Nintendo Co Ltd, after months of hinting it would roll out a new game product in 2004, took the wraps off Nintendo DS, a portable videogame system with dual side-by-side screens but it would hold back most details of the new product until the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this May, but said it has already begun talks with game publishers around the world about developing software for the new device. The unit will feature two three-inch LCD screens, dual processors and up to one gigabit of semiconductor memory. It is scheduled for launch by the end of this year and will be marketed alongside the company’s GameCube home gaming console and Game Boy Advance handheld device. Nintendo was expected by industry players to offer some sort of new handheld product to compete with Sony’s PSP, an advanced handheld gaming device set for launch by the end of the year. Sony already dominates the console games market with its PlayStation 2. Nintendo said the the dual screens on the new game machine would let players see the same game from two different perspectives, or see game action on one screen while looking at a map of the game environment on the other. (Reuters)
