According to Street Fighter II creator and founder of development company Game Republic Yoshiki Okamoto, the DS could be going under. Hard to believe considering it's sold over 70 million units worldwide, isn't it? Well, the PSP is catching up (in Japan at least), but maybe that's just because everyone already has a DS (don't get me wrong, this isn't some fanboy comment, the more successful every system is the better, I think). Anyway, as we all know, a system is only really as good as its games, and so says Okamoto, the DS' library is severely out of proportion in that department.

Nintendo has undeniably innovated the gaming industry with the DS and Wii, but some seem to imply this is only half the equation. Indeed, what's a great and innovative system if you have way too many games, and way too many that just plain suck? Hey, let's not deny it, we've all seen it:

The question is whether or not this situation is enough to actually provoke another "Atari crash." Okamoto says it certainly could be:

"Japan had its economic bubble in the late eighties, and that burst. I think some of the same things are happening in the American economy right now. Like, they're going to have to do something to prevent it. It's foolish to keep making the same mistakes people have already made.

So, Nintendo's going to need some sort of strategy to deal with this. I think it's a fact that the market blew up more rapidly than even they thought it would. And the faster something expands, the easier it is for it to deflate again, right? I hope they come up with a way to avoid this with the DS. But for one thing, there are way too many titles out all at once."

He also touches on the fact of so many companies who don't even make games are pushing them out onto the market like food. Actually, I'm pretty sure farmers have more passion than this:

"[At least in Japan] all sorts of companies that have never made games before are getting involved. I mean, the cost of development is really next to nothing. And what about this flood of 'brain training' games? Can they really keep that up?

Nintendo put a lot of thought into the original, and ran some really cool commercials for it. But some of these companies just slap something together, put the word 'brain' in the title, and release it. There are a ton of them, and barely any of them are interesting."

They're definitely stifling what was once a very passionate industry. But you know, that's business for you, right? It's easy to blame companies for putting out unoriginal garbage, but they wouldn't if they didn't think people would buy it; it's just business. But was the industry always this way? I don't think so; it was kind of like the "before computers were cool" thing - games were for nerds, so all we got was passionate nerds making nerdy games for nerds. And life was good. But now people from all walks of life have found their way to the gaming world, so what we get is everything - stupid garbage, heartfelt RPGs, sci-fi adventures, MMORPG's. It's a wild world out there, folks.

But back to my point (believe it or not, there was a point): if you're going to release stuff like "HampsturhZz Eleventeen," make it good, okay? It's not that hard to put a bit of passion into your work. And if you're just doing it for money and want to put the minimal amount of effort into it, go run a corporation or something, will you? Well, it's just one perspective.