Who Thought the DS Was Gonna Fail?

[JohnCrichton]

Everytime I take up my sleek magic dual screen handheld I play in awe. I haven't had this much fun since my Dreamcast and it comes by the boatload.

What I can't get over is what a complete 180 my feelings on the system have done. When I first heard about it, it made me sad... I thought this was Nintendo's way of banging yet another nail in its coffin.

I thought the gimmicky crapness of a "ooo! another screen and I can touch it!" was embarassing for the company.

And low and behold... it prints money and has me gaming on a daily basis.

Who saw this coming and who thought that the DS was spelling the end for Nintendo?

[Eidan]

I still think the DS is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until non-games like Nintendogs and Brain Training saved it.

[Pacman729]

I didn't see the Nintendo DS failing. Nintendo is, after all, the 'King' of Handheld Gaming. So, I'm not surprize at the Nintendo DS, not failing.

[Zeonic Freak]

I wanted a PSP for a year and got one christmas of 05', and yet i would tell everyone to get a PSP when i was working Toys R US that christmas beacuse i was like "thats stupid, why do you wanna touch a screen to play a game, and write notes, thats crap. The PSP can let you on the internet and you can play music as the DS cannot". Well, after a month of having the PSP, i realized that, i got the wrong deal... and over time it seemed the DS was getting more attractive to me by the day...

Then i asked and got a DS for christmas, and while i play my games on the DS 99% more, i use my PSP as a media player for movies, looking at comics, and a portable MP3 player, as it was designed to be.

But, im usually good at getting good games and systems 90 precent of the time... ive got an eye for that and always have...

[Shawn Hopkins]

I didn't think it would completely fail. I didn't think it would become so popular it would kill the Gameboy, though.

[Sigma]

Nintendo is the one company I will always have faith in. They may blunder at times, but they constantly deliver some of the best gaming experiences each generation and they are unrivaled in the handheld business.

I was very excited for the DS when it was first announced and im still very excited about it's future. Nintendo has found the sweet spot gamers everywhere have been clamoring for with the innovative touch screen and the Wii's motion sensing gameplay.

This generation could very well be the comeback that long-time Nintendo fans such as myself have been waiting for. The Wii is quickly garning NES like popularity and the DS is an unstopable handheld juggernaut.

[Chad Bonin]

I didn't see the DS failing, but I also didn't see the "Three Column" plan failing... which it did.

Innovation and gameplay always wins over graphics.

[.Automatisch]

I always knew it would be successful... That doesn't mean I liked it, but I still bought one at launch to at least try it... I didn't start to REALLY enjoy it until Castlevania came out, and the DS started getting AAA games. I still don't care for the touch screen, but I've always liked the idea of 2 screens. And the fact that it plays GBA games is fine with me, since I own about 30 titles for it. Anyone who didn't think a Nintendo handheld would come out on top is just not logical in their thinking.

[Yash]

I didn't think the DS was a bad concept, but I did think that the PSP would win on the merit that... Well, it was a supercharged GBA, who wasn't excited? But then after a mediocre first year, it started to show its true potential, and now, my DS lite sits right next to me.


I still think the DS is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until non-games like Nintendogs and Brain Training saved it.
I hate this school of thinking. You could apply this mindset to virtually any extraordinarily successful video game systems:

I still think the PS2 is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until games like Final Fantasy X and Grand Theft Auto III saved it.

I still think the PS1 is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid saved it.

I still think the Gameboy is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until games like Super Mario Land and Tetris saved it.

Of course, I don't believe this about any of those systems. Either you have no grasp on how the industry operates, or you're just a blind fanboy.

[Noukon]

While I did expect it to succeed, its runaway success (especially with such potentially strong competition) still kind of baffles me. I honestly think it has as much to do with how much Sony fumbled with the PSP as it has to do with the now-AAA library.

[Mog]

I didn't think it would faily, but I did not forsee the "It prints" money" thing happening. I was under the notion that the PSP would eventually win out due to better games, but the complete opposite happened with the DS getting all the must-have titles and the PSP getting a mediocre first year.

Just goes to show you that games/gameplay > Technology. Hell, the PC market would have won out years ago if that weren't true.

[Matthew Williams]

Yeah. I thought it was gonna fail. Underpowered compared to the PSP, and the two screens/one you can touch thing looked like the most annoying gimmick ever. So I avoided it, and bought the PSP when it came out.

A funny thing happened, though. PSP's library was horrible - overpriced, warmed-over ports of PS2 games. Basically, during that first year, it became a portable DVD player. And I have an actual portable DVD player. Looking at it now, there are three, MAYBE four games I'd get for it - the Mega Man remakes and the Castlevania PSP.

So when I needed to grab a new Xbox (the old drive went), I traded it in. That Christmas, I got a DS - and haven't looked back. My only disappointment is that there are so many games I wanna get and so little money... or time... (I STILL haven't gotten Metroid Prime Hunters... or the new Castlevania... or Yoshi's Island DS...)

[Lord Dalek]

I played it safe for about a year to see which handheld would pull ahead.

But... the desire to be the first guy on campus with a DS Lite (I was also the first guy in high school with a GBA) was too much.

[TheMecca]

I don't think anybody really thought the DS was going to fail, but they sure made it look like it was.

[Leviathan]

Nintendo's practically assumed a monoploy in the handheld gaming biz for over a decade. That plus Nintendo's name recognition, it's wealth of game properites (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, et al.), and the fact that all of the good 3rd party games would be for the DS ensured it's success.

That having been said, I really think Nintendo's position on the DS being a "third pillar" was unadulterated nonsense.


Innovation and gameplay always wins over graphics.

Uhhhhh.... Donkey Kong Country

[Dogbert]

Gee, no poll options for fence-sitters. I never thought it would be as successful as it is, but I also never thought it would be the end of Nintendo. I was unsure, so I waited a bit to see if I'd like the games coming out for it. Less than a year after it came out, I happily bought one.


I didn't see the DS failing, but I also didn't see the "Three Column" plan failing... which it did.I always kind of felt like that was just an excuse in interviews for putting out another handheld so soon. They knew full well it was really the next Game Boy. But, they wanted an out if it didn't do as well as the GBA. The GBA sales never declined much until the games stopped coming out for it. As soon as the DS was better than the GBA in terms of sales, the whole third pillar thing was ditched.

[Kurokawa41]

I expected it to do well off the bat.

[Mynd Hed]

I always kind of felt like that was just an excuse in interviews for putting out another handheld so soon. They knew full well it was really the next Game Boy. But, they wanted an out if it didn't do as well as the GBA. The GBA sales never declined much until the games stopped coming out for it. As soon as the DS was better than the GBA in terms of sales, the whole third pillar thing was ditched.

Yeah, it would've been really interesting to see Nintendo try to whip up a GBA2 on the quick to compete with the PSP on its own terms if the DS hadn't taken off... especially since they've shown no signs that such a thing was ever really in the cards. (Of course, I suppose it's conceivable that they're quietly developing such a thing as we speak, but are keeping it quiet because they don't want to sabotage the DS' strong sales.)

But yeah, I've got to say I expected a closer race between the DS and PSP. You can talk all you want about how games trump graphics every time, but the truth is that graphics are important, too.
Of course, in hindsight I can see that the seeds of the PSP's later problems were planted early; console-like graphics encourage lazy developers to try and cram console games onto a portable, but the lack of a second analog nub (and the fact that the one that's there can't compare to a full analog stick anyway) makes it impossible for them to PLAY like console games.
The UMD movie format was silly from the start, and the relatively high prices of memory sticks make it a subpar music and video player compared to hard drive based players. But even given all that, at the time I was convinced that the Playstation name and the "bling factor" would keep it neck and neck with the DS, if not beating it by a small but significant margin.

But back to the DS, when I first heard about having two screens, I thought it sounded pretty lame; why bother with two screens instead of just making the one screen twice as big? And at the time, Nintendo's stated goal of making it more of a PDA than a gaming machine was so dumb that they promptly forgot about it as soon as the system was out. But the touch screen intrigued me from the start, so I had a feeling that if nothing else, Nintendo was bound to get some great first-party games to market that used it to good advantage. (I wasn't so sure about whether it would catch on with third-parties.)

Count me in as a fence-sitter, I guess. (-:

[Obi]

I thought the PSP would win the war, but that it would be fairly close. I never bought a PSP, since I didn't like it in the first place, and I got a DS for Christmas 2004, which I had wanted purely because I liked its potential.

Looks like I made the right choice.

[JohnCrichton]

I'm surprised that not more people though this spelled the end. From what I saw Nintendo had a gimmick and Sony had the power.

I didn't even think the race would be a close one and that the DS would pout in the corner with embarassing games and uninspired graphics.

Oh me of little faith... :anime:

[Marvin Tikvah]

I was sitting on the fence as well. I didn't think it marked the end of Nintendo, nor did I imagine it would overtake both the PSP AND the GBA. I did get it two months after launch, but the truly great games didn't come until late 2005.

[Demonic Raven]

Kind of like Wii, it was a huge risk for Nintendo to put all their faith on something that's never been done before. It was either going to tank horribly or do awesome depending on if it's unique elements truly caught on or not. PSP was the "safe bet" by sticking to what the normal Playstations have been doing except portable. So that boiled down to a 50/50 shot going into this handheld race.

I always put my faith in Nintendo, so I was hoping the DS would catch on and it did. The first year wasn't anything special, but when the DS really started heating up with Nintendogs and the other awesome games of that time, I knew by then the DS was an unstoppable...money printing machine. Oh, and the PSP wasn't such a safe bet after all since it's base element (a Playstation console except portable) actualy worked against it.

[Dogasu]

I think the whole "third pillar" business was just Nintendo playing it safe. They knew that the DS was a strange device that would meet with some resistance, so they didn't want to go into it assuming that they would come out on top. So, instead of billing the DS as the Game Boy's successor, they touted it as being part of a third pillar. That way, if the system flopped (the way the Virtual Boy did), they'd still have the Game Boy line to fall back on.

[danreyes1]

I was initially skeptical, I must admit (and that's alot coming from a complete Nintendophile like me). But once I actually tried one out I was assured that it'de be the great success that it is.

[PC!]

I figured the DS would definitely be a good compliment to the Game Boy line, but I never imagined it would replace it completely. Kudos to Nintendo for going above and beyond everyone's expectations.

[Mr. Pedro]

Most of the testimony in regards to the DS (within the circles of folks I'm around at least) begins with skepticism and dismissal, due to the dual-screen setup, which was often perceived as little more than a gimmick that would burn out as quickly as it began. I too had my misgivings about such a handheld, but then it soon boiled down to 4 words:

-"It's the games, stupid."

And was it ever. After an intial rocky (and somewhat sparse) set of launch titles, the quanity and quality of DS games simply jumped. Not to mention that the DS itself fufilled the #1 requirement I need to have before I plunk down the scratch for any gaming platform: "Will this platform consistently provide me with titles that I will be interested in playing?"

Aside from some of the innovations that it provides, the DS also seemed to provide a basis for a revival of sorts for certain genres of games like 2-D platformers (Castlevania, New SMB) and point & click adventure titles (Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk). At this point, I spent more time with my DS over any other console/system I currently own.

[Eidan]

I hate this school of thinking. You could apply this mindset to virtually any extraordinarily successful video game systems:Difference is, you listed a bunch of games that could actually be considered GOOD. The DS became a success off the back of non-games, a movement that is very popular in Japan, but one I consider to be utter...utter garbage.

[Eddy]

I love the DS and I never thought it was going to fail. But I didn't see it destroying the PSP the way it did and become this huge of a success.

And FYI, there are plenty of good "real" games for the DS. Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, Tetris DS, Sonic Rush, Animal Crossing, Kirby Canvas Curse, Yoshi's Island DS, Phoenix Wright to name a few.

[peacebyanymeans]

Difference is, you listed a bunch of games that could actually be considered GOOD. The DS became a success off the back of non-games, a movement that is very popular in Japan, but one I consider to be utter...utter garbage.

That's all opinion. I happen to like both of those games. See how this works?
I like something, but that doesn't mean it's good. And you don't like it, but that doesn't make it bad. Stop mixing it with fact.

---

On topic, I did not see the DS becoming what it is now. I bought one for my birthday, back in February 2005 (Holy crap! Tomorrow will be the 2 year anv. of me having a DS of some kind!).

Kinda hard to think it's been over two years.

[Yash]

Difference is, you listed a bunch of games that could actually be considered GOOD. The DS became a success off the back of non-games, a movement that is very popular in Japan, but one I consider to be utter...utter garbage.
That's funny because if these games sell, obviously people think they're good.

It's not as if Nintendo relies entirely on "non-games" (which is a stupid term anyway), even if it is a key part of their strategy. New Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy III, and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl were both extraordinary successes, and Dragon Quest IX and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass are bound to push many systems. Then there's Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing: Wild World, which have paved a path for online games. Furthermore, the whole point of "non-games" is to get people who aren't normally gamers into video games, which in turn could open them up to games like Mario and Zelda and Dragon Quest.

[Bubblegum Girl]

Before I got the DS, I thought it would be hard to handle(Since I have one hand holding it and the other uses the stylus) but I didn't think it would flop.

[TheMecca]

I still think the DS is fairly lame, and still remember how it didn't become a phenomena until non-games like Nintendogs and Brain Training saved it.
Funny, but looking back at this post, I could have sworn Nintendogs was a game wherein you had a dog and played with it, in the same vein as The Sims can be a game, and you had fun.
Brain Age is the "non-game" DS title I can think of off the top of my head.

[straw_hat]

I really didn't have an opinion of the DS when it first came out. I just didn't have any interest in getting one anytime soon until I saw the Black DS Lite and then I knew I had to get one.

[Undrave]

I knew it was gonna rock the house from the begining. I TRIED to trust Nintendo when they were talking 'Third Pillar' thing...but when the GBA returned to 'generic liscence game land' I knew it was all A LIE! A LIE I TELL YA!

And to me, online console gaming is just as much of a GIMMICK than the touch screen or the wiimote.

[qwerty1198]

When I first saw it, I admitt I thought it looked REALLY STUPID, and it was for a while. I would of liked it better if it didn't have the gimmiky touch screen thing. And also, while im at it, what is so bad about pixel graphics!?!? Why does everything have to be in 3d?! One of my favorite games is Metroid: Zero Mission, partially because of the beautiful sprite!

[Eidan]

That's funny because if these games sell, obviously people think they're good.

Yes. And obviously anything that sells millions must be great, isn't that right Enter the Matrix?

I know it's my opinion, but the wave of non-games that started with the DS simply don't appeal to me, and when I think of the system, I think of it as a non-game system. Outside of those, the system consists of tired Nintendo franchises, and games that I would've never played on Gameboy (exactly how many portable Castlevania's are we at now?).

[Dudley]

I didn't know what to think. That's why I waited a year to buy it. I did know that it would eventually take out the GBA.

[Dr. Anime]

When the DS came out I didn't know what to think of it. But I still bought it and I still play/enjoy it to this day.

[JohnCrichton]

Yes. And obviously anything that sells millions must be great, isn't that right Enter the Matrix?

I know it's my opinion, but the wave of non-games that started with the DS simply don't appeal to me, and when I think of the system, I think of it as a non-game system. Outside of those, the system consists of tired Nintendo franchises, and games that I would've never played on Gameboy (exactly how many portable Castlevania's are we at now?).

That's very weird, man... DS has the best library of varied games and counting in my opinion. I've never bought so many games I consider to be AAA in such a short amount of time. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Phoenix Wright, Lunar Knights, Hotel Dusk, Elite Beat Agents, Final Fantasy III and we got Final Fantasy XII and Zelda and Pokemon coming down the pipe.

The "non-games" are preatty neat and provide good entertainment for quick pick up and play and folk who aren't down with the usual kind of gaming.

Life's pretty good for the DS fan. What I thought would be Nintendo's greatest embarassment and failure has become my all time favorite console.

[Mynd Hed]

What I thought would be Nintendo's greatest embarassment and failure has become my all time favorite console.

Wow, you really thought it would be worse than Virtual Boy? I knew some people were skeptical back then, but DAMN. (-:

[Kurokawa41]

Psh, Nintendo has always ruled the handheld market and the only people who actually buy PSPs are "gangsta" kids who want to play their war game remakes and Grand Theft Auto spinoffs while they're on the go. I've only seen like 3 games on the PSP that actually look good.

[JohnCrichton]

Yup... Game Boy was king of handhelds and then the PSP was coming and bringing console graphics to boot.

I thought Game Boy with gimmick screen and busted up N64 graphics was going to be the saddest thing to hit video games and Nintendo's final groan before they got stuffed into the corner of the video game market for the kids that still enjoy Game Boy.

Where Sony's PSP was touting mad graphics, movies, MP3 and internetz stuffnjunk; Nintendo was saying they had a touch screen.. and double the screens!

I said a final prayer for them because I knew they would be out come this new game cycle.

And low and behold..... I couldn't have been more wrong. I remember my favorite podcast of the time, GamingSteve.Com... the guy who seemed to know more about the video game's industry than anyone else was also haning his head in shame of the Nintendo DS Gimmick.

I've said it several times this thread, but yeah... I'm slack jawwed at how wrong I and a lot of people were. Everytime I see the Japanese sales figures.... it's just incredible.

And yeah... I had similar slapping my forehead at the coming of the Wii. Everything about it down to the name sounded horribly moronic.... until we got to see the thing in action. Now it's printing money. :D

[Ben]

I used to hate the idea of a console for playing anything except DDR. The vast majority of them are just deliberately crippled PCs with fewer controller buttons. But the DS has made me see the light. I simply cannot stop playing it.


Difference is, you listed a bunch of games that could actually be considered GOOD. The DS became a success off the back of non-games, a movement that is very popular in Japan, but one I consider to be utter...utter garbage.

Why? Because it's creative? Well, yes, I can see how we'd have to do away with that.

Oh, and you forgot the option for: "I didn't really care." :p

[Sage Shinigami]

And to me, online console gaming is just as much of a GIMMICK than the touch screen or the wiimote.

A much more successful and fun "gimmick" however. Strange world you live in, my friend.

I never thought the DS was going to fail. I said before it came out that I thought Nintendo used some form of magic to keep their handhelds selling like hotcakes and that anyone that got in their way would be crushed. And sure enough, I was dead-on. I don't even know anyone with a PSP that plays GAMES on it. They watch movies, play songs, look at pictures, but play games? I'm not even sure if they remember that's one of the things it was supposed to do.

Unlike the rest of the internet though, I *am* convinced that people will eventually tire of the Wii unless it gets some serious new, "killer app", non-gimmicky games.

[RomanMack]

It's not like the DS got "killer apps" this early, either. Give it time.

[Ben]

Unlike the rest of the internet though, I *am* convinced that people will eventually tire of the Wii unless it gets some serious new, "killer app", non-gimmicky games.

I'm buying a Wii the split second DDR with hand-waving (http://wii.ign.com/articles/760/760878p1.html) comes out. But not before.

[Undrave]

A much more successful and fun "gimmick" however. Strange world you live in, my friend.

I never thought the DS was going to fail. I said before it came out that I thought Nintendo used some form of magic to keep their handhelds selling like hotcakes and that anyone that got in their way would be crushed. And sure enough, I was dead-on. I don't even know anyone with a PSP that plays GAMES on it. They watch movies, play songs, look at pictures, but play games? I'm not even sure if they remember that's one of the things it was supposed to do.

Unlike the rest of the internet though, I *am* convinced that people will eventually tire of the Wii unless it gets some serious new, "killer app", non-gimmicky games.

What I meant by that comment is I don't see how the touch screen and wiimote 'gimmicks' should be considered a negative thing. It's a different way of playing, the same way online console gaming was different from normal console gaming when it came out(though to me it blurrs the line between PC and consoles a bit too much). Just because the marketing people at Nintendo use it as the focal point of their campaign doesn't mean we should look down on it.

For the record I don't personally find online gaming that fun. Especially not when you got 13 years old insult your mother and everybody else in your family three generation prior to you and swearing in your headset all the time. Beside the games that are played online are never ones that interest me.

[JohnCrichton]

C'mon now.. I find it hard to believe I was in such the minority in thinking the DS was gonna bomb. I remember the entire internet slapping their forehead when they heard about it and saying it was just a gimmick system 'til they were ready to unveil their next Game Boy.

As for the Wii, sales alone assure that the killer apps will be coming and developers will be flocking to it because of its innovative controls, install base and how much profit they'll make from not having to spend a fortune in making the games.

Word around the campfire... [the killer apps are on their way.] (http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2007/02/25/ign-matt-you-guys-have-no-idea/)

[tb4000]

When you can get a bunch of black dudes that strictly play sports games(meaning my friends and cousins) to actively play Elite Beat Agents and have fun doing it, you know you got something.

[sdp]

I couldn't wait for the next GB, i thought, finally portable 64 games since the GBA was portable SNES games. When they announced the two screens I didn't know how to feel but i thought Nintendo must have found something cool, the mock ups IGN did seemed pretty cool too.

When they showed it at E3 I had mixed feelings, I felt underwhelmed and not as cool as i though it'd be. I thought the touchscreen was dumb and it'd make traditional games hard. annoying nothing else. I thought the PSP did everything correctly, it could do all kinds of stuff like the PS2, it looked sleek and sexy, the screen was very nice and it was near PS2 powerful!

I thought the price on the PSP was a very bad idea, however but when it launched i couldn't help but wanting to play my friends PSP, would have bought it if it hadn't been that expensive. I was still "meh" about the DS and thought 150$ was too much for a handheld but I almost bought it at launch since i got hyped about it, didn't think thered be a price drop and knew i'd find Nintendo games i'd love on it. but i ended up deciding not too(mostly since i had grown out of gaming by then).

However as months passed i saw what crap the PSP was getting and all the good stuff the DS was getting, the DSLite was sexy and i wanted one. I was going to wait for a Pokemon themed one but i couldn't wait anylonger and the white one matched my Wii nicely. Finding one was very hard but I finally found one and its my favorite new system, I play it more than my wii.