Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3
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.
The system with the best games will win.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
All I can picture is that episode of the Simpsons where Lenny and Carl duel with microscopes.
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...
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!!!!
Meanwhile, Nokia huddles in a corner and cries...
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...
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.
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.
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!!!!
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
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.
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?
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.
"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
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.
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
I'm not even past the first few paragraphs, and I've already found errors:
Since when is the GameCube rapidly falling behind the XBox in sales?
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.
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!).
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?)
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
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.
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.