14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo seems to have updated one of its old patents to feature the possibility of rumble feedback being delivered via the screen of the DS. This appears impossible to deliver using the current hardware, which suggests that the company is readying a Nintendo DS 2 device that will include it.
A section of the patent filled with the United States Trademark & Patent Office reads, “For example, in a case that the enemy character exists at a depth of a game screen, little damage is applied to the enemy character, and a weak vibration is applied to the game apparatus. Conversely, in a case that the enemy character exists at a front of the game screen, much damage is applied to the character, and a strong vibration is applied to the game apparatus. In either case, the vibrations are transmitted to the fingers or hands of the payer via the stick.”
Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, talked at the beginning of the year about the new generation of the DS handheld and said it would include “highly detailed graphics” alongside “a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing.”
Soon after the statements were made, the company revealed that its leader had been misquoted by the press but the translator and the newspaper, which printed the news stand by their interpretation, suggesting that Iwata might have actually slipped some very real information.
There is speculation that the updated DS handheld hardware will be shown this year either at the GDC or at E3. The Japanese console manufacturer has long offered incremental updates to the DS, first with the more powerful DSi and then with the LL version, which adds a bigger screen. A Nintendo DS 2 might be more of a revolution than an evolution, requiring developers to create videogames quite differently for the new device.