Nintendo Vs. Developers (third party sound engines)

Nintendo Insider escribió:Nintendo Not Allowing Third-Party Sound Engines for DS

Nintendo Insider has learned exclusively that Nintendo is currently not allowing third-parties to create sound engines for the Nintendo DS, and much less do sound work for other developers, as many developers did with the Game Boy Advance, stating "the ARM7 has been excluded from direct access for commercial reasons."

The ARM7 processor in the Nintendo DS handles the Wi-Fi, the audio and the touch screen. In order to even create sound engines for the Nintendo DS, our sources note that one would probably have to take apart the entire ARM7 processor and hardware routines for Wi-Fi, touch screen and audio to see what memory and function calls the processor uses. Otherwise, one would never know where to put one's code. This means developers can't write their own "music replayer, sound effects mixer [or] a decent music GUI for musicians" who don't know much about scripting and programming. We hear that the majority of U.S. and European developers are quite angry, or are complaining, about this.

What does this mean for you? For one, sound in third-party games might not be up to snuff at first with the Nintendo DS. It also restrains freelance musicians and developers from offering their services to DS, meaning a paycheck that many had usually expected will not be coming in for many third-party developers -- and that could mean less resources for many to create DS games.

But developers are hoping that this rule will be done away with soon. "I have hopes they will change it... they say they take our feedback into consideration," said one developer speaking on the condition of anonymity.

We'll keep you updated.