This week’s episode was delayed in publication thanks to real life intruding on the videogame podcast.
The week’s news items include:
All that and listener feedback.
Nintendo finally came out and announced the Nintendo DS redesign, called the DSi. This product will have an SD memory slot, a 3.25 inch screen (bigger than the last) and a 3 megapixel camera. The DSi is 12% smaller than the DS Lite and will have a matted gray and regular white finish; no colors upon launch it seems.
Conveniently the DSi has an SD slot for saving photos from the 3 megapixel camera so that you can transfer them to the Wii and use their Photo Channel. The Wii already has an SD card slot so now both devices can work together via the sneaker net.
The DS redesign looks much like the typical DS in looks and layout, a bit sad in my opinion. I was hoping for something a bit more “sexy” and awesome – the Apple way of doing things. Alas, nobody has a design team like Apple so we’ve got what we’ve got and that’s the DSi.
How did the alter the networking? They’ve created a store system much like that of the Wii and will be renaming Wii Points to Nintendo Points to show its more generic versitile nature to the new DSi hardware. You’ll be able to download games to an SD card making the portable device more acceptable to storage size increases, unlike the standard DS hardware.
Nintendo never really mentioned the MP3 concept, using the “audio” more for crazy reasons such as slowing down the speed or increasing it, which may suggest it as another tool for language learning tools.
Any takers? SD card slot is a nice addition and a little more integration with downloadable content would be well accepted by all communities and cultures.
Nintendo plans to capitalize on the monumental success of Wii Sports by doing what they do best, building a hot game with an accessory backing its success. The new Wii Sports Resort will be a mini-game set like Wii Sports and Wii Play but with a beach setting and games like frisbee.
Frisbee? How can the Wii motion controller handle a Frisbee toss? Wii Motion Plus of course! We believe they’ll be packing the game in with the Wii Motion Plus to add more value to the purchase. Honestly, this adds more value to the accessory as a driving force to make sales and increase margins. Game accessories are a great way for Nintendo to profit, consider the pack in game marketing material.
As Wii Play has shown us, historically, gamers want the accessory and the bundled game is just icing on the proverbial cake. Wii Play, as a game, was lacking in many ways and would be, as a stand alone product, a definite must-not-have title. But, considering the amount of Wii controllers sold, this allows Wii Play to show up high on best games sold month over month.
Wii Sports Resort takes this to a new level by using the term “Wii Sports” in the game, allowing the masses to flock to the store to get anything that can reproduce the fun of the original title. Nobody knows, yet, if it will reproduce the same fun factor but the accessory is neat.
(Thanks, joystiq)
This week’s episode is full of rumors, which the crew try to parse.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think as usual at the Facebook page.
