Reggie: DS to get full downloadable games

The DS has long been able to download game demos from game stores, booths at gaming events, and even some airports. Now, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed that the console maker has plans to extend this functionality to offer full games via download.

Speaking to The New York Times, Fils-Aime explained that in the future, the Wii and the DS will have a lot more interplatform functionality. He gave the example of using the Wii to download games in manner akin to Xbox Live, and then using the wireless connection to transfer them to the DS.

The first Nintendo first-party game to make use of the wireless connection between the Wii and the DS will be Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a puzzle game due out February in the US. Gamers will be able to get new puzzles for the title via Wii downloads.

Reggie also hinted that Nintendo could be looking at bringing over some of the Japanese functionality of the portable--in Japan it is used, for example, to download guide content in museums. He said, "To aggressively drive DS business we need to provide other forms of entertainment to excite the customer."

[UPDATE]: A Nintendo representative has contacted GameSpot to dispute one of the New York Times article's assertions.

"The statement that complete Nintendo DS games will eventually be able to be downloaded into the device via a wireless connection with the company's Wii game console is incorrect," the representative said. "Users can download games to play on Wii, and, in the future, the Nintendo DS will be able to receive demo versions of some DS games from Wii, but not the entire game. The demo will be erased once the Nintendo DS is turned off."

While the New York Times article has been corrected twice since its publication, the changes were made to correct the spelling of Fils-Aime and an "editing error" that suggested the DS was capable of movie playback. The statement about players being able to download full DS games via the Wii remains in the article.