DICE: DS download station coming to a retailer near you

"All content that is downloaded from a station will be lost once the DS is powered-off."

Not necessarily. Any game coded to accept downloaded information can do so... and keep it. For instance, the owners of the game Daigassou! Band Brothers were able to download additional songs from these kiosks in Japan, and I'm sure some sort of ticket thing will eventually be available for Pokemon.

I'll just have to keep my DS on forever then! Not a problem.

Not only that, Jump! Superstars also has a downloadeable unlockeable...

I just hope we will get some of these kiosks here in Canada. Although my closest EB Games/Walmart are about 30 minutes away. It will still be neat for getting game unlockables and such.

:D Can't wait.

Nintendogs players in the US were able to get downloads on Halloween as well by taking their DS to Gamespot/EB Games, and the items stayed in the game.

There are two ways those game offering non-volatile downloads can be done. The data can already be in the game and just unlocked by the download. This mean changing just one bit in the save game file, so the amount of flash memory required in a game is reduced and costs are kept down but it eliminate the ability to add genuinely new material to the game. If the developer didn't have it in there before shipping it cannot be done.

The route is to have a lot of flash memory in the cart. This can be taken a lot further. Nintendo could easily offer carts that consist of nothing but flash memory. Say, a 512 MB unit retailing for $35. (Yes, I know SD is cheaper but this would be a proprietary form factor and lower volume than an SD card.) This could live in the GBA slot, with a passthrough for this like GPS add-ons, to add substantial storage features to DS games. Or it could be in the DS slot to offer something like the Xbox Live Arcade to move beyond volatile demos and actually sell full games online and through instore kiosks.

This would be especially useful for smallish games like the NES Classics series and opening up the platform for legit products from small developers who cannot afford the console publishing model.

this is interesting...

I think that we can succesfully predict further developments of the Rev based on this. Why, you ask?

Think way back, before the controller was shown, some of you may remember out of the numerous patents that had surfaced, there was one in particular that was being toted as official. The patent, in essential, was for a handheld device with gyroscopic motion sensors and an integrated touch screen on it. It was later assumed that "handheld device" was misinterperted to mean controller instead of gameboy. Basically - a dropped idea for the DS. More on that later.

The touch screen on the DS is used for a more direct form of input thus bringing you closer to the game and imersing you further.

The Rev also supports similar functionality in its controller. By twisting and turning the controller (motion censor) you can interact further with the objects onscreen (sort of like a 3D touch screen)

Although the gyro censor for DS was dropped for the main system, it was still included in certain games such as Wario Ware Twisted.

So how does this all tie in to the Rev? I think that nintendo is using the DS as a testing ground for the Rev. Everything from motion censors to direct-screen input, it is all there. Even the Nintendo Wifi is being tested (quite a bit more obviosly though) on this system.

So, I think that what we are seeing on the DS now will (most of it) be on the Rev in one way or another, and usualy to a higher degree.

What this means is that we can expect a full fleged online service, complete with downloadable demos, trailers, and what-not, on the Rev. (also the explaination of the mysterious "home" button)

I really do hope they feature downloads for Pokemon like poster #1 says. I really like those games a lot, but having to travel to major cities on short notice to unlock the best character in the game (Deoxys) is nothing short of LAME. Of course, these d/l stations won't do jack for the Wireless GBA adapter, I'm almost sure - but once Pokemon Diamond / Pearl come out, maybe they can use that game as a bridge for loading stuff onto GBA carts plugged into the other slot.

I want my Deoxys! And an OLD SEA CHART so that I can get a Mew!

nintendo could also sell the flash memory devices that are basically empty DS cartriges and extend the virtual console service to the ds. any game that would be too big to fit on a ds cartrige could just be limited to the revolution. they could also bypass billing arrangements with the ds virtual console service by selling the cartriges at a set price and you could fill it up but you could never take the games you have on off. therefor you could have more nes games for the same amount of money. I like this idea!

Interested in sum official pics of the ds lite?:)

http://www.gamescathedral.de/gamescat/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5040

Interested in sum official pics of the ds lite?:)

http://www.gamescathedral.de/gamescat/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5040

Hopefully, unlike the Halloween mess up. Went to two and neither one worked. Then the flower thing with Animal crossing. Hope I dont have to erase any of my other games. :-)