If rumors are to be believed, Nintendo has eyes on extending the Virtual Console to the Nintendo DS. In particular, there's word that Game Boy titles will be available to download to a DS flash cart, finally extending the hardware's backwards compatibility to include Nintendo's entire portable library. But how, exactly, would Nintendo go about distributing this catalog of titles to gamers around the world? Cory and Matt each have decidedly different takes on the subject.
The Virtual Console, on the Wii, is part of a considerable software suite. Not only can you peruse a downloadable game library, you can check the news, the forecast, and even any web page of your choice. There's a built in message board, utilities for avatar and image manipulation, and an assortment of other fun diversions. You can boot up the Wii, poke around, and find plenty of new things to play with.
This is core to the machine's philosophies. Nintendo would love you to periodically switch on your Wii and poke around to see what's new. No disks to swap around, just a semi-seamless series of channels and utilities to keep you occupied as you lean back on the couch.
The Nintendo DS, on the other hand, exists with a single purpose: to play the software you stick in the slot. Instead of functioning as a hub for a myriad of updating pieces of content, it's a game-player. It's hard to imagine a series of "channel" cards that you swap in and out of the system to emulate that exploratory Wii experience. While Nintendo could presumably release exactly that—a "Virtual Handheld" card that provides both a Wi-Fi shop and the storage to keep a number of titles—I personally think they'd be better served by keeping the service in the family.
With the pending release of Everybody's Nintendo Channel, Nintendo has made clear their intentions to offer Nintendo DS demos to download via a wireless connection with the Wii. With people acclimated to the notion of beaming software from the Wii to the DS, I imagine the next step would be to enhance the Wii Shop Channel with this very same functionality—but for full Game Boy titles.
The mechanics could be largely transparent. You peruse the Wii Shop Channel for titles exactly as you do now, choose to purchase a Game Boy title, and are prompted to set your DS in a ready state. Via the exact same downloading interface used for all other games, the title is downloaded to the Wii and beamed to the DS in a single step. Naturally, the DS would still need its flash card, equipped solely with software for navigating the titles you've downloaded, and putting the DS in the state necessary for receiving them from the Wii.
The downside to this method, of course, is the fact that if you don't own a Wii, you're out of luck. I could easily see Nintendo deciding, however, that maintaining a single service for classic game distribution is a good idea. Not only would it give DS owners additional motivation to pick up a Wii, but it would keep the focus on the system that actually offers an exploratory experience when there isn't a physical game stuck in it. Users would be more likely to check the Wii Shop channel periodically than loading up a specialized DS cart. It allows Nintendo to successfully market the titles through an already-proven interface, one designed for casual perusal in a fashion the DS would have a hard time emulating, and offers numerous cross-branding possibilities.
It seems like Nintendo may be leaning in this direction already, in fact. The "Everybody's Nintendo Channel" could have easily been dedicated solely to Wii software, but it also features the aforementioned downloadable DS demos. If Nintendo was planning on a Wi-Fi-fueled software-download service for the DS, one would imagine that the downloading of classic Game Boy games and DS demos would be folded into the same infrastructure.
Creating a single Wii-based service would also allow all of a user's games to be easily classified together. You'd have a single list of downloaded games in the shop channel should you need to re-download them, you wouldn't have to worry about dedicating separate amounts of Wii Points to separate shops, and all games would be equally tied to your My Nintendo account, as with the current Virtual Console.
Makes sense to me! Matt, though, has a different opinion...
Cory's Take: A Unified Service
The Virtual Console, on the Wii, is part of a considerable software suite. Not only can you peruse a downloadable game library, you can check the news, the forecast, and even any web page of your choice. There's a built in message board, utilities for avatar and image manipulation, and an assortment of other fun diversions. You can boot up the Wii, poke around, and find plenty of new things to play with.
This is core to the machine's philosophies. Nintendo would love you to periodically switch on your Wii and poke around to see what's new. No disks to swap around, just a semi-seamless series of channels and utilities to keep you occupied as you lean back on the couch.
The Nintendo DS, on the other hand, exists with a single purpose: to play the software you stick in the slot. Instead of functioning as a hub for a myriad of updating pieces of content, it's a game-player. It's hard to imagine a series of "channel" cards that you swap in and out of the system to emulate that exploratory Wii experience. While Nintendo could presumably release exactly that—a "Virtual Handheld" card that provides both a Wi-Fi shop and the storage to keep a number of titles—I personally think they'd be better served by keeping the service in the family.
With the pending release of Everybody's Nintendo Channel, Nintendo has made clear their intentions to offer Nintendo DS demos to download via a wireless connection with the Wii. With people acclimated to the notion of beaming software from the Wii to the DS, I imagine the next step would be to enhance the Wii Shop Channel with this very same functionality—but for full Game Boy titles.
The mechanics could be largely transparent. You peruse the Wii Shop Channel for titles exactly as you do now, choose to purchase a Game Boy title, and are prompted to set your DS in a ready state. Via the exact same downloading interface used for all other games, the title is downloaded to the Wii and beamed to the DS in a single step. Naturally, the DS would still need its flash card, equipped solely with software for navigating the titles you've downloaded, and putting the DS in the state necessary for receiving them from the Wii.
The downside to this method, of course, is the fact that if you don't own a Wii, you're out of luck. I could easily see Nintendo deciding, however, that maintaining a single service for classic game distribution is a good idea. Not only would it give DS owners additional motivation to pick up a Wii, but it would keep the focus on the system that actually offers an exploratory experience when there isn't a physical game stuck in it. Users would be more likely to check the Wii Shop channel periodically than loading up a specialized DS cart. It allows Nintendo to successfully market the titles through an already-proven interface, one designed for casual perusal in a fashion the DS would have a hard time emulating, and offers numerous cross-branding possibilities.
It seems like Nintendo may be leaning in this direction already, in fact. The "Everybody's Nintendo Channel" could have easily been dedicated solely to Wii software, but it also features the aforementioned downloadable DS demos. If Nintendo was planning on a Wi-Fi-fueled software-download service for the DS, one would imagine that the downloading of classic Game Boy games and DS demos would be folded into the same infrastructure.
Creating a single Wii-based service would also allow all of a user's games to be easily classified together. You'd have a single list of downloaded games in the shop channel should you need to re-download them, you wouldn't have to worry about dedicating separate amounts of Wii Points to separate shops, and all games would be equally tied to your My Nintendo account, as with the current Virtual Console.
Makes sense to me! Matt, though, has a different opinion...