Gameboy's End
 

http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/708/708063p1.html

Hmm. I suppose it makes sense what with all the support going on for the DS. It was a gutsy move to not give it the successful GB brand and try something new after all. Comments?

Once the DS became a success, this was inevitable. Nintendo kept saying that the DS was their third pillar as support for the GBA just kept dwindling and dwindling. They may have honestly believed that the two could successfully co-exist at first, but in the end they should have known how this would turn out.

Actually, it's probably more like they used that as an excuse for if the DS bombed.

However, they are enjoying sucess with it, so why progress the GB line?

- WraithTwo -

Good. I was actually hoping this would be apart of the E3 press conference and when Miyamoto came out in a tux I was expecting him to hold a funeral for Gameboy.

I hope that now with the Gameboy's departure, the DS can now serve to not only provide games that are innovative in nature, but to also provide the traditional-type games that have enjoyed their success on the GBA.

With the focus of the handheld market solely on the DS and not on both DS and GBA, Nintendo can now (hopefully) create a handheld that is not just innovative, but with true technical and graphical prowess.

Games like Mario Bros, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Mario kart, Sonic Rush and Tetris arn't traditional?

Sorry, I meant "with traditional gameplay". There are the few that are on the DS, but in reality, when developers wanted to create a traditional-style game, they usually turned to the GBA.

Nintendo, President Iwata, allow me to let you in on a little secret. THE DS IS THE SUCCESSOR TO THE GAME BOY ADVANCE. Just because it doesn't have "Game Boy" printed on it and you don't refer to it as a "Game Boy Anything", it's still a handheld game device made by Nintendo. I ask you, what's in a name?

I think you mean platformers. Traditional gameplay usually means pushing buttons, which you do in a lot of DS games.

Well, it wasn't surprising, but I never expected Iwata to say it openly. The GB/GBA life was a good one, it opened up doors to many new franchises. I bid thee farewell.

..And I hope the next DS will be able to support GBA multiplayer, or something..

This is a moot point, to me. They could have called it the "Gameboy DS" and then that would have been a continuation of the Gameboy, technically.

I consider the SNES to be a different system than the NES, and therefore consider the GBA a different system than the GB.

Yeah, what speculative said.

Unless this topic is to pay dues to the name in itself :/

That's what I thought too. I don't think anyone but Nintendo really saw the DS as anything more than a successor to the Gameboy. All their "it's neither a handheld nor a console nor a successor or competitor to the Gameboy" talk was PR cover in the event that it didn't do well. About the only thing it doesn't do that a "traditional" Gameboy brand would is play all previous Gameboy games, since it only works with Advance games. I guess a Game Boy Color and a DS would be the best combo, since the only advantages the GBA had over the DS was it's size and price (both of which are things that the DS is improving on).

I'm actually glad to see support going to the DS, there really isn't anything that GBA did better once the DS and PSP were out. It was sort of the budget option like the PS1 was once the PS2 was out. They seemed to reach a bit of a dead end with the GBA not long after it was released, while the DS looks like it's options are expanding more and more with every passing day. It's nice to see the handheld market finally picking up again after being stagnant for nearly 10 years

Well the last few hurrahs for GBA are FFV, FFVI, and Mother 3. As soon as Mother 3 makes it's way over here I'm plenty fine with saying Gameboy has it's great run come to an end. You'll still see support for it I'm sure with licensed and budget games and such but from the people that count it's time to fully support the DS. Good times.

NOW GET MOTHER 3 OVER HERE, NINTENDO. WHY DID YOU NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT AT E3, DAMN IT?

Good Nintendo.

I see no reason for them to make a new gameboy. It would probably be just like the PSP with a different library of games. I think it is best they continue to compete with the Sony PSP through the DS alone since it already offers a totally different style of gaming that the PSP cannot offer.

Agreed.

The DS is backwards compatable, so it serves the same purpose. I just wonder how many DS successors will support pre-DS games. Only when the "Gameboy" games are no longer supported will the lineage truly die.

Backlighting. I dunno about you, but I think I am pretty content being able to play games without having to be either (A. outside or (B. shining 23 different lights over my head to see what the fuck I am doing on the screen. :)

How is it not a successor? It does everything the GBA did and more. Sounds like a successor to me. And I think I remember it was given a temp name in some countries of Nintendo Gameboy Advance DS.

I'm confused by this discussion. I thought the Nintendo DS was the successor to the Gameboy Advance? I'm totally baffled here. I didn't really expect a new gameboy; in my eyes the DS is the new Gameboy. Why would someone have to announce that there wouldn't be a new Gameboy.

Well, it can't play Gameboy and Gameboy Color games like the GBA does, so technically it doesn't do everything the GBA did.

And Eleo, Nintendo has stated in the past that the DS isn't a successor to the Gameboy, but its own entity aside from it. Of course, no one really believed this, and this new statement from Nintendo basically confirms this.

Because if you follow Nintendo then you'd know about what Nintendo had set up to be three pillars - the GBA line, the cube/Wii, and the DS. They kept that going since they announced the DS. This talk is basically Nintendo saying they're giving on giving most of their support to the GBA pillar which makes sense since the DS was very, very successful. They'll obviously still put out more GBA SP's if the market keeps buying them and the developers will still make games for the platform if people keep buying them. However, this is just a passing confirmation of what we've seen a gradual progression towards.

The thing is, you and virtually every other consumer out there thought the same. To us, it's pretty obvious that the DS is more or less Nintendo's next generation handheld, like the GBA was to the GB. But Nintendo stated repeatedly that the DS was NOT a successor to the Gameboy series, and that it was "neither a handheld nor a console" and that it wasn't competing with the GBA. Well, we all know that's a load of bull, but in the event that the DS didn't do so well (they were especially cautious after the Virtual Boy), they could write it off as a failure without tarnishing the Gameboy name.

I think they were actually doing R&D on a new Gameboy, but it would've been pointless to release it. It WOULD have just ended up competing with the DS more than the PSP anyway, so all they'd have done is split their userbase between two devices that share many of the same traits anyway. The DS has enough features to last a while anyway, there isn't much more they could add to a handheld short of adding PSP quality graphics and media features. I have to say that the system's raw processing power is a bit low, seems like a small step below the PS1 as far as speed is concerned, but I guess it would've cost quite a bit more to add to a handheld.

As it so happens, I just bought a DS today. I must say I'm impressed, it's a spiffy little device. Quite a few cool features and options on it, and I'm looking forward to trying out more games on it that I was interested in but never was able to play until now like Tetris DS and Nintendogs. I just wish games didn't cost so much on it. Mario 64 DS is still $30 after nearly two years? Console games aren't that expensive after being out for that long! It's cheaper than PSP games, but it still seems like there should be some decent budget games by now.

I don't understand this....the GB color was a new one...then advance was different, using a more powerful system, then DS.....etc.

Each (brick, pocket, color....) are different ones. :\

Nintendo is retarded for pretending like the DS isn't the new Gameboy. Just like Gameboy Color could play regular Gameboy games, just like Gameboy Advance could play Gameboy Color games, the DS can play Gameboy Advance games and its own games as well, and it's only logical to conclude the DS is the new Gameboy. Now, if they Gameboy Advance and DS had come out simultaneously or nearly so, then I could believe that the DS was not meant to be the successor... But come on.

This is the same as Nintendo trying to play like the Gamecube and Wii are to be side by side. If there's some kind of backwards compatibility implemented then it's the successor whether you say so or not.

And like I said, it makes no sense to announce that there would be no new Gameboy. How could a new Gameboy be separate-but-equal to the DS?

Coming soon: "Hey guys, by the way, there's not going to be a SNES."

Dude, it's not an announcement really. It was just a passing, "Yeah, we aren't supporting the GBA as much anymore. The DS is the future of our handhelds."

Stop blowing it out of fucking proportion.

Not too surprising. I'm not thrilled about how the overall turnout of the GBA turned out-mostly 1st party ports of great previous hits and a couple 3rd party gems amidst a bunch of licensed junk. Compared to most of the legitimately new 1st party games, good-looking 3rd party games, combined with the new touch screen and overall boost in graphics and sound, the DS is a more than worthy successor to the Gameboy line.

Still, one would have to wonder where GBA would be had Nintendo come up with New Super Mario Brothers for it, instead of porting its' entire backlog of Mario games. Or if Nintendo had supported it with anything noteworthy over the past 18 months.

Oh well, at least we're getting some decent RPG's late in the GBA's life, mostly thanks to Atlus (Summon Night series, Robot Wars, Yggdra and Mother 3 from Nintendo and FFVI Advance).

Double Post:
A steady $20 line of good games is something Nintendo can really use. Especially against the line-up of $40-$50 PSP games.

Still, there are some titles coming out at lower prices...Cooking Mama is supposed to debut at a $20 price point and the Brain Age games are already going for that. I believe Meteos has also dropped to the $20 price point. Plus the Mario Kart bundle is pretty sweet, since the game basically comes out to $20 when everything's tallied up (though the packaging is a crappy cardboard foldout instead of the usual DS box) I found Feel the Magic for a cool $11.99 used at Gamestop.

Now that Nintendo doesn't have a handheld monopoly, I'd say look for more competitive prices on games in the future.

Then again, Mario 64 was still going for $30-$40 new even at the end of the N64's lifecycle...

Well, it seemed that for a while Nintendo was indeed commited to keeping GBA as the third pillar.
After all, why else would they have released this little number?
http://gbamedia.gamespy.com/gba/imag...0103155900.jpg

because they can. Nintendo loves releasing random revisions because they sell

What are you guys talking about? The Gameboy is not dead. Just call their latest handheld the "Gameboy DS" instead; that's I speculated the DS's final name would be when I was in high school.

I'm ssaying GBA Micro came out just to get squeeze the last remaining bit of profit from the GBA series. Suddenly Nintendo will stop selling GBA's now since DS's can play GBA games hence the death of gameboy. Who cares if they stop calling them gameboys? I would rather them making up original names for each new handheld from now on

I dislilke the concept Nintendo DS, and will most lilkely never own one. I've tried several Nintendo DS games, and find the stylus more difficult and frustrating to use than I am willing to deal with. I am, on the other hand, an enormous fan of the Gameboy series. I have owned one of each generation of Gameboy. Original, Pocket, Pocket Color, Advance, Advance SP.

It's a great shame. There are some of games on the Nintendo DS that I think would be enjoyable, but those would be the ones that make minimal use of the stylus, and which would, in my opinion have been significantly better on a single screen. For example Gyakuten Saiban.

I don't blame the Nintendo DS, of course, since it's an eminently successful console. It is simply one which does not suit me.

RIP Gameboy. You shall be missed.

The truth is, with nintendo's current direction they're running away from the terms "Game" and "Boy" as fast as possible.

Feh. Let them. They won't lose by it. I'm sure the Revolution will be at least #2 in the current console wars, although it seems unlikely to be #1.

For me, the most likely bet is looking to be the console formerly known as HUEG.

Well it doesn't surprise me, the boy've been going for quite some years.
However, the GBA ain't dead for me! I was kinda late in getting my SP, and I still have lots of games to try. Not to forget the coming release of Mother 3!

Although I have never owned any Game Boy handheld in my life, I'd have to say, it earned a lot of respect from me in its longevity. The fact that the DS cannot play GB/GBC games is what somewhat bothers me. This effectively renders those games obsolete. While the arguement is there that these games are, indeed, somewhat obsolete compared to the other games of this age, GB/GBC games now render unusable to those without a Pre-GBA (SP) except via Emulator.

From Nintendo Power this month:

Sort of a political answer, as he seems keen on giving throughout the interview on various topics. Still, he does mention that the Game Boy brand is a brand worth keeping. It's engrained in the minds of Americans and the Japanese. No company, especially not Nintendo, is dumb enough to give that up.

This may sound silly, but I can actually picture the next "Gameboy" to be a DS 2, but, with just a Gameboy slapped on it as its name.

And dammit, I want the ability to play my old GBC games.