Looking back on DS's 2010: RIP DS, hello Game Boy Evolution
How did Nintendo fare?
This is speculative article written from the perspective of Christmas 2010.
As the year draws to a close and we all prepare to get thoroughly sloshed to welcome in 2011 it presents an excellent opportunity to cast a furtive glance over our collective shoulders and assess the wreckage of the past 12 months.
The new decade started relatively brightly for the aging Nintendo DS: the third iteration of the hardware - dubbed “XL” - hit western shores after a particularly ebullient launch in its native Japan.
Aimed squarely at older gamers, the larger device essentially offered the same functionality as the DSi, with access to various apps and games, as well as a built-in camera.
Few could have predicted, however, the rather muted reception this generously proportioned console would receive in North America and Europe: with the DSi release still fresh in their minds, western consumers decided that two very similar hardware launches in less than a year was a little bit too much like extracting the urine on Nintendo’s part and as a result the DS XL posted some rather lacklustre figures at retail.
Such commercial concerns weren’t aided by the fact that 2010 was the year when Nintendo’s grip on the portable market was finally broken.
Sony’s PSPgo may have had its critics when it hit store shelves in ’09, but thanks to a combination of savvy price reductions (on both hardware and software) and a mass influx of developer support (helped in no small part by Sony’s adoption of an Apple-style royalty/profit program) the oft-derided machine leapfrogged the DS in the middle of the year.
Software sales were equally sluggish, with many third parties continuing to moan about shrinking profits in the face of Nintendo’s first-party dominance.
Ubisoft - once a solid supporter of the DS and casual gaming in general - finally decided that enough was enough and turned its back on the format altogether, citing crippling financial losses as the key motivator.
Other companies voiced complaints about their titles getting lost on the shelves amid a deluge of sub-standard games while Nintendo’s own product lapped up all the sales.
Of course, these same firms failed to see that the generally low quality of their own titles and the erroneous belief that making money on the DS was as easy as falling off a log probably didn’t help matters, either.
While the DS continued to enjoy success in the Nintendo stronghold that is Japan, its sudden lapse in the far more lucrative western markets unquestionably contributed to Nintendo’s decision to hastily announce the successor to the DS line at 2010’s E3.
As was revealed at the start of the year by Nintendo itself, the Game Boy Evolution - the first Nintendo portable to feature the highly-esteemed name in almost half a decade - is set to showcase incredible visuals and “revolutionary” motion-controlled gameplay (which is only revolutionary if you haven’t picked up an iPhone or Wii remote in the past few years).
While only prototype devices have been shown to the public so far and the final design is subject to change, the biggest shock about the new handheld is that it does away with the dual-screen arrangement that was the signature feature of the massively popular DS.
Speaking of the portable veteran, Nintendo is keen to stress that there’s still a lot of life left in its current handheld champ. The tantalising promise of DSi-exclusive software was finally fulfilled during 2010 when Nintendo sprang what was arguably the gaming shock of the year by releasing Mario Kart DSi.
The latest instalment in the long-running racing series used the DSi’s additional muscle to create smoother and more detailed graphics, and even allowed players to overlay their mugshots on the karts within the game, using the DSi’s camera.
DSiWare also blossomed amid the turmoil of 2010, although not quite to the same degree as Apple’s incredibly successful App Store and Sony’s resurgent PlayStation Network Store.
Nintendo experienced difficulty in getting download-focused developers to embrace the humble hardware of the DS, and the lack of built-in storage space caused headaches for both gamers and devs alike.
Despite this, sterling support was rendered by the likes of Capcom, Gameloft and Square Enix, the latter of which unexpectedly gifted Nintendo fans with a DSiWare-exclusive entry in its beloved Final Fantasy series.
Final Fantasy: Resurrection utilised 16-bit visuals to keep the file size down but offered over 40 hours of classic RPG action, making it one of the undisputed download highlights of the year.
In spite of the highs of the past 12 months, there’s little doubt that 2010 marks the point in time that the DS finally stumbled and fell from its lofty perch.
Considering the machine was virtually written-off by industry experts before its release back in the middle of the decade, the very fact that it has secured so many years of dominance over the portable market means it will always been regarded as a success, but rarely has a console’s fall from grace been as pronounced.
While bitter rival Sony has unquestionably paid heed to its mistakes and consequently bounced back with the DLC-focused PSPgo, Nintendo has been less willing to take notice of what is a rapidly changing landscape.
Time will tell if the Game Boy Evolution has the power to completely turnaround Nintendo’s fortunes.
