CES Summit Brings Together 'GameBoy Killers'

Thanks to GameSpy for their article covering a panel at CES in Las Vegas discussing the future of the handheld gaming market. Representatives for the Sony PSP, Tapwave Zodiac, Nokia N-Gage, and for Intel's 'standard portable platform' XScale technology were in attendance, and it was noted that: "Intel, Nokia, and Tapwave are attempting to expand the market by offering powerful platforms that also offer other productivity and entertainment features." However, Sony are staying out of allowing other kinds of software on the PSP, suggesting: "We feel very strongly that what the consumer wants is a dedicated gaming device." A retail representative also voiced concerns with the new diversity of portables: "I don't know if there's room for tons of other devices. You've got to sell to the core gamers and expand from that."

Comments

Re:Right..

[buffer-overflowed]

Don't forget you can get a flash card for a GBA for around $100. This allows you to buy a complete dev kit + test system for between $160 and $200(or, if you have an internet connection you can get every GB, GBA, and NES game for free(store them 4 at a time on one normal sized cart)). For $300 you can buy a GBA SP, A 1GB Flash Cart(big enough to store something like 64 GBA games), A link cable, and a Gamecube - GBA link cable. The GBA SP has a base battery power of 8-10 hours with backlight on, and the battery can be replaced to nearly double that for another $100. So, you have an upgradeable, portable system with a one time cost, that comes in at base at the sub $100 pricepoint.

The N-Gage similarly, allows homebrewing(in theory). The PSP will not.

Given Sony's preferrence for hyping hardware features that will never see the light of day(PS1, PS2, PSX), it would deeply shock me if it performed at anywhere near the level they claim. Then, their reputation for producing crap(PS1 & PS2 laser assemblies, which have a tendancy to fail[granted this is high volume, but the gameboy has much higher volume and you don't hear about hardly any problems from GB/GBA/GBA-SP owners]).

Even if it does live up to the hype, it's still looking to debut at the $300 pricepoint. At which point, it better come out with some damned fun games, decent battery life, and a BJ attachment if they expect me to buy one.

Many have offered a superior handheld system to Nintendo, all have failed. If Sony fails to convince the majority of current Gameboy Owners that it's worth it to buy a new handheld, their offering will die or languish at a far distant 2nd(where who in their right mind would develop much for it?).