Exclusive: Iwata: Possible DS redesign looms

There's *so* much more to this story than you might think. Perhaps we'll be able to publish it, perhaps not. Keep an eye out in here though and you'll be the first to get a heads-up.

May be as soon as this afternoon.

It's interesting that Nintendo are going all-out with the extension strategies so quickly after launch.



Considering the fact that the DS has already lost some momentum in Japan and when the PSP launches in the West we can expect DS sales to trail behind I find these comments surprising. Even more surprising is that Mr Miyamoto several months ago remarked that a "high power Gameboy is the future of handheld consoles" (not exact quote).

I applaude Nintendo for doing something different. I believe that the DS in an excellent system without the excellent software to back it up. If Nintendo releases the Revoluton with the same problems as the DS, then it can kiss goodbye to being in gaming at all.

I hope you can reveal a bit more to us, Tiger. Prehaps the V Pocket and Multimedia add-ons are due to be integrated into the DS. If Nintendo could do this and get some movies released on it, I'm sure it would boost DS sales substantially. I know I would get one ASAP.

Great Iwata you just flushed all your current DS sales down the drain. Who is going to buy a system that is going to be upgraded.

Shhh...don't tell anybody!!

'I certainly hope this is indicative that Revolution will use WiFi built-in - I'd hate to drag yet another cable across the floor.

That said, I wonder how they can improve the DS the same amount that the GBA was improved through the SP.

Iwata's comments are being taken out of context, from what I read in the interview. Nintendo R&D is known to work on a departmental basis with each department given pretty much free-reign to explore whatever avenues they want.

Yamauchi said this was how he put together the DS in the first place, he basically wandered through the various departments with his "shopping basket" selecting those functions he thought could be put to good use, i.e. the dual screens from one, the touch screen from another. Once he'd settled on those elements, he tasked several departments to bring these elements together and design a functional device.

If you read Iwata's comments in that light you'll see that he's just talking about the ongoing R&D that Nintendo has always done, if one aspect proves too good not to be used in an upgraded version then we will see some action. He's not saying they're about to throw the DS SP into the market next month, he's saying they're looking to see what their next step is.

Make it smaller?

"DS and N-Gage sitting in a tree, not S-E-L-L-I-N-G.."

I think even Spong knows this is somewhat of a fabrication of what was actually said in the interview...

I swear though...Iwata says some things that are absolutely brilliant, and other things that make me want to throw a brick at him.

Yea i agree with making it smaller and they should take away the D-pad and add a anolog, make the buttons space and a little bit bigger, add a beefy and longer stylus for more control even though they already have one for sale just add one with the system and changed the color to black or candy red to name some colors.

They won't put an analogue on. Did you not see how the analogue control works in Mario 64DS? It already has one- THE SCREEN.

All they'll do is make it a smoother, more managable chunk of gaming love.

And if it's not selling, what's with the 2.8 million units sold quoted in the new edition of EDGE?

Comparing DS and Ngage is a little unfair since the latter is a phone. Mobile phones are disgarded and upgraded on a six month to yearly basis by the average owner. Nice idea Nokia but the very fact it was a phone killed it dead.

DS is selling quite well especially in the u.s and I'm sure it will do the same here too. Even though this is pre-PSP in nature it's still good. DS I think will also bring the females in, knowing that they have are the untapped portion of the gaming pie with money to spend. Who better to do that than Nintendo.

Changes if they do produce them it would be nice to have an analogue upgrade and a larger screen width. Perhaps stick some GC parts in since GC only has so long left before the Rev. Wishful thinking and all. (might have another PSP on our hands if that happened though but I suppose GBA2 will be like that or similar)

It was hardly a direct comparison Joji, of course there are key differences.

But there are similiarities, and that was the source of my flippant post - they both have good features and ideas, but there are also superior products out there, they both are more cumbersome than they should be, and both have a possible redesign on the cards only months after launching.

Plus they'll probably both be losers in the long run.