DS looks to have a Gameboy name after all

Q

Qroach

Veteran
I had a feeling Nintendo would do this. I mentioned before that I didn't think Nintendo was going to release Gameboy 2 (or anything like that) with the DS on the market, or that a gameboy 2 didn't exsist at all. Well, now there's a few names that it looks like nintendo has trademarked that have GB in the title.

Nintendo Trademarks New DS Names
In an odd case of synchronicity, Nintendo today trademarked a number of acronyms for its Nintendo DS console. Like the Xbox names also leaked today, make for fairly confusing reading:

DGB
EGB
GBD
GBE
GBN
GBY
TGB
WGB
XGB

Since each name contains the letters "GB", it seems fair to assume that the company is planning to brand the new console (whose Nintendo "DS" moniker was only intended as a codename) with the "Game Boy" name. Beyond that, we can only guess the meaning of these acronyms.
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http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=3885
 
So I was right all along! Bow down to me! 8) :D

Alright, alright, I don´t post all that much, but I always thought DS was the next GB and all that GBA2 talk were pipedreams, I swear! :oops:
 
yep, of course it was. Nintendo would be stupid to not cash in on the name of thier previous portables.
 
Here are my guesses:

DGB - Dual Game Boy
EGB - Extreme Game Boy
GBD - Game Boy Double
GBE - Game Boy Evolution
GBN - Game Boy New
GBY - Game Boy Yahoo :D
TGB - Tile Game Boy??:p
WGB - Wonderfull Game Boy :oops:
XGB - Xenon Game Boy :eek:
 
How do we know that any of these trademarks have anything to do with DS? I can't be bothered to register with GamaSutra to see if it says in the article itself. So someone tell me instead :)
 
Well I just wouldn't expect Nintendo not to release the DS with the GB name since that goes directly against what they have said all along. I don't see any reason for them to have changed there minds at this early stage. Also many trademarks are registered before the product they refer to comes onto anyones radar.

Anyway basically I just wanted to know if this was assumption being taken as fact or actual fact, that's all. So I got my answer and now I'm off to piss on your car :LOL:
 
It is, but I don't see them much going along WITH what they've been saying all along. In my mind they already caved by having the unit play GBA games right out of the box, so they might as well capitalize on the name, too. <shrugs>
 
I always thought it would be branded Game Boy. Its the name of there handheld gaming range, why have one be called something different? I also think it has no bearing on GBA2 release.

Its like PSP not having Playstation in its name, it actually has no relation to Playstation (except the buttons...) but it would be a foolish not to use the biggest brand-name in the business.

Nobody with any sense would throw away a brand name like Gameboy for a new machine, its the second most successful console brand in the world.
 
cthellis42

They must have planned all along to have GBA support though, its not just something you'd add at the last minute.

When Nintendo said that DS was GBA compatible but seperate from the GB line of handhelds I could only think of one way in which that could be possible. That DS was seperate from the new GB line which would be released, not so long after DS, to take over from GBA. The new GB system would not be backwards compatible with any past GB. That way it could start a fresh with all new top end graphics and distance itself from the poor graphics of its predecessors (leaving past GBA games on DS, a system that is less focused on graphics).

But if they call DS itself GB then that doesn't make much sense considering what they've said in the past. Although I suppose even if its called GBDual Screen or whatever that could still be seen as seperate from the main GB line if a new mainstream GB2 was released soon after. I don't know, its all very confusing and I'm just thinking out loud now, I suppose we'll see soon enough.
 
Teasy said:
cthellis42

They must have planned all along to have GBA support though, its not just something you'd add at the last minute.
Click to expand...

I know they did, but my optimal (and previously stated) hope was thus:

DS's GBA compatability would come later on, in the form of a cartridge adaptor or some other hardware method that they could bring out when they wanted. (The ability to play carts would obviously have been built into the hardware from the beginning, but that's not huge matter.) That would let them launch the DS as its own machine, concentrating on its own endeavors, so at least for the first few development years it would not be conflicted as a "GBA with more stuff."

Once the GBA2 itself came out, the DS would likely have lowered costs to go to the SP's price bracket, the SP could be retired, and the adaptor released so that there would still be a "currently produced" option for all the old games.

From a purely technical standpoint, this would also have eliminated the need to build two full cartridge slots into the unit to cover GBA compatibility and save cost, perhaps slim down design, or offer a different port simply for expansion options (since the GBA cart slot could be used for that)--USB perhaps--that could offer more options and still have less design compromise.

The unit would lose sales to distance itself from the GameBoy brand, but it would promote its uniqueness first and foremost and let it establish itself in that light. Since they're providing GBA compatibility right out of the box and already seeking to tightly link the possibilities, I don't see why they shouldn't capitalize on the name as well. (And if "GBA2" will be the unit to take big steps and leave much of the legacy behind, then perhaps IT should be the machine to adopt a new brand and a new attitude to reflect those changes.)
 
Nintendo made the right choice by having backwards compatibility right out of the box in the DS. It benefits everyone from the consumer, developer, and Nintendo themselves. Having an addon for backwards compatibility would just complicate things and for what?
 
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