So we might have another new DS being released.
 

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6182879.html

Analyst: DS redesign already done
Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson says new version of Nintendo's portable complete; holiday release torrent creating retail woes.
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
Posted Nov 14, 2007 2:08 pm PT

Nintendo's DS Lite redesign has proved a tremendous success, regularly topping hardware sales charts around the world since it was first released in Japan in March 2006. Despite the system's success, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson believes Nintendo has already finished work on its successor.

"Our contacts indicate that a refreshed DS is complete," Wilson said today in his holiday preview investor's note. "It is thinner (it has no GBA port), has on-board storage, and larger screens.

Is this true? Probably. We all know how much Nintendo like redesigning their handhelds. Onboard storage sound pretty tight too, especially for the rumoured demo channel and playing VC games on your DS, if Nintendo ever let you do that.

No GBA port?:eek:

IMHO, backwards compatability really helped to shift these things. As a parent, the fact that existing games (especially the Pokemon titles) still work was a major selling point. Without that, my boys wouldn't have got one for at least another year.

Isn't the GBA port used for some of the peripherals too?

Yeah, the Rumble Pak, memory expansion for the browser, the Daigasso BB expansion and maybe a couple of other things. But seriously, I would forgo a GBA port if it had to go in order to allow onboard storage, be thinner and have larger screens. It's not like I don't have a GBA or an Old DS. But if they can squeeze in GBA support somehow then that would be great.

...Maybe this means that Nintendo are planning to let GBA games be legally downloadable via a VC-like service? That would be awesome.

I have been meaning to get a DS for a while, maybe I will hold off a little loner so I can get this. If they are taking off GBA support it could be for a VC like thing for playing games.

Also, why are pretty much all new hardware redesigns getting rid of backwards compatability?

Larger screens would be nice, but wouldn't it be more cost effective (for both Nintendo and us consumers) to manufacture a memory card adaptor that could slot into the GBA port?

There are probably a million technical reasons why not, but it seems reasonable to a luddite like me.

I'd buy it.

I always skip the second gen of Nintendo's remakes for the third. If this is true, I'll be happy to jump on this. Keeping my original DS for the GBA port and buying the newer DS for those larger screens/Longer Battery life.

Well, I was going to recommend just trading in the DS lite for DS lite-r and then picking up a GBA somewhere. I figured they'd be dirt cheap.

However, a quick search of Amazon reveals the impracticality of that plan. So if you can find one somewhere where they aren't being sold for $75, then that would probably work. Until then, however, I guess I'll be keeping the lite.

Well, if it is true it would certainly fit in with the rumoured demo channel on the Wii, if the DS and Wii are being made cross-compatible. Also onboard storage will allow for proper DLC for DS games, and to keep demos instead of them being deleted after the DS goes off, even though that might be unlikely since then developers would be screwing people out of DLC because they don't have this new DS.

So, this is the DS equivalent of GBA mini, only it'll have bigger screens instead? Cool.

So umm... am i the only one who doesn't know what you mean by VC?