As you should know by now if you have been reading my blog, I firmly believe that Nintendo will announce a new handheld device this incoming year, 2010. To me it feels like the right time to move on from the DS hardware, with the slowing sales as nearly everyone and their grandparents have one, the look of the software is also starting to look incredibly outdated to me. I love the DS and its abilities but I do yearn for more from the system to have a bit of flair in the art design.
So what has all this to do with my post title?
Well I’m sure you all will believe that because the DSi XL is coming out next year there is no way that Nintendo would dare announce a successor to this system, it just wouldn’t give it enough time to sell through.
Well let me introduce you to a wee fellow.
Gambeboy Micro says hello...
The micro was announced by Reggie Fils-Aime at the E3 press conference on May 17th 2005 for Nintendo, and it subsequently launched between September and November 2005. This was all after the DS had launched in 2004 with a GBA slot in it, as I’m sure your all aware. It sold 2.4m units worldwide, or there about. Well the counter to this could be the fact that Nintendo was unsure about the DS hardware and it’s potential success rate, so they wanted to extend the life of the Gameboy. Who’s to say that the other handheld gaming system completed and ready for production sometime in the past three years wasn’t a successor to the Gameboy linage and a direct competitor for power to the PSP.
My point in all this is precedence, Nintendo have precedence of having 2 lines of handheld systems on the market, letting the end of sales for the old system fizzle out while the new line picks up and drives revenue income.
I think it is highly coincidental that the last edition of the Gameboy line was a “size-revision” but also tried to do something new with the system, remember Nintendo trying to tout the micro as a fashion accessory. Well the DSi XL is also a size-revision, in the opposite direction, but also is trying to do something new with communal handheld gaming with an audience. Again it’s hard to believe Nintendo are serious about their something new, like who believed the micro was a fashion accessory and who would believe that anyone would want to play the DSi XL with an audience hanging over their shoulders.
2010 equals the arrival of the DSi XL but quite possibly it could signal the arrival of the next big thing in handheld gaming from Nintendo.
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November 12, 2009 at 00:24
GoNintendo - Could the DSi XL be the precurser to a hardware shift
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November 12, 2009 at 01:22
Could the DSi XL be the precursor to a hardware shift | Games Blog
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November 12, 2009 at 03:20
wiiboy101-uk
could be even more to it than above article is saying a very powerful tegra based system would fit in there ADD A DISC DRIVE ““DOCKING UNIT”” PRESTO A HYBRID CONSOLE
November 12, 2009 at 04:15
weemancom
Thanks for the input, the tegra chip rumour is interesting to say the least. But the docking station/hybrid console thing is a bit far fetched to me. Nintendo like to have distinctly their handheld and console gaming markets separate to generate separate revenue streams. Creating a hybrid system could effectively stifle the revenue income from having 2 systems.
Also, i think the majority of us believe that Nintendo will stay clear of disc drive handhelds, we all see the failure of UMD, I believe that Nintendo will stick with flash memory based cards as these things are getting cheaper and cheaper to produce with high memory, as well as expanding built in memory with SDHC cards.