Nintendo DS - New design, name, logo unveiled
Nintendo pulls the wraps off the final name and design, introducing "a slimmer, sharper look". Check inside for all the details and images available.


Nintendo has unveiled a new look for the Nintendo DS handheld console, first demonstrated at E3 in prototype form, and finalised the product name. The console is still on track for release in North America and Japan late this year, and Europe in Q1 2005.
In a release issued early this morning, the company wrote: "Nintendo DS, originally chosen as the code name, has been selected as the official product name. The Nintendo DS name evokes the idea of a portable system with dual screens, providing the rationale for the final name."
The new design, which you can see on this page, and find more images of here, is the result of Nintendo's search for "a slimmer, sharper look", and one more in tune with an older audience, we'd hasten to add. It's certainly more akin to the PSP than it is to the unit we saw at E3.
The DS now sports a thinner, black base and angular platinum flip-top cover, with larger face and shoulder buttons than the E3 unit, some of which have been "reconfigured for optimum use". The unit also gains a storage slot for the stylus, which was missing from the E3 unit, and we're told that the speakers now broadcast in stereo, with or without headphones.
Earlier this month, Japanese retail sources reported by GamesIndustry.biz claimed that the system would be out in Japan on November 4th priced around €140, following in the US a week later on the 11th for the equivalent of €145. The same sources projected five or six launch titles.
Nintendo has yet to announce a date or pricing for the system's launch later this year, but is expected to do so in due course. As for the launch line-up, all we know for certain is that "more than 120 Nintendo DS games [are] in development" with more than 100 companies signed up, and that "Nintendo alone is developing more than 20 titles." For more specifics, feel free to consult the list Nintendo handed out at E3.
You can also read what we thought of the DS when we first saw it, what we made of the initial line-up, and how we felt when we actually played them elsewhere on the site.
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Comments (66) Latest comment 8 years ago
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That said, the new look is definitely an improvement, but it still isn't a patch on the PSP design. I just don't understand why they couldn't have said at E3 that that wasn't how the finished unit would look. Looks like a knee-jerk reaction to all the negative comments about the original design...
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Well, to be fair to old Reg, Nintendo did point out it was a prototype at the time. If you'd taken enough names, you wouldn't be chewing bubblegum right now.
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I still can't get over Sony's promotional pictures of the PSP, showing all the hip young kids carrying it around their necks. Is that going to happen? Oh yes, of course. Tch.
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If it lasts longer than 20 minutes on a single charge, I may even be tempted over the psp. I don't want to watch movies on a handheld anyway.
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I'm waiting for the GBA-2, which insiders tell me will look like a Sinclair Spectrum.
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SONY, you have been forced to low the price.
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I want one now
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I suppose it was always possible they'd stick with the name 'DS' as it didn't really sound like a prototype (like the Dolphin, or Project Reality).
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I hope that means that the chat functions are intergrated into the unit, so you can use them whenever you want, and don't have to buy the chat software, as that would make the chat functions a lot more attractive.
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What about the games? Who cares what it looks like? It could look like a pre-packed sandwich for all I care. Y'know - like the N-Gage.
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The DS is innovative enough and in the right price range to get a lot of people very interested. That and it's backwards compatible. I can see the DS ecclipsing the PSP in sheer shifted units before too long.
It's the perfect christmas present, and one your granny could afford.
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Let's hope the games are too.
Not too sure about the placement of the [power] switch though.
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But I'm MUCH more interested in Animal Crossing DS.
/prays it's gonna be good.
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/agrees
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It's all well and good to say it's a prototype, but this guy held one up and said "This is the Nintendo DS". I've not seen anything about anyone at E3 reinforcing that the design was subject to such significant change. We're not talking about a couple of buttons being moved here. It looks completely different. They may as well have held up an empty crisp packet with a couple of screens and a few buttons wired in. The new design is a long way removed from what everybody was shown before. I'm all for the design being evolved, I just think they could have been a bit more forward with that info at E3.
My real concern with the DS is that from the very beginning it has felt like a reaction to Sony annoucing the PSP. I seem to remember reading that the day Sony announced their intention to produce a handheld console, Nintendo stock fell 10%. Then Nintendo said they were going to announce something radically new, that was neither a follow on to the GameCube or the Gameboy. It turned out to be a handheld console with two screens and 3D graphics, which in reality is a pretty solid follow up to the Gameboy. (I know they're also developing a Gameboy 2, but I'm sure that will get shelved if the DS is a success - they won't want two handheld consoles diluting the market.) Finally they unveiled the DS at E3 this year, where it was somewhat overshadowed by the PSP. One of the main criticisms of the DS was the way it looked and felt. Here we are a couple of months later and a complete redesign now been shown.
I guess my major worry is that this is all being rushed so that Sony don't get the PSP out before them. It's understandable since handheld gaming is, at the moment, almost exclusively their domain, and must be their main source of revenue, but the GBA is pretty old technology now. Sony have announced a handheld console and it's spurred Nintendo into action, but it just all feels a bit improvised, and far too rushed.
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Anyone, please.
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1) PSP battery life
2) PSP cost
If Sony can't beat Nintendo or at least match them in these areas then I fear the PSP will never become mass market. The GameGear and Lynx were both cool if you owned them, but were are they now? Coolness isn't enough unfortunately.
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What he held up was the DS at the time he held it up. He wasn't going to hold it up and say this is the new pizza from pizza hut, because it wasn't it was the DS which is why he said that, simple see?
That was the DS then, this is the DS now, not hard to grasp surely? How you can say the man is a lier for holding up a DS and saying it was a DS has given me a headache as I really don't understand how stating that something is what it is is a lie?
And everyone (apart from you it seems) knew that it was a prototype, it didn't even have a slot for the stylus ffs and Nintendo made sure that everybody was told that it was a prototype, constantly.
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Rubbish. Hardware just doesn't drop out of Nintendo like that - the DS has been in development for years, and just because they didn't choose to announce it far too early (as Sony did with the PSP) don't think it's a rush job.
Right now, in fact, the people who look like they are struggling to get to market are Sony still. They had no real playable software at E3, and still haven't let anybody see a finished unit (the latest rumors are of changes to the screen). Nintendo announced the DS when they were ready to do so, Sony started talking PSP because if they hadn't they wouldn't have had anything else big to say that E3.
It's gonna be an interesting fight - the PSP has the edge on both looks and technology fronts, but the DS is gonna offer something totally new at a perfectly workable price point.
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I think the clam shell design works much better now and allows the unit to be thicker. I'm quite alarmed by the fact that, looking at the specs, the PSP is thicker than my laptop computer and it's not a flip-top...
Also the screen-scratching issue is nicely solved in the DS.
The DS design is so 90s, though
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hells yeah. i won't even consider a mobile phone that isn't flip-top. and i don't care how scratch resistant sony say it is, it'll getted messed up just like everything else that goes in my pockets.
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If so then I shall be pre-ordering mine from Lik-Sang/Wherever forthwith!
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/dodges stray flying coffee cup
DS at E3 was prototype. Everyone knew it was a prototype. Nintendo got their act together and showed off the main DS hardware and some of the software, and I think perhaps - for a prototype, at least - the look only half matters (Although I didn't mind it at all!). Once you have a build, you can then go back to it and adjust it somewhat. Which they clearly have done.
Otherwise, I'm not surprised they stuck with Nintendo DS. That is how people know it, and they'd be foolish to change the name.
And ET, your friends may be getting excited but the question at the end of the day is: will they be able to AFFORD it? And when push comes to shove, will it be PSP and one game or DS and 3-4 games?
I'm still gonna keep an eye on PSP. AFter all, Sony may just be playing quiet and clever... but I'm questioning if that really is the smartest tactic right now...
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Well, it solves the problem of the screen getting scratched in your pocket, but it'll be hard to stop the screen getting scratched from the stylus as they are very good at picking up a minute grain of dirt at the end and scratching your screen with.
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I don't care which looks better or who makes it. If the PSP has more my kind of games (which it already does before even being released) then my money goes there.
Of course, thats providing I can afford it or else my money goes nowhere!
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The GBA is worth £90 for Wario-Ware alone
/normal
I have to say, I really think that flip-top is the best bet for this kind of thing. My GBA screen is a little scratched now (even with a protective case), but my SP is still tickety-boo. Sony's screen is going to have to be pretty good to resist the usual wear-and-tear you get.
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"And ET, your friends may be getting excited but the question at the end of the day is: will they be able to AFFORD it? And when push comes to shove, will it be PSP and one game or DS and 3-4 games? "
Actually thats 3-4 DS games and a HUGE back catalouge of GB/GBC/GBA games.
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The Ds looks much nicer in the looks and price dept so im going to just buy a Ds until the Psp comes down to a more real price.
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Surely it's obvious that wasn't the final model; it didn't even have the stylus holder included then.
There'd best be multiple colours, I want a pastel pink one like my GBA SP.
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The old DS looked very kindergardenish.
And Sony wont be low ing
Only issue on the comments here is 'i'm prob getting PSP provided teh price isnt too much.'
Im just not getting teh DS , no matter how cheap it is.
Also they guy holding out the DS and saying Here is the Nintendo DS and when completely changing it months later, means he was showing u the final version and it was being passed off as such. If you show ppl a product and then give them something else 2 months later doesnt inspire consumer confidence.
But SHOCK! it just HIT ME!
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NINTENDO IN CONSUMER FRIENDLY FEEDBACK SHOCKER!
Nintendo (poss for the 1st time in their history) are responding to public feed back, ie changing its look after the PSP wiped the floor at E3. It really did look like a dogs dinner.
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Penny Arcade posting a link to Eurogamer? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Should we panic?
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"The DS now sports a thinner, black base and angular platinum flip-top cover, with larger face and shoulder buttons than the E3 unit"
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Personally, I reckon the look is a bit retro for my tastes - 1970s Grundig radio school of design -and I am very dubious of the touch screen and the stylus bringing any real innovation, and that power switch is a big worry. But I'll wait until it hits the shops before making a decision.
But at the end of the day, Its The Games, Stupid. And that *is* still a worry, with Miyamoto still burying his head in the sand about making anything that doesn't involve kiddie kartoons. From todays Age newspaper...
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/28/1090 694015937.html
As usual, he has some good points, but with him being so narrow in his view of games, and being so influential at Ninty, that can't be good for the width and range of future Ninty games.
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OMG, don't just make revolutionary statements like that without forewarning, okay
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Unless the PSP does turn out to be a complete piece of shit of course, in which case I won't buy one, but the fact I've got an SP means I still won't buy a DS, even if the PSP is crap.
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i do hope ds does well though, as the game designs i've heard so far are amongst the most intruiging i've heard in a long while, but i fear for the little fella.
we here are all gamers and some of us fanboys, but the mass public aren't. game boy did astoundingly well at the time because of the whole, business-men, housewives, kids all buying it thing. gba on the other hand hasn't done as well when you look at the size of the games market now compared with the gb 10 years ago.
joe public, likes playstation, knows playstation, had a psone bought a ps2. "nintendo?! that's for kids. it's not cool. i'd look like a wierdo on the train, but not if i had a psp"
sony will win this one (although i reckon DS will do pretty well too). nintendo still have the new gameboy to fall back on though, if we think back to all the pre E3 hype. they're not replacing the gamboy brand just adding a new one... hmm... sceptical
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So did you actually see the press conference or not?
Shortyly after saying that it was Nintendo DS, he said
"The Nintendo DS will be released with a new name, and look, and will be available in Japan and North America by the end of this year, and in Europe by the beginning of next year!"
That seems to me like telling the truth!
"I think some people are missing a few points in the DS vs PSP debate, that being the depth of Sony's wallet compared to Nintendo's, and the fact that they manufacture their own hardware. Where Nintendo has to pay someone else to build every DS, Sony has their own hardware factories, so there is less "middle man" cost. Add to that the fact that Sony can afford to sell their hardware at a loss just to get it into the market to sell their games, and still have more money that Nintendo left over for advertising."
I think you're missing the fact that Sony, despite making their own console, still have to sell it for more than Nintendo and still make less proffit per system compared with Nintendo. So how in this situation, is Nintendo spending more money by not making it themselves, when they are already doing it and making more money?
"Look at what happened with the X-box vs. Gamecube in NA and EU. Microsoft had infinitely deep pockets to hype their system and sell it at a loss."
Yet again, the same issue. But to an even greater extent. It doesn't matter if Microsfot don't make any money out of it, it dfoes matter if Nintendo do, but Gamecube actually makes a proffit, Xbox doesn't.
"and you could have a recipe for someone finally defeating Nintendo in the hand held market"
And they said that about the Game Gear, the Lynx etc. etc. The thing Sony have that they didn't is more money, but I don't think Sony are as prepared to lose money as Micrsoft is. I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to practicality. Nintendo handhelds have never been the fanciest, or the most powerful, but they've always been the most practical, and that is a large factor in the handheld market believe it or not. The Game Gear was imprctical, the Lynx was imprctical, and I'm sorry to say, but the PSP looks impractical too. Too expensive, too fancy, limited to only Sony's media... I can't see people wanting to buy movies for their PSP too often, especially when the PSP is the only thing that'll play them.
The DS has my support all the way, and with the new updated look, I can't wait!
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PSP is cool too, but the high dev cost means that we're likely to see either simple games or ports of existing titles but with a few extra levels (just so the publisher can give it a new game).
Oh, and think the PSP'll have that awesome screen that the protoypes did and that all the pundits raved about? Unless the PSP launches at around £500, in your dreams...
Hutt out
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I think we've heard this argument several times over. It's never happened. On past performance alone, I'm sure Sony KNOW they are the underdogs in this battle, and I'm sure Sony know that with Nintendo pretty much being THE name in handheld consoles, that they will be fighting an uphill battle to gain a foothold.
And thats before we get into the fact that DS will be cheaper (and still make a profit per system apparantly) and that there are more games in development for DS right now.
Sony do theoretically have the money and advertising power to pull it off. But then, so did Nokia...
I do think both PSP and DS could share the market though, being two very different systems. I just have that feeling that the DS might have the upper hand in terms of their actually pretty good record in the handheld market...
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...as, obviously you'll be able to buy an add on for the gamecube so you can slip in one of those widely used DS carts and see one of the screens on tv!?
besides i think the idea of umd's is that it will be universal, like minidisc etc with other manufacturers using it for other purposes (e.g. standalone psp movie players, in car roadmap things etc) only this time it might take off properly.
and let's not forget the memory stick support. how long before someone manages to get divx and xvid movies playing on psp using on one of those?...
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.... mario talk? metroid translator? zelda communicator?
the psp has one too mind, and that universal translator software too. it's all getting very sci-fi...
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DS may originally have been intended to grab 10% of the market, but I think most of us know that 10% would be the absolute worst-case scenario for it...
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Both look interesting but like all hardware - its down to the software!
PSP will be PS2 ports DS probably more innovation but maybe not maybe something a 26 year old might buy
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Have you ever owned a PDA?
I have a Palm Zire 71 and it is probably the most expensive thing I own. I take good care of it. However, if I didn't have a screen protector stuck on the screen I dread to think what it might look like. As it is my screen protector is getting pretty bad. This is mainly from just tapping on things, not the extensive movements accross the screen that DS games would demand (like Wario Ware)
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Rather than trying to make the PSP an all-in-one entertainment unit, if Sony would have focused on quality software and a cheaper price, it would have won. But now, with the DS, people will finally see through Sony. I also agree with the fact that the handheld market will now be biiger than ever, and will really take off in the UK. In 2-3 years, it will be as competitive as the console market, and I'm sure Microsoft (as well as other companies) will look into entering it.