Nintendo selects Metrowerks' CodeWarrior as the official dev kit for its upcoming dual screened portable.

If you know anything about console development, then chances are you're already familiar with CodeWarrior, a popular MetroWerks development kit. CodeWarrior has been released for nearly every major console dating back to the 16-bit era.

It should come as little surprise then that Nintendo has pegged CodeWarrior as the official development tool suite for the DS. The big N also announced that they have already shipped over 100 units of the dev kit to publishers around the globe.

"The Nintendo DS takes game play to a new level, and we are currently developing new games to take advantage of various abilities of this exciting new platform," said Yuji Naka, R&D Creative Officer, SEGA Corporation. "CodeWarrior Development Studio for Nintendo DS has helped us quickly create prototypes during the early stages of development, and thanks to the detailed grammar check/alarm display functionality, we were able to identify issues at an early stage, significantly reducing the debug time."

"The Nintendo DS changes the way games will be played around the world, challenging developers to create the most sensory-rich experience possible for this device," said Pascal Lalancette, technical director, UBISOFT. "It's great that Nintendo has selected Metrowerks to ensure game developers have access to professional-grade development tools for the production of revolutionary games in time for the device's release."

The Nintendo DS is still on track for a fourth quarter launch in the US and Japan, with a first quarter 2005 European launch to follow.