Nintendo DS Before Thanksgiving

[News]

This past week, concerns circulated among DS publishers as to the un-announced launch-line up for the Nintendo DS; many believed certain key titles could slip back to Q1 2005.

However, third party publishers are apparently still confident that the DS will be in North America prior to Thanksgiving, ready for the all important holiday season. This corroborates predictions by Japansese retail sources last month, who reported that the DS would most likely launch in America on November 11th for $179.95. However, other reports say that the DS is slated for a later November release.

It will all continue to be up in the air until Nintendo announces an official date and price point; the only confirmation coming from the Japanese giant is that DS will launch in North America and Japan in late 2004, with a Q1 2005 release for Europe.

NintendoNow will keep you updated with any official news regarding the DS .

[speed stick]

The release is earlier then I thought. This is good news.

$179.95us is about $239.80can. hmmm, I will probably wait a little after the initial release to get it.

[Nights]

Hmmmm... This is might be more good news than bad news... If the key titles are delayed and released during/around PSP lauch, than they might have enough to make the PSP launch suffer a bit. That might work in it's favor.

Although people might look at the DS lineup as mostly crap (with key titles not being released) and wait for the PSP...

This battle is to close to even guess and I am very excited.

[dncardman]

I still have faith that the price will be $150. Coming out before Thanksgiving it vital to the sucess of the DS because that officially starts the Christmas season and that's when 3/4 of all games and systems are purchased. PSP will have a very hard time coming back if they launch after Christmas. Nintendo lead at that time may be to hard to bounce back from.

[neo999955]

^ I agree that the price should be 150, and i think a higher price will bring a lot more damage, especially considering the PSP with all of it's non-gaming features and amazing graphics will be around 250. If Nintendo really wanted to pain the PSP here in America, I think they should launch Zelda DS two weeks before the launch of PSP, maybe three, it really could hamper sales of the PSP, but we all know Zelda DS isn't coming that soon, so hopefully they can get some big name on DS a few weeks prior to PSP, and advertise the hell out of it.

[HolyPaladin]

Regardless of the exact price, the cost is sure to make a few parents' jaws drop when they consider buying it for their kids, but I would like to see it ship before the holiday shopping season. Being such a big time for sales of stuff like this, Nintendo needs all the sales it can get so to get as much head start as they can before PSP hits the stores. I'm still not sure, though, exactly how much or how little the sales of one will effect the other, since they still seem to appeal to somewhat different demographics. If each is primarily bought by different age ranges, each might not effect the other too much. I'm also curious as to how many adult casual gamers will buy a PSP when they can spend the same gaming hours playing a console game, instead. (After all, adult gamers don't play portables on car trips since they'd be the ones driving.)

[Viper]

The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year...period. To release it a few days before TG would be a tremendous boost to initial sales. Nintendo will have plenty available from internal dev teams and from what I recall, there were several developers who have had DS dev kits since late last year. I imagine at least 8 for launch but I wouldn't be surprised with 20.

I also think the price may be less than the $179.99. There haven't been any corraborating figures given anywhere.

[Marvelboyy]

I am glad that nintendo is releasing this year, and I hope that the inital sale price drops to $150 also, but regardless I thought I'd do my part by pre-ordering. and I'm gonna be rather disappointed if there aren't sufficient titles to choose from at launch!

[SuperLuigiBros]

i think its dumb that it isnt coming out in europe and australia (where i live) before christmas. they could make sooo much money.
also, does anyone know if it will be like gameboy, as in it will play both NTSC and PAL games? cause this would mean i could import one from u lucky bastards.

[Haris]

Meh. I've lost what I had for DS. I really want PSP now..

[OutlawAdidas]

I've reserved my DS and I'm waiting. I believe that there will be an extensive amount of games to choose from at launch time so I'm pretty much covered