Release date and price for Nintendo DS revealed @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on September 22, 2004

News: The DS is coming November 21, this fall is going to be fun.

Nintendo has finally made official the release date and retail price of their DS handheld. The unit will ship on November 21 for a price of $149.99. The Japanese release will be two weeks later on December 2. This is the first time Nintendo has launched a console outside of Japan. The launch lineup, however, is still being held under wraps until a news conference on October 7.

"Nintendo's mission remains unchanged: expand the game experience," says Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. "Nintendo DS is the road map to the future of video games, and most clearly demonstrates the type of innovation that players demand."

The system will ship with PictoChat pre-installed. PictoChat lets players send messages to each other using the system's wireless communicator. A DS machine in sleep mode will also become active if another DS user comes within the wireless range for a quick draw multiplayer match.

In other news, Activision has announced that Spider-Man 2 will be a launch title for the DS and will ship alongside the system on launch day. But as I said, the full launch lineup will not be revealed until Nintendo's press conference on October 7. Until then gamers will have to console themselves with the DS's backwards compatibility with GBA games.

This fall is getting very interesting...