Slashdot Mirror
Panasonic 'Q' First Look
austinij writes "National Console Support has purchased and taken apart the Panasonic 'Q', a Nintendo Gamecube/DVD player device in one. Pictures and brief descriptions are included. Lets hope for a review soon! " That just
looks so nifty. I've heard of DVD players including PS1 support
in the not so distant future too. Apparently its fairly inexpensive
to do it now.
Reminds me of the Panasonic branded 3DO, only this sounds more useful and will probably have more games (though I did love my 3DO). Nintendo should have the name recognition to help this thing along too. And it looks even more like a DVD player than did PS2- so lots of guys can sucker their girlfriends & wives into buying a new 'DVD' Player :)
Licensing revenues could be huge for this. Other DVD manufactures put in "Sony Guts" (as the SNL saying goes.) Sony at least breaks even on the parts, and then get licensing fees. I bet Sony might not even really provide the guts, they just get big checks in the mail every week. Hell of a business to get into.
Not to mention they get to milk more money out of their old games.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Console manufactures do sell their machines at a loss initially, but as production increases and the cost of the components drop over time this is not necessarilly true for the whole of a consoles life span. Given the age of the PS1 I imagine it is now possible to make a profit on the hardware itself
IIRC, the Panasonic player was not going to come to the US - it was going to be a Japan-only item.
If this is in fact the case, I would imagine that the Panasonic device will be designed from the ground up not to be able to play US discs. (Firmware notes that it is an 80mm disc and refuses to boot it since it knows that all the games in Japan are "normal sized" discs).
What we REALLY need is a software device to allow consoles to provide basic word processing etc. functionality. Instead of having to pay $300 for a game system and $2000 for a computer - why not simply create a $150 hardware and software combo to allow your Gamecube/playstation/dreamcast/nes/whatever to be a wordprocessor for kids to use in school.
Just an idea I had for a while...
-RickTheWizKid
The answer is pretty simple, actually. Adding console functionality to a DVD player (which already includes display conversion electronics and a drive unit, along with rudiments like power supply and case) is probably much cheaper than producing a whole console. Coupled with the fact that the console vendor (Sony, Nintendo, et al) might be enticed to partially subsidize the production (because the loss to them per unit would be less than for a full console), and the fact that consumers will be willing to pay somewhat more for a combination unit (which is probably priced much less than the DVD unit and the console would cost together if bought separately), it's probably a break-even or better situation.
Besides, even if they ended up losing 5% of their profit margin on the machine, but sold more units as a result, they'd still go for it. The DVD player market right now is crowded and commoditizing (products with similar features compete on price), so almost any differentiation is something to be sought, from a development and marketing standpoint.
Get off my launchpad!
...great for pirates. Seriously. The GameCube HAD an excellent antipiracy mechanism. Now all HK has to do is crack the disc, distrobution is no longer and issue.
Nintendo made an excellent decision as far as anti-piracy goes with the disc size. I personally love them. I have a feeling that the majority of Q purchases are going to be for the purpose of pirating the games in the near future.
Because of the price of the Q, I don't see piracy becomming a big deal. We know that there must be some heavy profit on each Q sold. This is probably to offset the potential piracy that Nintendo expects to occur.
The only reason we even see a Panasonic Q is because Panasonic probably cut Nintendo a deal on the drives that are in every GameCube.
I modified my Japanese imported GC and I can say that the motherboard and even the outside bracket are identical to the regular version of the GC. The only difference here is the different laser housing, which surprisingly doesn't neccessarily allow for greater piracy. The GC discs are actually burned backwards (from the outside->in), which will make the biggest difference in replicating the discs. While they may not be bringing this product to the US, the modification is a very simple one which I was personally able to do in a matter of minutes. I just wouldn't look at this as the holy grail of GC piracy until there is more research done on the GC optical technology.
Here are a few answers that may clear things up for you.
:) Well, I take that back. You probably can, it would just cost more than the actual games right now anyways. Later on in the future? I'm sure someone will come up with something. But unlike the PS2 and XBOX, piracy isn't gonna happen on the NGC any time soon. Nintendo has *ALWAYS* tried to keep piracy to a minimum with their proprietary formats. This is a good thing by the way. It keeps the software developers happy. Which means they'll make games for Nintendo. Which means people like me will be happy! :)
/. crowd, but I like playing games with my friends. Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Bros. has provided more than their money's worth already. That said, I can't wait til Mario Cart comes out! :) And I pray there'll be a version of Mario Party for it too. As 'kiddy' as these games may be, they definately do the job. It gives us great fun! And that's why I bought it right? So to answer, if you already have a DVD player (I did, in the PS2) then I would recommend a NGC if you have friends. If you do have friends and don't have a DVD player, than your decision is a little tougher. If you don't have friends at all then it doesn't matter what you get, does it? You'll be playing alone. :)
:)
First off, there *IS* a relationship between Panasonic and Nintendo. So to the guy that said Nintendo wouldn't be happy about it, you're wrong. They're very happy about it. Afterall, Panasonic makes the drives the NGC uses. (I think Panasonic also has a hand in the proprietary DVD-like format the cute little 3" discs use!)
Secondly, all things point to the 'Q' *NOT* coming to North America. Single biggest reason. Piracy. I doubt anyone can (at this moment) get there hands on DVD-like 3" media!
Finally, to the dude contemplating what to get. I personally have a PS2 and picked up my NGC at launch. I don't think this is true for the rest of the
Anyways, hope that helps someone. Anyone!
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak