DS Redesign: What do you predict?

Posted on April 27, 2008 - Filed Under Editorials, Nintendo DS |

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There have been rumors of a new Nintendo DS redesign to help spark sales, dominate the market and invigorate the DS product line. Although the DS may have only declined slightly, with 2-million units less than the year prior, Nintendo has always kept up on product redesigns on an obvious schedule.

The pattern is simple, every two years Nintendo releases some slight design changes for their current hand-held system while every four years we see some new generation redesign arrive. Although Nintendo will not confirm a new redesign, it’s obvious to many that a design must be in R&D by now–what will it look like?

I’m sure many would love to see a product with the sexiness of an Ipod Touch: thin, scratch resistant and a bright clear screen. Unfortunately, the DS is marketed towards the entire family, would a thin product hold up against a five year old?

It’s almost assumed the screen will be bigger than the last generation and some folks believe the GBA port will be removed from the next design. If you compare the DS to the DS Lite you’ll notice the GBA port has become less of a feature and more of a novelty. The DS allowed a GBA game to be inserted and completely hidden from view while the smaller DS Lite doesn’t hold a GBA game so well, allowing it to stick out in an ugly fashion from the bottom of the unit.

If the design gets smaller still, with a larger screen, the chances of GBA support will be slim considering the thickness and relative “bulkiness” of the GBA game carts. Perhaps the games will be smaller than the DS game carts as well, which are already way too easy to lose (my daughter has managed to mis-place roughly five games somewhere around the house). Do we really need to hang onto the Game Boy Advanced games anyway?

My predictions or wishes in the next DS redesign:

Smaller Form Factor: Perhaps 25% size reduction of the DS size and half the thickness
Larger Dual Screen: Both screens with touch sensitivity, expanding interactive features
Auto-dimming Screens: Going to the DS ’setup’ screen to dim the screen is annoying
High Speed Wireless N: Staying up-to-date with wireless protocol speeds to keep system current for the next four years.
Longer Battery Life: New lower power chips should help reduce the overall power consumption. Nintendo is good at power reducing their hand-held devices to keep it competitive on a consumer level.
Faster Processor: Providing a hand-held mimicking the Game Cube in power would be impressive and highly desirable.
DS Compatibility: Playing ‘last generation’ DS games–very important to maintain consumer acceptance.

The most important feature is to be compatible with the current generation DS, which is why I predict only a 25% size reduction and half the thickness. This is a sacrifice worth taking because the DS audience is huge, they won’t buy a new system if they can’t play their back catalog of last generation games.

Shrinking the size of the games may or may not be a good idea. Perhaps keeping the same form factor for the game carts is desired by Nintendo and simply updating the density to something higher for more detailed “Game Cube” quality games. The main drive behind keeping the same form factor is the children… reducing the size again could make the product a swallowing hazard for young children increasing danger and potential lawsuits.

What are your ideas on a next generation DS redesign? What would they call it?

About Caption: Take a look at Nintendo’s old “Game & Watch” hand-helds…what hand-held device does it look like in todays market?

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