Nintendo to have 30 DS titles at E3

[Michael Bluth]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd pulled away from the competition and remained Japan's top game software maker in the business year ended March 31, game magazine publisher Enterbrain Inc said on Friday.
Nintendo sold nearly 6.5 million units, helped by hit titles such as racing game "Mario Kart Double Dash" and "Mario Party 5."

It maintained the top spot even without "Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green," Japan's top selling game. That game and other popular Pokemon titles now come under the Pokemon company in which Nintendo holds a 30 percent stake.

Square Enix Co Ltd sold nearly four million titles and came in second, while Konami Corp slipped to sixth from fourth last year, despite having Japan's second most popular game, "World Soccer Winning Eleven 7."

Nintendo continued to benefit from its strong position in the handheld market with its GameBoy Advance and Enterbrain President Hirokazu Hamamura said he was eagerly awaiting the company's new handheld, "Nintendo DS."

"This will be a product unlike anything available right now and it will come with a touch panel," said Hamamura, adding that Nintendo was prepared to unveil 30 "DS" titles at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in May.

The "DS" is expected to be a portable videogame system with two screens, one above the other, that will go on sale by year-end. A Nintendo spokesman declined to comment on whether the product would come with a touch panel screen.

Sony Corp plans to take the wraps off a handheld of its own at E3. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) -- a device that will play games, movies and music -- is expected to go on sale in Japan by year-end.

Sony has delayed its launch in the United States and Europe until the first quarter of 2005 and Enterbrain's Hamamura said it might be forced to delay the Japanese start unless it unveiled some key details, such as pricing.

Total game console sales, including handhelds, fell 15.7 percent in Japan to 7.38 million units and software sales dipped 1.7 percent to 55.2 million units in the business year to March 31.

Hamamura said he expected Microsoft Corp to roll out the next version of its Xbox console by the end of 2005, in a bid to be the first to market. Sony may hold off on a PlayStation sequel until early 2006, he said.




http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4793388&section=news

[Sendok]

lets hope that:
-vaporware dosen't figure in here
-they are good
-most aren't ports

[Michael Bluth]

The first two are very possible.... the last one, c'mon, it's Nintendo.

[Michael]

Well, ports from what...the 64...regaurdless 30 is a good number right now.

[bobo_ess]

Getting a healthy number from the start. This will help them i think.

[Cobra Commander]

I couldnt careless if they ported every N64, SNES, or NES game out there. I strongly believe that the Big N will show every company out there that they still rule the industry when it comes to great ideas and all around fun. Im sure the DS willl do to handhelds what the Gameboy did at the beginning. If the Big N holds true to what they say (which is one of the only draw backs to them as they always change their colors) and the DS has a touch screen, its going to blow the PSP out of the water.

Every few years advancement in certain areas come around. I believe this is the next great invention for us video game addicts. Just call me the Kurt Cobain of the video game world. :)

[Michael Bluth]

Well personally I'd rather have all of those Mp3 / Video playback features with better graphics than I screen that I will make all greasy by touching all the time. Oh boy is it going to be fun cleaning that thing.

[Gunpei]

Holy crap thats a lot of games. And some people like their systems just for the games and dont really care about all that other stuff. Stop expecting nintendo to add in an MP3 player, its nintendo...

[ScratchedAt]

Its GAME SYSTEM, not a STEREO.

Anywho, i like the idea of ports. Some of those older systems had the best games...

[Hylian-Advocate]

ugggg.....I was about to post this earlier. Oh well.

If it's true this is great news. For the most part, the most important time in a console or handheld game is it's launch. If they dont have enough good, solid titles to begin with, consumers pecieve this as what will happen in the future.......not very many games and not many good ones either. If Nintendo can pull off a good launch, al will be good with the NIntendo DS..............First impressions are everything.

[Nights]

Hmmm... I'd rather listen to mp3's as well... The PS2 had dvd playback, PSX was a CD player, PSP and MP3 player with videoplayback. This sells to casual gamers. That is why Sony wins. Hopefully the touchscreen will do that for Nintendo. I really would like to see Nintendo win, I'll buy both, however it's going to be a struggle either way.

[Michael Bluth]

Its GAME SYSTEM, not a STEREO.

Anywho, i like the idea of ports. Some of those older systems had the best games...


So by that logic there should be no TV / VCR or TV / DVD combos. Cars should not have radios because cars are for driving, not listening to music.


Have fun carrying 2x the accessories.

[Sendok]

Hmmm... I'd rather listen to mp3's as well... The PS2 had dvd playback, PSX was a CD player, PSP and MP3 player with videoplayback. This sells to casual gamers. That is why Sony wins. Hopefully the touchscreen will do that for Nintendo. I really would like to see Nintendo win, I'll buy both, however it's going to be a struggle either way.
...why does noboy mention that the Dremcast can play CD's?[/offtopic]

That may be true, but w/more features comes a larger price tag. I'm not sure all to many would be willing to shell out...but thats just my opinion, i could be wrong

[IEatFriedPikmin]

its most likely that 90% of the games will be ports, unless other companies have been secretly working on games, which i doubt. but even then, 30 is a very nice roundup for launch.

[speed stick]

its most likely that 90% of the games will be ports, unless other companies have been secretly working on games, which i doubt. but even then, 30 is a very nice roundup for launch.


90% will not be ports! That figure is way high.

Anyway, I am happy that they will have 30 games at launch, this should be good.

I am surprised to see that Microsoft may release first. Beggining of december would be a good time for a launch. Hope Nintendo launches around the same time.

[ScratchedAt]

~knocks on Adams head~

Televisions and VCR's go together, they both play movies of some sort.

MP3 - Listening to music Video Game - Playing a game.

If it used CD's, than adding music wouldn't be a big deal. But Cartridges... and then you want MP3 playback?

Good gawd. I miss the classic days of gaming.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

actually mp3 capability would be nice.

Anyways all the list is going to be is mostly ports. We already know that Mario 64 will be on it. And i heard OoT will be too. I wouldnt doubt SSB, Mario Kart, and a slew of others.

[Michael Bluth]

~knocks on Adams head~

Televisions and VCR's go together, they both play movies of some sort.

MP3 - Listening to music Video Game - Playing a game.

If it used CD's, than adding music wouldn't be a big deal. But Cartridges... and then you want MP3 playback?

Good gawd. I miss the classic days of gaming.

DS = most likely going to use flash storage
DS = should have good quality sound
Mp3s = can fit on flash storage


Mp3s + the DS go together.



kthxbye.

[alpha]

Well personally I'd rather have all of those Mp3 / Video playback features with better graphics than I screen that I will make all greasy by touching all the time. Oh boy is it going to be fun cleaning that thing.


Silly Adam it's not like you're going to buy any of them. I'm sure you'll just wait till Microsoft tries to get some money from the handheld market.

Well personally I'd rather have all of those great games and cheaper prices than all of that unnessceray(I CAN"T SPELL) stuff taking my money way. Oh boy is it goign to be fun trying to pay for that thing.

[r33hash]

One feature that the DS is said to have is a communcations device, sorta like IMing. I think thats why Sony has decided to add this same feature to their PSP. So, it wont be completely for gaming.

Also, there isnt a way that a game could be a direct port. All the games will have new features, thanks to that fancy little second screen. It will make for some interesting gameplay.

[Michael Bluth]

One feature that the DS is said to have is a communcations device, sorta like IMing. I think thats why Sony has decided to add this same feature to their PSP. So, it wont be completely for gaming.

Also, there isnt a way that a game could be a direct port. All the games will have new features, thanks to that fancy little second screen. It will make for some interesting gameplay.

Yeah, Nintendo is being smart and jumping aboar the blue tooth train.... I hope....

[dork]

Well personally I'd rather have all of those Mp3 / Video playback features with better graphics than I screen that I will make all greasy by touching all the time. Oh boy is it going to be fun cleaning that thing.
Ok...no. just no. Be very embarrassed for saying that. I personally want a machine that'll revolutionize the way games are played, not Mr. Spock's tricorder...although that would be pretty c00l.

[Viper]

30 at E3...nice.


Adam, your car analogy is very poor. A $20,000.00 car with a less than 1% cost add on that does not add complexity to the overall car is not the same. A better analogy would be a $20,000.00 car with a $10,000.00 50 inch plasma screen TV on its roof.


By the way the DS will use a stylus so you can keep your greasy fingers off of the screen. The stylus can then be used to write text messages during a 16 player wireless multiplayer aspect of the DS.



On top of that, I can assure you that the DS is NOT going to just be a port-o-matic handheld. All the develoeprs want to the system for its unique capabilities and that means unique games. If they want to make a port, they have the simple and well developed for GBA and the more powerful upcoming PSP.

[Severe Gamer]

I think that 30 titles is a healthy number. Add in the features and the developer interest, and we'll definitely see some unique titles. And even if they do display ports, it'd be cool just to see what they've done with them. With two screens, they may add an option that no one has thought of yet.

As for the whole 'PSP with a ton of features' I'm not really into that. I'd don't like paying for things that I don't need. Plus, the graphics really aren't what I'm into. It's nice addition and can, at times, be useful. But I'm a whole lot more into gameplay and creativity. I believe that the DS will have both. It'd be cool if they added things here and there, but at the end of the day, I want to play games on it.

[Hyrule_Dude]

Viper made a point I was hoping someone would. We don't have some ordinary system here we have a complex creature. Ports would just not make sense. You'd be wasting the capabilities of the system. I don't think that'll happen.

And to all of those who are into the overpriced swiss-pocketknife style handheld, good for you. With money like that you probably already own a good portion the junk that will be added on, so hopefully you'll be familliar with your grossly overused features.

I'll feel quite jealous when I'm playing the next incarnation of the world renown The Legend of Zelda series using a touch screen and other controls to innovatively navigate my way through Hyrule, or any of the worlds in one of Nintendo's multitude of franchises.

Please excuse me if my spite is expressed through hysterical laughing.

[Glenn2K4]

thats true. i hightly doubt nintendo will risk the DS image but allowing a ton of ports to be launched with the system, which dont have some 2 screen usage of some sort.

i predict that most of the titles will have some fuctionality with the touchscreen, split screen, or what have you.

they will be original.

[Gopherchux]

Wow, thats suprising news. Good news.

They wont be ports. This system has a completely different gaming format than any other system ever made.

[Glenn2K4]

the nintendo ds will be awesome...
:cheers: DS :cheers:

[majik ninja]

I'll be happy as long as one of those 30 games is a new 2d Mario. No RPG shit (even though RPG Mario games have been really good) just a straight up 2d, sidescrolling, old school Mario game.

[Nights]

In the article, Hirokazu Hamamura--President of Famitsu magazine publisher EnterBrain--did indeed say he expected Nintendo to unveil 30 DS games at E3. However, the confusing wording of the article made many think Hamamura's comments were an official Nintendo announcement. The confusion started with this line: "Nintendo continued to benefit from its strong position in the handheld market with its Game Boy Advance and EnterBrain President Hirokazu Hamamura said he was eagerly awaiting the company's new handheld Nintendo DS." Many readers unfamiliar with Hamamura read "its Game Boy Advance and EnterBrain President" and thought Hamamura was Nintendo's Game Boy Advance President. "We don't even have a Game Boy Advance President," said a half-exasperated, half-bemused Nintendo rep. However, given Hamamura's Famitsu connection, his words are pretty hard to dismiss....

I found this interesting...thought it would be a good read.