The DS just keeps on getting better and better. In case you haven’t heard, Nintendo announced last week at the D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) that the upcoming Metroid Prime: Hunters would feature voice chat via Nintendo’s Voice over IP (VoIP), using the DS’ built-in microphone. The only catch is that voice chat will only be allowed in the chat lobbies before and after gameplay, not during the actual match (this supposedly is to cut-down on the smack-talking that is so prevelant online).
Now Nintendo has taken it up a notch by announcing two new features for the DS. This took place on their DS Conference in Japan, of which you can view the movie here. First off, Nintendo will be releasing a cartridge-based online browser made by Opera Software, a company based out of Oslo, Norway. The browser will be based on Opera’s PC Internet browser, but take advantage of some of the DS’ integrated capabilities, including (obviously) the touch-screen. Browsing will take place on both screens, and an on-screen keypad and the stylus will control navigation and input. The DS’s two screens can be used to show off a single Web page, or the DS can scale down a site on one screen, and use the other to zoom in on a portion of the site.
Rather than using the D-pad and buttons to input text, DS owners can use the stylus to write on the DS’s touch panel, which features PDA-style handwriting recognition. The browser will also feature an on-screen keyboard. The browser will be released in Japan in June for the price of $32.
Then Nintendo went into completely unexpected territory by announcing a new peripheral that will allow you to watch TV on your DS! The product is tentatively named DS Chijouha Digital Housou Jushin Card (DS digital broadcast receiver card), and will be compliant with the new 1seg broadcast service, a digital signal designed for mobile devices, that will launch in Japan this April. 1seg broadcasts run in QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels).
The peripheral snaps into the cartridge slot of the DS and has an extendable antenna for better reception. The TV will be displayed on the upper screen, and the bottom screen will have buttons that can be touched to switch channels.
Nintendo then went on to tout the success of the DS by throwing out a flurry of numbers.
Iwata said that the DS has shipped 6 million units in Japan so far, and it reached the milestone in record time. He attributed his company’s success to what Nintendo calls the “Touch! Generation” games, the titles targeted towards general audiences rather than hardcore gamers. Games in the series include Nintendogs and Yawaraka Atama Juku (Big Brain Academy), which both attracted audiences from the non-gaming crowd.
Seven DS titles have already sold over a million units in Japan, an impressive feat for a console that’s only been on the market for a little over a year. More than half of them were Touch! Generation titles. Nintendogs (1.18 million units sold), Big Brain Academy (1.14 million), Brain Age (1.8 million), and Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Brain Age sequel, 1.54 million) all sold over a million units. The other games that sold over a million were Mario Kart DS (1.54 million), Animal Crossing: Wild World (2.17 million), and Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop (1 million).
Over the past three months, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service has received 900,000 unique users and over 22 million connections. Iwata said Nintendo’s goal is for all owners of the DS to try the Wi-Fi service at least once, and plans to increase the number of Wi-Fi station terminals located throughout stores in Japan from 800 to 1,000 units by spring. As a new addition to the Nintendo Wi-Fi station, the company plans to offer downloads of games that have been created during its student seminars.
Plenty of new titles were also revealed by Nintendo. This year the company will release a new version of its Rakubiki Jiten dictionary software, named Kanji Sonomama DS Rakubiki Jiten (Kanji as-it-is Easy Search Dictionary). This will be the second release in the series, and will allow users to search for Japanese Kanji phonetic symbols by simply drawing them on the touch panel, rather than having to go through the previous way of searching by stroke counts. The software features three dictionaries from Taishukan publishing, including Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese dictionaries, and has more words than its predecessor.
Another utility announced is DS Bimoji Training (DS Beautiful Letter Training). The software is essentially a tool that allows users to practice the clarity of their penmanship. The user writes on the bottom screen, while the top screen shows an example. The DS is held sideways when using the software, making it easier to view the example while trying to mimic it. DS Bimoji Training is currently in development and does not yet have a release date.
Taking the unusual Touch! Generation series in an even more non-traditional direction is Shaberu! DS Ryouri Navi (Talking DS Cooking Navigator). The utility is basically a talking cookbook. Chefs flip through the “pages” with voice commands, while the game talks back. The user can input what ingredients are on hand and select a dish that can be prepared, or pick a main ingredient (like beef or pork) and sort through a list of available options. No release period has been announced for Shaberu! DS Ryouri Navi.
Aside from Touch! Generations titles, Nintendo also covered a few games that will be released in the months to come. New Super Mario Bros. has now been announced for a May release in Japan, and Pokemon Diamond has been re-confirmed for release during the year. A number of third party games were also unveiled at the conference. Konami’s Winning Eleven Soccer series will soon make its debut on the DS, and will feature support for Nintendo Wi-Fi. Riding the success of the original, Bandai will release a sequel to the million-plus selling Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop. Also, Sega is bringing its popular Mushiking beetle battling game to the handheld, as well as Oshare Majo Love and Berry, a DS title targeted towards girls.
The press conference also gave attendees a chance to check out the DS Lite, which will be released on March 2 in Japan. With its new DS model, additional upcoming games, and new multimedia extensions, Nintendo has high hopes for its handheld.
“One of our mid-term goals [for the DS] is to reach 10 million units [sold] as early as possible,” said Iwata during his closing remarks. “The Game Boy Advance took 30 months to reach 10 million units, and the PlayStation 2 took 32 months. Both of them reached the milestone after two and a half years. But with the support of our wide range of DS customers, and with the help of software makers and distributors, our goal is to reach 10 million cumulative unit [sales] as soon as possible.”
Unfortuneatly, no announcements were made for these products outside of Japan. Although Nintendo will be bringing out the first US versions of it’s Brain Age series soon, so with some luck hopefully we’ll get some of these quirky but cool “Touch Generation!” titles stateside.