According to The New York Times, the DS will be getting downloadable content via the Wii. The article is mostly just fluff about sales numbers, the rise of the DS, basic functionality that we all know, etc. I was aware that we were going to be able to download DS demos, but I didn't imagine we would actually get new content. The first game announced to support this is Professor Layton. I don't know much about the game but the art style looks amazing, it's for the DS, and it's a puzzle game. I'm not seeing much that could go wrong there... So that you don't have to sift through all the crap, here's the part we care about:
Mr. Fils-Aime said that future DS device will be more tightly integrated with its Wii console. Complete games as well as game samplers will be able to be downloaded into the Wii using its broadband connection, and then transferred wirelessly to the DS.
A puzzle-solving game, Professor Layton, to be introduced next year, will be upgraded with new puzzles transmitted to the DS through a wireless download.
The other thing that caught my eye is the fact that it says we can download complete games. I wonder if this will be GameBoy ROMs, basically recreating the Virtual Console on the DS, or if it will be something along the lines of small (and cheap) games. Nintendo would then need to sell some kind of storage card for us to place the games on but this is great news no matter how you look at it. Now all we need is a release date for when this functionality will be fully implemented. Though the article doesn't explicitly state it, the feature will likely use the Everybody's Nintendo Channel that recently debuted in Japan.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/technology/31nintendo.html
ShadowXOR's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
Sorry, not everyone likes to leech things away for free, some of us like to support the developers so they can continue making great games. Though your comment was more of a forum post really, maybe you should take it there.
When does school start for you?
Go troll your teachers.
I used to steal games too and if you're poor like I was when I was doing it...whatever. But I don't think you should be encouraging everyone to steal games. That will only reduce the amount of games that are made for our enjoyment.
I can now afford games, so I buy them. Anyone else should do the same. Just because you can steal it doesn't mean you should. It's like the only reason people buy things is because they can't steal everything, which is sad.
As I said I'm not this complete Nazi against stealing...but I don't think you should be proud of the fact, that's for damn sure. In my eyes it either means your really poor, or a huge asshole. That's my opinion.
Now cds on the otherhand I have no objections to its piracy. The industry makes millions overcharging for cds and jerk wads like Metallica in the past are complaining how piracy is hurting them when they get most of their money in contracts, not how many cds get sold. The sales of CDs is just an ego feeder.
I understand where your anger towards the music industry comes from. I mostly listen to streaming internet radio via Winamp. When I do get music I'll buy the songs individually off of Amazon for under a dollar per song. They have no restrictions on them at all to the best of my knowledge.
I doubt it. What they likely have to do is plan for downloadable content ahead of time and be sure to leave a nice amount of empty room on the card. This shouldn't be a problem since many games don't fill the cards as it is. Or perhaps they could use the GBA slot and have some kind of data storage device. There are a lot of options. I doubt it will be unlock codes, though I guess it is possible.
Yes, I remember that, but what we're unsure of is if it will be used for things that are actually cool. Like if they will used for more than books, comics, movies, and music which is all the initial announcement discusses to the best of my knowledge. If that is all they have to offer, I don't see how that would compete with the R4 at all. I would have no interest in it if it doesn't do other things like games...
@Mxyzptlk:
I believe they only said they were tossing the idea around before launch but it was confirmed when the surprise launch of the Everybody's Nintendo Channel occurred. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't remember a guarantee from Nintendo before launch.
The demos idea would be great, and I do hope they implement things like books, comics, maybe even a newspaper updated via wifi. I guess we'll see.
I think the prices are very reasonably for the quality, Nintendo developed games. However the Square games for $39.99 are a bit much in my opinion.
@DynamicSheep:
I've NEVER heard that, I guess because I have no interest in Picross, but usually I heard about that stuff anyway. Do you know how it works? I heard you can only store a limited amount, so does it use spare room on the card? Does it use the very small memory left over on the DS itself? Any info would be great.
But I still find this good news because I think Professor Layton's downloadable content will be much more complex than something such as Picross, which is good news all around. I'd say this is still pretty damn new though even if only one (somewhat simplistic) game has implemented it. Also the article mentioned full games which I don't think we had heard before.
That being said, I'm pretty sure the hardware that allows you to do this is called the DS Vision and I'm looking forward to it.