Getting it Wrong

Via Phantom Leap, an essay marking the 5th year of Nintendo DS.

The true failure in every prediction of doom for the DS was that they mostly consisted of gamers looking at the device and saying, “I don’t like it, and nor do my mates” - without ever wondering what people who weren’t raised on a diet of Quake and Tekken might make of it. This week’s figures are a final, resounding demonstration of just how out of touch we, and our mates, actually were.

I actually was more impressed by the DS’s E3 2004 showing than the PSP’s. Learning that it had a touch screen made the dual screen aspect of it make sense, and the WiFi and whatnot were exciting. As it turned out, the DS turned into something very different than I imagined, but I wouldn’t say that the fault was thinking too much about traditional gaming.