DS gets another pimped upgrade, DSVision gets you video, books, and manga on your DS
The Nintendo DS is becoming the device everyone secretly wishes the PSP could be. The latest addition to the DS is no different, it uses a microSD card in conjunction with a DS cartridge to deliver video, comics, and books to your DS.
Context & Ripple Effects
The DS has spent late 2007 playing catch-up on media: Sony's handheld vaulted past it in Japan in September, and SCE launched a dedicated PSP video download service over the summer. Meanwhile Nintendo executives told the WSJ in October that the company is pushing deliberately toward practical, utilitarian offerings beyond games — the DS TV Tuner demoed earlier that month, with its note-jotting during broadcasts, is one example of that posture.
DSVision fits squarely in that arc: rather than new Nintendo hardware, a third-party cartridge-plus-microSD accessory delivers video, comics, and e-books to the installed DS base. The commentary framing — that this makes the DS the portable media machine many wished the PSP could be — lands precisely because it attacks the PSP's core differentiator without asking buyers to switch devices.
First-order effects
- DS owners gain downloadable video, manga, and book playback through a single cartridge accessory, turning the tens of millions of DS units already sold into a media audience overnight.
- The accessory gives microSD cards a new consumer use case on the DS just as flash storage prices make large-capacity cards cheap enough to carry a media library.
Second-order effects
- Sony's PSP positioning as the handheld media device takes a direct hit: the DS now matches the video-and-content pitch at the price of an add-on cartridge, undercutting the argument for choosing a PSP on media grounds alone.
- Retailers and accessory makers see a fresh DS peripheral category ahead of Christmas, riding the same demand wave that has left stores unable to stock enough Wii units.
Third-order effects
- If slot-in accessories keep adding non-gaming utility, Nintendo can extend the DS lifecycle with utility peripherals instead of a hardware refresh — a playbook consistent with the utilitarian strategy executives outlined in October.
- The boundary between game handheld and general-purpose media player erodes from both sides, pressuring future handheld designs to treat media playback as table stakes rather than a differentiator.
The trend: Handheld game platforms are absorbing media-player functions through cartridge-slot accessories, letting Nintendo answer Sony's PSP media push without shipping new hardware.