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Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3

Posted by simoniker on from the meeeeeeooww dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There's a Wired News article up discussing the fight for handheld game console supremacy starting at next week's E3 Expo. According to Wired News, 'Nintendo, the biggest seller of video-game consoles 15 years ago, once again faces a tough street fight against Sony, the upstart that stole much of the video-game business with its PlayStation. This time, the fight is over handheld video-game machines, and if Nintendo loses, it could be in serious trouble.' It explains: 'Nintendo is expected to give peeks at its next-generation handheld system -- code-named the DS -- while Sony will release more information about its PSP. Both companies will be vying for the hearts and minds of gamers and -- more importantly -- software developers.' Who's gonna win?" Slashdot Games recently ran a related story that has developers and journalists analyzing the showdown to come.

330 comments

  1. Like always... by Pidder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The system with the best games will win.

    1. Re:Like always... by The+Other+White+Boy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      my Dreamcast and Saturn beg to differ.

    2. Re:Like always... by GFLPraxis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When it comes to handhelds, portability is also a factor. I don't want to be carrying a fat portable playstation if it uses disks...

    3. Re:Like always... by kisrael · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The system with the best games will win.

      Uh, given how one gamer's "best" is another gamer's "complete waste of bits", this is a meaningless statement.

      And if you think time-to-market and name brand recognition don't play a major role, you're nuts. There's a ton of other factors to. (In particular, I think certain genres make or break systems as much as particular games.)

      I'd cite examples, but than my rampant fanboyism might show through.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    4. Re:Like always... by lpangelrob2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Well, then Nintendo should've run away with the winning title.

      Or maybe it depends on more than just the best games... like actually bothering to advertise and get gamers' attentions in the places gamers go.

      --
      -Rob
      Marriage doesn't have to suck!
    5. Re:Like always... by the+morgawr · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The PSP is going to have to have some damn good games for it to get me to switch.

      Unlike a console set up where I can have them both and play games on both, it's a real bitch to take two handheld systems with me. I'll have to pick. Given that I've got a GBA and over 50 GB, GBC, and GBA games, the PSP is going to need a ton of omph for me to even consider getting one. Once my overall disapointment with the PS2 is added in, I'm not seeing myself buying one.

      --
      The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
    6. Re:Like always... by Gldm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And how do you get the best games?

      Back in the day when Playstation was new, everyone thought Sony had gone absolutely insane entering the console market because they'd made almost no good games for existing consoles.

      But what they did instead was interesting. Sony made alot of programming tools for the PS and helped developers make games on it. Sega's Saturn was technically more powerful but a pain in the ass to program for, and Sega kept all the best secrets to themselves for their own games. Nintendo 64 was much more powerful, but stayed on the expensive cartridge format and Nintendo liked to have control over who could make what for the system, both of which scared off many developers. Sony didn't have a reason to keep secrets or keep other software developers behind them, as they didn't really have their own software divisions worried about keeping an edge over competition. It was only later when games like Gran Turismo came out that Sony started making decent games themselves.

      I think Nintendo's going to lose this fight just because they're too used to getting their way and ruling their software library with an iron fist. Granted it's lightened up a bit since the SNES bloodless Mortal Kombat days, but I think Sony's just going to bring more developers to the market with them.

      --

      Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!

    7. Re:Like always... by drzhivago · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's pretty funny that the Playstation 2 has done as well as it has. Yes, you're right, the PSX was much easier to develop for than the Saturn. With the PS2 though, development was much more difficult than even the Saturn.

      Regardless, there are 2 factors you didn't take into account: time to market, and cost of games. Since the PSP is essentially a mini-PS2, complete with large capacity discs, the overall development time and cost for PSP games will be substantially larger than for GBA games. Longer development time = less games. To offset the larger incurred costs, expect PSP games to be on-average more similar to it's console brethren than portable competitors. I think those 2 factors will determine whether the PSP (and DS possibly) succeeds. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the day, the GBA is still left standing as the winner, even against a system from the same company.

    8. Re:Like always... by Joe+Random · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think a more important factor (and one that leans in Nintendo's favor) is the access to recognizable games. Nintendo has such franchises as Pokémon, Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. Sonay has . . . well . . . I can't really think of any popular series of games that Sony has a monopoly on.

      Based on this, I would say that Nintendo has the front pole position in this race. Sony's PSP will have to either be a much better system, or appeal to a wider audience, than the DS for it to come out the victor.

      Not that I would be surprised if that's exactly what happens. I mean, the original Playstation managed to make a big splash in the console market, paving the way for Sega's downfall. But Nintendo's had a death grip on the handheld market for so long that Sony really has their work cut out for them.

    9. Re:Like always... by John+Starks · · Score: 1

      Name 10 other good games, please.

      Nintendo has always had a few great games, but not since the SNES have they had the majority of them.

    10. Re:Like always... by ps_inkling · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I don't want to be carrying a fat portable playstation if it uses disks
      You mean like this?

      Yes, it's a homebrew. Yes, it's nifty. Yes, the server may fall over.

    11. Re:Like always... by kisrael · · Score: 1

      This is a good point. One of the surprising things to me is how well PS2 has done w/o that many franchises.

      One thing though; I think Nintendo better work on some NEW handheld games within their established franchises. GBA has really milked the NES/SNES Mario port to death.

      "DS" does seem like a gimmick, alas. I would've rather seen a straightforward backwards-compatible successor to the GB line.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    12. Re:Like always... by Gldm · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thing is development cost is high for the inital development. Since the PSP is essentially a mini-PS2 as you put it, ports will be far easier than redoing a game from scratch to fit a traditional handheld's meager resources. These days companies really like it if you can recycle most of your effort spent on making a game into a fairly cheap and easy port, like Xbox to PC. PS2 to PSP ports will probably be what kills GBA. I don't own a PS2 yet specificly because I'm more interested in the PSP and playing the same games but with wireless support and wherever I want to go.

      --

      Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!

    13. Re:Like always... by SphericalCrusher · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not always true.

      But in that case, Nintendo is leading, and will continue on, even if the PSP is released against the GBA SP. When it comes down to the games, Nintendo is the King.

      --
      "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
    14. Re:Like always... by Destoo · · Score: 1

      Why would you need 10 games if they're the best?

      It's like having a pool table. Do you need more pool tables because you get bored of the old one?

      I'm still replaying Zelda once in a while.
      I will always play Bomberman with my wife (and eventually my son) for the rest of my life.

      A few geat games is all you need.

      I will never tire of re-watching LoTR, Braveheart, Indiana Jones, The Princess Bride and Elvis Gratton. That's 5 movies. (technically 10, but it's really 5 tales).

      The reason the SNES had "so many great games" is that nintendo 'allowed' third parties to create them.

      If tomorrow I decide to set up shop and make PS2 games and market them, sony's lawyers are going to kick me so hard my shop will end up in another dimension.

      --
      Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
    15. Re:Like always... by lpangelrob2 · · Score: 1
      Wind Waker, SSX (not exclusive, but it counts as a good game, I'd think), Super Monkey Ball (and maybe 2 if you're really into that kind of thing), Rogue Leader was good for its time as a leadoff game for the GC... but not the Star Wars game that came after it... Eternal Darkness. I could count Mario Kart and Super Mario Sunshine, but those are generally not counted as Nintendo's very best. Still good, though. There was a James Bond game (I obviously don't have) that got pretty rave reviews. I'll throw in THPS4 (another game I don't have) as 'ok'.

      I can sit here and knock their image and lackluster advertising, but never really their games. They may not have the same originality as they used to on the SNES (face it, it's harder now), but they're still pretty darn good.

      --
      -Rob
      Marriage doesn't have to suck!
    16. Re:Like always... by Joe+Random · · Score: 1

      One of the surprising things to me is how well PS2 has done w/o that many franchises.

      I have a theory. I think that, lacking these well-known franchise games, companies have to actually come up with new and original ideas rather than rehashing the same concept over and over again. Personally, I like Mario. But I'd like it even better if I could play whatever new concept that is going to become the next "Mario".


      One thing though; I think Nintendo better work on some NEW handheld games within their established franchises. GBA has really milked the NES/SNES Mario port to death.

      I wholeheartedly agree. Someone needs to clue Nintendo in to the fact that no, they don't have to port every single Mario game to every one of their systems.

      Although, honestly, I think that Nintendo has done a remarkable job in updating their franchise games without losing the "feel" of the originals. For instance, Metroid Prime kicks ass, even though I never would have thought that I'd be able to enjoy a 3D Metroid game.


      "DS" does seem like a gimmick, alas. I would've rather seen a straightforward backwards-compatible successor to the GB line.

      I sometimes think that breaking backward compatibility might be a good idea. I wonder how much cost per unit could be cut if they removed the ability of the GBA to play old GB and GB Color games. I would imagine that the electronics would be simpler. They could also change the form factor of the game cartridges -- or even switch to small mini-CDs or something. Better in my mind would be a cheaper system that plays only new games, with aftermarket cartridge adaptors and emulation software available for those who want to play older games.

    17. Re:Like always... by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      Sony is unanimous for outstanding 2nd and 3rd generation games that eat competitors alive. Their playstation 1 and 2 IMHO had lousy 1st generation games.

      Following that trend, PSP will probably be so-so in its first 6 months.

    18. Re:Like always... by DeadScreenSky · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would you need 10 games if they're the best?

      Because the three games listed only present three, maybe even two genres. Most gamers do not live on platformers and side-scrolling action games alone... Where are the best sports games (very important in the US and Europe)? The best RPGs? The best fighting games? Best 3D action games? Best arcade racing games? Best realistic racing games? Best FPS games? Best strategy games? Best online games? Etc. Many gamers don't care for all genres (don't like console RPGs or realistic sports games myself, for example), but they still want a far larger variety than anything Nintendo is offering.

      I find it very hard to believe you only ever watch ten different movies - most film goers want far more variety in their lives, and the same is true with the vast majority of gamers.

      If tomorrow I decide to set up shop and make PS2 games and market them, sony's lawyers are going to kick me so hard my shop will end up in another dimension.

      Umm, not if you get a license from Sony. Regardless, so would Nintendo or MS - what does this have to do with anything?

      --
      There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
    19. Re:Like always... by edrain · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's like having a pool table. Do you need more pool tables because you get bored of the old one?

      Not the best analogy. Your experience will vary marginally (if at all) between pool tables, wheras your experience between Pong and Vice City will vary quite a bit. By your analogy, why read more than 10 books in a lifetime? Unless, of course, you enjoy limiting your potential enjoyment / growth / whatever.

      The reason the SNES had "so many great games" is that nintendo 'allowed' third parties to create them.

      If tomorrow I decide to set up shop and make PS2 games and market them, sony's lawyers are going to kick me so hard my shop will end up in another dimension.

      I would guess (although I'm not 100% sure) that Nintendo required licensing for development on their platform just as Sony does. Hence no porno games.

      --
      Battling Beasts
    20. Re:Like always... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      Given the early 90's console wars between the various consoles, I'm going to give the win to SNK's NeoGeo, who's outlived most of nintendo's lineup minus the GC and GBA/GBASP, most of Sega's hardware since the death of the mastersystem and basically all of the crappy early-late 90's consoles.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    21. Re:Like always... by adjusting · · Score: 1

      unanimous?

    22. Re:Like always... by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      Word up on the Dramcast. It had so many games well ahead of its time and the graphics were as good as plenty of games out on the X-Box, PS2 and Game Cube. The controller was fabulous and lets not forget Soul Calibur. Then again, it's easy to forget Soul Calibur since we have Soul Calibur 2 now days, but I digress.

      Too bad many of the Dreamcasts games were way over the head of most moro...I mean "gamers" today.

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    23. Re:Like always... by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "The system with the best games will win. "

      Actually it's the system with the most games that works. See Playstation 2.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    24. Re:Like always... by kisrael · · Score: 1

      I have a theory. I think that, lacking these well-known franchise games, companies have to actually come up with new and original ideas rather than rehashing the same concept over and over again. Personally, I like Mario. But I'd like it even better if I could play whatever new concept that is going to become the next "Mario".

      I don't think your theory applies in Sony's case, because really Sony isn't making that many games. They did themselves a big favor by opening up the PS1 (both in terms of devkits and cheap media) and then being first to market and backwards compatible made them untouchable this PS2 generation.

      Microsoft is an interesting case. Halo and Crimson Skies are both pretty great...though again, MS isn't a developer.

      Sega and the DC is another case, and they did come out with some great and original games. Wasn't enough to survive alas.

      I sometimes think that breaking backward compatibility might be a good idea. I wonder how much cost per unit could be cut if they removed the ability of the GBA to play old GB and GB Color games

      Given that the two dominant systems of the age, PS2 and GBA, both feature backwards compatability, I'm guessing its worth the cost, that it's more important to making a successful product than the "serious gamer" (who is willing to keep old hardware around to play old favorites) tends to realize.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    25. Re:Like always... by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      My GameCube too.

      I think it's more like "the system with the most games that cater to the intellectually inept, and/or with the greater ability for piracy, will win."

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    26. Re:Like always... by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      But who can afford an arcade machine? And did anyone ever actually buy the NG Pocket? (I know exactly zero people who did.)

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    27. Re:Like always... by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      So if access to those recognisable games is an important factor in success, then why is the GameCube selling so poorly in the western world?

      My theory will remain as always... the system those software is easier to pirate will get a greater following. I swear Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by making a bulletproof console.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    28. Re:Like always... by erasmus_ · · Score: 1

      Heheh. I think he meant synonymous. But he was really close, yeah.

      --
      Please subscribe to see the more insightful version of th
    29. Re:Like always... by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but PS2's game quality is seriously crappy already, without reducing yourself to playing even crappier quality PSX games.

      I can only think of a single game I would get on PS2 that doesn't have an equal or better equivalent somewhere else, and that would be Rez. Xbox has the exact same problem but since it's a homebrew software paradise it will always succeed in that arena. And GameCube, with all the best games... doesn't seem to be doing so well. Go figure.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    30. Re:Like always... by AltaMannen · · Score: 1

      I think some people are getting tired of the same-old from Nintendo. The games are new but the characters are the same, and people usually want new faces, and the DS and PSP have equal chances of becoming the major handheld because some people prefer known brands while other people will buy the latest hype. Both Nintendo and Sony seem to have many 3rd party partners that are eager to bring their home console games to another platform (like reselling cds to people who already bought it on vinyl).

      I also think 'the market' will gladly accept two handhelds and put them both in its pocket as long as the games are different and appeals to different people. I think many 3rd party games will come out for both handhelds but have different interfaces to deal with the different screen layouts.

      If Sony is successful, microsoft can't be far behind with a prototype of their version of the same thing which will probably have 3 screens, and the reason we haven't heard about it yet is that they don't have the final specifications for the PSP.

    31. Re:Like always... by damiam · · Score: 1

      Don't forget F-Zero and Super Smash Bros. Melee

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    32. Re:Like always... by bob65 · · Score: 1

      People are stupid. Thus, to win, you need to have stupid games.

    33. Re:Like always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Oh yeah - Metroid Prime, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Sunshine are real intellectual pursuits. Jesus fucking christ, don't try to be a fucking video game snob you douchebag. They're all video games - give me a fucking break.

      And guess what - I own a Gamecube you fucking moron.

      Dreamcast was really easy to pirate games on. Why didn't it run away with the market you jackass?

    34. Re:Like always... by bigman2003 · · Score: 1

      Is your entire post sarcastic...or is it just completely ironic that your sig is: "The future is always scary to those who cling to the past." -T.O'Reilly?

      Variety is the spice of life.

      --
      No reason to lie.
    35. Re:Like always... by ShyGuy91284 · · Score: 0

      I agree. I didn't get a Dreamcast untill it was $100, but I would have to say it was one of the finest systems I have ever used. Good graphics, simple yet innovative controller/memory card, network built in, great games. It's a shame it died.

      --
      In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
    36. Re:Like always... by supersteve1440 · · Score: 1

      right on!

    37. Re:Like always... by mingot · · Score: 1

      Name 10 other good games, please.

      No problem.

      Eternal Darkness
      Mario Kart
      Zelda: The Wind Waker
      F-Zero
      Super Monkey Ball
      Wave Race
      SSX Tricky
      Super Smash Brothers Melee
      Animal Crossing
      Soulcalibur II

    38. Re:Like always... by metroid+composite · · Score: 1
      I think Nintendo's going to lose this fight just because they're too used to getting their way and ruling their software library with an iron fist. Granted it's lightened up a bit since the SNES bloodless Mortal Kombat days, but I think Sony's just going to bring more developers to the market with them.

      I've yet to see evidence that Nintendo is still holding onto any draconian policies. Any content censorship was thrown out the window a while ago when they promoted Conker's Bad Fur day. From all I've heard their liscencing fee (for the GC) is $10, same as the PS2. I don't think they're holding back development information now either, as I believe they were beaten out the door on Cel-shading, for instance.

      The only control I've heard of is barring games which have horrid gameplay (a few very trashy GBA games have been cancelled this way). If anything this is a good thing. I don't want to accidentally pick up a title that I can barely play.

    39. Re:Like always... by John+Starks · · Score: 1

      Now send them to me. I'll evaluate, then get back to you.

    40. Re:Like always... by wheany · · Score: 1

      I usually play one game at a time, so I would take the system that has the game I'm currently playing.

    41. Re:Like always... by tommyboyprime · · Score: 1

      There's a ton of other factors to. That's supposed to be "too" doesn't anyone know how to spell anymore?

      --
      This parrot has ceased to be!
    42. Re:Like always... by kisrael · · Score: 1

      There's a ton of other factors to. That's supposed to be "too" doesn't anyone know how to spell anymore?

      I don't know, doesn't anyone know how to adequately indicate quoted text anymore?

      Shut the hell up. Yes, I know how to spell. No, in a forum like Slashdot I don't always take the time to proofread to catch typos like that.

      Sometimes I'm prone to other typos as well, like swapping m's and b's. It's a touch of a syndrome called synthenesia. So bite me. (Or, I guess in my case, 'mite be'.)

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    43. Re:Like always... by N+Monkey · · Score: 1

      The system with the best games will win.
      Possibly, but it's more likely to be down to marketing.

      Actually, I'm surprised no one here has picked up on the fact that mobile phones and PDAs will soon have 3D graphics that will, perhaps, come close to DC-level performance.

      Perhaps dedicated game systems will become a thing of the past?

    44. Re:Like always... by CptChipJew · · Score: 1

      I have a NeoGeo pocket I got from my brother. I only have one game (some Sonic game), and know nobody else who owns one.

      This is of course why I keep it ;)

      --
      Vonal Declosion
    45. Re:Like always... by TLSPRWR · · Score: 1

      If it used Minidisc type media, that'd be alright, don't have to worry all that much about scratches, but portability is still a problem. Minidiscs are small, but not as small as GBA carts..

    46. Re:Like always... by Destoo · · Score: 1

      Bingo.

      --
      Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
    47. Re:Like always... by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 1

      Why should I buy a game for a portable system with a 3 - 4" screen when if it's good I already own it and can play it on my 54" HDTV(or would rather play on my TV in the case of new releases)?

      Why should I buy a new system to play the exact same game I can play on a system I already own?

      Why should I buy a portable system(which if it's a mini-PS2, it should cost at least as much as the PS2 does[$180 atm]) I'll barely ever play?
      I'm an adult, I'm either in the car, at home(PS2), out and about, at work, or at a friend's house(PS2). I travel a bit for work, but really, I tend to either read, sleep, or play on my laptop. Recently, I've been playing my GBA a bit on planes, trains and in the bathroom, but I didn't buy that for GBA games, I bought it basically as a peripheral to my GCN.

      Don't see any value in being able to port over PS2 games easily, sorry.

      --
      The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
  2. Who's going to win? by Jonny+Ringo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Find out in 2008!

    1. Re:Who's going to win? by rusty0101 · · Score: 1

      Why wait?

      I predict it will be some 18 year old who gives one or the other to all the guys in his school who might be a challenge to him aquiring a harrem of the best looking girls in school...

      --
      You never know...
    2. Re:Who's going to win? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


      Find out in 2008!

      Duke Nukem Forever will win?

    3. Re:Who's going to win? by technomancerX · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      What's this got to do with Longhorn?

      --
      .technomancer
    4. Re:Who's going to win? by effex100 · · Score: 1

      They're in the process of killing Nokia. They didn't kill the N-Gage. The N-Gage was still born.

      --
      SMOKE... are ya smokin yet?
    5. Re:Who's going to win? by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      If history is any indicator, Nintendo.

      They beat Sega (genesis), Sony (Playstation), Sega (Dreamcast) Sony again (Playstation 2) and Microsoft (Xbox).

      Yup, Nintendo's N64 and GameCube have really taken over the market and competitors should stop wasting their money.(Sarcasm shutting down)

      Nintendo will be dethroned. Competition is great for the market.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    6. Re:Who's going to win? by Shadarr · · Score: 1

      Yeah, no kidding. Did Nintendo even bother to run ads against the nGage, or did they just ignore it while it choked on its own flaws? I never saw any.

      --
      Bite the hand.
    7. Re:Who's going to win? by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      If history is any indicator, Nintendo.

      I'd agree with this. Nintendo has PWNED the portable gaming industry for the past 25 years, from the early Game & Watches through the original GameBoy to GB Color, GB Pocket, GB Advance, GB Advance SP. It'll take drastic changes in the industry for that momentum to be disturbed.

      I don't see a portable PlayStation being such a change.

    8. Re:Who's going to win? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Yup, Nintendo's N64 and GameCube have really taken over the market and competitors should stop wasting their money.(Sarcasm shutting down)

      This discussion is about handheld gaming. Nintendo owns that market. End of story.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    9. Re:Who's going to win? by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Who's going to win? Find out in 2008!"

      Redundant? Heh I found it kinda funny. I mean, are we all bookmarking our posts here so we can whip them out in 2008 and say "HA! I was RIGHT!!"??

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    10. Re:Who's going to win? by Mairsil · · Score: 1

      Quite the opposite. If history is any indicator, Sony will win.

      First you had Nintendo and Sega, as well as a few bit players, and Nintendo was clearly the strongest. Then Sony came along, offering a unit with an optical drive, allowing for massive storage and higher margins (cds are lots cheaper than solid-state memory), and nearly obliterated Nintendo. Now sony has nearly 80% of the market.

      Fast forward a decade, and now the portable market is owned by Nintendo. Sony is about to offer a unit with an optical drive, allowing for massive storage and higher margins (UM discs are lots cheaper than solid-state memory).

      I'd say it's history repeating.

    11. Re:Who's going to win? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You DO know how fast an optical drive drains batteries, don't you? Battery life is a BIG concern in a portable console, and Sony themselves admitted that PSP's batteries will last 6 hours at most (sorry, no links here). Compare this with GBA's battery life and you will see what I mean.

  3. Ahem? by thpdg · · Score: 1
    http://www.vidgame.net/TIGER/GC.html

    It's been done, sorry folks. It just doesn't work.

    --

    -Patrick

    "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

    1. Re:Ahem? by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      What's been done, exactly? Making a portable game console?

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    2. Re:Ahem? by thpdg · · Score: 1

      Putting a PDA into a gaming device. Adding a touch screen to something to make it seem more functional.
      It's a great idea, and I used to be a big cheerleader of the Game.com, but it ends up just turning it into a gimmick.
      As long as they keep the 'normal' Game Boys, then I invite Nintendo to try anything they feel.

      --

      -Patrick

      "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

  4. Well... by chrispyman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I remember correctly, didn't Nintendo say that the DS is not a sequel to the GBA? Besides, one of the real selling points of the GBA (and PS2) was that it could play every single Game Boy game ever released since the system debuted in the late 80s, and thats certainly a negative for Sony's PSP.

    1. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      one of the real selling points of the GBA (and PS2) was that it could play every single Game Boy game ever released

      Probably you mean that the PS2 could play PS1 games. I guess you could cram a GBA cartridge into a PS2 memory slot or controller port, but I really don't think you'd accomplish much.

    2. Re:Well... by aflat362 · · Score: 1
      Backward compatibility isn't a big deal to me. I wonder how much a system sacrifices in order to be backward compatible. If they focused on playing only the new format games really well logic suggests that the end result would be a better game player for the newer games. Knowing this I wish companies would scrap backward-compatibility in favor of highest quality possible.

      I own a GBA SP right now and would care less if the new Game Boy didn't play my old games. Because I'd be satisfied playing the new games on it. If I wanted to play the GBA games again, I'd bust out the GBA.

      --

      Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart

    3. Re:Well... by muftak · · Score: 0

      you can get gameboy emmulators for the ps2...

    4. Re:Well... by mrgreen4242 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      If I remember correctly, didn't Nintendo say that the DS is not a sequel to the GBA?

      Regardless of wether that is the case or not, it is going to be perceived as the sequel to the GBA. It is going to have the GameBoy name, and be a new handheld from the Nintendo. People will naturally assume it is the next GB. As a comparison, look at the GBA SP and how many times you had to tell people it was EXACTLY the same inside as the GBA, just a different case w/ a backlight and built in batter.

      Also, if this is NOT a 'sequel' to the GBA, then they are introducing a device that will directly compete with their other products. Wether this would be a negative factor I'm not sure. I'd be curious to see how non-SP GBAs are selling now.

      Lastly, is there any info yet on the backward compatibility of the DS? I agree with the parent poster, that backwards compatibility will probably make or break the system. Remember the Virtual Boy? That wasn't a direct sequel to the GB, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...

      In an already crowded video game market it is going to be rough to get a new system off the ground. If the DS is backward compatible with the GB/A, it will probably sell well, if priced right. If not, it's going to be a tough sell when there are so many other options out there.

      The PSP will have success based on 1) (in the short term) Sony/PS fanboys who will buy it and all the launch games just because, and 2) (in the long run) how easy it ends up being to port PS games to it. If a developer can take a PS1 game, run it thru a magical Sony PSP compiler setup and have a nearly ready to ship PSP game, it will be an easy way to build up a library of good games fast, and put a huge dent into Nintendo's handheld market.

      Or I could be full of shit, who knows.

      Rob

    5. Re:Well... by kisrael · · Score: 1

      Backward compatibility isn't a big deal to me. I wonder how much a system sacrifices in order to be backward compatible.

      As a gamer I agree with you but I'm not sure that the market does. It may be a bigger selling point than you or I would guess...I don't think it's coincidence that the 2 current best selling systems, the ones that totally crush their competition, are backwards compatible: PS2 and GBA.

      And heck, with a chest of drawers holding a GC, Xbox, PS2, DC, N64, SNES, GBA, and a 2600 (for development work)...I can see the desire for fewer systems playing more games.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    6. Re:Well... by thebosz · · Score: 1

      The backwards capability in the GBA is mostly just an extra processor (the GBC Z80) with everything else hooked up to the GBA. In fact, as far as it goes, the GBA and GBC are the same thing. It doesn't take much away from the GBA to have that extra little processor in there.

      --
      The Kerr Divine: My wife's battle with a mysterious illness.
    7. Re:Well... by Torne · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not even an extra physical chip; the GBC's not-quite-Z80 is on the same die as the GBA's ARM7. They are switched so that when one is running, the other is not, so there is not even any higher power consumption/heat dissipation, and the GBC core, including all the hardware to translate its IO into what the GBA's video/audio/etc controllers expect, is absolutely miniscule.

    8. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...just a different case w/ a backlight...

      Actually, it's a front light, which is obvious if you look at the screen from a severe enough angle while the light's on.

      and built in batter.

      Actually, it's a battery, which is obvious because it's powered by electricity instead of a little man inside it hitting a ball. =)

    9. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps if Nintendo would innovate their market (no competition did that) .. My sega game gear has better tech that the current gba sp super turbo.. Now we have a naturally innovative company like sony coming to the scene and will own it .. Nintendo shouldn't have took advantage of the market and actually made some decent systems.

    10. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm wondering just how a 4MHz 8-bit processor driving a 512-color passive matrix display using 4 AA batteries that last all of an hour is "better tech" than a 16MHz 32-bit processor driving a 65,000-color active matrix (TFT) display using a rechargeable battery that lasts about 12 hours in a case that is about half the size of the Game Gear.

      I have both, so I'm just sayin'.

    11. Re:Well... by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      I'd like to take a different look at a couple of your arguments:

      Is there any info yet on the backward compatibility of the PSP? I agree with the parent poster, that backwards compatibility will probably make or break the system. Remember the PocketStation? That wasn't a direct sequel, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...

      The DS will have success based on 1) (in the short term) Nintendo fanboys who will buy it and all the launch games just because, and 2) (in the long run) how easy it ends up being to port GBA games to it. If a developer can take a GBA game, run it thru a magical Nintendo DS compiler setup and have a nearly ready-to-ship DS game, it will be an easy way to build up a library of good games fast, and put a huge dent into Nintendo's handheld market.

      Or I could be full of shit, who knows.

      This I can agree with. Nobody has a clue how any of this stuff is going to be received by the mass market 'til it actually hits the mass market. I'd guess that the PSP will sell better, because Sony will launch a much bigger ad campaign than Nintendo, and sales won't have much to do with any other factor that armchair (or 'professional,' for that matter) analysts come up with.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    12. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course it will be backwards compatible. Nintendo and Sony both know the power of backwards compatibility. The only player left is Microsoft and we will see what they are planning to do with Xbox 2. Not that I would ever buy another console. The PC is just fine as a gmaing platform I dont need to spend hundreds on an underpowered computer that may or may not carry my favorite games.

    13. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And heck, with a chest of drawers holding a GC, Xbox, PS2, DC, N64, SNES, GBA, and a 2600 (for development work)...I can see the desire for fewer systems playing more games.

      That's what PCs are for. Any modern PC will handle the 2600, the SNES, the GBA, and even the N64 perfectly, so you can put all but the current generation of consoles into storage. And at the present rate of progress you'll be able to retire the others in a year or two as well, just in time to make room for the next generation.

    14. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember the Virtual Boy? That wasn't a direct sequel to the GB, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...

      Uh, no. It failed because it sucked, hard. Did you ever use one of those things? I did, once, at a KB Toys or something. The graphics were terrible, it hurt your eyes, and you had to maintain the same posture the entire time you played it. The Virtual Boy certainly did have the problems you mentioned, but even without them it would have failed because it was just bad.

      Mike

    15. Re:Well... by eyeye · · Score: 1

      You would care less than what?

      Is this you crazy americans latest version of "Couldn't care less"?

      --
      Bush and Blair ate my sig!
    16. Re:Well... by aflat362 · · Score: 1
      Correction

      I own a GBA SP right now and would care less if the new Game Boy didn't play my old games

      I own a GBA SP right now and would not care if the new Game Boy didn't play my old games.

      You know what I meant. Though there is a double-negative in my correction and I'm not sure if that's kosher.

      --

      Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart

    17. Re:Well... by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      Close, but no cigar. With the exception of the sound hardware, the entire GBC - non-z80, graphics hardware, etc - is on its own die, sitting next to the arm7.

      As far as higher power consumption, well, sorry again. The fake z80 runs at 5v, whereas the arm7 runs at 3.3v, which is something you can't actually avoid because of the cart bus allowing direct memory map integration for various novelty hardware in-cart expecting 5v.

      As far as translation of things from the GBC to the AGB, none of the GBC's hardware formats are unsupported by the AGB. The graphics are just plopped wholesale into VRAM (many people believe that that's the entire reason Nintendo continues to support 1d sprite maps,) sound is just flopped into the first sound bank and cranked out of the synth, etc. No translation occurs. Besides, none of that is IO; IO would be the SIO port, and the GBC mode on the AGB is directly supported too.

      So, um, I'm not sure what to tell you, but in fact each and every thing you said was roughly the right idea but factualy inaccurate. Perhaps you should, y'know, read a FAQ, before announcing things. The original MBOO and XBOO pages have photographs of an AGB torn apart with its various chips noted; you might want to look around for a cached version of that (I think the modern version of the page no longer has that, but XBOO was spread far and wide for a while.)

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
  5. The best game ever by AviLazar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Final Fantasy I Final Fantasy is the reason I picked Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and then Playstation and Playstation 2 :) -A

    --

    I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
    1. Re:The best game ever by basics · · Score: 1

      Final Fantasy is not everyone's favorite game.

      That being said, it is an incredibly popular series. I would not have bought a playstation if not for FFVII, and I would not have bought a PS2 if I did not allready have a playstation.

    2. Re:The best game ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Final Fantasy sucks.

    3. Re:The best game ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      final fantasy is a game for faggots...specially the PS2 sequels...

    4. Re:The best game ever by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Final Fantasy I Final Fantasy is the reason I picked Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and then Playstation and Playstation 2 :) -A "

      A lot of people...

      * Pauses to fight off an ogre * ... love the Final ....

      * Pauses to fight off 2 Dragons * ... Fantasy Franchise, there....

      * Pauses to fight off a flying whale * ... are problems with them that causes people to seek other genres.

      * Spinning in the air punching the sky *

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    5. Re:The best game ever by pzycho · · Score: 1

      Good job picking that original Nintendo. All that competition from the master system made it a tough call.

    6. Re:The best game ever by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      Don't forget GBA and GameCube. Even if the FF games on GBA and GameCube are different than most and don't have roman numerals on the end, they are far more fun.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    7. Re:The best game ever by ShyGuy91284 · · Score: 0

      I recall reading a while back around the dawn of the 32-bit(64-bit nintendo) era that the Sega Saturn and Playstation were on equal ground in Japan, untill Square got into the picture. I heard once them (And perhaps enix, I don't know when they announce their alliances for that generation) said what system they would go for, the scales in Japan shifted consideribly because of how hot the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series are in Japan.

      --
      In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
    8. Re:The best game ever by metroid+composite · · Score: 1

      Which is why you bought a GBA to play Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III, The Final Fantasy Adventure, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, yes?

    9. Re:The best game ever by roninbix · · Score: 1

      Agreed 100%. Sony opened ps1 by taking the exclusive rights to the next FF. That was the death of Nintendo. Nintendo walked away from the serious RPG market for all intents and purposes. That was just stupid. Nintendo had one shot to come back with it's N64 and they showed up with a bunch of pansy pastel colour games that no one 12-30 would be caught dead looking at let alone buying. They had absolutely nothing that could be classified as anything other than an "alternative choice" game. As in something you play when you've had too much of the real games. You have two types of games, the violent/fast ones, and the rpg's and puzzle games (basically strategy over adrenaline). Nintendo walked away from or lost the major rpg's and put up a set of slow non violent games which fit neither market. I was a hardcore Nintendo fan right up to the PS. Nintendo just lost their grip on everything they once gave to gamers. Today they are the exact opposite of what they were when people loved them. You could say that 35% of Sony's success came from Sony's efforts and the securing of FF and Twisted Metal etc for PS1. The rest was more about Nintendo shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly while closing their eyes to what they were doing to their players. PS2 came out and sure it had little going for it, nothing but goodwill. I bought a PS2 because of the goodwill I had for Sony that carried over from PS1 and FF. It was really nice that the PS2 played PS1 games so I could ditch my old console. Honestly I have been less than thrilled with the ps2 titles. Summoner was interesting, the FF games are still there, but there is nothing special or original about ps2 games. Even regardless I am still happy with my purchase. Whether they got all their ducks in a row with the ps2 or not, Sony currently has the mentality that will lead to a great future for their gamers. I trust them to continue to make what I want to see, they have earned that trust with their decisions so far. Nintendo needs to fire the top half of their staff and replace it with something totally new, more attuned to the players, and better motivated.

    10. Re:The best game ever by AviLazar · · Score: 1

      Yea some of the PS and PS2 titles are a shame, and honestly, if not for FF I would not own a PS or PS2. Nintendo games tend to be "pastelly" and geared towards younger kids. And just as the articles talk about, it's a limited income market. They could have dominated so well, expecially with their past sucess, if they would have kept a good balance of kiddie games and "adult" games.

      --

      I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
    11. Re:The best game ever by AviLazar · · Score: 1

      Didn't buy the GBA, still played the games though. I even bought FF Mystic quest (it has been years, i believe that is the one where all the monsters are shown on the screen).

      --

      I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
    12. Re:The best game ever by AviLazar · · Score: 1

      Master system...that was Sega right? I remember when Sega was out - I had a lot of friends who picked Sega. At the time, if memory serves me right (which it might not)...Sega was more sports based (which my friends loved way more then me) and Nintendo was more RPG/Story Action (i.e. Ninja Gaiden, metroid, etc.) -A

      --

      I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
  6. Game play Length by nickroethemeier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Although I don't see either of these devices going the way of the Game Gear, They have to have simple, fun games or they will die. Its flat and simple. Most people only play hand held games for short bursts, and they play console games for hours on end (Final Fantasy). The puzzle games of old (tetris) had it right. Simple, Fun, Short.

    1. Re:Game play Length by lotsofno · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Most people only play hand held games for short bursts
      You're forgetting GBA's great selection of RPGs.. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? Zelda? Sword of Mana? Fire Emblem? Shining Soul 2? Mario and Luigi? And of course, Pokemon? Nintendo has developed a HUGE following off quality titles like these that aren't only portable, but able to stand up next to their console counterparts.
    2. Re:Game play Length by Enigma_Man · · Score: 3, Insightful

      RTS and RPG games also have quite a lot of merit on a handheld. Why not slay a few slimes, or move some tanks around while you get your hair cut. Time to go? Just save game, and pick up later.

      It's like playing a long-term chess game with an opponent who will wait forever.

      -Jesse

      --
      Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
    3. Re:Game play Length by nickroethemeier · · Score: 1

      I tend to think of it in the terms of Car-trip games, and 'between classes' games... RPG's definatly fall into the Car-trip, while Puzzle games fall into the between classes catagory. I own a GBA, and find myself playing predominatly puzzle games. Metal Gear Solid not a game that would make a great handheld port, while Metal Slug (1-5) would. Handheld games are for people who can't get as deep into the game because of time. (and I know there are exceptions to this, but you guys are intelligent, and should know what I think about those)

    4. Re:Game play Length by Ra5pu7in · · Score: 1

      A single long story isn't really necessary, IMHO. Having blown hours without realizing it trying to beat higher levels of Tetris on the original Game Boy and knowing many people who do the same with Minesweeper, Frozen Bubble, Nethack, and so on, I can say it doesn't even have to have a story. It can be short and addictive.

      One of the major games behind the success of the Game Boy Color was the Pokemon series. It can have a blah predictable story if it can tap that kind of a following (Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Ball Z, and other games bear that out).

      ========

      In going for a more adult audience, we may break past the single handheld holding the majority of the market. As much time as I spend away from home, offering a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics on a PSP would be enough to get me to buy one. I've bought GameBoy Advances, GameBoy Colors, GameBoy Pockets for my kids and myself (as well as owned an original GameBoy). I see no reason why I won't buy the DS once enough interesting games are available. Car trips have never been "Are we there yet?" in my family. They are more like "Can I have some more batteries?"

      --
      I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
    5. Re:Game play Length by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then why did I have that 2 day tetris game? I lost only when I broke the d-pad

    6. Re:Game play Length by Gentle+Zacharias · · Score: 1

      I just have to insert into the roll-call of great GBA RPGs up there, Golden Sun and its sequel. My first GBA game, and to this day, my favorite.

    7. Re:Game play Length by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      May i please add 'Wario Ware' to that list of great games ?

      Still one of the best games (after Tetris) which can be played 'for five minutes'.

    8. Re:Game play Length by drinkypoo · · Score: 1
      You know this is more true now than it was then because portable gaming is not a novelty any longer. Now it's just sort of a standard of life. Cellphones are everywhere now and pretty much all of them play games of some description. GBA SP is the first handheld which looks good enough and is small enough for anyone to carry in their pocket or purse or what have you, and which doesn't have annoying battery characteristics to boot. It really lends itself to small-bite gaming. On the other hand, no one was going to take a Lynx with them in public unless it was inside a bag or something, so it was interesting for longer periods. (Plus you didn't have to sit with both hands up in front of your face forever because your hands were further apart.)

      You're right that Tetris is basically the best game for a handheld ever, but all games can't be tetris. What I want on the GBA SP is RPGs, RPGs, and more RPGs.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:Game play Length by MMaestro · · Score: 1

      True, but don't forget the GBA had an insanely huge back library as well as the dominating influence of the Gameboy before it. Rewind the settings and think back to the days of the first Gameboy (before Gameboy Color and Pocket). What did you play? Side-scrollers like Mario, Contra, Megaman, and of course Tetris. Sure there was Zelda, Final Fantasy Adventure and Legend (neither of which had any relation to the true Final Fantasy series), and the whole plethora of copy-cat games. Almost no memory meaning very shallow storylines and gameplay and poor graphics means one or two bad pixels could literally make or break your character. RPGs on the handheld? >whiny 7 year old voice/whiny 7 year old voiceFast forward to today, the Gameboy Advance is now nearly on par with the SNES with the future holding the possibility of discs being the next form of storage. If you dumped the ROMs of some GBA games today, they'd be over 10 times some Gameboy games. We've come a LONG way since the Gameboy's early games.

    10. Re:Game play Length by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      And the strategy games... Advance Wars and its sequel were awesome even if I can't !@$! get through the green levels of the sequel.

      And the best thing is, all these games seem to be borrowing from each other. Onimusha Tactics has a game engine which looks almost, but not quite, exactly like FFTA. And it plays about as well even if it doesn't have the FF license attached.

      (And as for Zelda... that's not an RPG. Well, none of the others are either really, but Zelda, certainly not.)

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    11. Re:Game play Length by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      Honestly I would prefer flash media to disks for storage on a portable unit. It has no moving parts, should use less power, and would encourage homebrew (something which always makes a system more popular... just think where Xbox would be without it.)

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    12. Re:Game play Length by squall14716 · · Score: 1

      Zelda is an Action RPG. It certainly is an RPG.

    13. Re:Game play Length by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [...]Final Fantasy Adventure and Legend (neither of which had any relation to the true Final Fantasy series)[...].

      Actually, Seiken Densetsu (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Adventure) is a spinoff of the main series. Its full Japanese title is "Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden", which roughly translates for "Legend of The Holy Sword: Final Fantasy Side-Story".

  7. Obvious Winner by $lingBlade · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry to state the obvious, but the winner will be us as consumers. For once we'll have two powerful companies fighting for our money with products that kick butt.

    1. Re:Obvious Winner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Until we find out that half of the games we want aren't available for the system we picked.

    2. Re:Obvious Winner by afish40 · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I don't understand why more people aren't excited about the prospect of a new handheld war. Remember the glory days of NES/SNES vs. Genesis? Both companies were fighting tooth and nail to get the big 3rd party titles and licenses, and in the end, the winners were the gamers, who benefitted from the competition by getting the best of the best. Conversely, Nintendo has gone pretty much unchallenged in the handheld market, so there has been very little in terms on innovation. A bit of competition (from an old enemy, no less) might be just what we need to see some truly innovative titles from the big N.

      --
      Thanks a million. Push Start to replay.
    3. Re:Obvious Winner by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      I like how you say this like it isn't the norm in the gaming world.

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
  8. fight it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny


    Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3

    Nintendo rolls a 16, hitting with the Vorpal Blade!
    Sony makes the saving throw and takes 8 HP of damage!
    Sony casts a Magic Missile spell at Nintendo and hits for 6 HP!
    Nintendo hits Sony with the Vorpal Blade again, with an 18 roll!
    Sony fails the saving throw, Sony loses its head!

    1. Re:fight it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You fool! Vorpal weapons do not allow a save, and only activate on a critical hit :)

    2. Re:fight it out! by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sony uses "Wand of Square-Enix!"
      Final Fantasy series ports have been summoned!
      Dragon Warrior series ports have been summoned!
      Nintendo is paralyzed with fear, and cannot move!

    3. Re:fight it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vorpal Blade? That's no plumber's tool. I'd think they were using a "+1 Simian Wrench".. (donkey kong wasn't a monkey)

    4. Re:fight it out! by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      If only I had mod points, this would go insightful. In Asia, Final Fantasy is THE killer app for gaming consoles. And it doesn't due too badly here- I know I got the PS2 over the gamecube initially for FFX. Nintendo needs to kiss ass at S-E badly and get them back into the fold. That alone would shift the console wars in their favor.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    5. Re:fight it out! by DrEldarion · · Score: 1

      If I recall correctly, the Dragon Quest/Warrior games actually do better in Japan than the FF games. There's apparently even a law that says they can't release a DQ game on a weekday, since so many people will skip school to get a copy.

      http://www.dqshrine.com/dq/: Over the years, Dragon Quest has become extremely popular. When Dragon Quest III was released on a weekday, many kids skipped school to get their copy. Lines at game stores became several blocks long. Some people were even mugged by disgruntled customers desperate to get a copy. It got so out of hand that the problem was brought to the Japanese Diet. It's now a law that a Dragon Quest game can only be released on a weekend or holiday.

    6. Re:fight it out! by Snad · · Score: 1

      Nintendo needs to kiss ass at S-E badly and get them back into the fold. That alone would shift the console wars in their favor.

      Well there is FF: Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube, though some purists are debating whether it's really a Final Fantasy game.

      Regardless it is at least a start towards getting FF games on Nintendo boxes for those who feel the need.

    7. Re:fight it out! by Troed · · Score: 1

      They are.

      To date, more than 100 companies worldwide have received software development kits and are planning games for Nintendo DS, which for the first time offers gamers two separate perspectives on the action. Companies include THQ, Electronic Arts, Activision, Atari, Ubisoft, Majesco, Capcom, Sega, Konami, Hudson Soft, Namco, Bandai, Koei and Square Enix, to name a few.

      --
      it's in my head
    8. Re:fight it out! by default+luser · · Score: 1

      But hey, can you blame 'em? Dragon Warrior (Quest) III was the best game in the series, IMHO :P

      Fully configurable parties, plus as soon as you get your ship, the linear portion ends and you're cut loose into the world. It's one of the longest and most non-linear RPGs you'll find.

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    9. Re:fight it out! by G-funk · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nintendo makes a saving throw against franchise, and summons plumbers, Link, and Samus.

      I can't believe I just responded in this thread. Nn-hey, with the glaven.

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    10. Re:fight it out! by prockcore · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sony uses "Wand of Square-Enix!"
      Final Fantasy series ports have been summoned!

      Nintendo has four hours to come up with a counter attack while the summon animation is playing.

    11. Re:fight it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, that is hilarious!

  9. The winning system is... by Imidazole · · Score: 0, Interesting

    The most hackable, the most easily piratable... The one that you can tinker around with the most.

    --
    -Imidazole
    Hilarious Office Prank!
    1. Re:The winning system is... by grub · · Score: 1


      That hasn't helped Microsoft with XBOX sales.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:The winning system is... by LilMikey · · Score: 1

      As more people figure it out, hacking seems to be helping.

      Notice, I said 'hacking' not 'piracy.'

      --
      LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
  10. A little hard to compare by Painaxl · · Score: 4, Informative

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the DS a side project, and NOT Nintendo's actual follow up to the GBA? Calling it Nintendo's "next generation handheld" implies that it's a replacement for the GBA, which I'm pretty sure is not what it is intended to be.

    1. Re:A little hard to compare by AzraelKans · · Score: 1

      implies that it's a replacement for the GBA, which I'm pretty sure is not what it is intended to be. Oh come on, you gotta be kidding, you are also waiting for Bush to find weapons of mass destruction in Irak?

      The DS is a 3d capable handheld with rumoured backward compatibility to the GBA if thats not a succesor then exactly how would you call it? Nintendo is just being a bit "discrete" because the DS is pretty much in an "acceptation" phase however if everything goes as planned dont expect nintendo to keep pumping out gba games next year (and maybe this one), they are going to turn all their attention to the DS and DS games wont be GBA compatible.

      Oh and Nintendo also said the DS wont be the PSP competitor its just a very big and happy coincidence it was scheduled for release the same year than the PSP (which is now delayed til next year). yeah sure, I'll buy that for a dollar.

      p.s. Anyway I dont see why nintendo is so "discrete" about it, the GBA is shock full of games is not like is not a good idea to buy one, specially now that is gamecube compatible, oh well to each their own.

      --
      Go ahead MOD my day!
      More opinions here
    2. Re:A little hard to compare by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Calling it Nintendo's "next generation handheld" implies that it's a replacement for the GBA"

      No it doesn't. Next Generation implies "newer technology". System replacement depends on other factors.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  11. Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handheld by vosbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'll be complete with a hard drive, cpu, cpu fan, and disk drive. It'll be the size of a briefcase and weigh about 10 pounds. It'll also come in handy as a bludgeon.

  12. And the truth is... by clichekiller · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are enough people out there who will buy both to keep both companies happy.

    Also, in a way, they go after two different markets. The Gameboy is poised for the younger crowd, with their Pokemon and such. This isn't to say there are no good games for adults, Advance War I & II come to mind, just that I see more GB, GBC, and GBA in the hands of little kids then I do adults. The PS2 will almost certainly go after the older teen market and adults.

    And ask yourself how many of you own more then one gaming console. I used to own a Gamecube, XBox, PS2, and Dreamcast. I know of plenty of other people who own at least two. So I don't believe Nintendo is in that big of a trouble, if they can keep their niche alive and prevent the PSP from encroaching they should be fine.

    --
    Sir, there is a dragon outside with an armful of armor. He's inquiring if we offer free refills.
    1. Re:And the truth is... by jayd42 · · Score: 0

      I only see little kids carrying around thier gameboys. This doesn't mean non-kids don't have them. It only means non-kids don't want to be labelled as kids by non-kids.

    2. Re:And the truth is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's all fine for Americans. Unlike wages, the cost of owning a console doesn't magically drop 30% in Canada. It may be affordable for an American to own two consoles, but it is a lot harder for a Canadian to do the same. I only own one console and most people I know own zero, with a few exceptions of people also owning one.

    3. Re:And the truth is... by clichekiller · · Score: 1

      I only see little kids carrying around thier gameboys. This doesn't mean non-kids don't have them. It only means non-kids don't want to be labelled as kids by non-kids.

      Good point. Just because I don't see adults carrying around GB* doesn't mean they don't own them. But I still think it is somewhat indicative of the audience. There are some awesome games for the GBA that appeal to an adult audience so they are definitely out there. As a post above said I think ultimately we'll be the winners because competition will force each one to improve or fall to the wayside.

      --
      Sir, there is a dragon outside with an armful of armor. He's inquiring if we offer free refills.
    4. Re:And the truth is... by jared_hanson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've never understood the whole "people buy two consoles argument." The money is made on the games and I doubt many people buy the same game in different console formats.

      Personally, I've owned a PS2 for a while and just bought a Gamecube. I have the PS2 for SSX, Tony Hawk, etc. I bought the Gamecube primarily because it has the Gameboy player and I really wanted to be able to play the "classics" (Mario, Sonic, etc.) on a modern game console. I've never understood why the classic side scroller has disappeared with the advent of 3D consoles. I've never thought the game play was better on newer games as opposed to old games. But, I digress...

      In short, games sell consoles and games make money for companies. Who puts out the better games will be the winner.

      --
      -- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
    5. Re:And the truth is... by the+morgawr · · Score: 1

      One problem, if I have two consoles, they can both sit by my TV. If I have two handhelds, I have to carry them both with me. Call me lazy, but I'm not toting around two (hell carrying around one is enough of a hassle).

      --
      The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
    6. Re:And the truth is... by Ninwa · · Score: 0

      There are still a few god side-scrolling adventures that utilize the new graphics, but stay true to their original gameplay design. Viewitful Joe comes to mind.

    7. Re:And the truth is... by clu76 · · Score: 1

      I played mine on the subway all the time. I saw other adults play theirs, too. I'm too old to care how strangers label me. I have more fun this way.

      --
      the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
    8. Re:And the truth is... by squaretorus · · Score: 1

      A mile off topic, but I have to agree, the old side scroller genre has been sadly neglected over the past generation of consoles - its the fault of the PSX with its funky polygons beating the lovely Saturn with its sprites and scrolling.

      Just think how cool mario and sonic would have been today if theyd avoided the evil that is the polygon!

  13. Dueling Handhelds. by jayd42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    All I can picture is that episode of the Simpsons where Lenny and Carl duel with microscopes.

    1. Re:Dueling Handhelds. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, no biker duel?

  14. I went to E3 last year... by Xhad · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    ...and one of the most memorable events was when I got separated from one of my friends and didn't happen to have a phone on me. I missed lunch and barely found someone from my group in time (I was the last to arrive and didn't know where my group's hotel was either!)

    The reason? Nintendo had a bunch of their chicks walking around with GBAs strapped to their hips, and both me and my friend had happened to run into them at the same time.

    Man am I sorry I'm not going this year. :(

    --


    Member of Orkut? Annoyed with spam?
    1. Re:I went to E3 last year... by scrow · · Score: 1

      Nintendo had a bunch of their chicks walking around with GBAs strapped to their hips, and both me and my friend had happened to run into them at the same time.

      Yeah and the french caterers, rolling the gourmet food around, had bags of rotten trash strapped to thier hips... thanks to the trash I wasn't hungry for long!

      Only on Slashdot...

      --
      I just type my sig in the reply form...
    2. Re:I went to E3 last year... by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "The reason? Nintendo had a bunch of their chicks walking around with GBAs strapped to their hips, and both me and my friend had happened to run into them at the same time. "

      Seeing as how the story's about E3, why's this off-topic? Seriously, how many of us are actually going to witness it? It's nice to hear about what goes on at these shows.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    3. Re:I went to E3 last year... by Xhad · · Score: 1
      Seriously, the point I was trying to make was that if the vg hotties were coming to US rather than staying in their booths, aggressively marketing a handheld that had basically no competition at the time, I can only imagine what will be going on when two companies are trying to outdo the other.

      Apparently both a mod and the other replier didn't quite get it...no, I wasn't saying I'd rather be playing the GBA than being with the hottie, but having a videogame in such a strategic location kicks the hell out of peanut butter and chocolate.

      --


      Member of Orkut? Annoyed with spam?
  15. Nintendo by filtur · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nintendo has a stranglehold on handhelds, it will be tough for sony to break in, especially if their handheld is expensive.

    1. Re:Nintendo by no-arg+constructor · · Score: 1

      well, nintendo used to have a stranglehold on the console markets with the snes, and everybody said sony didn't have a chance with the original playstation, and looked what happened there. while nintendo's handheld market is extremely strong, i wouldn't underestimate sony, especially if more "mature" games are on its new system to counteract mario and pokemon.

    2. Re:Nintendo by clu76 · · Score: 1

      You've got a point. Just walk into Hot Topic. They have nintendo merchandise galore. Nin shirts, wallets, frisbees, etc... They've achieved pop icon status.

      --
      the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
    3. Re:Nintendo by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Nintendo has a stranglehold on handhelds, it will be tough for sony to break in, especially if their handheld is expensive. "

      Not a very strong rationale. Remember, Sony burst into the lead in only one generation. The only magical force maintaining Nintendo's monopoly on this share is the incompetence of the companies competing with them. I mean seriously, a game machine that only lasts 3 hours on six AA's? Won't fit in your pocket? Doesn't have decent graphics? Sony might be the company that pulls this off. They at least have the R&D means.

      I do agree, though, that they have an uphill battle ahead of them. Will people really care about the 3d graphics? Will they care about the optical medium, or will it just turn them away? Will the opening cost be too high? It's easier to solve these with a console, but man, portability is such a finnicky topic.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:Nintendo by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      That depends. If there is a relatively cheap way to pirate games on Sony's system like there is on Nintendo's, the price of the handheld itself is irrelevant.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    5. Re:Nintendo by TheLoneDanger · · Score: 1

      I do notice that many of the games considered true classics, which we still want to play now are Nintendo games. The Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc. series on each system are still great games and great examples of their genres, whereas many of the current blockbuster games tend to have sequels released that better them, and the original is replaced. (eg Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Tony Hawk etc.)

      It seems to me however, that the N64 may be the last generation of Nintendo games that have this classic status. I like Nintendo's GC games, but they don't feel like classics any more to me. They seem to have fallen prey to that same "improve on existing game" bug that is so rampant now. Can anyone tell me which (if any) of Nintendo's GC games you would consider a classic? Well, Metroid Prime maybe, but that too is getting a sequel...

      --

      "But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
    6. Re:Nintendo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't even consider Metroid Prime a "classic"...and I have been gaming since Atari 2600. To me, it was just another 3d first-person game. All it did was get me dizzy. Can't wait for Doom 3 & HL2 though!

      To Nintendo: I'm 30 years old and don't have the time I used to. First, I want a system that you put a game in, turn it on, and the game is ready with NO WAITING. Second, I want fun games I can just pick up and start playing. I would pay some good money for an updated Dr. Mario game, damn it! 3d isn't all it's cracked up to be. You need to develop some more FUN and relatively SIMPLE 2d games again.

  16. Simplicity is best by Pi_0's+don't+shower · · Score: 2, Interesting

    But when you think about these quick puzzle games, what comes to mind besides tetris, that isn't a blatant tetris knock-off?

    The *other* successful games for handhelds were ones that didn't need to have anything saved, as the original Game Boy couldn't handle it. Imagine playing Final Fantasy I and not being able to save...

    That said, I think that the technology is definitely there to put little memory chips in the games, which would open up a whole new market in addition to the short, pithy games.

    Of course, putting a good old fun classic (like Street Fighter II) could spell success in a whole new way...

    1. Re:Simplicity is best by Osty · · Score: 1

      But when you think about these quick puzzle games, what comes to mind besides tetris, that isn't a blatant tetris knock-off?

      WarioWare! Okay, so it's not really a puzzle game so much as a twitch game, but the combination of 5 second games and a large number of minigames make it a perfect play for short periods of time. Pick it up if you haven't already.

      The *other* successful games for handhelds were ones that didn't need to have anything saved, as the original Game Boy couldn't handle it. Imagine playing Final Fantasy I and not being able to save...

      Huh? Ever hear of Final Fantasy Legend and it's sequels on the original gameboy? Saving games is not a function of the player hardware on a cartridge system, but of the cartridge itself. Battery-backed games were certainly possible in 1989 when the original GameBoy was released (NES games had been doing it for years, a la Zelda and Final Fantasy), and the GameBoy certainly didn't go backwards in that respect.


      There are many original GameBoy games where you can save state (Metroid II, different Super Mario Land sequels, the afore-mentioned Final Fantasy Legend series, Zelda: Link's Awakening, Pokemon (technically a GB Color game, but the hardware was still essentially the same), etc). The most important part about being able to save on a handheld game is when you can save. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance get it right, where you can save anywhere (even during a battle). Older games like Metroid II that make you hunt down a save spot before you can quit got it wrong. The recent Mario & Luigi game got this wrong IMHO, because they only let you save at certain save points that were few and far between. At least the GBA has a sleep mode that lets you put the hardware into a battery saving mode without losing your current state. That's better than nothing, but not as good as a "save anywhere" feature.


      Of course, putting a good old fun classic (like Street Fighter II) could spell success in a whole new way...

      You're not really up on the portable gaming scene, are you? Street Fighter II has already been released on GBA, and a large majority of the GBA's library consists of "classic" ports from the SNES and even the Genesis (Sonic ports and such). There's no better platform for such "classic" gaming at the moment.

    2. Re:Simplicity is best by Aerion · · Score: 1

      That said, I think that the technology is definitely there to put little memory chips in the games, which would open up a whole new market in addition to the short, pithy games.

      This market has already been opened up pretty well. Since the GBA can handle quick saving much better than its predecessor, there are now many more successful games that can be plalyed in short bursts, like Tetris, but aren't necessarily over after those short bursts. For example, one of Fire Emblem's biggest advantages is that you can turn it off literally at any time and when you turn it back on you can start again from the exact point at which you left off.

      (Of course, this also makes cheating by resetting more difficult.)

    3. Re:Simplicity is best by GweeDo · · Score: 1

      Wow, so you are saying that Tetris (the first Gameboy game ever) magically pulled my high scores out of its butt? Or wait...could it be there was a battery backup in that little cart :P The first game to use the battery was the original Zelda in the US...since then saves have been possible.

      --
      Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
  17. Hint to Sony by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    RCA Video and Audio out jacks. You can find the real estate for it.

    I should be able to plug into any TV with convenient front a/v jacks and play up on the big screen.

    The A/V hack for GBA is by far the coolest, IMO. Build this functionality in, don't try to sucker me by offering me a 60 dollar addon for a 100 dollar console to play my games on TV (GBA player).

    I'd spend so much more time playing the games (and consequently buy more games) at home on the TV. As it stands, GBA is good to occupy you while you take a dump, but it's not something you sit down to play.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:Hint to Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      As it stands, GBA is good to occupy you while you take a dump, but it's not something you sit down to play.

      I think most of us still sit down to take a dump...

    2. Re:Hint to Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As it stands, GBA is good to occupy you while you take a dump, but it's not something you sit down to play.

      For future reference, when you are describing yourself, the first person pronoun is appropriate. You do not speak for me.

    3. Re:Hint to Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you could buy a PSP and do that, then why bother buying a PS3?

    4. Re:Hint to Sony by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "RCA Video and Audio out jacks. You can find the real estate for it."

      Hint to Sony: DO NOT waste your time on this. Don't raise the cost. Don't make it bigger. Don't make it more complex. Few people will do this. Instead, follow Nintendo's lead and make an adapter for the PS2 to do this.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    5. Re:Hint to Sony by MBCook · · Score: 1
      This can be EASILY done. There are many devices (DVD players, camcorders, etc) that have this functionality. While I agree that it would be stupid to put fill RCA jacks on the console, all they would have to do is either a small 1/8" jack (like a standard headphone jack, only with 4 poles instead of 3) or something proprietary. One little headphone jack would add next to no cost, take up next to no space, and provide a great feature. Playing a game on a handheld is fun, but wouldn't it be great to hook it up to a TV in a hotel room or at a relatives house or just at home so you don't have to look at that little screen when you have an option?

      I think it's a good idea. I'd like to see it done. I DON'T like the idea of forcing me to buy a $60 adaptor (or since it's just a gameboy without the screen, for the PSP it would end up $250 or so) to make me do this. Is the PSP is really a "PS2 handheld" it should be a piece of cake. The GB on the other hand was never designed for driving a TV.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    6. Re:Hint to Sony by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      " One little headphone jack would add next to no cost, take up next to no space, and provide a great feature."

      That's not the complete picture. The digital signal going from the frame buffer to the LCD screen is *not* NTSC. It would have to be coverted. It'd need a chip plus some form of RF modulator, and those aren't exactly small. Plus they'd have to figure out how to work it in to the existing design.

      Sorry, but I don't see you getting a compact enough system that'll pull this off.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    7. Re:Hint to Sony by MBCook · · Score: 1
      True, but as long as they are doing all this, the external box could be in a dongle of some sort. The jack could pass digital data to a box on the dongle that would do all that. It would add nothing to the system (no chips, really) but would allow TV play.

      They could sell the dongle seperatly and make extra money, and becasue it takes a digital signal you wouldn't be limited to composite signals, you could have S-Video or component.

      Just an idea. I'd like to see it, but I don't at all expect it.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  18. N-Gage? by mgs1000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Meanwhile, Nokia huddles in a corner and cries...

    1. Re:N-Gage? by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      It's their own fault, after all, for putting the game cartridge in a place which was impossible to replace. They fixed it in the next release but it's too late now, suckers!

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    2. Re:N-Gage? by nanojath · · Score: 1

      Well, I argued at the beginning that above and beyond the widely reported design flaws, it was just a stupid idea from the get-go. Considering how portable, say, a GBA is, and all the more relevant extras you could stuff into a phone, and how battery life is a really primary concern for phones making you not want to repurpose them for something battery-intensive, and how Nintendo has such a lock on the handheld market - a dominance they've maintained for 15 years, a pretty good feat in this business... and how it looks like you're holding a big taco up to your head talking on one... just dumb. It baffles me how a project like this ever gets green-lighted.

      --

      It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries

  19. This is largely a misconception.. by JMZero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Systems with better games get purchased. This is true. But this is not causation.

    The root is that good games are developed for good hardware that's released at the right time with the right marketing effort. Developers create launch titles for systems that they think will do well (or that pay them). At launch, consumers buy systems that have good hardware.

    The NGage wasn't dead because it didn't have game support - it didn't have game support because it was a horrible platform.

    Conversely, you can't tell me that the PS2 had good games at launch - and yet it sold like hot cakes. Why? Because it was the right hardware at the right time - with the right marketing accompanying that hardware.

    As a console matures, the two re-inforce each other. Good games get made for successful hardware, and those quality games in turn make that hardware more successful. There are anomalies here - like Nintendo's guaranteed quality first-party titles or Street Fighter II selling SNES's - but in general they hide the real truth.

    The PSP/DS fight will be fought mostly on hardware. The DS should have a guaranteed lead going in in terms of software support (Metroid, Zelda, Mario...) - but I think it'll squander that marginal advantage by being silly hardware.

    The much more conventional PSP will end up being the system that's more successful and has better games - but the latter doesn't cause the former. Both will be caused by it being a better platform.

    --
    Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    1. Re:This is largely a misconception.. by Morgahastu · · Score: 1

      The NGage did have horrible games. I remember looking at a list of all the games review on gaming sites about 4 months after the NGage came out every single game had gotten a terrible score.

      NGage had the misfortune of having both terrible hardware and terrible games.

      Yet they are stupid enough to try and rerelease the same games on SLIGHTLY different hardware. Ditch the phone entirely man, then it would have a good chance to do well.

    2. Re:This is largely a misconception.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your wrong there. Hardware does not matter. The most important things are marketing and timing. People in the music buisness have known this forever. You can take anyone off the street with just a little bit of tallent and the correct look and churn out a few gold records. The thing with consols is once you buy the first game you have hardware lock in. This puts up a barrier to entry for other players. Marketing killed the dreamcast and the hardware lock in did in the gamecube and xbox.

    3. Re:This is largely a misconception.. by nomadic · · Score: 1

      You know, I have no plans for buying one, and I think their design was a little dumb, but when I tried out an N-gage at the store the graphics were pretty damn impressive. As in they beat anything I've ever seen on a handheld before.

  20. Sony does this by fahrvergnugen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sony's PR department has a history of doing this sort of thing.

    Dreamcast is about to ship? Announce the PS2. Show clips of amazing rendered video being run through an Emotion Engine chip, and claim it's being generated in realtime by a Playstation 2. Claim a near release date. Get everyone so excited about the PS2 that they're willing to wait. Push the release date back once it gets too near.

    PS2 Ships. Aside from SSX, launch games are a crushing disappointment, as not one of them beyond this title demonstrates clear technical superiority to the aging Dreamcast, despite the huge gap in their release dates.

    X-Box ships. X-Box Live! ships. Christmas buying season approaches. Sony announces the PS3. Talk about the fantastic power of grid processing and cell chips. Imply that the backward compatability of the PS2 will also be in the PS3.

    Nintendo ships GBA SP. Sony announces PSP in concept, claims a near release date. Push back as release date approaches.

    Nintendo is about to announce portable dual-screen system. Sony re-hypes PSP, releases a few more tidbits of detail, the tech press predictably goes rabid.

    Gamers decide to wait for the PSP.

    As gamers, how long are we going to put up with this shit from Sony? Haven't we learned from our mistakes by now?

    PSP is vapor, and shitty vapor at that, until proven otherwise.

    --
    Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
    1. Re:Sony does this by dieman · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The dreamcast died because of shitty programming interfaces and a weird dual-co-processor design. It was technically better -- it just turned out more people found they could make games with PS2 instead of sitting around trying to figure out how to cram the performance they needed out of the dreamcast.

      --
      -- dieman - Scott Dier
    2. Re:Sony does this by chobee · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "PS2 Ships. Aside from SSX, launch games are a crushing disappointment, as not one of them beyond this title demonstrates clear technical superiority to the aging Dreamcast, despite the huge gap in their release dates." Gran Turismo 3 A-spec.... This title by it's self was a HUGE selling point for the ps2. On top of that you have the ps2 leveraging all its past ps1 titles. That is why Sony's backward compatibility is such a big deal even today. Right now the ps3 could come out with zero games designed specifically for it and you'd still have more titles you could play on it than on the X-box. The possibility of MS X-box II not offering backward compatibility with the original is a big gamble. -Cho

    3. Re:Sony does this by oGMo · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      Sony's PR department has a history of doing this sort of thing. [...] Dreamcast is about to ship? Announce the PS2. [...]

      You sound like a Dreamcast fanboy. I'm sorry you pet console didn't make it, but that's not Sony's fault. Sega has a terrible history with marketting anything.

      Comparing the PS2 launch to 2nd and 3rd generation Dreamcast games is rather silly. The 1.5-gen to 3rd-gen PS2 lineup was incredible, and they're still at it. (You apparently forget everything from Ico to MGS2, including GTA3, Jak and Daxter, and many others in those generations.) I have over 50 PS2 games, they all rock, and I'm missing a good number of A-AAA titles.

      X-Box ships. X-Box Live! ships.

      Yeah, all those AAA XBOX titles they have now really make me sorry I don't have an XBOX. Wait, what AAA lineup? They're still using Halo to sell it! Come on!

      And XBOX Live? Meh. I'm playing FFXI right now. XBOX Live doesn't offer that, so what's the point? And the PS2 THUG is far better, network-wise, than the XBOX (or Cube) versions. Those are the games I want to play. Not... Halo.

      As gamers, how long are we going to put up with this shit from Sony? Haven't we learned from our mistakes by now?

      I've learned that I can get a lot of really good, diverse games that play on Sony platforms, everything from the esoteric (Rez) to the epic (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Xenosaga). What mistakes?

      --

      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

    4. Re:Sony does this by cowscows · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The difference between sony's hype and nintendo's hype has always amused me. Sony talks about numbers and cinematic graphics and whatnot, and the fancy technologies built into the hardware while Nintendo talks about trying to get developers excited about the possibilities of two screens, or their new controller design, with certain buttons being prioritized, and how that might lead to new types of games.

      Maybe I'm just being naive, but it makes me believe that Nintendo, as a company, just might have a better philosophy and culture in regards to gaming.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    5. Re:Sony does this by Jerf · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mods, parent has it backwards. The PS2 has (well, had, I've heard better ones have come out since the launch) shitty programming interfaces and a wierd dual-co-processor design. The DreamCast just has a standard CPU/GPU/Audio chip design, looking like a modern computer (with a sound card that is more then a DSP interface to your speakers).

      Or he may have been thinking of the Saturn. But that doesn't match the DC's description at all. Sega learned from the Saturn and the DC is pretty straight-forward; certainly much more straight-forward then the PS2 or the supposed PS3 design (which I will believe when I see, frankly).

    6. Re:Sony does this by adler187 · · Score: 1

      Um, sorry but GT3: A-Spec was not a launch game. The PS2 launched in America on Oct 26, 2000 and Gran Turismo 3 came out July 09, 2001. That is almost 9 months with very few (if any) games available. Sure you could play all those PSX games on a PS2 but then, why would you need to buy a PS2 in the first place if you can play all your PSX? If Sony released the PS3 right now without any launch titles for it, it would tank. You have to give the customer some incentive to buy it. Why buy a $300-400 machine to play all your old games that you can play right now for free.

    7. Re:Sony does this by gribbly · · Score: 1

      Agreed, parent is totally on crack. Please mod down. I am a professional game developer, and dieman certainly has it backwards. What killed DC was several things, mainly:

      1) Sega - the bad taste left by Saturn plus their shitty marketing.
      2) EA - refused to support DC, which made a huge dent in the US market.
      3) Sony - awesome marketing, and the PS2 could play DVDs. They survived a round of crap launch titles to bring out some great stuff (GT3, for example).
      4) Games - apart from Soul Calibur and maybe Virtua Tennis, list the "must haves" for DC?

      grib.

      --
      maybe
    8. Re:Sony does this by shidoshi · · Score: 1

      I've got about 70+ Dreamcast games, and I'd say at least half of those are must haves. Stuff like Jet Grind Radio, Chu Chu Rocket, Test Drive: Le Mans, Metropolis Street Racer, Rival Schools, Ecco the Dolphin, Dead or Alive 2, Crazy Taxi, Mark of the Wolves, Last Blade 2, FirePro, etc.

      The Dreamcast had an amazing library of games. Granted, as time goes on, some of the games now have better versions (DOA3 vs. DOA2, GameCube Skis of Arcadia vs. DC version, etc.), but for the time, IMHO, the DC library absolutely shamed the library of any other system out there.

    9. Re:Sony does this by Destoo · · Score: 1

      Must Have for DC:

      Shenmue
      Skies of Arkadia
      DOA
      Hello Kitty weird Cake-Puzzle game

      oops. They're all on Xbox now.
      I guess I don't need it anymore.

      Of course, they were released before those three new consoles (GC, Xbox and PS2) so the best games were picked up and ported.

      I'm still waiting to see a translation of the Atelier Marie games.. any of them..

      --
      Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
    10. Re:Sony does this by fahrvergnugen · · Score: 1

      Yup, I do like my Dreamcast, I enjoy many games on it, including btw. a version of Rez that is superior in every way to the PS2 incarnation of the same game.

      However, unlike you, I'm neither a system partisan nor a troll. I'm more than willing to talk about the relative merits of different game platforms in contrast to one another, because hey, guess what? I've already bought all of them. I'm not bound to one as being the One True Way toward gaming, because I have no personal stake based in either honor nor finance to justify my purchase.

      --
      Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
    11. Re:Sony does this by edwdig · · Score: 1

      That's to be expected when you look at how the companies sell the systems.

      Nintendo's systems have sold primarily on their own games, with 3rd party games to fill in the gaps. Nintendo designs the hardware around the games they want to make. Their controllers have typical been designed around the games they were working on at the time.

      Sony relies mainly on 3rd party games to sell their systems. They make a fairly generic controller, and focus on making a good system for other people to make use of.

    12. Re:Sony does this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strange vaporware I am programming then.
      Check out the PSP demos at E3 next week.

    13. Re:Sony does this by fahrvergnugen · · Score: 1

      PS2 dev kits were in developers' hands for years before system launch, while all that false hype was going on.

      Didn't change the fact that the system was vapor. Hell, XBox 2 dev kits are out, and that sucker's still vapor.

      --
      Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
    14. Re:Sony does this by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "The dreamcast died because of shitty programming interfaces and a weird dual-co-processor design."

      Wrong. Dreamcast died because Sega couldn't afford to keep producing systems to sell. One of the last things the CEO of Sega did before he died was give all his stock back so they could stay afloat.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    15. Re:Sony does this by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "I'm sorry you pet console didn't make it, but that's not Sony's fault. Sega has a terrible history with marketting anything."

      So... Sega's at fault for not marketing it right, but that had nothing to do with competition? Wrong. The DC was successful, but Sega didn't have the money to keep building the units. Their marketing was fine, the capital was the hard part.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    16. Re:Sony does this by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Maybe I'm just being naive, but it makes me believe that Nintendo, as a company, just might have a better philosophy and culture in regards to gaming. "

      I was on board with that thought the moment Sony announced that the PS2 could push 66 million polygons a second. They were all single point polygons being drawn to a buffer that wasn't going to the screen. Nintendo showed us 3 cars rotating in real time, they like... oh correct me if I'm wrong, 150,000 polygons a piece? Maybe it was 100,000. Not sure. Anyway, that number sounds a hell of a lot lower, but at least it was a more or less a realistic gaming number vs. a "here's a high number a programer hacked out".

      Frankly, I'd never trust Sony with specification.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    17. Re:Sony does this by tuffy · · Score: 1
      The dreamcast died because of shitty programming interfaces and a weird dual-co-processor design.

      The Saturn/ST-V had the quirky dual SH-2 co-processor design and was tough to develop for. The Dreamcast/Naomi had a straightforward single SH-4/PowerVR design that was very easy to develop for.

      The Naomi was a smashing arcade success, and the Dreamcast got a lot of near arcade-perfect ports of Naomi games. But Sega ran out of cash to subsidize the hardware.

      --

      Ita erat quando hic adveni.

    18. Re:Sony does this by Ossur · · Score: 1

      Sony relies mainly on 3rd party games to sell their systems. They make a fairly generic controller, and focus on making a good system for other people to make use of.

      From what I've read, one of the gamecube's major design philosophies was to make it an easy system to develop for.

    19. Re:Sony does this by Quobobo · · Score: 1

      Shenmue

      Shenmue 2 is on Xbox, but the first one (my favourite) isn't.

      Skies of Arkadia

      On Gamecube, not Xbox.

  21. Re:Blood by Bones3D_mac · · Score: 1

    You can't possible be serious!

    Have you ever played Eternal Darkness? Completely blows the Resident Evil series away.

    --


    8==8 Bones 8==8
  22. bad feeling about the DS by dioscaido · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looking at the descriptions, I have a bad feeling about the DS. I know I'm not the first one to say it, but it reeks of another nice system, much like the black-and-red '3d' system that flopped years ago.

    So we have a nice two screen system by nintendo, vs a simple (and elegant, if anything like the VIAO systems) PS2 portable. The sony system will win hands down.

    1. Re:bad feeling about the DS by dioscaido · · Score: 1

      nice = niche. doh!

    2. Re:bad feeling about the DS by cowscows · · Score: 1

      The virtual boy had a lot of problems, no doubt. It was so completely out there, so entirely different than anything else. I don't think the DS is so wacky that people will be afraid of it. Plus it probably won't give everyone headaches in the same way.

      Honestly, I cannot imagine how sony intends to get reasonable battery life out of the PSP if it really has all this good stuff that they're claiming. On a console system, the two most important things in order of relevance are games and hype. On a portable, it's games, battery life, and hype. I think the useability of the different systems is where this battle is going to be won and/or lost.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    3. Re:bad feeling about the DS by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      uch like the black-and-red '3d' system that flopped years ago

      The virtual boy :) Lol, that thing gave me severe headaches :D

    4. Re:bad feeling about the DS by ShyGuy91284 · · Score: 0

      I agree. The DS is nowhere near as bad as the Virual Boy (I bought one right when it came out cuz it had a cool concept, was pissed when they were on sale for $20 less then a year later:-( ), but it does sounds kind of iffy. Although it's not meant to replace the GBA (Much like the PSP), It will have to act as one. People don't carry around multiple portable game systems in general, they want one. And unless the DS has more then just dual screens and a touchscreen if rumored, It's doubtful people will buy it, because they already have a GBA w/ mostly similar good features.

      --
      In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
  23. And the Tapwave Zodiac! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Chalk full of Palm OS emulators of old game consoles ;)

    fooz

  24. OT by jguevin · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What is with this phrase "hearts and minds"? It's everywhere now, as if we're no longer allowed to say things like:

    "vying for the loyalty of consumer group x"
    "convince the Iraqi people we're not evil"

    but now must say "win the hearts and minds of x". And while I'm being modded down, I might as well complain about "sea change", which I swear I never heard in the first 29 years of my life, but which now appears to have entirely replaced "watershed event", "paradigm shift", and "big deal".

  25. Re:Blood by the+morgawr · · Score: 1

    Here! Here! Eternal Darkness was one of the best games I'd played in a very long time. And unlike resident evil, the game controls were intuitive and easy to learn.

    --
    The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
  26. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems to me that Sega beat them to that spec. (Not that I have anything against some of the more venerable systems such as Genesis/MegaDrive, but the Game Gear was HUGE and could only be played a few hours before its batteries died.)

  27. Re:Blood by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sega sold the genesis, which had a 2 year jump on the market (in the US).

    Super Nintendo CRUSHED the genesis eventually.

    Midway 'censored' MK, not Nintendo. They did so because of all the hooplah over the arcade release.

    Mortal Kombat 2 shipped for SNES with all the blood, gore and fatalities.

    Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was to be the "killer app" for PSX, since it truly had the power to reproduce the arcade game. The horrendous load times between bouts took the wind out of its sales, and PSX languished with the rest of the pack - Saturn, Jaguar, 3DO, CDi. Most folks just hung on to their SNES's. Final Fantasy 7 was really the game that "saved" PSX from extinction.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  28. Final nail in the coffin for Nintendo? by fuchikoma · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The handheld market was Nintendo's last virginal cash cow. Anytime the Xbox pulled ahead of the Cube in the US and developer support waned, Nintendo could just crank out a few SNES ports for the GBA. I just hope Satoru Iwata can swallow his foolish pride and go 3rd party with Nintendo's great games after they drop out of the hardware business.

  29. The obvious question by msobkow · · Score: 1

    The obvious question is if you wanted to play videogames on your TV, why didn't you buy an actual console?

    Granted, $60 for $10 worth of A/V adapter parts is pretty obscene, but what do you expect when you try to force-fit a product that wasn't designed for the home console market?

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:The obvious question by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      Because I want to play the SAME game on TV as on the bus. I want to pause my RPG, unplug it from the TV, pick it up on the bus, etc, etc.

      Why the artificial distinction between "handheld" and "home" consoles?

      There's a demand for this, hence Nintendos Super Gameboy and now GBA Player for Gamecube.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:The obvious question by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 1

      Granted, $60 for $10 worth of A/V adapter parts is pretty obscene

      The $60 he's talking about is for the gameboy player for gamecube. It isn't an AV adapter, it is actually a box that hooks up to the cube and allows you to plug GBA cartridges in. They give you a disc for the cube which is a software GBA emulator that'll run the game on the cartridge on the cube. So the game is actually running on the cube so you can use its controllers and you don't have extra cables to run.

  30. Re:Blood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm afraid your either badly mistaken or stuck in the early 90's.

    Nintendo has several adult titles on the gamecube at the moment, and the reason there is no GTA is because Sony bought exclusive rights to the series. (The only reason GTA appears on the XBox is because of a loophole in the agreement with Sony only claimed exclusivity to the name "GTA").

    To port GTA to the GC now would be moot, since it's a bit late in the game and no one would buy.

    Were the GTA franchise multi-platform from the beginning you would most definitely see an incarnation on the GC. So don't pin your "Nintendo is for kids" argument on the lack of one game.

  31. Who's going to win? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If history is any indicator, Nintendo.

    They beat Sega, Atari, NEC and SNK in the handheld market. They're in the process of killing Nokia. Sony is wasting their money developing such a product.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  32. Nintendo DS info: GB lib. will be included. by ITR81 · · Score: 3, Informative

    In EGM the May edition the Nintendo DS will play the entire GB lib. So no-one will be left out. In EGM the June edition Nintendo HQ admits the codename for the DS is the "Nitro". DS second screen is rumored to have a touch-sensitive pad, handle 3D graphics, a microphone input, and a wireless functionality(wireless connections to the next gen Cube?). Controls list: D-Pad, L, R, A, B, with additional X and Y buttons being considered.

  33. Consider This... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but what of power consumption? This is a huge factor when it comes to portable game systems. I used to own a Sega Game Gear, and while it was a superior system (to the Game Boy), it burned through 6 AA's in a hour. I did the majority of my playing on it via the AC Adapter, totally defeating the purpose of getting a handheld.

    According to Sony, the PSP uses an optical drive of some sort. Does anyone have any idea how the drive motor is going to impact battery life?

    1. Re:Consider This... by ShyGuy91284 · · Score: 0

      I don't know if optical drives can act in a similar way to HDs, but on my MP3 player (hacked firmware), I can adjust it so that it caches data from the hardrive and allows the HD to stop from time to time. Sony may be possibly planning on doing this. Actually, now that I think about it, considering how rare it is for makers to be smart and listen to game designers (aside from the Nintendo-Miyamoto link), Perhaps Sony's change of internal memory to 32 Megs was for cache, so they could keep the battery life good, and not give developers more room to work in.

      --
      In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
  34. It's all about battery life by realmolo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nintendo and their Gameboys have stayed on top for 2 reasons: lots of games, and long battery life.

    None of the other competitors in handhelds have had these 2 things. Yes, there have been more powerful handhelds. But they didn't have games, or the battery-life sucked.

    Sony will have the games, no doubt. And from what I've read about the PSP, they'll have good battery-life, too. Not to mention really, really powerful hardware (for a handheld). So Nintendo may be in for a battle.

    As far as Nintendo and their flagship titles/characters- Does anyone really care about Mario or Zelda or Pokemon anymore? They're good games, but I think burnout has really set-in for most gamers when it comes to the Nintendo brands.

    That said, I love my GBA. Best system Nintendo has had since the original NES, if you ask me.

    1. Re:It's all about battery life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      And from what I've read about the PSP, they'll have good battery-life, too.

      Where have you read this? Sony has said three to six hours.

    2. Re:It's all about battery life by foidulus · · Score: 1

      You would think a company like sony that has a TON of R&D cash to throw around(if they want) on researching batteries, plus having a lot of other handheld electronics to practice with would have battery life mastered, but they actually only have a 3-6 hour limit, not bad, but not impressive. I guess it depends on how gamers use it. If you use it on a trip to grandmas should be fine, but a cross country roadtrip, you are going to be pissed :P

    3. Re:It's all about battery life by Shadarr · · Score: 1

      That's what I've read too, and if they're saying 3-6 hours now it'll probably be more like 2-4 hours of actual use. Compared to the GBA, that's pathetic. I take my GBA on weekend trips and rarely have to change the batteries. Not sure what that equates to in playing time, but it's a heck of a lot more than 6 hours.

      --
      Bite the hand.
    4. Re:It's all about battery life by virid · · Score: 1

      The PSP is supposed to be as powerful a system as the PS2. While the DS on the other hand does have a 3D processor, it's nothing on the scale of the PS2 or GameCube. Nintendo intends to create a device with good battery life from the start, while Sony just wants to impress buyers with flashy graphics.

      --
      "The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - F Scott Fitzgerald
    5. Re:It's all about battery life by tonydiesel · · Score: 1

      Does anyone really care about Mario or Zelda or Pokemon anymore?

      Yep. Windwaker was one of the best games I've ever seen. The thing with the Nintendo franchises is that they are now more about brands than the characters/universes themselves. You know when you buy a Zelda game that it is going to be an awesome open-ended gaming experience. Same with Metroid. I'm not saying Nintendo hasn't missed with their franchise titles before, but the brand is still key.

      If I only have so much time/money to spend on a game, I'm going to go with a brand that I know will reward my effort. This is why I'll almost certainly buy the next Zelda GC game. I would imagine that this applies to handhelds too.

  35. Most surreal quote from the article by alephnull42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Both companies will be vying for the hearts and minds of gamers..."

    I find it absolutely mindbendingly surreal that someone was able use his phrase in this context, apparently in earnest.

    Based on recent less-than-totally-successful attempts to win the "hearts and minds" other market segments, gamers are in for a rough time

    --
    Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
    1. Re:Most surreal quote from the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just as long as Acclaim ceases their "Shock and Awe" campaign... not that it did them much good anyway...

    2. Re:Most surreal quote from the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone wants to follow the Westmoreland/Microsoft approach: 'When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.'

  36. Nintendo can win if play smart by S3D · · Score: 1, Troll

    Sony charge 25000$ for PSP SDK and god only know how much for license to produce game. So Sony probably will not overwhelm customers with numbers of titles on release. Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers. Of cause most of this games will be crap, but by sheer numbers there bound to be some gems among them. And numer of titels have strength in itself too.

    1. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by Osty · · Score: 1

      Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers. Of cause most of this games will be crap, but by sheer numbers there bound to be some gems among them. And numer of titels have strength in itself too.

      Bad idea. That type of mentality ("Flood the market with games and one or two are bound to be good") caused the video game crash in the early 80s. I'm all for homebrew games and screwing around with the hardware, and I'm sure Nintendo could come up with a good incubator program that will give independents the ability to get system information and a shot at publishing, but quality still needs to be strictly controlled.

    2. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers.

      Right, because Nintendo gets along so well with 3rd party developers and the indie gaming scene. Read "Game Over"... Nintendo wants CONTROL and lots of it.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    3. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by k_187 · · Score: 1

      Well really, that's what Sony's done with the Playstation market. Granted they aren't giving the SDK away for free, but the vast majority of games released for the PS1 (the PS2 isn't quite as bad, but it still exists) were crap, with a license or something that nobody should have bought. But it allowed Sony to say with the PS2 "and you can play the 600 games for the PS1". Granted of those 600 maybe 150 were worth owning, but its all marketing. Sony's going to have a tough time with the PSP if only because they're in the middle of a generation (I don't think nintendo's going to rob peter to pay paul with the DS stealing market share from the GBA). This is why the xbox and gamecube aren't near where the PS2 is. If all three had launched the same day, current standings would be very different. Of course, its kind of pointless to speculate on this since none of them have a firm release date yet.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    4. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      Nintendo wants CONTROL and lots of it.

      Nintendo under Yamauchi's rule was much different than it is now under Iwata. I mean, just look at the collaboration efforts between Nintendo and several other major publishers (Namco, Square-Enix, Sega, Konami, Capcom...)

      Another thing you have to realize in context of Game Over is that Nintendo was trying nurture the market back to health. Yamauchi knew full well that they were going to be walking a tightrope, and wanted to keep a tight reign on developers to keep a flood of crap from crashing the market again.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    5. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers.

      There is already a community-supported Free SDK for the Game Boy Advance. See gbadev.org. Disclaimer: I maintain that forum's FAQ.

    6. Re:Nintendo can win if play smart by G-funk · · Score: 1

      And back then they were right to do so. Everybody remembers ET on the atari.

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
  37. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by Adriax · · Score: 1

    Nah, it'll come with a 14" LCD on a hinge, 85 buttons, a touch pad, 40gig hd, ultra fast main and graphics processors, massive amounts of memory (and the feature of upgrading!), DVD writer drive ($50 for a remote if you want to play dvds, $100 for dvd creation plugins), special square perhiperal ports, and a 2hour batterypack!
    You'll just have to ignore the flimsy x-box stick placed over the scratched out "dell" words and logos (it's a manufacturing flaw, really...)

    Only $1300 too!

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  38. What are other companies saying about the DS? by The+Human+Cow · · Score: 1

    N-Philes had a nice article on it today. Check it out.

    --
    The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
  39. DS is an independent platform. Same with PSP. by Viewsonic · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The Gameboy DS will not compete, upgrade, or compliment the current or future Gameboy line. Anyone with any sort of idea of the current gaming industry already knows this. Nintendo has said over and over that the DS will be its own unique niche market that will not compete with other handhelds simply because it will not work like others. It will offer two screens that will provide a very unique gaming experience that simply isn't possible on a single screen system, and wasn't meant to be. Wired as usual, is entirely clueless of the gaming world and this article only proves it once again.

    Also, Sony is gearing the PSP as a multifunctional handheld for many things other than games. Think movies, GPS, MP3 playing, PDA, etc .. They have stated that they wont be in competition with Nintendo whatsoever with the PSP. Once again, Wired is spewing misinformation. How this made a news story is beyond me simply because its entirely full of factual errors and presumptions.

    1. Re:DS is an independent platform. Same with PSP. by ITR81 · · Score: 1

      But the GB DS will play the old GB lib. according to EGM's May edition.

  40. Ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Its ironic that kids (12-16) hate "kiddie" games and have tarred Nintendo with that label for a long time.

    Its only funny because they're more concerned with the image of the system than the actual games. I can't stand Pokemon, but I own one, and I don't really care if a bunch of 6-9 year olds love the console because of Pokemon. But the 12-16 crowd really really hates that label.

    I guess X-Box and PS2 are "grown up" or something.

    1. Re:Ironic... by kisrael · · Score: 1

      Yeah, trying to be more adult is a common behavior and it happens all thorughout childhood...young kids love Barnie and Mr. Rogers, but then it becomes really cool to hate both of them. And Nintendo gets it bad, with some stuff that is legitmately kid-friendly, as well as "japanese cute" which reads as kiddish to the american market. (But I saw how my younger cousins would really struggle to finish, like, Zelda:OoT, and it made me think these things aren't nearly as kiddie as some think.)

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  41. Not the successor to the GBA by bonch · · Score: 1

    This new handheld isn't the successor to the GBA. Nintendo has yet to unveil anything regarding the next Gameboy.

    Though they are coming out with a cool-as-shit NES-themed GBA in June, complete with a release of old emulated NES games like SMB and Zelda.

    1. Re:Not the successor to the GBA by Jagasian · · Score: 1

      A great free NES emulator has been available for the GBA for years now. Back then Nintendo would even claim that emulation was illegal... now they are cashing in? I still like the idea of a NES-themed GBA. I will buy that and a nice flash cart to use with the PocketNES emulator.

    2. Re:Not the successor to the GBA by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      That "cool-as-shit NES themed GBA" has been available in Asia as the "Gameboy Advance SP Famicom Color" for quite a while now. It's not nearly as pretty as the red/black and silver/black models, either.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
  42. Re:Blood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Super Nintendo didn'y make any headway against genesis until Sega stopped producing games for genesis, since nintendo was still producing games for it for at least a year longer than genesis that is why it pulled ahead.

  43. Nokia will win.... by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think it's fricking hilarious that everybody's counting out Nokia. Right now the N-Gage is for developers and those early adopter freaks that spent $1000 for a DVD player. And they failed there.

    But remember that Nokia plays in a different world than Nintendo. Nintendo is starting to move from 3rd generation to 4th. (GB -> GBC -> GBA -> DS). That's a rate of about 1 generation every 4 years.

    Nokia does a generation every 6 months. They've already fixed the "dork factor" and the "remove the battery" problem.

    In 12-24 months, 75% of Nokia phones sold will include the N-Gage "feature". Since everybody wants a nice colour screen anyways, the added cost of N-Gage is miniscule. And the cost will be $0 (with a 2 year contract).

    This will be every kid's preferred phone: sure the video games selection sucks now, but it'll text well and there'll probably be at least one good game. A cell phone is a mandatory kid-accessory.

    And kids will prefer to buy games for their phone rather than for their Gameboy: you're more likely to be carrying your phone than your Gameboy.

    Poof, demand exists, good games start coming, critical mass happens and Nintendo is looking for that truck's license plate.

    Sony will eventually integrate PSP into Ericsson phones. Will it be soon enough? They have the critical mass problem and a timing problem.

    Nintendo's in good shape though: they can license the GB to Motorola and the other cell phone manufacturers. They've got the momentum: a cell phone that is GBA compatible is a lot more valuable than an N-Gage phone. But they have to get those partnerships in a timely fashion.

    Convergence has to be done right: people will not put up with a crappy phone or a crappy game system just for convergence's sake. I believe Nokia will iterate and "get it right". Any partnership will have many more problems doing so...

    Bryan

    1. Re:Nokia will win.... by WebGangsta · · Score: 1
      You're right: A cell phone IS a mandatory kid-accessory.

      But you're wrong about kids wanting the Nokia N-Gage. It's way too big. Kids want something that they can slip into their pocket, and with today's fashions, those pockets are getting smaller (and lower) every day.

      It's one reason why those Virgin Mobile slide-phones are popular with kids.

    2. Re:Nokia will win.... by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      I liked Nokia's old phones, the 5185i is large and brick-like, but once you get used to the interface you can even memorize the number sequence for frequently used features (set alarm= Nav-7-1-1) the new phones with the damned icons/ side scroll menus suck.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    3. Re:Nokia will win.... by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

      but in 12 months time there will be tiny versions of N-Gage available...

    4. Re:Nokia will win.... by KeeperS · · Score: 1
      "But remember that Nokia plays in a different world than Nintendo. Nintendo is starting to move from 3rd generation to 4th. (GB -> GBC -> GBA -> DS). That's a rate of about 1 generation every 4 years.

      Nokia does a generation every 6 months. They've already fixed the "dork factor" and the "remove the battery" problem."

      Interestingly enough, you've highlighted the exact reason that I don't think the N-Gage will ever be a contender in the video game market. A new generation of hardware every 6 months is a really bad strategy for a console. One of the biggest strengths of consoles is their fixed hardware base: you can program for one piece of hardware and know that it's going to work exactly the same for everyone who owns that console. Once you start throwing in a new model every 6 months, you have a whole host of problems thrown in as well.

      The N-Gage might succeed as a phone, but I don't ever see it succeeding as a game machine. The fact that it has a vertical screen alone tells me that Nokia has no idea what they're doing. How much money is Nokia willing to spend to "get it right" before the N-Gage becomes profitable?

    5. Re:Nokia will win.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course! And with your astounding sample size of two (TWO!), it's obvious Nokia is well on its way to producing ever better consoles faster than Nintendo could dream of.

      No wait. Making any long term assumptions based on one product that's out and another still in development is a STUPID thing to do.

    6. Re:Nokia will win.... by OldSchoolNapster · · Score: 1

      I don't want a game console the size of a cellphone (Nokia8260), and I don't want a cellphone the size of a handheld game console. I do want an MP3 player in my cellphone.

      --
      bit trollent
    7. Re:Nokia will win.... by TheLoneDanger · · Score: 1

      Nokia removed the ONLY reason to own an N-Gage, which was to go out and do some Sidetalkin'!

      I mean really, with the QD, all you're left with is a fairly generic phone that plays games on a tiny screen.

      --

      "But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
    8. Re:Nokia will win.... by Daneurysm · · Score: 1

      Nintendo will not converge, nor will they partner up.

      The Playstation was supposed to be an SNES CD-ROM upgrade!

      Aside from the Panasonic DVD/Gamecube player--which the states has failed to see at all--and a handfull of bombed projects Nintendo has learned it's lesson...

      Besides, given it's terribly stringent licensing requirements I'd be very surprised to see a Nintendo-Portable/Cellphone, let alone a partnership with another company to develop the same.

      Speculation, as usual...mine, and all of ours.

    9. Re:Nokia will win.... by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

      It's not exactly fixed hardware, but it's nothing like the chaos you get in the PC world, and there's some damn good games out on the PC.

      If there's a market, the games will come, fixed platform or no.

      "The N-Gage might succeed as a phone, but I don't ever see it succeeding as a game machine. "

      That's the point! Once it has succeeded as a phone, even if each N-Gage user buys an average of 0.5 games versus a GBA user's 5, it's still a larger market than the gameboy market.

      Bryan

    10. Re:Nokia will win.... by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

      yep, games will suck on a small-screen phone, but they'll suck a hell of a lot less than being stuck on the bus without your GBA or playing "snake" on your old Nokia....

      Bryan

  44. Mod Parent Up! +1 Stupid Assertion! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    didn't need to have anything saved, as the original Game Boy couldn't handle it.

    HA HAHA HAHHAHHA!

    Mod Parent Up! +1 Stupid (and wrong) Assertion!!

    Any game that had a battery could save. It was just expensive.

  45. Simplicity is the key by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm.. one thing Sony seems to be underestimating is the current makeup of the handheld market. They seem so apt to bring technology comparable to current consoles in a handheld screen, but have they thought about things like battery life (The TurboExpress was lightyears ahead of any portable game system up to the GBA but went through batteries like donuts at a Linux users group convention)? Not to mention, the GBA right now attracts a younger audience who prefer the simplicity in a game like Mario Advance 4:Super Mario 3 (a remake of one of the best games of all time), and hardcore gamers who love 2-D and want a spiritual successor to their beloved SNES.

    I really like Satoru Iwata's design philosophy (gameplay over fancy graphics), but unfortunately, the majority of gamers don't want that (hardcore gamers are about as much a minority as a non-virgin on /.) If Sony makes a few more "extreme" ads appealing to the sensibilities of ADHD inflicted high schoolers, it'll score a LARGE portion of the market... furthermore, if Sony can coerce some of the bigger RPG developers to develop for the system, they'll get a big portion of Japanese players to invest in it. Of course, it's my opinion that without Japanese support, the system is doomed.

    And once again, we know nothing about the software for either of the 2 systems. All I've seen so far for PSP is "Death Jr.", a mediocre-looking (i.e. 2nd generation PSX graphics) platformer from Digital Eclipse, a poor company who couldn't even handle a Sega Master System -> GBA conversion without introducing crash bugs into it. With the DS, we can almost definitely count on a new Mario, and we know of an exclusive Zelda for it... I wouldn't rule out the system launching with a "Super Mario DS - Super Mario 64", supposedly they already have Mario 64 up and running on the console. Software will win this from an overall perspective, on how "good" the system is, its mindshare in the eyes of the hardcore gamer... though some systems with excellent software (Saturn, Dreamcast, Turbo Duo, Neo Geo Pocket Color) have failed in the US marketplace, while some games with severely lacking software (Xbox, N64) have sold well.

    And hey, I still have my GBA to play some more! I just picked one up last summer... I'm waiting for Guardian Heroes Advance, Astro Boy, and hopefully a port of Final Fantasy 3 Japanese (the second best in the FF series)

  46. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "It'll also come in handy as a bludgeon."

    That's all it would be handy for.

  47. Journalism errors by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not even past the first few paragraphs, and I've already found errors:

    In fact, the Game Boy Advance is carrying a lot of water for the company, since the GameCube, Nintendo's flagship gaming console, is rapidly falling behind the PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox in sales.

    Since when is the GameCube rapidly falling behind the XBox in sales?

    In case you haven't been in close proximity to any 12-year-olds in the past five years, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is a $100 portable game device the size of a slice of bread.

    Wrong. The Game Boy Advance SP is $100, the normal Game Boy Advance runs around $70.

    I guess we've all just gotten so used to the mainstream media just getting their facts wrong that people don't even notice anymore.

    --
    Forget the whales - save the babies.
    1. Re:Journalism errors by Osty · · Score: 1

      Since when is the GameCube rapidly falling behind the XBox in sales?

      XBox sales are up since the price drop. The same thing happened with the Gamecube when it dropped to $99. The surge may or may not be sustainable, but the XBox is quickly gaining momentum (new XBox Live features, a very strong spring line-up, and a promising Fall and Holiday line-up to come). Gamecube doesn't have much on the horizon, nor anything really strong this spring either (a port of WarioWare from the GBA to GC, without even updating the graphics? What else has Nintendo released lately for the GC? I can't think of anything major). Metroid Prime 2 and Paper Mario 2 may be interesting for the holiday season, but that's about it.


      Wrong. The Game Boy Advance SP is $100, the normal Game Boy Advance runs around $70.

      Bah. Nobody buys the normal GBA anymore. $30 isn't enough when you consider that you also have to buy a light for it (quality lights will run you upwards of $20). Since the SP's release, you can pretty much assume that anytime someone says "Game Boy Advance" they really mean "Game Boy Advance SP".

    2. Re:Journalism errors by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      Um... the GameCube has fallen pretty far behind Xbox and PS2 in America.

      Also, are you truly that anal to point out SP versus standard Advance? I got what they are driving at.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    3. Re:Journalism errors by edrugtrader · · Score: 0

      no, we've just gotten used to the fact that there is no more "game boy advance" that isn't an SP model.

      i would also consider the sales gap growing wider every month... thus 'rapidly' fitting just fine.

      --
      MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
    4. Re:Journalism errors by metroid+composite · · Score: 1

      Um... the GameCube has fallen pretty far behind Xbox and PS2 in America.

      http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten3.htm

      Hardware Sales in North America
      (For the month of March 2004)
      Rank System Manufacturer Units Sold Total Sold
      1 GameBoy Advance Nintendo 496,614 21,237,545
      2 PlayStation 2 Sony 294,437 23,226,879
      3 Xbox Microsoft 198,445 8,384,051
      4 GameCube Nintendo 163,028 7,297,191

      Yes, XBox is currently surging a little due to a price drop. I wouldn't call 15% "pretty far behind". If anything, the XB and the GCN are about tied and very far behind the PS2 and GBA. Bear in mind too that the GC and XB both did far better in North America than any other area of the world. (IIRC it's 3mil/3.5mil in Europe, and 3mil/1mil in Japan compared to similarly high PS2 sales; don't have the figures onhand, though).

    5. Re:Journalism errors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Gamecube doesn't have much on the horizon, nor anything really strong this spring either

      It had MGS: TTS, FFCC, and Havest Moon AWL in the spring. Those were the games I heard about (and didn't instantly dismiss anyway). Compare that to XBox where I heard about Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell PT (which will be multiplatform eventually).

      Okay, upcomming. XBox I've heard of Fable, and then a bunch of first person shooters (Halo 2, Doom 3, HL 2, and there were others but I failed to care for whatever reason). GC I've heard of Prime 2, Tales of Symphonia, RE4, PM2, Fire Emblem 8, supposedly there's Mario 128 and some Zelda game comming, though I have no clue if those'll get released this year (or next year knowing Nintendo).

      Call me crazy but I'd say the GC looks stronger. I can't bring myself to care about Console FPSs anymore; sue me.

    6. Re:Journalism errors by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      I wouldn't just look at just ONE MONTH, but I can't find any yearly figures either.

      According to Wired:
      Right now, Nintendo commands 98 percent of the $1.1 billion market for handheld game devices and relies on its Game Boy Advance for a big chunk of its revenue and profit. In fact, the Game Boy Advance is carrying a lot of water for the company, since the GameCube, Nintendo's flagship gaming console, is rapidly falling behind the PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox in sales. That's why the company needs the Nintendo DS to be a big hit. But the early betting is on the Sony PSP.

      I realize it is without numbers, but it is from a reliable publication.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
  48. Portable Gamecube by bonch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Gamecube's discs are tiny like the PSP's. Why doesn't Nintendo just design a portable handheld based on the Gamecube for '06 or '07 or whenever they plan a new Gameboy release?

    That way you'd already have an entire game catalogue as well as developers with experience writing for it, and you wouldn't have to waste resources designed a whole new architecture. In addition, the standard cartridge slot should be on it somewhere for backwards compatibility with all previous Gameboy games.

    I would kill for portable Metroid Prime or Windwaker (I wouldn't even mind all the damn sailing sequences!).

    1. Re:Portable Gamecube by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Well, one of the design decisions of the Dolphin processor was supposed to be that it could be used in portables just like in normal consoles. And when you look at the GameCube, a lot of space is wasted on the disk area up the top (you don't _really_ need a huge disk for games, if anything it's just made people try to pad it with cinematics,) and the empty space for expansions down the bottom. And you obviously don't need all the controller ports, and jacks for video out.

      It might just work.

      I was really upset to hear that their next system was going to be another 2D model, given all the potential of their existing components. Put a lower power version of the processor in the GameCube, and blow every potential competitor out of the market. ;-)

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    2. Re:Portable Gamecube by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is actually what I've been suspecting was going to happen when they claimed that the DS would not be continuing the Gameboy line proper. The DS would be backwards compatible with the cartridges, and allow for 2D gaming to continue.

      The next iteration of the Gameboy, however, would be dealing with the 3D capabilities of Sony's handheld and whatever others would come out. It needs an edge to be able to make a dent, as it would likely being going to disc format, and would therefore no longer be backwards compatable. What to do? Make it backwards compatable, but with the Gamecube.

      They are already selling the GC architecture for $100 with "negligible" losses (I read this as "we turn a profit with one game sold," but don't quote me on that). Now, turning it into a portable would obviously cost a little more, and the control scheme would certainly be wacky, but assuming they were able to make a handheld backwards compatable with the GC games.....well, I'll just leave it at they'd already have one sold.

    3. Re:Portable Gamecube by TC+(WC) · · Score: 1

      I would hate to have a disc based portable. GBA carts are tiny and take a beating well. I put them in my pocket with change and keys and things and they're fine. I can drop them, and they're fine. It's hard to kill them. With a portable, you'll always end up losing cases and things sometimes. You can quite easily scratch your games to hell. Suddenly you have to carry around a bunch of little CDs in cases to have a few games with you. You'll never make them as small and durable as you can make a cart.

      I'm sure you can sell it if you make the advantage big enough to offset the problems, but cartridges are great for portable game systems.

  49. Sony Claims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the moment Sony said they hoped to get three to six hours of life out of the battery. Since it is safe to assume that that is Sony marketing-speak, what it really means is that you'll get six hours of use when playing back music but actual gameplay will be closer to three hours.

    1. Re:Sony Claims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To clarify, the GameGear provided three hours. Honestly, three hours isn't that long. I enjoy the fact I can have my GBA run for what seems forever without having to replace the batteries.

  50. Yes it has by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If XBox wasn't hackable, there wouldnt' be a compelling reason to buy one.

  51. The DS is NOT the next GameBoy by Kataton · · Score: 1

    Nintendo has stated that they'll launch another Game Boy console in a year. The DS is not another Gameboy, it's a different product.

  52. A surefire way for Sony to win.. by apetime · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ..but something they would never probably even consider is to give the millions of people that already own stacks of Playstation games the capability to play them on the PSP for basically free.

    I'm not sure about the details of the drive that they're using, but it would be very cool, and lucrative in terms of getting a massive installed base of PSPs, if they let people burn the PS1 games they already own on to mini-CDs or mini-DVDs or whatever and just stick those into the PSP. If the drives were capable of doing it, all they'd need to do is set up some funky logic in the PSP to bypass the PS1 copy protect and region encoding. And since this thing is supposed to have the power of the PS2, it should be able to emulate the PS1. It's not as though they make tons of money selling PS1 games anymore, but im sure there are a whole ton of people with stagnant libraries of those old games. Even without a huge library of PSP games on release, this one cheap feature would cause a rush of people to run out and buy one of these things, and it would cost Sony almost nothing to implement, provided that the optical drives can run standard DVDs... which come to think of it, I don't think they do. (UMD was it?)

    1. Re:A surefire way for Sony to win.. by FroBugg · · Score: 1

      Except that one of Sony's biggest moneymakers with the PSP is probably going to be ports of PS1 games.

      Just like Nintendo's been bringing all their SNES stuff to the GBA. Some of it's been updated or combined with even older stuff, but a huge portion of the title list is remakes or remasters, and nearly all of them have sold fantastically. Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission, Sword of Mana, the Mario games, Mario Kart, Zelda...

      Sony would be shooting themselves in the financial foot to not do it Nintendo's way. Sure, they'd get a huge install base, but they'd have to put a lot more work into making games, and games are where the money is made. If everybody's got a PSP and fifty great free games from the PS1, why would they buy many new ones? The tech on them won't be much of an improvement, and they'd be competing against games from every genre.

  53. Ok by cubicledrone · · Score: 1

    Once again, Nintendo, which has a HAMMERLOCK on the portable game console industry is facing a "tough fight" with a company that has NO PRESENCE in the portable game console industry.

    Meanwhile Sony is invincible in the home video game market, and has never and will never face a tough fight with anyone except Microsoft, because Sony and Microsoft are the greatest companies in the history of the universe and we, the media, can do nothing except gape at their publically displayed cash hoards.

    Meanwhile, Apple, a company with a HAMMERLOCK on digital music distribution, despite the fact their product is MORE expensive, faces a tough fight from the bold and innovative Dell, which introduced their digital music player earlier this week.

    Microsoft, on the other hand, faces no competition at all from Apple.

    Why do Apple and Nintendo constantly have to scrape for the benefit of the doubt in markets they own?

    The word "bias" comes to mind. Half-assed rah rah hype-journalism at its worst.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
    1. Re:Ok by tttonyyy · · Score: 1

      In other news: Sony face a "tough fight" in the face of Nintendo's upcoming 28" widescreen television system...

      --
      biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
    2. Re:Ok by roninbix · · Score: 1

      It's because the last time Nintendo faced Sony in a market they owned they got their ass handed to them on a plate. Back then Sony wasn't even a credible gaming company, they came practically out of thin air.

      Sony has a track record of landing with seriously solid systems, games and marketing to back it up. So far, when sony has said it's going to deliver something, they have come up with everything they said at a minimum if not more. Nintendo on the other hand has been showing up to the christmas party in a halloween costume. They're there, and they have something all right, but no one knows quite why they brought that or who asked them to bring it. Management at Nintendo is borderline retarded these days. They have market dominance from old markets from previous management or something and they're just keeping what they've got. They do not appear to be capable of responding to an actual threat of any kind. The entry of a real contender could easily half their market share. Sony has so many good titles from ps1 and ps2 that if it even hinted it might open a porting option to handheld Nintendo may as well find something else to sell.

      Microsoft meanwhile was never more than a joke in the gaming market. They were never considered to have a possibility of producing the software quality needed to compete in the console market. I've seen microsoft products and god knows I don't wanna use that stuff for fun.^^ They'll be around a while no doubt. If for no reason than they can flush buckets of money down the drain to keep their crap around. But they will never dominate consoles. M$ is like the antichrist of software quality and every conceivable measure of performance (unless you're looking for maximum resource consumption).

    3. Re:Ok by Daneurysm · · Score: 1

      So far, when sony has said it's going to deliver something, they have come up with everything they said at a minimum if not more.

      I was interested in your views--opposing or not--untill I read this.

      Pay attention much?

      The brazen, baseless and specificity lacking MS bash further reinforces the fanboyism. (and I hate MS as much as the next slashdotter, but I can tell you why...and wouldn't accuse out of context without reference.)

  54. Well..... by ShadowRage · · Score: 1

    Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming industry, might get pushed under the rug and trampled on and often hated,and has proprietary hardware/software but manages to survive regardless.

    I like my gamecube. and the games and the quality of the graphics, I also like the fact it can play GBA games with an addon that connects to the bottom of a system (wouldnt that make it a gamesquare?)
    (and there is a 3rd party connector that connects to the memcard port)
    and the fact it can go online, and can be portable itself (can hook up in the the car, and you can get a little lcd monitor addon) makes it a winner.

    I want a gaming console, not a wannabe computer that was made in a marketing meeting.
    I'm not impressed with most of the ps2 games, namely because half of the games look like 1st generation sega dreamcast games (games that were mostly programmed on other dev kits and ported to dreamcast) and it's slow loading.

    nintendo has many good points, sadly, they're not well liked because the average gamer nowadays wants mostly naked women who kill people and rip them apart, etc.. and want blood flying.

  55. Obvious Looser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The looser will be us as consumers. All this time you have had a GB and it's been cheap, and you have not had to buy a new one every N months. Hasn't it been refreshing?

    Too bad it's over now. New handheld systems will come out as frequently as video boards. You'll have to buy a new one every 6 mo. and they'll cost $399. At least with video boards you can play a new game on an old board (slowly), and an old game on a new board.

    1. Re:Obvious Looser by squall14716 · · Score: 1

      I seriously doubt it. The two that'll fight will be Nintendo and Sony, and they both know that sending out another handheld in 6 months is going to do nothing but piss people off.

      Nintendo (and Sony alike) will be forced to innovate, and also to get great games developed for their handhelds, and the winner will obviously be us, no matter which company succeeds.

      Or I could be wrong.

  56. I was gonna say the same thing by Scyber · · Score: 1

    I am pretty sure you are right, the DS will live side by side with the GBA.

  57. Nintendo makes too many dumb mistakes... by DroopyStonx · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    For example, the GBA lacks the X and Y buttons of SNES, thus making a lot of the ports very awkward to control.

    They started to lose footing with N64 by going cart based instead of CD based, and as a result, lost quite a bit of licensing. Bye bye, Squaresoft! No FF7 for Nintendo. Don't get me wrong, the console had a few good games (like Zelda), but there weren't many... just like with the GC. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Remake, and Zelda (although I wish it was longer) were decent games, but... that's about it.

    Sony has good sense in the usability department. The last I heard about the PSP, it'll pretty much imitate the PS constroller. 4 buttons on the right, triggers at the top, etc..

    Will the DS be backwards compatible with GB/GBA? ...and what's with including the very out-of-place technology? There's been this trend about putting games on cell phones, but... the point of a cell phone is to talk with people, not play games. I don't think "wow, I can play games on this!" has been a big sales factor with phones, just like I highly doubt, "Ooooh, I can send IMs to my friends with my DS/PSP!" will be a big sales factor. What am I gonna do... press the up/down arrows to select letters one by one by one? It'll take ages to type out anything worthwhile. There gonna be a hookup for some type of keyboard? It's like using your cell for Instant Messaging: very freakin awkward and half the time not worth the trouble.

    It boils down to games: how well they look, how good they play, and overall fun factor. Since Nintendo seems to be losing their footing, I feel that the victor will be Sony.

    Nintendo has made too many mistakes and at this point, it's simply too late to reclaim the throne. They're basically a console for younger players, as those mature enough will find more entertainment in games that PS2/XBox has to offer.

    Maybe their next-gen system will do good enough to make licensees think about switching to Nintendo for the console AFTER it, but... the next-gen will pretty much go to Sony again.

    --
    We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
    1. Re:Nintendo makes too many dumb mistakes... by Daneurysm · · Score: 1

      Don't get me wrong, the console had a few good games (like Zelda), but there weren't many... just like with the GC. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Remake, and Zelda (although I wish it was longer) were decent games, but... that's about it.

      I'll get this out of the way now so you can calibrate my point of view: I'm a Nintendo player, and fan...not fanboy, as I agree with you on their many many blunders over the years. I swear they have their heads up their asses half the time. (The N64 cartridge debacle at the top of my list)

      Every game I have rented for my GC (purchased, used, just last month...video games aren't terribly high on my list of priorities these days) has been fun...very playable. Even if the controller takes quite a bit to get used to (for each game--much like all the systems these days--but far worse)

      My Ps2--which was given to me--has been relegated to my closet...aside from GTA3/ViceCity, which plays and looks far better (and is far more hackable) on my PC. The PS2 consistently amazes me with the utterly boring software available for it. Granted, there are more 'hot titles', but, per capita Nintendo's offerings are more entertaining, by far.

      I was under the impression that the Ps2 handily beat the GC graphically/processor wise...yet, the GC titles appear to look far better and far more polished on average. Most of the PS2 library is garbage...IMHO, of course.

      Of course, I think this is an entirely moot point. I think Nintendo and Sony are going for two entirely different (but mutually overlapping) markets here...not just the 'adolescent/young teen VS Teen/Adult' market....but functionality and price wise. Nintendo is in a position to undercut the prices for all of it's consoles signifigantly at a moments notice...Sony isn't stupid. They have a piece of far advanced technology on their hands here...Manufacturing it themselves or not, increasing efficiency in processes over time or not, Sony doesn't want to sell a bargain system. In fact, I could see them keeping the price artifically high as an attempt to effect it's percieved value and quality. (ie: their insane early-adopter prices).

      Another point I feel is worth consideration is that in a portable system, most of the time (I assume, of course...this is slashdot) I doubt that people want to turn their portable game system on to pick a couple minutes off of the 40-hour full-scale video game, or view 3D worlds and characters on a minute screen .... simplicity here I think is key. Tetris and it's ilk are what I wanna play when I have a couple minutes to kill waiting in line, on lunch break or on the bus.

      All my own speculation and opinion, of course ;)

  58. I dunno about Sony's marketplan... by BTWR · · Score: 1

    Sony was BRILLIANT in tapping the 20-something videogame market 8 years ago. They targetted professionals with their sleek Playstation systems. However, I don't really see men and women in business suits playing handheld videogame systems. I just don't see it.

    1. Re:I dunno about Sony's marketplan... by raygundan · · Score: 1

      I see it, at our office, pretty regularly. On business trips, it's not difficult to find another professional to hook up a link game with at the airport. It's more common among adults than you'd think, because they're cheap, simple, and fun.

      Of course, just because I see it frequently doesn't make it universally true. Just adding my anecdote to yours.

  59. DREAMCAST! KAIIIIIEEEEEEE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Weep for the dreamcast!

    Such innovative games! Such graphical prowess! So ignored by the people! I gnash my teeth and rend my garments to remember the beauty of Soul Calibur, and to see it's offspring playing in the very lap of that which slew it's parent!

    One day perhaps a travelling monk who turns out to be a martial arts master will mysteriously appear and tell Soul Calibur 2 what REALLY happened to it's father! THEN WE'LL SEE AN ASS-WHUPPIN!!!

  60. Im Pissed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Finally we have televisions big enough and clear enough to play an enjoyable game, and the hardware is finally getting fast enought to handle those larger screens. Now they want to go to handhelds with just passable resolutions and tiny screens? If I wanted smaller I could break out the ol super nintendo and 14 inch tv I had it attached to. Why do they insist on going backwards every couple of years. GIVE ME GAMES, GAMES, GAMES. I want an experience that leaves me bruised and bloody. Stick with a platform and make the games better (think better graphics and "more complex gameplay").

  61. Re:Blood by Quobobo · · Score: 1

    Hey, long time no see.. but I disagree. Wasn't impressed with any of the aspects of Eternal Darkness, the gameplay, the story, or the graphics. To be honest, it felt like Resident Evil without any of the polish or the horror.

    I am one of the seemingly few people who has absolutely no complaints with the RE controls, so maybe I'm slightly biased. At any rate, I'll take RE 1, 0 or Code Veronica over Eternal Darkness any day.

  62. Huh? by iammaxus · · Score: 1

    Sony? Upstart?

  63. Gizmondo by kjeldor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why must the title of "Best Handheld" go to Nintendo of Sony? Another very overlooked device that will also be showcased at E3 is the Gizmondo by Tiger Telemantics. This unit contains a 400Mhz ARM9 processor with a 2.8" TFT color screen running Windows CE. Although its primary selling point will be gaming, it also functions as a camera, mp3 player, movie player, and messaging system. Some of the more interesting features are built in GPS, GPRS, and Bluetooth capabilities. I personally think this will be a very nifty device...and if they can release some decent gaming titles, this could potentially go head to head with Sony or Nintendo. Check it out: Gizmondo

  64. Re:Blood by madgamer · · Score: 1

    WRONG.

    Midway did not censor MK2. Nintendo censored MK2.

    This was the time when then senator Joe Lieberman and Herbert Kohl went on a quest to ban all offensive videogame content (citing games such as Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, etc.). Sega's response was to use a videogame rating board (ESRB), and Nintendo's approach was to remove all the blood. This was way before ESRB became a standard.

    RE: SNES and Sega Genesis, it was a closer battle than you think. SNES did not CRUSH the Genesis, though it may have won by a small margin.

    BTW, I used to work for Sega and now I work at Midway.

  65. DS is perfect by Slashdot+Insider · · Score: 1

    If the rumors are to be believed and it ends up having A B X Y and L R buttons, it could turn into the elusive perfect SNES emulation device. Now before anyone brings up the GP32 or other competitors which have come up short, the DS will have a usable screen and wide availability, some things the GP32 never had.

  66. Something to mull over... by May+Kasahara · · Score: 1
    I think you're missing the point of the parent post. While Nintendo's success with its home consoles tends to vary, it has (historically) had real staying power in the handheld market.

    Sony does look like a serious contender with the PSP, but back in the day, so did Sega with the Game Gear...

    1. Re:Something to mull over... by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      No, I got the point.

      People thought Nintendo had a lock on the home console market with the NES. Over the years, that was challenged because people saw the HUGE market available.

      Right now, many see the giant market in handhelds. They will, without a doubt, begin chipping away at the big-N. Nintendo can't hold the lead forever, especially since they seem to be in a regurgitation stage for the GBA - "Super Mario 8 did great on SNES? Port it to GBA... it will make a lot of money!"

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    2. Re:Something to mull over... by tuffy · · Score: 1
      Right now, many see the giant market in handhelds. They will, without a doubt, begin chipping away at the big-N. Nintendo can't hold the lead forever

      Chipping away, perhaps, but Sony has an uphill climb with its PSP. The DS's backwards-compatibility with the GB, GBC and GBA gives it a big library right from the start (the same reason the PS2 garnered such fast adoption) and it's all but assured to cost less and have longer battery life than the PSP.

      I think the PSP will enjoy modest sales and a decent string of titles, but I feel it will prove to be the next Game Gear and never quite take charge of the portable gaming market in spite of superior hardware.

      --

      Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  67. GBA Game compatibility by FunctionalMethod · · Score: 1

    If Nintendo doesn't break the compatibility to the 's of GBA games , Sony will almost certainly fail. I also don't think that the PS1 / PS2 consoles have anything to do with this issue. The handheld market is very different. Power and gfx aren't as important , battery life and simple gameplay are. So far Nintendo has proven that it understands what gamers need. Simple games , that kick ass. Sony will try to win buyers with 3d gfx and whatnot.And will fail.

    --
    -- TRUST ME! I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!
  68. Nintendo by arfuni · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nintendo still has a library of older games a lot of us grew up on that they can rerelease. Nostalgia is propping them up and maintaining their competitiveness, which I find pretty funny. Who cares if the Sony hardware beats out the next generation Nintendo handheld? That much more advanced Sony handheld won't be able to run N64 games. :P Our Nintendo rep claims that the next gen Gameboy will be able to run Gamecube discs, btw. I don't buy it for a second, but... yeah. It WOULD be absolutely amazing.

  69. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by Achoi77 · · Score: 1
    It'll be complete with a hard drive, cpu, cpu fan, and disk drive. It'll be the size of a briefcase and weigh about 10 pounds

    That's only because it is the minimum required specs to run their upcoming LonghornCE. Afterall, what good is hardware if it doesn't *operate?* ;-)

  70. Samir? by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
    I'm surprised our friend Samir Gupta over at Nintendo hasn't told yet us why Nintendo will crush them.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  71. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by NanoGator · · Score: 1

    "It'll be complete with a hard drive, cpu, cpu fan, and disk drive. It'll be the size of a briefcase and weigh about 10 pounds. It'll also come in handy as a bludgeon. "

    It'll also be inexplicably popular as a vapourware Linux box.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  72. It's not an emulator but a coprocessor by tepples · · Score: 1

    They give you a disc for the cube which is a software GBA emulator that'll run the game on the cartridge on the cube.

    The Game Boy Player disc is not an emulator. Evidence is that it works even with peripherals that connect to the cartridge port. A GBA motherboard makes up most of the Game Boy Player's board; the software on the Cube just redirects the stream of input from the controllers to the GBA, the stream of video pixels from the GBA to the Flipper GPU, and the stream of sound samples from the GBA to the Cube's sound chip.

    1. Re:It's not an emulator but a coprocessor by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 1


      The Game Boy Player disc is not an emulator.

      No, I do think it is an emulator, because several GC games have gameboy games ebmedded in them (metroid prime and I believe animal crossing) and they have the same interface, same options and works the same and evertyhing as the gameboy player. So I think it is a software emulator because they appear to be using it in other games (which don't have any hardware).

  73. Elusive? by Thedalek · · Score: 1

    You've completely missed the various emulators available for the Tapwave Zodiac, haven't you? Try checking this site and this one.

    --
    Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
  74. Fair use prevention by tepples · · Score: 1

    Nintendo can't hold the lead forever, especially since they seem to be in a regurgitation stage for the GBA

    Nintendo is obligated to regurgitate^Wrepublish its older copyrighted games in order to keep ROM pirates from having a strong argument under the fourth fair use factor.

    Besides, Nintendo isn't all regurgitating; witness WarioWare, Mario & Luigi, or the forthcoming Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

  75. It's the battery life, stupid by tepples · · Score: 1

    I feel [Sony's PSP handheld] will prove to be the next Game Gear and never quite take charge of the portable gaming market in spite of superior hardware.

    Actually, the Game Gear wasn't all that superior. It was based on the same CPU architecture as the Game Boy (Z80), clocked nearly identically (GG's 3.6 MHz vs. GB's 4.1 MHz); all GG had going for it were a color screen and a power-hungry backlight. If Sony can give the PSP handheld a decent battery life, then it might not fall victim to the real reason why few people bought Game Gear handhelds.

    1. Re:It's the battery life, stupid by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      all GG had going for it were a color screen and a power-hungry backlight.

      So in other words, all it had going for it was "better graphics".

      The GG also had a better speaker. At its introduction it had a HUGE library of games available. It could play every Sega Master System game with an adapter.

      Even so, Nintendo wiped the flood with Sega in the handheld market.

      Sega's Nomad was a portable Genesis, the GB kicked its ass too.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    2. Re:It's the battery life, stupid by tepples · · Score: 1

      The GG also had a better speaker.

      I've heard the Game Gear's speaker, and it's not all that good. Reading the specs, I discover that its tone generators can generate only 1/2 duty pulse waves, not 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and arbitrary waveforms like the Game Boy could. In addition, the Game Boy's tone generators could go nearly an octave lower. Plug in headphones and listen to the soundtrack of, say, Zoop or any Mortal Kombat game for each system, and you'll notice that the Game Boy version's instruments sound marginally more differentiated.

      It could play every Sega Master System game with an adapter.

      That was good for its time. But now the Game Gear Advance can play Sega Master System games as well, not to mention NES games. (Yes, I'm calling the GBA the Game Gear Advance because it's the handheld that Sega develops for now.)

  76. Re:Blood by The_dev0 · · Score: 1

    No GTA? That's right, because it's an old game. Instead they have True Crimes:Streets of LA (IMHO far better gameplay than GTA3 with more blood, bad language and all the naughty things that make your points moot).

    --
    Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
  77. Why it's not a GameSquare by tepples · · Score: 1

    I also like the fact it can play GBA games with an addon that connects to the bottom of a system

    In addition, with a flash cartridge, you can play NES games on your GBA.

    (wouldnt that make it a gamesquare?)

    No, for two reasons: first, the Game Boy Player actually completes the GCN's cube shape, and second, between before FF VII and before FF Tactics Advance, Squaresoft didn't develop for Nintendo platforms.

    the average gamer nowadays wants mostly naked women who kill people and rip them apart, etc.. and want blood flying.

    Then let them make their erotic violent pornography in Photoshop. Yes, Photoshop Elements is a game, and servers include Fark.com, W1k.com, and others listed here.

  78. There are both by tepples · · Score: 1

    No, I do think it is an emulator

    I know Datel's GBA for GCN accessory uses a pure software emulator. But if the Game Boy Player accessory also uses a pure software emulator, then how do carts with custom hardware, such as Boktai and bankswitched flash carts, work if the Game Boy Player doesn't already know about them? And why does the manual have warnings about turning off the rumble in Game Boy Color games? And why does the Game Boy Player's motherboard have a chip labeled "CPU AGB" like the GBA's? And how does the older Super Game Boy accessory for Super NES work if the Game Boy's processor is actually faster than that of the Super NES?

    I'll guess that Nintendo has made one or more emulators, and Nintendo has also made a coprocessor. It uses the coprocessor in the Game Boy Player and the emulator in GameCube games that do not require the Game Boy Player, such as WarioWare. It can afford to make the emulator slightly less accurate because it has every right and ability to modify the games to work around emulator bugs.

    1. Re:There are both by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 1

      I know Datel's GBA for GCN accessory uses a pure software emulator. But if the Game Boy Player accessory also uses a pure software emulator, then how do carts with custom hardware, such as Boktai and bankswitched flash carts, work if the Game Boy Player doesn't already know about them? And why does the manual have warnings about turning off the rumble in Game Boy Color games? And why does the Game Boy Player's motherboard have a chip labeled "CPU AGB" like the GBA's? And how does the older Super Game Boy accessory for Super NES work if the Game Boy's processor is actually faster than that of the Super NES?

      Idunno*5. All I can say is that the software for the GB player looks the same as the software in the obviously emulated GB games embedded in GC games. I've never taken the GB player apart to see what is in it, I will have to some time. I guess if there's a CPU then I guess the GB player does run the game in hardware and it isn't an emulator.

  79. Well they got _my_ money by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

    So explain that, smartarse. There is a total of one game worth playing on Xbox which isn't available elsewhere and that is Kung Fu Chaos. $250 seems like a hell of an investment just to play one game. :-)

    --
    Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
  80. Re:Nintendo DS info: GB lib. will be included. by MBCook · · Score: 1

    I REALLY hope they add the X and Y buttons. It would make their current SNES porting easier for everyone. As for wireless, Nintendo already announced some little adaptor that clipped onto the back of the GBA and was supposed to provide wireless, but I doubt it will ever see the US (or even release, thanks to the DS). I can't wait for E3. Between everything that's happening (and I wouldn't be too suprised to see a PS2 redesign ala the PSOne) it's going to be very interesting.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  81. Tapwave? lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The emulators would be great for that, if you could avoid choking once you saw the price for the unit. The thing is even more uncomfortable to hold and use than the original GBA and that's saying something!

  82. Re:Nintendo DS info: GB lib. will be included. by Quobobo · · Score: 1

    Agreed on the X and Y buttons. I find that they're usually OK for some games, but Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles really suffered for me due to the lack of buttons. I mean, scrolling between your list of attacks with only one button to perform an attack is incredibly limited. If the SNES had that many buttons, a system on par with it (as well as a system that often doubles as a next-gen system controller!) should have at least as many.

  83. Non-SP GBAs by metroid+composite · · Score: 1
    I'd be curious to see how non-SP GBAs are selling now.

    I only have Japanese Data, but they're selling at about 1/10 the rate over there.

  84. missed one area by metroid+composite · · Score: 1
    Price. For whatever reason people don't seem to want to pay as much for a portable console as a home console (and portable games tend to market for lower as well). It makes perfect sense too--portable hardware will always be a step behind the current generation for technology.

    However what I'm wondering about is the 2D vs 3D issue. Personally I have a GBA largely for some great 2D experiences that they're comming out with today. On the other hand, every home console does 3D, and furthermore I'm not convinced a 3D game without a really good back-lighting system will work so well compared to clear-contrast bright sprites.

    If, as rumors state, the PS3 will play PSP games, then I'll have very little reason to get the PSP itself. I've honestly barely used the portable aspect of the GBA (other than an extra screen at parties). What can I say? Camping trips are no longer "those boring things my parrents drag me along to" and I need to get out of the house more often....

  85. Hey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Asshole

  86. The Saturn sucked... by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    in the states anyway. I've read a little on the history, and as near as I can tell Bernie Stolar is the Antichrist. I think he might have had something to do with the silly infighting between Sega-USA and Sega-Japan that gave us the 32x (now that was a POS). At any rate, he's responisble for discouraging the porting of fighting games from Japan (he didn't want some of the better Japanese Saturn fighters competing with the Virtua Fighter series). My favorite Saturn story comes from Working Designs:

    They (Working Designs) were having a huge problem with people calling their tech support and complaining about lost save games. Turns out crappy third party memory cards were the problem in every case. So they started selling the official Sega ones out of their own shop. Sega tells them to stop, because they're not an 'official' retailer. So they say, OK, how do we become 'official'. Sega then proceeds to blow off one of their most loyal third party developers, and I get stuck with a crappy playstation port of Silhouette Mirage, and no more Langrisser games. Thanks Sega.

    Doesn't help that the Saturn's hardware is a buggy mess. Sega basically got wind that the Playstation was going to kick much ass, and tossed in a second processor so it could keep up. Of course, they decided they just had to ship on time. So processor 1 can't acess memory while processor 2 is. I've heard juggling the processors so they both can do useful work is a nightmare that many programers didn't bother with. (I've also heard Virtua Fighter 2 was coded entirely in assembly, which if true is both amazing and explains why it manages to kick so much ass).

    That said, yeah, the Saturn has some of the greatest games ever made. Panzer Dragoon Saga is a play experience on par with Mario 64. That is to say, a game unlike any other I've ever played before or since. There really is nothing else like it. Saturn Bomberman was great. Of course, now that I've got perfect CPS2 and Neogeo emulation, all those great capcom and SNK ports are kind of pointless though. Then again, there's Gungriffon (the only game I've every played that got the feel of piloting an Anime Mech right, and no Armoured Core didn't). I havn't played Dragonforce, but oh God do I want to. It looks on par with PDS.

    Trouble is, these games just make owning a Saturn all the more painful. There was just so much more that could have been done, if Sega was only willing to:

    a. Pull Bernie's head out of his ass, and...

    b. Miss the release date a few months.

    Sega made everything alright with the Dreamcast (well, everything but those craptastic game pads, but the arcade stick fixes that, and sadly nothing beats dual shock for Virtua On), but by then it was too late. Sony had the marketing engine (and the smarts) to grind Sega into the ground before they could get a foothold.

    --
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  87. Re:--THIS STORE IS A LIE ! -- by tyrani · · Score: 1

    oh man, not only did I make a spelling mistake, but I posted under the wrong story.

    --
    rejected (19) accepted (0)
    Is there a psychological term related to getting your stories rejected on slashdot?
  88. Reply to AC by JMZero · · Score: 1

    Marketing is certainly important, but it can't resurrect bad hardware. Sega marketed the 32X and Sega CD valiantly - but they couldn't keep people from discovering the games sucked. The Saturn was OK, and the DreamCast was good - but by then nobody trusted Sega to stick with a platform for more than a few minutes.

    There's certainly a lot of factors here - mostly I was just trying to make the point that it isn't about gamers following games, it's about games following a successful (or predicted to be successful) console.

    --
    Let's not stir that bag of worms...
  89. ...are you sure ? by DrYak · · Score: 1
    The system with the best games will win.
    The system with the best marketing campaign will win.
    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  90. Those ARE total sales by metroid+composite · · Score: 1
    Not just one-year, but sales since launch. The one-month numbers are on the *left* of the numbers I bolded. Incidentally 66 million sounds familiar for worldwide PS2 sales, though that's probably a bit out of date.

    As for Wired, I have no explanation. Well, there is the alleged anti-Nintendo bias of the press but even supposing they are biassed I would think they'd be a bit more careful than that.

  91. Re:Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handh by stonecypher · · Score: 1

    ... and that's just the link cable.

    Similar opinions abound.

    --
    StoneCypher is Full of BS
  92. Re:Nintendo DS info: GB lib. will be included. by kommisar · · Score: 1

    If the second screen is truely a touch screen I think Nintendo just invented the latest texting device. Wireless connection, palm pilot style handwritting recognition. This could actuall be really cool. I suck at texting on a mobile phone handset. There are only 9 buttons and they are too small for my hands. A Gameboy like device with a small screen that lets me write with a stylus and then texts my buddy sitting within wireless range...that rock big time. Nintendo may have a winner here.