The Shill: Nintendo DS2 Already In The Hands Of Pokemon Company?
Last Updated on Friday, 19 February 2010 03:06 Written by Wrathie Thursday, 18 February 2010 05:45
Well, we’ve heard the rumors for a long time now, that the DS successor is currently being developed. It’s old news, for sure. Yet, in this case, could the “DS2” be actually be shown and announced this year? It’s seeming more and more likely.
In January, the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, was giving an interview to a Japanese newspaper, and was asked about the “successor” of the DS. In his response, he stated that the new DS would have an HD display and motion capture abilities. Sure enough, soon after the story was published, Iwata denied this, claiming that he was “misquoted”. Well, it may look like he actually spilled the beans early.
Going to this passed week, it was reported through CVG that a select number of developers in Japan, which included the aforementioned Pokemon Company, received DS2 developer’s kits. A “third-party” insider told CVG that the DS2 kits include “motion-sensing capabilities”, the same ones that Iwata spoke of a month earlier. The insider continued to say:
“It’s genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever worked with,” he said. “I can tell you that it’s got a ’tilt’ function that’s not dissimilar to iPhone, but does a lot more.”
Next months Game Developers Conference will kick off, and according to the insider, the “official” announcement won’t come before April. That means that it is looking more and more likely that it will pop its head at E3 in June.
Granted, an insiders word doesn’t mean much. For all we know this could be another updated DS version like the DSi (the rumors in 2008 were similar to, and it ended up only to be the DSi). Nevertheless, it still raises some interesting questions:
- What other features and tech might this new DS entail? IGN has a great article about the rumored technologies for the new DS. Will it be equivalent to the GC or Wii abilities?
- Why create a new DS now? DSi was released less than a year ago, so why release another system after that? It seems like the DS generation is doing great for itself, surpassing the Game Boy generation. So, wouldn’t it be smart to ride out the DS for another couple of years?
These are just some of the very questions being asked across the gaming sphere. Only time will tell what Nintendo really has up its sleeves, and that time might be closer than we think.