Much ado has been made about the 10,000-foot-view of Nintendo's DSi and how it appears that it's really not anything special—just another DS, they say, with a couple cameras tacked on.
And here is where I perhaps eat crow a little. I got pretty worked up myself about what DSi could bring to the table. It wasn't just a DS with cameras. And it's still not—unconfirmed, though almost certainly accurate, reports tell us that it's got raw power under the hood in addition to the things we know about: internal storage, a better radio to more effectively deal with the full capabilities of 802.11, and other things. Going into E3, I fully expected Nintendo to finally start showing a little bit of what the DSi would make possible.
Well, that didn't happen. We're still staring down a library that doesn't look anything like a new platform's library would traditionally look like. Instead, it's full of little things, things that could absolutely have been done technically on the DS, though also things we might never buy if we saw them packaged up on a shelf. "How long would that last?" we'd ask, fingering the cash or credit cards in our pockets.
It's that train of thought that finally lit the lightbulb in my head.
Even as open-minded as I was, I was still committing the sin of looking forward to what might be made possible by raw technology. What I needed to be looking at with DSiWare was, instead, what was going to be made possible by the new delivery method it enabled.
You've all heard it before, of course; digital distribution is the topic du jour and has been for longer than I can remember, now. But here we are, seeing it in action. The most obvious arrivals are entries in Nintendo's Art Style line; puzzle games that, while decidedly enjoyable, we might gloss over on the shelf. Nintendo of America had made this very decision years ago with the original bit Generations line; despite the insane install base of the GBA and the quality of many of the titles, they eventually decided the games would not sell well enough to bring out of Japan. Of course, they had options; they could have packaged them together, for example. But if you really only want one or two of the collection, what point is there in acquiring them all?
There's also titles like WayForward's recently released puzzle-platformer Mighty Flip Champs!. While it's an ingenious and a delightful game, it's also a concept that probably doesn't have a whole lot of ground to cover after the included 40 levels. In a retail environment, that would simply mean the game wouldn't present enough value to meet the minimum price level required—at least, not for more than a handful of consumers with unlimited spend for games.
Finally, and perhaps most controversial, we have the little pieces of games we've already played, games we never wanted, or silly little apps like Animal Crossing Clock. While many of us may scoff at most of these, there's value here, too; providing a taste of something that was, in its packaged form, pretty great; but the value just wasn't there for someone. Now they can buy a piece of it, increasing the success of the original software.
The common thread between all these stories is that DSiWare enables DS developers to think small. Software can be presented that shows off a single, laser-like idea, and not worry about having to build up enough content to make it worth a retail release. Existing software that has been released as retail, as larger collections of smaller bits, can be spun out and find new audiences as a result. And the original DS design, showing its age as it may be, gets a new lease on life and lets developers plumb even more of its depths.
And that's the "invisible platform" that DSi really has created—a platform of economics more than technology. Now, of course, down the road, there's still the possibility that we'll see some things that really do make creative use if the DSi's new features, and I still absolutely look forward to seeing them. But in the meantime, it's rather nice that there's been a new lease on life given to the venerable DS.
And here is where I perhaps eat crow a little. I got pretty worked up myself about what DSi could bring to the table. It wasn't just a DS with cameras. And it's still not—unconfirmed, though almost certainly accurate, reports tell us that it's got raw power under the hood in addition to the things we know about: internal storage, a better radio to more effectively deal with the full capabilities of 802.11, and other things. Going into E3, I fully expected Nintendo to finally start showing a little bit of what the DSi would make possible.
Well, that didn't happen. We're still staring down a library that doesn't look anything like a new platform's library would traditionally look like. Instead, it's full of little things, things that could absolutely have been done technically on the DS, though also things we might never buy if we saw them packaged up on a shelf. "How long would that last?" we'd ask, fingering the cash or credit cards in our pockets.
It's that train of thought that finally lit the lightbulb in my head.
Even as open-minded as I was, I was still committing the sin of looking forward to what might be made possible by raw technology. What I needed to be looking at with DSiWare was, instead, what was going to be made possible by the new delivery method it enabled.
You've all heard it before, of course; digital distribution is the topic du jour and has been for longer than I can remember, now. But here we are, seeing it in action. The most obvious arrivals are entries in Nintendo's Art Style line; puzzle games that, while decidedly enjoyable, we might gloss over on the shelf. Nintendo of America had made this very decision years ago with the original bit Generations line; despite the insane install base of the GBA and the quality of many of the titles, they eventually decided the games would not sell well enough to bring out of Japan. Of course, they had options; they could have packaged them together, for example. But if you really only want one or two of the collection, what point is there in acquiring them all?
There's also titles like WayForward's recently released puzzle-platformer Mighty Flip Champs!. While it's an ingenious and a delightful game, it's also a concept that probably doesn't have a whole lot of ground to cover after the included 40 levels. In a retail environment, that would simply mean the game wouldn't present enough value to meet the minimum price level required—at least, not for more than a handful of consumers with unlimited spend for games.
Finally, and perhaps most controversial, we have the little pieces of games we've already played, games we never wanted, or silly little apps like Animal Crossing Clock. While many of us may scoff at most of these, there's value here, too; providing a taste of something that was, in its packaged form, pretty great; but the value just wasn't there for someone. Now they can buy a piece of it, increasing the success of the original software.
The common thread between all these stories is that DSiWare enables DS developers to think small. Software can be presented that shows off a single, laser-like idea, and not worry about having to build up enough content to make it worth a retail release. Existing software that has been released as retail, as larger collections of smaller bits, can be spun out and find new audiences as a result. And the original DS design, showing its age as it may be, gets a new lease on life and lets developers plumb even more of its depths.
And that's the "invisible platform" that DSi really has created—a platform of economics more than technology. Now, of course, down the road, there's still the possibility that we'll see some things that really do make creative use if the DSi's new features, and I still absolutely look forward to seeing them. But in the meantime, it's rather nice that there's been a new lease on life given to the venerable DS.