N +

If Nintendo were to switch to pure digital distribution, with a service that worked nearly as well as the App Store, they might have a chance in the handheld market.

Right now, I can buy Peggle on the iPhone for $4.99 without leaving my house and have it on the system always. Alternatively, I can drive ten miles to Wal-Mart, spend $19.99 for Peggle on DS, and have to switch in the cart each time I want to play it.

Which one should I choose?

EXACTLY!!! That's why the iPhone (and the PSP Go, if it wasn't so ridiculously expensive) have such an edge to Nintendo's console, especially if you were 'left behind' and don't own a DSi.
Like it or not, digital distros are WAY CHEAPER for the developer/publisher, which translates to a smaller price tag. On the downside, you DO need a good Internet connection available to download titles, as well as a credit card...

The games themselves make a difference as well - right now there's only one or two good developers working on iPhone (ngmoco, Tapulous, etc.). With Nintendo, you get some great third party support (Renegade Kid, Majesco, Level-5, etc.) as well as excellent first party titles (Mario, Metroid, and Zelda). Until the quality of iPhone games can match the quality of DS games, it's really no contest. My fear is that that will happen sooner rather than later.

I've long since seen this coming because buying physical cartridges for games should be a thing of the past, especially on a mobile device. I don't see myself buying games for the DS anytime soon, and I've bought several for my iPhone since I've last bought games for my DS. Initially the iPhone/iPod Touch wasn't a viable competitor because the games out for it were complete crap, but games are getting more and more complex by the day for the device -- a lot of them by developers that never would have been given the light of day if they tried to develop anything on the DS or PSP. That's an important part of it. If some nobody off the street wanted to make a DS or PSP game they'd be up a creek.

The thing is that Apple's going to be doing incremental software and hardware updates to their devices. The best thing Nintendo could do in the meantime was to add a couple of cameras and somewhat of a download service, nothing hardware-wise to really improve the aging appearance of DS games except more built-in memory. Sony just made its handheld device uglier and more expensive, but with a working download service for games.

The sad thing is that Apple didn't make the iPhone as a gaming platform; it just worked out that way.

I would agree with Nintendo for not choosing a powerful graphics card, as battery technology is just not there to support it on handhelds. I wonder why batteries have not gotten much further than they were a few years ago, we see cpus and gpu getting much more powerful, yet batteries have not got much stronger in how long they can last

Problem is that CPUs and GPUs don't get as energy efficient as they should...besides, that shouldn't be an excuse... how about the Wii not even being capable of delivering 720p graphics? Even the orignal XBox could do that! And you don't need a battery to run the Wii
Truth is Nintendo made the choice of delivering innovative controls over powerful graphics, and it worked... 5 years ago. They need to upgrade, not just update the console with a camera and sleeker looks.

i will never buy a DSi.

CNet has another angle on this story...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10274079-37.html?tag=smallCarouselArea.1

I would have to agree with the author: iPhone is a great platform to develop for.

Originally posted by TriforceOfAnnoyingness:

i will never buy a DSi.

Are You sure??

I thought the same when the first Nintendo DS came. I thought it was too expensive and there weren't good games. Also, it was too big.

Then, good games like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Brain Age, The New Super Mario Bros., Mario Party DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Kirby Super Star, Yoshi's Island DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Trauma Center, Trace Memory and so much more!!

The problem was I hadn't enought money (here in Mexico it costs around 230 dollars!)

But I really wanted 3 games: Yoshi's Island, Kirby Super Star and Animal Crossing: Wild World. So I saved money and then DSi was announced. I had to save more and waited until April 5!! Now I'm very happy.

Yeah, but you didn't own a DS already... in my case (and I'm assuming in Triforce's, too) we ALREADY own a DS (either Phat or Lite...mine's an onyx-black lite ).

whats a ds phat also i wont buy a dsi because i play pokemon and my normal ds lite works perfectly fine

DS Phat is the nickname given to the original DS You know...because it's so fat hehehe

lol

wouldn't a better cpu and higher gpu raise the price fo a handheld

Yeah, that's one drawback... However, so does a second display and a touch screen It's all about compromise and finding the right balance.

Well i got both a first generation iPod Touch & a worn out DS lite (soon to be replaced by another lite) .
I have a few games on my iPod that i play while the only thing as my parents have touches as well meaning that there only a few games on there that i would have gotten myself compaired .
As compaired to the DS .
while i know that the iPod Touch/iPhone more powerful than the DS as via the iPod/iPhone having roughly 400-600MHZ between the models roghly as compaired the the 67MHZ & 33MHZ thats in the three DS models .

so the iPod/iPhone is more powerful .

The only reason that i get more games for my iPod than my DS is because my folks get a say on what games to get as compaired so obviously i accept them being installed to at least try out so if it wasnt for them my DS libary would be the fastes growing im my house .