According to Gameloft, they're supposed to receive their DSiWare development kits sometime in December, at which time they'll begin to put together their first DSiWare titles for release next year. They go on to state that while no official North American release date for the new DSi system and DSiWare service has been set as of yet, they've been hearing that Nintendo is shooting for a spring-summer 2009 release, possibly even late third quarter of the year. That's somewhat understandable given the extremely brisk sales Nintendo's DS Lite system continues to enjoy in the US.
Gameloft go on to say that they are also hearing speculation that Nintendo is considering lifting the one title a month limit they currently impose on publishers, which would open the door for companies like Gameloft to have their games released at a more frequent pace.
Below is a portion of the interview that relates to Nintendo's DSiWare and WiiWare services and you can check out the full interview for more details on Gameloft's plans for both of Nintendo's download services, not to mention other digital download services for the competing consoles.
GameDaily BIZ: What are your plans for the Nintendo DSi?
Gonzague de Vallois: We're preparing for the North American launch. There's nothing official on when this will be. We've heard spring-summer. We've heard Q3. I believe from Nintendo's perspective there's no hurry to release the device in North America because DS is still selling extremely well. If the DSi and DS are close in price, the DSi will kill DS sales.
BIZ: How has Nintendo's WiiWare been working for Gameloft?
GdV: WiiWare is pretty open. We have eight games on WiiWare, including Brain Challenge, TV Show King and games like bowling and pool. Downloads depend on the title on WiiWare. We're experimenting a little. Party games do really well. Simple mono-player titles like bowling or pool aren't doing as well. The target is family or Nintendo fans only looking for Nintendo games. We're learning on the platform.
BIZ: How has working with Nintendo been?
GdV: Nintendo still limits publishers to one title a month. They're talking about removing this limit. Nintendo seems to be more open to more titles.
Read the full interview
We'll have more information on the upcoming DSi system and DSiWare service as it becomes available. As popular as the DS Lite system has been, it's pretty much a no-brainer that the anticipation level for the new DSi system will be sky high over the coming months. And if the DSiWare service turns out to be as successful as WiiWare has been, it should make for an interesting addition to WiiWare-World.
SOURCE: GameDaily BIZ
Comments 38
DSi is not great, rip-off!!!!!!! The reason is it seems Nintendo stole from cell-phone features and added them to the DS, result DSi, nothing interets me greatly, but I will probably get DSi in the future, Curse You NINTENDO, YOUR TOO DANG GOOD!!!!!!!!!!
Edit: My First Comment Ever, now I will never try again.
Second post? No! Anyway... I plan to get a DSi eventually. They seem to be under the mentality that the DSi is something entirely new, though, which worries me.
DSiWare is meh, all I want from the DSi is the portable Virtual Console.
i cant use ds dsware. My internet security doesn't work for ds wi-fi..
I won't buy a DSi. Nintendo just likes raping the money out of innocent children.
Won't anyone think of the children?
@Twilight Crow. Same here. I don't really care much about DSiWare at all.
I'll get a DSi when it comes out for two reasons. One I have the original DS. Two more Art Style Games, DSiWare, and an Internet Browser.
Hmm... "The target is family or Nintendo fans only looking for Nintendo games."
Partially true. Nintendo has hit this target, but they've lost touch with their original core audience (PLEASE don't start the core/casual argument; I've stated my opinion on the Tiki Towers thread). What Nintendo fans really want is a Nintendo system with all the Nintendo classic franchises in addition to stellar 3rd party support (SNES). The fatal flaw with the past few Nintendo consoles is that developers fail to realize this. I think the Top 5 WiiWare sellers prove my point... 1. World of Goo 2. Tetris Party 3. My Aquarium 4. Brain Challenge 5. Mega Man 9. 3/5 of these are core (if you must, please refer to my definition of hardcore on the infamous Tiki Towers thread). That means that the Wii's supporters still lie mainly in the hardcore audience, but more importantly, all of those core games (yes, Tetris is core... enough) are 3rd party works. Nintendo fans don't "only want Nintendo," we want everything. I think the astronomic sales of Mega Man 9 at launch (on the Wii) also provides unfailing evidence that Nintendo fans want to get back to the way the consoles of old were. Sorry, Gameloft, but that statement is an excuse to produce half-baked "family games" just because you aren't Nintendo (you haven't produced horrible games thusfar, but your interview wording would insinuate that you shall in the future. I think as these family games begin to sell fewer and fewer copies as time goes on, Nintendo will realize their wrongdoing. Who am I kidding? Of course they won't! Regardless, Nintendo and devs like Gameloft have finally pushed me to doing the unthinkable: abandoning my unrelenting Nintendo fanboy-ism to get an Xbox 360. I also don't fit in with the FPS demographic of the 360, but at least I won't be drowned in (as much) shovelware anymore (and I can get Rare's games, yay). Strange, if my Microsoftophile friends ever attack Nintendo with these same points, I defend Nintendo to the death. I guess it's because I've supported Nintendo through all of this garbage. I guess it's kinda like the rule where only a member of X group can insult or make fun of his group, whereas if an outsider does, the group gets angry. Well... it is my carefully nurtured hope that Nintendo will someday return to the greatness that it was about 15 years ago. Then again, it is also my hope that the Hedgehog (or better yet, SEGA) will return to his Sonic 2 glory someday, but progress is pending on that...
Oh, and I thought I'd point this out... Did anyone else notice that Microsoft decided to release their Miis... err... avatars on November 19th, the second anniversary of the Wii? Yes, I believe that avatars are completely an attempt by Microsoft to expand their demographic by copying what Nintendo did in the first place. I wish Nintendo hadn't (see above), but that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft both copied N and released their plagiarized product to the masses the same day as the Wii was released in North America two years ago. How subtle...
oh...great....more shovelware......don't you just love gameloft!
Do not worry @Clayfrd I will not start another discussion.
Wow Tiki Tower thread infamous. Cool
Oh, great, now I have to go back and read the Tiki Tower thread. I skipped it the first time around, but it sounds like an interesting read now. I agree with what Clayfrd said about game sales and stuff, though. Stuff like that is why I decided not to be a Nintendo-only fan, but instead to own every system. That way, I have the right to bitch about all of their shortcomings (and they do all have problems...)!
As far as this news story goes...I like the idea of DSiWare, as long as you can run it off of the SD card to start with. After all, the DSi has half the internal memory of the Wii. Imagine the memory uproar if they actually did the same thing they did with the Wii! Does anybody know if anyone in Japan has checked this issue out yet?
Edit add-on: I went to the Tiki Tower thread, read all of it, and added my opinion to the end, just in case anybody actually cares.
@Stuffgamer1 - Interesting comment on the old thread. I was actually thinking about that exact group of games when Mario Kart Wii came up in the discussion somewhere. I thought... "Hmm... Mario Kart Wii... Nintendo has definitely added several casual elements, but the game still comes from a respected franchise... What would you call this?" I'm glad you posted what you thought about that. Games like that really do have bits of both and can't be categorized into the Mega Man type or the Wii Play type. They're basically hybrids.
"We're experimenting a little. Party games do really well. Simple mono-player titles like bowling or pool aren't doing as well. The target is family or Nintendo fans only looking for Nintendo games."
This is very worrying. I like one-player affairs. Don't leave me out of the equation just because you think you can make more money just doing party games.
I don't know what they count Wild West Guns as but IIRC the game has been selling fairly well if WW top 20 is any archievement?
I love DSi... but I'd really hate finding the same storage issues from Wii, it is a MUST for Nintendo to let us play DSi Ware and its rumored VC directly from the SD card, what a debacle would it be if we had this problem soon after the spring "storage solution" for Wii (Knowing Nintendo I mantain my expectatives really low for that "solution").
@VALERHU:
I had the same problem with my DS, assuming you get the service from the same provider I do, I recommend you trying to switch your net from "open" (abierta) to "shared" (compartida) and shutting of the firewall under your network settings. But to use it with your PC again you must switch it back to "open".
Everything needs to be done from the Wii or other browser that can acces your router with both settings (open and shared) just type one word: HOME on your browser and tap enter key to look for that setting.
Or just use a public hot spot.
I'm already very interested in DSiWare, and i think that will be the first thing to discover when i buy me a DSi^^.
Midnight Frisbee and Mini Golf Anyone? Its frisbee with hot nightclub singles
I also found out that the DSi was region protected, so DEFINATELY no!
Will the DSlite be compatible with DSiWare, or is it locked to the DSi model and the region which it is bought on?
I was thinking on getting the DSi, but due to their limitations on regions, software, etc. I'm thinking on getting a Lite now and not trouble myself on the DSiWare, DSiGames, etc.
@Tony: Just go to their website, see their midnight series and mobile series (Asphalt, Midnight, Platinium, Real Football, Soul of Darkness, Assassins Creed, Abracadaball, etc).
@ "Will the DSlite be compatible with DSiWare":
I think this is very improbable.
More titles every week would be great. WiiWare is a great service, but 1 to 2 releases per week is no good.
Though we need more memory to save the games. Good thing that Wii update did something right with the faster SD transfer rate.
or is it locked to the DSi model and the region which it is bought on?
As you said the DSi shop is region locked based on where you bought the system...
...stupid Nintendo. When will they learn that region free=more sales=more money that they cherish so much.
Of course if some hacker works out how to dump the DSi memory it might be possible that DSiWare titles will work on a DS lite via a flashcart...but there won't be any legal way to purchase games with just a DS lite.
Personally paying for a system I already own with a bunch of features I am 100% against (look at these 0.3 megapixel cameras...thats worse than your Digital Camera from the year 2000!), no GBA slot and yet another overpriced shop* where you can buy bite sized chunks of GBA games and DSiWare.
*-BTW, I think WiiWare is well priced but VC is way over. If DSiWare turns out to be 200 points for the paper plane of Wario Ware it'll be overpriced but if its the paper plane plus jump forever, Dr.Wario and the other one that might be more reasonable.
As a developer I wonder what possesses them to pick DSiWare. Here you can develop for the DS which has a customer base of about 40 million or you can develop for the DSiWare which has a customer base that isn't 1 million yet and of that 1 million about half of them probably won't even bother to use the shop inspite of the free 1000 points...
Nintendo still limits publishers to one title a month. They're talking about removing this limit. Nintendo seems to be more open to more titles.
I love how everyone says "noo more shovelware" about this statement but look at it like this. Its more games in general. Still I have fullest confidence NOE will find a way to make the good games few and far apart becuase NOE are good like that
That really sucks about the region lock on the DSi. Now if they make another Tingle game and release it in Europe but not America, I'm SOL! But only if it's a DSi-only game, not a DS game. So Rosy Rupee Land should work on it regardless. The news report I got this info from was quoting straight from Nintendo, so at least that confirms plans for DSi-only retail games like I'd assumed! I think their excuse (having to do with the internet connectivity of the system) is totally bogus, though. Here's the article I read, if anyone's interested:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86668
Nintendo still limits publishers to one title a month. They're talking about removing this limit. Nintendo seems to be more open to more titles.
Hopefully, we'll be able to catch up on Strong Bad if the limit is removed. Recieiving the next two on subsequent updates would be awesome (if still a little much, money-wise).
Also: go Gameloft! I ordered TV Show King Party which I believe is arriving tommorrow, so right now I have little bad to say about them (even though Midnight Bowling was a severe let down). TV Show King is one of my favourite WiiWare games at the moment, and makes for many quotes and hilarious moments with me and my friends. What did the bomb at Hiroshima cause? Radiation, Mad Cow Disease or... AIDS? Simply hilarious.
I'm SOL! But only if it's a DSi-only game,
But there won't be DSi-only games released as cartridges. Maybe some games will be enhanced if on a DSi but I refuse to think Nintendo or any other developer is prepared to say "go away, I don't want your money" to biggest userbase of all released systems for the sake of an SD card slow and a 0.3 Megapixel camera.
As far as I knbow the only DSi change is when new games are used on a DSi they will be able to use WPA encryption for Wi-Fi (current released games have to use WEP as does the DS lite).
Can't we just wait for more titles to amerge before judging it harshly?
@VALERHU: They may have the same Internet Security options like they have done with the Wii. Could be wrong know.
EDIT: Wiki says this:
"The WPA and WPA2 support is not backward compatible with original DS games. Only DSi services can use WPA."
Well that kinda of sucks. So I still need to use the crappy dongle thing?
@Starwolf_UK: Apparently there is a Wario Ware DSi Title game (in the form of a cartridge) in the works. Unless I mistaken the facts from Nintendo Official Magazine.
@PALgamer: It's going to be the same as the Wii, region locked title (although it should not be hard to crack). Providing the pay system is the same as the Wii, you could get a US DSi and set your country to Brazil (allowing the use of a UK/Euro Credit Card to be used). Well I hope it does that.
I'll be getting a DSi as soon as possible so I'll hope there will be some launch games, particularly from Gameloft. Wonder if they'll use the DSi's technology well.
@ [all the good points raised] we al get it, so why doesn't Nintendo?! they should've discontinued[or, phased] DSLite altogether a while ago! for a 'smaller' company, they're way less agile than the 'bigger' ones. and region locked hardware?! couldn't even imagine a region-locked psp lol DSi seems kind of dumb and with no back-WPA support.. rant rant rant lol maybe one day nintendo will realize quality ideas often doesn't mean spending more $,¢,¥,฿,S₣, or € !!!! [though, doubt they will]
@Clayfrd: as for sonic, with sega-sammy, wouldn't count on quality.. did u know yu suzuki isn't even there anymore?!?! (r.i.p. sega)
Crooked... I guess I will have to win my DS Lite in TimeOut in Stacker (or ask one for Christmas/Epiphany, yet all I want is Persona 4, a Wii Points card, and maybe a tablet)... and get a Black DSi with Pokémon Platinum as a graduation/birthday gift...
@Starwolf_UK: Did you even click on the link I gave? A quote from a link in that article:
"DSi software (software that is only compatible with DSi) is region locked, eg: European DSi software can only be played on European DSi consoles," a Nintendo spokesperson has told CVG.
They confirmed that this means BOTH download-able games and future DSi-only cartridge-based games would be region locked.
End quote. That coupled with what RadioShadow said should tell you that there WILL be DSi-only retail games. Refusing to believe this is pointless. Face it: Nintendo sees the DSi as more than just another redesign. It can do new things, and news games will be programmed accordingly. The ratio of games designed will probably come out a lot like with Game Boy Color, where a lot of games worked on older Game Boy's but some required the new hardware. Everyone here must be prepared for that inevitability.
Re: Gameloft - I don't really care for their games but the more the merrier really. Even if they do make a lot of shovelware it doesn't really affect us does it?
Re: DSi - I'll probably get one. I mean, I know I will; I just don't know when. The DSI 'Virtual Handheld' rumor is what interests me the most. If its like the VC but with handheld games then it'll make it a must have.
@^^: hmmm, expect alot of price gouging 。|
@hal(30)- Why couldn't it have been Sony? Sony never had Blast Processing! Why couldn't the industry have killed off Sony instead?!?!? WHY? Couldn't Sega at least have left us with one last killer Sonic game? I hear decent things about Unleashed, but not nearly good enough things. Hasn't Sega read the reviews? Every time Sega has thrown in some classic 2d Sonic parts into their recent trash games, the reviews have read something like this:
"The parts where Sonic is doing what he does best, 2d, are really great, it's the [cutscenes/gimmicks/terrible voice acting/bad story/iffy physics and collision detection] that gets in the way of this being a truly great Sonic game..." Why not just make a 2d Sonic!? Is it really that hard to imagine? People would love it! Get this through your head Sega, if you get it right (Sonic1-3, CD, and S&K), don't change it! None of Nintendo's fantastics series have changed significantly since their birth (other than Mario, who has whored himself out to every imaginable genre and is capable of being in a good 3d game and RPG). Did you notice that after Rare was sold, DK games were not as good anymore (not bad, but not as good)? That's because they changed. Just give me a 2d Sonic with no voices and just enough story to give me a reason to defeat Robotnik, and I'll be happy.
@Clayfrd: yeah really! with SONY v. Sega, they'd lost their main financier and benefactor [ who left the company part of his estate]. unfortunately, the debt was too much and sales were too fickle at the time leading up to the sell off to Sammy [who'd purchased it for around $640 million USD] the new CEO(sega-sammy) reformed/destroyed alot of the talent at Sega! [different sonic team, no more Smilebit, Am2, or Mizuguchi, ect.]
sooo, SONY [who continues to fund new ideas/talent] will always be around.
don't think there can really ever be another good 'Sonic' game.. not this decade anyway lol [though ♥ sonic adventure 1+2/pocket adventure for ngpc]
which goes back to the original subject.. lol nintendo is maybe afraid of investing in anything that wouldn't bring immediate return sooo, dumb things like DSi's 'implications' [double the wii points/ no back-WPA-support/ + most of all, puzzles forever lol].
"That's somewhat understandable given the extremely brisk sales Nintendo's DS Lite system continues to enjoy in the US."
Dangit, Nintendo, just because your original DS (minor cosmetic tweaks don't count) is still selling like hotcakes is absolutely no reason to stand in the way of progress. Release it already, Q1 2009!!! Apple's overpriced iPod series still continues to glut the market with ridiculous sales records (iPod sux BTW - Cowon/iAudio forever!!!), but those said sales statistics don't stop them from making new innovations, enhancements, and tweaks to old products like every 2 months or so.
Why can't Nintendo just release the DSi already???
I want an DSi now. Hurry up Nintendo I can not wait forever!
Tap here to load 38 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...