Now We Need Two Screens To Play Games?

from the this-is-advancement? dept

Lots of folks talking about Nintendo's latest efforts to stay ahead of the quickly approaching competition for handheld video game players. Since all those others are trying to take the basic success of the Nintendo Gameboy and build on that, Nintendo apparently decided to rethink the whole concept and go in a different direction. Therefore, they've decided to create a gaming device that includes dual screens. We had reported back in November the rumor that Nintendo was working on a secret new product that wasn't an update to the Gameboy or to the GameCube - and apparently this is it (and, it's not, as we had thought it might be, their "iQue" in-between device). Of course, if you're going to come out with a completely new, funky device, it certainly would help to offer a picture - which they didn't. The idea is interesting, but will require an entirely thought process in creating games. Nintendo says the dual screens can be use to show two different perspectives during the game, or perhaps one screen could show a map and the other could be the in-game perspective. It certainly opens up some possibilities, but in the gaming business, the question is always about what software titles you have, and making it trickier to develop software titles could slow that process down. From the sound of things though, I think Nintendo is kidding themselves if they think this device won't take away from Gameboy sales. How many portable gaming devices do you really need? Also, there's no word on whether or not this device will include any wireless capabilities, which seems to be what many competitors are banking on.

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