Nintendo confirms DS wireless downloads, more
Nintendo DS benefits from wireless download functionality - for single-cartridge multiplayer and game demos - and it'll talk to Pokémon films from your pocket.
Having witnessed the lid blown on its bubbling saucepan of Nintendo DS announcements yesterday afternoon, Nintendo has subsequently confirmed the reports - with president Satoru Iwata telling the press about the wireless download "Game Sharing" functionality, downloadable demos, and plans for Pokémon movie integration.
"The DS's wireless connection isn't just a substitute for the link cable that was used on the Game Boy [for multiplayer games]. The DS has wireless download capability, which allows it to receive a program and to execute it. With it, people can play games together using only one cartridge," Iwata explained. Super Mario 64 DS, for example, will support four players simultaneously on one cartridge using this wireless download model.
Iwata then went on to discuss demo versions of DS games. "Although this won't be available at launch," he cautioned, "we're thinking of using the wireless download function to change the way in which people try out upcoming games at retail outlets. We're thinking of a system where people can download a demo program, with a time or a usage limit, to their own DS. We hope that this system will allow new potential hits to be recognised by everyone, and that it will help to buck the trend where only sequels are hitting the sales charts."
The Nintendo president further went on to detail possible movie integration, news of which also seeped out in yesterday's leak. He also seemed to be in tune with what former president Hiroshi Yamauchi said recently about Nintendo moving towards films in addition to games. "We are absolutely considering the idea [of going into the movie business]," he said. "Although we don't have anything to talk about right now, we hope to make an announcement by the end of the year."
"On a related subject, we're planning to integrate the DS with movie theatres. By using the system's wireless functionality, users that bring their DS and GBA Pokémon cartridge to designated theatres will be able to download game data that will be distributed during certain scenes of the next Pokémon movie. In one scene where the main characters meet a new Pokémon, that character's data will be sent to the cartridges. This will be the first time such a distribution scheme has been used anywhere in the world."