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On The State Of Handheld Videogaming
Thanks to GCAdvanced.com for its mammoth 30+ page article interviewing developers and journalists about the state of the handheld videogame industry. Highlights include Karthik Bala of Vicarious Visions on why wireless matters for handhelds ("We've done plenty of multiplayer game modes for our GBA games, but the need for a link cable really limits the number of players who will play them. Our first N-Gage title supports Bluetooth multiplayer and we'll also be supporting the upcoming GBA wireless adapter in [an] upcoming game"), and Steven Kent's predictions for handheld market share by the end of 2005: "My guess [in descending order]: GBA, DS, PSP, N-Gage QD, Zodiac."
..is dumb, as we have nothing to base the speculation on other then nintendo's history.
If you are going by that, it should be the "next big thing."
Frankly, if nintendo's next handheld doesnt do 3d, its going to get smacked by the PSP.
no
but the need for a link cable really limits the number of players who will play them.
It's not just the need for a cable, but the price of the cable when you go and look for one. It is not uncommon for these cables to be $30+.. and, for what, two proprietary plugs with some wires in between? Not encouraging!
I have to say, though, wireless handheld gaming units could be really popular, but I think cellphone based systems will ultimately prove more successful than the Gameboy. Almost everyone in the target market carries a cellphone nowadays, and the beauty of wireless gaming is that you can play whenever you feel like it. Most people won't carry their Gameboys around with them all of the time.. but they'll have their phone.
Most people who DO play Gameboy games together using the cable are usually meeting up at someone elses' house anyway.. and if you're going to do that, why not play just play multiplayer on an XBox or PS2? That's why cabled mobile gaming hasn't caught on so far.. people just don't all take their Gameboys and meet up in inconvenient locations just for the fun of it.. with wireless, they could.
are there any good 3d engines for any of these handheld platforms?
Great 3D-gaming on my ol' Palm Vx.
. ht m
http://www.sunsetwestpi.com/palmorama/dreadling
perl -e'print$_{$_} for sort%_=`lynx -dump svanstrom.com/t`'
I may be the only person who sees the Sony as (possibly) failing with the PSP. I think the PS2 has had a great life, but the latter part of it (the part we're in) is nothing to write home about.
Sony, I think, more than Nintendo and Microsoft, is badly in need of something that will prove itself at about this time. Since the PS3 is not going to come out a whole year before the competition, they had better give more reason to buy it than backwards compatibility. The PSP will also not have the same advantage from the start that the PS2 had...
Sony is still dominant, but hasn't given me much of a reason to buy into that dominance in the last several years. They simply enjoy a larger user base.
Nintendo is in somewhat of a similar situation, however, they don't need to worry about where the next generation gamers are going. Nintendo delivers quality... and there are a lot of people that live by that rule before all else (me included).
DS isn't a guaranteed hit either, but I think it's more guaranteed than the PSP.
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
doesn't matter, when it has somewhat more advanced feature set than current PS2, though its screen size is surely smaller (but still larger than that of GBA). Do you complain against the fact that laptop PC is much more expensive than desktop PC?
Ok heres my take:
The One who has an obvious advantage is nintendo since they have the lead with the gameboy but the whole Dual screen idea looks more like a novelty than an actual feature. Even before launch developers have showed themselves a bit esceptic on it taking off. Nintendo had always said that their advantage would be their price, but now that the DS is rumoured to have a 3d chip it would affect it directly. Parents and gamers wont mind buying a GBA at $100 but a DS at $200+? with less than half the battery life?(speculative price) why not just buy a GBA instead?
The PSP is the second most important contender, while many think that is a sure bet as the handheld king, sony has actual little to no experience in the handheld market, and actually had a flop in their past (the pocketstation). The biggest problem according some analists is its price which would range around $200-$300 and that the product will not be targetted at kids-teens but at the teenage-adult market (just like the PS according some) while teens and young adults have always been haldheld consumers the adult market is a niche that has never been touched. In order to achieve this the psp will have MP3, MPG and rumored MiniDVD and TV playing capabilities (plus other apps like a personal agenda and even a digital camera with an add on) it will be advertised as a multi task device instead of a handheld. The problem still persits: will gamers be willing to expend the extra cash in a "multi device" when all they want is a handheld?
The N-Gage 2, with the history of n-gage is easy to discard this one of the list as a contender at all, while N-gage 2 will fix a good part of the designs problems that make the first one a joke, Nokia still has the problem that they dont develop any games and that not many 3rd party companies will be willing to risk to partner with them (again) after their big flop. Technical problems aside, the pricing, useless user packages and complete lack of support were also terrible and none of them seems to have been tackled off for its succesor.
In my opinion this "war" was already over before it started, Sony and Nintendo will each take a section of the market and "share" it somehow. Nintendo will hold most kids, some teens a small group of young adults and their old fanbase. Sony will get a small group of kids a good part of teens, most young adults and their old fanbase. Even if both systems turn out to be flops they will still offer better quality and game libraries than their competition. (ngage2, zodiac and cell phones) So basically (unless something unexpected happens) it is a no brainer.
p.s. About the article: seriously do you think is a good idea to hear handheld predictions from a guy who greenlighted a N-gage game?
Thanks for reading fellow slashdotters, peace!
My new upcoming sig:
Slashdot needs 2 new modifiers: -1:Frantic fanboy and -1: Compulsive whinner. Unfortunately I get the feeling everyone (including me) would get modded -2 practically all the time
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Some ex-Palm employees get together and finally make a good gaming Palm and people start thinking it's doomed?
I got one for my brother and he loves it. Of course, he wired Wi-Fi and Bluetooth into his car, so the Zodiac also works with wireless internet in there and controls Winamp through the computer in it, but he enjoys it nonetheless.
It'd be one thing if I heard people bagging on it like the N-Gage, but everyone I know loves it aside from the early analog stick problems. Heck, the thing isn't even fully launched yet. They don't have enough ready to ship to stores.
People can be so quick to judge.
First off, People say I'm a Nintendo fangirl so don't cite me for pushing anti-Nintendo FUD.
You list things that the market has shown to be true. Unfortunately, the market is always changing and there are two factors that you missed:
1. Before Sony came along, no "consumer electronics" company survived in the video game market.
Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, NEC, Phillips, and if we go back a bit, Magnavox have all thrown their hat into the lucrative video game ring just to lose fortunes. While one could argue that NEC did succeed, it was only in a localized market and not the global dominance that Sony currently has.
2. Before Sony, the company who came out on top of the previous generation would lose the next.
Atari was the pre-crash victor but never again saw anything close to the top. Nintendo's NES (Famicom) was a phenominal success, the SNES barely managed to keep up with the Genesis, the N64 did mediocre, and the Gamecube strugles with the Xbox for second place. Sega's Genesis was a hit but Sega's later outings fell flat. Sony's Playstation dominance has only been continued by the PS2.
The Gameboy came out on top because of three things: Your afforementioned $100 price point and battery life were two. The third was the "killer app" Tetris.
Sony has already shown that price doesn't matter as they outsold the $200 Dreamcast with their $300 PS2. It even stings more when you consider that the early PS2 games were technically inferior to the DC. The PS2's killer app? DVD playback.
Battery life shouldn't be a big problem either. I love my Lynx but I'll admit that 6 hours on 6 AA batteries versus the Gameboy's 20 hours on 4 was a big deal but it was more of the cost of battery replacement that was the problem. Like the GBA SP, the PSP will have a rechargeable battery. If Sony can manage 6-8 hours of life per charge, they should be fine. Most marathon sessions will be done near the convenience of an AC outlet anyway. Convince gamers to throw the unit on the charger before bedtime and they'll be set. Heck they're probably doing that right now with their cell phones.
What about a killer app? Look for a Grand Theft Auto or Final Fantasy game to appear with the PSP. Granted that's just my speculation but I would bet money on it.
Your other points?
1. No gaming product they have released has lived up to it's hype. See also: the PS2.
Both the PS1 and the PS2 didn't have good software until after being on the market for a few years. Sony, much like Microsoft with their Xbox, can afford to lose buckets of money before showing a profit. More importantly, Sony doesn't need to live up to the hype. They just need to follow the hype machine to success.
2. They have an awful reputation for hardware longevity, their stuff breaks, frequently. See also: the PS1/PS2.
I'll agree there. I only bought a PS2 once my second PS1 died. I used to joke that about half of the Playstation's quoted install base was actually just a replacement for the other defective half. The PS1 and PS2 were designed to be cheap but effective. Is this really a problem for Sony though? Not really. If the unit can survive long enough before it's lost or stolen then it's good enough for most people.
Sony has just about everything they need to topple Nintendo's portable monopoly. If they don't, it's certainly not going to be from a lack of trying.
All the comments I've read have speculated that this company's handheld will win for this reason or that company's handheld will lose for that reason. None have mentioned what will truly be the deciding factor: THE GAMES! And from what I've seen announced, PSP is going to have a lineup that will truly challenge Nintendo's grip on the handheld market like no other handheld before it.
This is not to say that SOny will automatically win, but it does give Sony a much better chance at competeing with the big N than anyone else has had. The real winner in all of this, though, is us; the gaming public. How many people believe that Nintendo would have released the DS (remember, it's NOT a GameBoy Advance replacement) if SOny had not decided to jump into the handheld market? At any rate, this E3 should be interesting.