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EA Hot On PSP, Not Yet On DS As Results Released
Thanks to GameSpot for its news that Electronic Arts is backing the Sony PSP portable and reserving judgment on Nintendo's DS, as a conference call following the company's Q4 financial results revealed "the publisher has eight to 12 titles in development for Sony's upcoming handheld console, the PSP." However, EA "haven't made any decisions" regarding support of Nintendo's recently revealed dual-screen DS. Yahoo/Reuters also has EA's software/hardware predictions for 2004, with the company expecting "price cuts to $129 from $179 in the United States on the PS2 and the Xbox by this spring, and no later than Labor Day." Elsewhere, 1UP are reporting that EA's first Xbox Live title could be on the way, as they relay an as yet unconfirmed rumor that "three different Battlefield titles are in the works, one each for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC", each online-enabled and "built around a modern warfare setting instead of the historical settings of Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam."
I'm as skeptical as the next guy about the DS, but it's completely obvious that, with an 8 month head start, a publisher's plans for a portable console are going to be much more solid for the PSP than for the DS, that they've just barely been introduced to.
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
So is this modern day version just going to be the retail release of the mod Desert Combat?
----- One piece short of Legoland
I don't find it too hard to believe that EA will try to market modern settings in games these days, what with WWII being insanely overdone. But I find it hard to believe that they will try to make three different games, with three different settings. After all, what would they pick while retaining Battlefield's coolness factor of easy to use vehicles? Somolia? No/few tanks. Desert Storm? No contest, and no real terrain to use. Operation Enduring Freedom? Even less of the same. So whats left?
Personally, I hope they make a game for all three systems which will be cross compatable. A game where Xbox, PS2, and PC gamers will be able to finally duke it out head to head in a truely chaotic game. I can see it now, Xbox and PS2 gamers vs PC gamers in Console Gamers vs PC Gamers. Or Xbox gamers vs PS2 gamers. Stuff like that would be hella interesting to see, especially the leagues.
No, but I remember the Game and Watch gallery handheld games.
It's very nice and considerate of them to not release games on the DS.
I wonder if they'll extend the favor to more systems.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Was Virtual Boy supposed to be portable? It was the size of a small TV.
I don't believe they've done much else in the portable department aside from the insanely popular GameBoy line and the Game & Watch Gallery which got them pretty much into video games.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
You wouldn't happen to have a tatoo of barbed wire around your bicep?
Sega was unprofitable. Nintendo makes more money on their products then Microsoft make on 90% of their products.
I'm a PPC fan, and can't wait until my 120E can run MS's OS(*). AFAIC, J2ME's DoA, and while my HP's no PoS, it's too slow to run MAME, much less a DC emu. Anyone else still PO'ed that that platform's RIP?
(*Apologies to fellow Palm OS fans; you can't abbreviate that further.)
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
EA hasn't decided yet. They aren't against it. Don't word the headline to make it seem like they turned it down. It's the negative mantra like this that I don't understand.
Konami and Namco are for it only because they have some sort of faith in Nintendo like with the Triforce (Besides, Castlevania would work a lot better with the stats and map constantly available). I doubt Nintendo has released all the info on the hardware yet, even to the developers, so showing reserve right now is logical.
EA supports everything anyway, it's a monster game company machine.
Actually, the top selling title this year was Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire (Counting combined sales, #2 and #3 if you don't), Mario Kart was #7 and Wind Waker was #5. That was in the US, and there weren't any Xbox titles in the top 10 either. Considering Mario Kart was out for less than 6 weeks out of 52 and made #7, that's pretty darn good. Of course, Vice City is #6, smack dab between the two.
No other company had 4 titles in the top 10. I'd say they're doing just fine. Take your holier-than-though attitude elsewhere, assuming your opinion is of the masses isn't always the way it works out. Could it be that there's a balance in the sales? Or is that just beyond your comprehension?
The virtual boy wasn't portable.. it had a stand.
In fact the virtual boy only did poorly because of the evil red and black screen. If nintendo did the virtual boy with two backlit color LCDs today, it might do quite well.
"Well except for the Gameboy line Nintendo hasn't done to well with portable devices. Does any one remember the Virtual Boy? "
And besides the VB their portable failures would be....?
Like or hate the VB, it was an ambitious product. This is in stark contrast to Sega, Sony, and SNK who tend to make a lot of 'Me-too' products.
"Derp de derp."
What's wrong with Mario Kart? That game's fun. Oh wait, I forgot: I'm 25, that means I have to demonstrate my sophisticated taste in games by only playing the ones with 'mature' visuals.
;)"
"Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Sega could use the company
Nintendo's not several hundred million dollars in debt.
"Derp de derp."
Well except for the Gameboy line Nintendo hasn't done to well with portable devices
It's much more than that. The statement "other than the gameboy line" is not fair. Look at what they did...
1989 - Gameboy is released, selling tens of millions of systems, despite three vastly superior (graphically) portables being available.
1995 - Nintendo gets millions of people to buy their "Play it Loud" series of Gameboys - basically the EXACT same thing as the Gameboys that had been out for more than half a decade, but in "cool colors."
1996 - Nintendo gets millions more to buy still-uncolored Gameboy Pocket systems. They are graphically identical to the 1989 Gameboy and their only new features are that they are thinner and use 2 batteries, not 4 (though the original Gameboy wasn't terrible with batteries. Not great, but not terrible).
1997 - Millions more are sold when the "Gameboy (Pocket) Color" is released. This system, released a year after Super Mario 64's graphics shocked the gaming world, features games which (besides a few colors) are not much different than games released a decade earlier.
2000 - The 100 millionth Gameboy system is sold.
2001 - Gameboy Advance is released. Despite a huge engineering flaw (no backlight) it sells millions of units.
2002 - The Gameboy Advance SP is released. Millions of units are sold, presumably many to people who have already given Nintendo money when they bought the identically-powerful original Gameboy Advance systems.
So as you can see, Nintendo is a shrewd player. To say "they were able to sell a bunch of gameboys" is a huge understatement.
That's a pretty big "except", considering they sold 100 million of the classic GB architecture in various forms.
Elsewhere, 1UP are reporting that EA's first Xbox Live title could be on the way, as they relay an as yet unconfirmed rumor that "three different Battlefield titles are in the works, one each for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC", each online-enabled and "built around a modern warfare setting instead of the historical settings of Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam."
Could their decision to throw Battlefield on Xbox Live have anything to do with the fact that a competitor might do it first ?
...I think the Xbox version will be Battlefield Grenada.
"This is in stark contrast to Sega, Sony, and SNK who tend to make a lot of 'Me-too' products."
I do not think I would include Sega in there. Remember the Dreamcast? That console was far ahead of its time. It was the first one to come with a modem and have games with online play. Also, remember VMU's? Those had lots of potiental that went unused. You could play mini games on them when not hooked up to the controller, and in some games like NFL2k, you could accually use the VMU to choose which play you were going to use so your firend couldn't see.
I would hardly call those "me too" products.
roche
Bah Humbug!
The DS was announced to us a week ago, selected developers get early word and SDK's for NextGen devices like the DS,XBOX2,PS3 and the PSP (under NDA's of course) sometimes 2 years before its release (as soon as its greenlighted), how much time do you think it takes to design, manufacture and release a device like this? the DS prototype has been sitting in Nintendo labs for some years now.
However the public response to the DS has been mostly negative specially compared to the PSP, and thats the reason why some companies (like EA) are backing off.
However I dont think Nitendo will care that much since they are a first party based company and they can supply release titles. If the DS actually takes off more developers will join in. But until then is just not a safe investment.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Maybe the PSP SDK was released a bit early (although Nintendo has mentioned several times they have been working on a new handheld for at least 5 years) to developers before the DS but definetely not last week
Is naive to believe that there arent developers for the DS just because is too soon. The real reason is just that developers are as eskeptical as everyone else about the DS
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
"Nintendo gets millions more to buy still-uncolored Gameboy Pocket systems. They are graphically identical to the 1989 Gameboy"
Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but the GBP had a better display than the original GB. The display was more black/white instead of black/green, providing better contrast and the pixels in the GBP had a faster refresh time so the picture didn't blur as much.
At any rate, the original poster ignored Yokoi's earlier work with the Game & Watch handhelds.