Nintendo DS

Lore & Background

Development of the Nintendo DS began around mid-2002, as company president Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down and assumed an advisory role. At the time, he proposed that Nintendo explore a system built around two screens. Satoru Iwata succeeded Yamauchi as president in May 2002 and acknowledged that Nintendo had fallen behind industry trends, particularly online gaming, and sought to broaden the company's audience beyond traditional gamers. Internal research suggested that Nintendo's past emphasis on unconventional hardware had complicated third-party development and weakened its competitiveness. Iwata therefore supported development of a dual-screen handheld that would offer distinctive new ways to play, be more accessible to non-traditional audiences, and easier for developers to support. Because Nintendo believed consumers were unlikely to pay recurring fees for online services, the design emphasized wireless functionality to enable local multiplayer and new interactive experiences without subscriptions.

On January 20, 2004, Nintendo announced it would release a new dual-screen game device under the codename 'Nintendo DS', describing it as an experimental 'third pillar' alongside the Game Boy Advance and GameCube rather than a replacement for either. Few technical details were initially disclosed, other than that it would feature two 3-inch TFT LCD displays, dual processors, and up to 128 MB of memory. In March 2004, a leaked document revealed additional technical specifications, including that one of the screens would be touch sensitive, and identified the internal development name 'Nitro'. The prototype was shown publicly in May at E3 2004 in Los Angeles, where Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé noted that the design would change before launch. On July 28, 2004, Nintendo unveiled a redesigned, 'sleeker and more elegant' version and confirmed Nintendo DS as the final name.

Iwata characterized the DS as Nintendo's first hardware launch in support of its 'Gaming Population Expansion' strategy, highlighting that its touch-based interface would allow for intuitive play, and described the project as 'a completely different concept from existing game devices', intended to reassert the company's reputation for innovation. In February 2004, while the Nintendo DS was still in development and amid concern over the GameCube's lukewarm performance, Yamauchi stated, 'If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell'.

Reader's Guide

Initially marketed as an experimental 'third pillar' in Nintendo's console lineup—complementing the handheld Game Boy Advance family and the home console GameCube—the DS's backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance titles and strong sales led it to be widely regarded as the successor to the Game Boy line. A slimmer model, the Nintendo DS Lite, which features brighter screens and improved battery life, was released in 2006. The DS and DS Lite were followed by the Nintendo DSi, a revision released on November 1, 2008. The DSi added dual digital cameras, larger screens, more memory, a faster processor, and internal flash memory, and it was later offered in a larger DSi XL model. It also introduced digital distribution of games, but lost compatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges. Although hundreds of downloadable titles were available, only six DSi-exclusive game cards were released. The DS line was ultimately succeeded by the Nintendo 3DS in February 2011.

Including the DS Lite and DSi models, the Nintendo DS has sold 154 million units, becoming the best-selling Nintendo console until it was surpassed by the Nintendo Switch in 2025. It also ranks as the third best-selling video game console of all time, behind the PlayStation 2 and the Switch. The DS Lite accounted for over 60 percent of total DS hardware shipments. The system's promotional slogans use the word 'Touch' in almost all countries, with the North American slogan being 'Touching is good.' The Nintendo DS was seen by many analysts to be in the same market as Sony's PlayStation Portable, although representatives from both companies stated that each system targeted a different audience.

Did You Know?

• The Nintendo DS was released in North America before Japan, the first Nintendo hardware launch to follow that order.
• The iQue DS, released in China, is the only Nintendo DS model with regional lockout.
• The DS Lite launched in Japan on March 2, 2006, and heavy demand led to widespread shortages through much of 2006 and 2007.

Touchscreen Pioneer

The Nintendo DS arrived in the middle of the 2000s as a genuine departure from the conventions that had defined portable gaming for over a decade. Where its predecessors relied on buttons and a single screen to deliver interactive experiences, the DS introduced a touchscreen interface to the handheld form factor, and it did so with a level of commercial success that no prior device had achieved. Nintendo had long been a pioneer in portable entertainment, releasing the Game Boy in 1989 as the first handheld console to sell in large numbers, but the DS marked a qualitative shift in how players physically interacted with their games. By making the screen itself a primary input surface, the system expanded the design vocabulary available to developers and broadened the appeal of portable gaming to audiences who might not have considered themselves traditional gamers. The result was a console that would go on to become one of the best-selling of all time, cementing the touchscreen as a defining feature of the modern handheld era.

Handheld Dynasty

Nintendo's portable console lineage stretches back to the Game Boy of 1989, the first handheld to achieve mass-market sales, and the DS represents a crucial chapter in that ongoing story. Between the original Game Boy and the DS, the company had already established its dominance in the handheld space through the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance, both of which kept Nintendo firmly in the lead even as rivals like Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox pushed the company into third place in the home console market during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The DS continued this tradition of portable excellence, arriving in the mid-2000s as the next evolutionary step. Its successor, the 3DS, launched in 2011 as the first major handheld with stereoscopic 3D capabilities and enjoyed very strong sales from the outset, suggesting that the design philosophy and audience Nintendo cultivated with the DS carried forward. Across all of its hardware, Nintendo has sold over 987.81 million units as of March 2026, a figure that reflects the cumulative weight of this portable legacy.

Strategic Resurgence

By the time the DS hit shelves in the middle of the 2000s, Nintendo occupied an interesting position in the industry. In the home console space, the company had been pushed to third place internationally by Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, even after the GameCube's release. Yet in the portable segment, Nintendo remained the undisputed leader, a position it had held since the Game Boy's 1989 debut. The DS was part of a broader strategic pivot that saw the company introduce two landmark innovations nearly simultaneously: the touchscreen handheld and the motion-controlled Wii. Together, these two systems became some of the best-selling consoles of all time, effectively redefining what a video game console could be and who it could be for. This dual approach allowed Nintendo to reclaim a prominent voice in the industry without directly competing on raw hardware specifications, a strategy that had served the company well since the NES revitalized the video game industry following the 1983 crash.

Defining an Era

The Nintendo DS stands among the most commercially successful consoles in the history of the medium, a distinction it shares with the Wii, its near-contemporary in the mid-2000s. Both systems demonstrated that innovation in interaction—touch input on one hand, motion sensing on the other—could drive sales in ways that incremental hardware upgrades never could. The DS in particular proved that the handheld form factor, long a Nintendo stronghold stretching from the Game Boy through the Game Boy Advance, could still deliver a generational leap. Its success helped sustain Nintendo's overall hardware sales, which have now surpassed 987.81 million units worldwide as of March 31, 2026. The console also set the stage for what came next: the 3DS in 2011 brought stereoscopic 3D to the handheld space with very strong initial sales, and the broader portable philosophy eventually influenced the hybrid design of the Nintendo Switch, released in March 2017, which became the company's best-selling console and the second best-selling of all time. The DS, in this chain, was the pivotal link.