WOW,

Nintendo is launching DS right this 2004 fall. How will it be with GBA?

DS is said to have about the same graphicall power as N64, so they will need to expand teams because of the more powerfull hardware and graphics to work with. They have to support DS but there's many remaining GBA owners who still play a lot in the handheld.

They may also result in fewer games released to the gamecube since revolution is in bound to launch in later 2006 or early 2007 and they need software for it also.

What will they do?

More DS games
More GBA games
More Gamecube games

There's an amazing thing known as "multiple dev teams" that allow them to focus concentration in a variety of areas.

Additionally, this is a "problem" that arises EVERY time there's a new platform launched. You know what happens? IT GETS SOLVED.

Seriously, man. Think about it for a minute.

Golden Sun DS and Pokemon White/Black have yet to come, so there is at least a little more first-party efforts trickling down until the Fall (when the 3DS may probably come out). Seeing how large the DS userbase is, there will probably be a couple more DS games in early 2011 from Nintendo since they are weaning people off of one console, but managing the other.

The 3rd parties will support the DS for at least another 2 years after the 3DS launch. Especially in Japan, where handhelds have been their lifeline. The 3DS will launch with a couple dozen games and that one Nintendo killer-app. Third parties begin migrating yadda yadda and everything is nice and easy on that side of things.

Now for the Wii.

The Wii...I would imagine Nintendo will continue to support that until Dragon Quest X comes out (which will most likely be 2012) and 3rd parties may do they same. However, I expect them to want to jump ship on the Wii as soon as humanly possibly in order to play around the New Powerful Hardware for the N6/Wii2.

In terms of dev team allocation, Nintendo will outsource more things than they ever have before, and will most likely expand their teams by a sizable amount in order to compensate for the 3DS, then migrate workers from the older hardware to the new one. Iwata said that Nintendo doesn't want to do everything by themselves anymore, or to have to stretch themselves too thin.

3rd parties will (hopefully) take their next console seriously.

I believe that Nintendo is going to focus on making sure the 3ds is a success so they are going to significantly drop the support that the ds gets. They did this with the gba after the ds launched. It seemed like first party support and quality third party support for the gba dropped immediately after the ds launched.

I think that the Wii software won't suffer in the short term because they already have numerous products in the works that are going to be released. I think that Nintendo is going to release the wii successor in late 2011 or early 2012 and they will announce it at e3 2011. I am basing this off of what they did with the ds and wii.

EAD's going to shift to 3DS. After this year we'll probably get one or two more big EAD titles on Wii (Pikmin 3!) but most of the support will come from other Nintendo devs (HAL, Retro, IntSys, etc) and external devs (skip, Camelot, Next Level, etc). Same for DS, though likely with even less support from all sectors.  I think you'll also see Nintendo scooping up publishing rights for lots of 3rd party games in various markets (hello DQX!).

For comparison, here's what NOA released for GBA/GC after DS launched... this likely gives us a good idea of what sort of stuff to expect, though Wii will likely get a better wind down versus GameCube thanks to it's gigantic addressable marketplace...

Game Boy Advance

• Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (Nov 2004) Square Enix / TOSE Software
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Jan 2005) Flagship / Capcom Studio 1
• Mario Party Advance (Mar 2005) Hudson / A.I.
• Pokemon Emerald Version (May 2005) Game Freak / Creatures Inc.
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (May 2005) Intelligent Systems / Engines
• Wario Ware Twisted! (May 2005) Nintendo SPD / Intelligent Systems
• Yoshi Topsy-Turvey (Jun 2005) Artoon
• Dynasty Warriors Advance (Aug 2005) Koei / Omega Force
• DK King of Swing (Sep 2005) Paon
• Donkey Kong Country 3 (Nov 2005) Rare
• Dr. Mario & Puzzle League (Nov 2005) Nintendo SPD / Intelligent Systems
• Final Fantasy IV Advance (Dec 2005) Square Enix / TOSE Software
• Mario Tennis Power Tour (Dec 2005) Camelot Software Planning
• Drill Dozer (Feb 2006) Game Freak
• Tales of Phantasia (Mar 2006) Namco / Namco Tales Studio
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Sep 2006) Chunsoft
• Final Fantasy V Advance (Nov 2006) Square Enix / TOSE Software
• Final Fantasy VI Advance (Feb 2007) Square Enix / TOSE Software

GameCube

• Mario Party 6 (Nov 2004) Hudson / C.A.Production
• Star Fox Assault (Feb 2005) Namco / Project ACES / Access Games
• Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (Mar 2005) Nintendo EAD Tokyo
• Donkey Konga 2 (May 2005) Namco
• Geist (Aug 2005) n-Space
• Mario Superstar Baseball (Aug 2005) Namco / NOW Production
• Battalion Wars (Sep 2005) Kuju Entertainment
• Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (Oct 2005) Genius Sonority
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Oct 2005) Intelligent Systems / Engines
• Dance Dance Revolution / Mario Mix (Oct 2005) Konami / Hudson
• Mario Party 7 (Nov 2005) Hudson / C.A.Production
• Super Mario Strikers (Dec 2005) Next Level Games
• Chibi-Robo! Plug into Adventure! (Feb 2006) skip
• Odama (Apr 2006) Vivarium
• Baten Kaitos Origins (Sep 2006) Monolith Soft / tri-Crescendo
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Dec 2006) Nintendo EAD

I am a little dissapointed that some replies were alittle below the belt. I did think it through and yes Nintendo could easily expand its operations. No Nintendo isn't a poorly organized company. I was simply pointing out that up until now the handhelds have all been at least one generation behind their home console counter parts this has lead to extremely cheap and fast dev cycles.

Personally I think Nintendo will divert half of the DS developers over to the 3DS and expand its existing studios to enable the DS studios to develope better 3DS titles. Also I suspect Nintendo EAD will be involved in a few big titles this upcoming year. 

I was asking to get others input on the situation, some pointed out the GameCube and the GBA. However the GBA faded fast Nintendo diverted most of their handheld resources to DS. GameCube also faded pretty quickly once Wii dev began. I think that the DS will be a bit more supported then Nintendo supported GBA but I expect their to be some cuts.

P.S- Everyone is saying that 3DS will launch with several third party titles. Some even saying dozens. Where is this information coming from? How many publishers have already announced 3DS titles or said they will have titles availible at launch? Seriously I can't recall a single system launching with dozens of games. I suspect that since the 3DS technology was so well protected I doubt we will see more then a dozen titles tops. Infact I'd suspect a lineup of less then 10. Any actual evidence to suggest otherwise?

I dont think 3DS is coming this year
the DS is still the best selling gaming machine, even over the wii
so, I think nintendo wont kill its momentum
BUT who knows, maybe we can asK the same question again after E3

They hired 300 new employees last year and are increasingly working with others for out sourcing purposes

Puffy you always seem to know everything, Does Nintendo reveal its staff numbers publically?

If they did expand by 300 thats enough to pump one big game out every few years. I wonder how much more staff they will hire soon as the heat turns up and their is demand for more software?

Nintendo is stretching it development teams pretty tight...

Wii games
Wii Ware games
Wii firmware and channels
Wii Hardware
DS games
DSi Ware games
VC emulation and rights
DS hardware
3DS games
3DS hardware

and you wonder why Nintendo has had light 2009 and 2010 release schedules