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Nintendo DS Successor Already Being Developed For?
Details have surfaced from GDC at San Francisco, CA pointing to a potential release this year of Nintendo’s DS follow-up. This isn’t a new iteration of existing DS tech, either. The report mentions dual screens being used as one, an accelerometer, and development kits comparable to the GameCube.
Raymond Padilla questioned anonymous developers that claimed to be working on the “DS2” (no official name was revealed). Allegedly, the system will also have two screens even larger than the DS, but the gap between them will be so narrow that games will utilize both to display one big picture. We'd like to see a DS where the "other" screen can be used for something other than a map, so this is a good start.
The development kit is said to be comparable in power to the GameCube. Game creators who are familiar with the GameCube or Wii will be right at home crafting games for the new handheld. Developers busy working on games said there isn’t much of a learning curve.
Additionally, an accelerometer is said to be incorporated into the handheld. If you’ve toyed around with pretty much any smart phone, you’re familiar with the screen tilting action. We imagine this will lead to many balance beam and pinball minigames.
These game creators said the games for the new handheld will be completed by the end of the year. Whether Nintendo releases the unit by then is still mysterious. However, enigmatic sources say that we might see an E3 2010 announcement and a release later this year.
Keep in mind that none of this information is official. We’ll keep you posted if anything new comes up.
In the meantime, what do you think of the fabled “DS2” these hardware specs allude to?
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