Attack of the iClones: Nintendo Launching DSiWare App Store!
Okay, so the iPhone stole the Nintendo DS' portability, touch screen (albeit capacitive instead of retro resistive), creative input methods (like blowing into the mic), and emphasis on casual, on-the-go gaming. And since all's fare in love and console wars, is it really a surprise that the big N has decided to follow Apple's lead -- and the growing Google Android Market, RIM BlackBerry App World, Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace, Palm (Pre Store?) conga line -- with the launch of their own direct download DSiWare application store alongside their new DSi hardware.
Sure, DSi doesn't have ubiquitous internet connectivity like 2G or 3G enabled smartphones, so it's WiFi only (WPA if you can dig it out of the settings). You also have to buy credit in ridiculous $20 chunks (some things never change, eh, money-grabbers?), but this will no doubt appeal to gamers who want new stuff now, now, now, and developers who want to excise the the usual 75% retail+licensing cut, along with manufacturing, storage, shipping, and other physical media related costs.
Ars Technica has an excellent article up with all the details and developer comments, and it's certainly worth the read.
Our question is, is the iPhone enough for your casual gaming needs or do you also carry a DS (and/or PSP) everywhere you go, and will DSiWare make you more likely to carry a DS in the future?
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Dam you nintendo, get your own ideas!
Maybe apple will steal from the wii for the next os. Motion sensor user interface here we go.
I take it you think Microsoft and Sony stole the App Store idea too when they did online stores for their consoles huh? Some days its really hard to be an Apple fan...
Isn't the DSiWare just an expansion of the wiiware, which came b4 the app store?
@the_louse
No. Apple has been working on and perfecting the iphone App store since 1995
I wish this article was about the Blackberry App World, because that's a pile of crap. I spent a few hours yesterday trying to install it on an unlocked blackberry Storm and a BB simulator, to see how what kind of user experience it offered, and the experience I got was "OGG SMASH BLACKBERRY!"
Hopefully nintendo does it right.
@Neil: All these types of articles are semi-tongue-in-cheek, a way to label non-iPhone, yet related new for our readers.
Apple has the iTunes Store long before App Store or Microsoft Marketplace or Wii or Sony, did the iPhone steal that? Er... Okay, yeah
@thekevinmonster: We've covered App World before but I haven't actually tried it or seen it yet. We'll wait for Kevin to get back from CTIA!
Nintendo had original wii-ware "game downloads" far before app store
Haha, the wii had an app store
iclone? my sidekick had an app store b4 the iphone
The Wiiware store was a blatant ripoff of the App Store, as was Nintendo's first playing card store in 1889. Hopefully the statute of limitations has not expired...
It really annoys me with all of these articles saying "Nintendo is going head to head with Apple" on all of these sites. Nintendo did the downloading games thing first. Not exactly a rip off is it?
I'm excited for dsiware
I hear the new Nokia allows you to type in a series of numbers which allows you to then speak to another phone user, yet another feature copied from the iphone.
I predict Sprint will soon start providing a 3g network for the Nintendo DS and/or Sony PSP. just a prediction.
@Rene Ritchie
I get the tongue-in-cheek element, but honestly these types of "Apple is better that [insert name]" or "Apple did it first" post really only bog the site down....at least to me. These types of post might tickle the fancies of Apple fanboys, but what about the rest of us who just like cool technology and just want to know what Apple is doing?
Every Apple related blog/news/review site does these types of post and they've turned me off from going to them. I just want to know whats going on in the world of Apple and what I can look forward to.
Its your site so clearly you can do whatever you like and this post was hardly the worst offender ever, but I just saying how I feel on these types of post in general.
@Neil
I agree. This blog post was rather crackberry.com-esque in nature. This may be exciting to some fanboys but this fanboy is rational and just nods with disappointment with these types of of posts.
Owners of the Palm Pre to acquire ridiculously huge egos upon buying the phone, yet another feature copied from the iPhone.
it's like reading roughlydrafted, the smug factor rates about 8.5/10
on related news, the iPhone and the da are not in the same league. the thought of ea putting tiger woods on the dsi store is absurd. the games people will still put their games on disks and the dsi store will be wiiware ports and weather apps. one thing to note is there are no free dsi downloads. automatically puts nintendo at a disadvantage. they should look at xbox and try to replicate that model.
Didn't the old famicom have a module to download games via modem ?