wraggster
February 24th, 2005, 17:41
Crikey, we are up to our necks in rumour this week. The next stragglers to drag itself ashore from the sea of speculation are reports that Nintendo is planning to stuff feature films onto DS game cards and roll out the much-anticipated DS online service in the near future.[br]According to reports on gaming blog Kotaku, Nintendo is working on compressing video files using Divx so that they can fit onto tiny DS game cards. This way you wouldn't need any additional add-on - like Nintendo's own Play-Yan device - to watch flicks on the dual-screened handheld. This would bring DS into line with the growing list of UMD movies soon to be available for Sony's PSP.[br][br][br][br]It's estimated that around two hours of video could be compressed onto the little cards, and Kotaku speculates that an animated feature will be the first title to get a DS movie release. [br]It's not unbelievable - Nintendo has been selling Pokemon episodes on GBA carts for a long while now (although not in Europe), and the Play-Yan clearly shows the company wants to compete with Sony's multimedia PSP.[br][br]Next up is more speculation about the DS's forthcoming online service, which should allow DS owners around the world to compete and chat with each other via wi-fi hotspots. We brought you the exclusive confirmation from Nintendo that such a service was in the pipelines last month, but Kotaku's addition to the rumour pit is that the service will allow users to download games wirelessly.[br][br]In fact, this is fairly old news. Way back in October when Nintendo was revealing the full potential of the DS downloadable games and game demos were discussed. That's not to mention the handheld's nifty Game Sharing feature, which lets multiple gamers play against each other from one copy of a game thanks to wireless downloading.[br][br]Our sources have told us that the DS online service is imminent, and that announcements could coincide with the European launch of the handheld on March 11. From what we've heard we fully expect it to match PSP's online gaming functionality - read about it here.[br][br]So what's the official word from Nintendo on these rumours? We bet you can guess... "Nintendo does not comment on interent rumour and speculation."[br][br]More DS news - and the rumours that buzz around it like moths to a lightbulb - very soon.