unless Sony screw the hardware REAL BAD (bad controls, no touchscreen), PSP2 it will be,
If the Nintendo TS (DS2) does indeed have a Nvidia Tegra GPU, there's no way the PSP2 would have much better graphics than that. Not without having a straight-up laptop graphics card and a half-hour battery life (knowing Sony, that might be possible).
@Elranzer
DS will have Tegra, but somehow, PSP's chip will be out of this world (4x more powerful). Read this article:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ds2-vs-psp2-article
"So how do the potential PSP2 and DS2 architectures match up? The performance difference is potentially astonishing. While Tegra's tech demos of its first-gen chipset are clearly pretty impressive, the IMG set-up potentially has more to offer. The SGX's arithmetic logic units combined with the deferred rendering approach and its use of unified shaders are significant advantages for just the one core, and IMG can be rightly proud of the ways its architecture scales over multiple cores. Put simply, a single core SGX543 should match and potentially exceed the performance of Tegra 2 clock-for-clock. And the PSP2 will most likely have full four cores at its disposal."
...probably will not be backwards compatible but when looking at how popular it is post launch will include all the prior DS models in its total (kind of like how apple does it with the ipod).
@pax copia
If the DS successor inherits the dual screen/touchscreen mechanic, there is absolutely no reason not to make it backwards compatible with DS games. With BC, the new DS would start off with a huge library of DS games, and current DS owners would upgrade rather quickly to the new system (since they would be able to play their current games on it). Nintendo would be absolutely brain-dead to not include BC, and price and engineering is definitely no excuse. Since I doubt it would cost much, and if hardware emulation of the DS is a no, then there's always software emulation via Tegra 2. Plus Nintendo has a tradition to uphold here, all their past handhelds have been BC with the system before it, with exceptions of the GB Micro and DSi, but that only concerns the 3rd revision of their current gen system (according to tradition of course).
@Cyrs
My netbook can emulate the DS fine (iDeaS emu), don't see how the next gen DS can't.