Kasavin Weighs In On PSP, DS Battle

Thanks to GameSpot for its Greg Kasavin-authored 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing comparisons between Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS handheld systems, in a piece subtitled: "Five Capital Letters, Two Little Systems, One Big Bloodbath". Kasavin points out: "It's very, very easy to jump on Sony's bandwagon... it's also very, very easy to root for the relative underdog that Nintendo's lately turned into. But... neither of these companies expects your loyalty or necessarily deserves it. They're both these big, huge Japanese firms designed to pull a serious profit year in and year out." The piece continues: "There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the Nintendo DS is a reactionary device that lacks focus", although concedes: "To be fair, Sony has also done its fair share of double-talking with respect to the PSP", before marginally favoring the PSP, "designed with an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mind-set." Elsewhere, Game Informer also weighs in, with a two-part series "analyzing the upcoming handhelds".

Comments

Re:Greg passed up on one point

[El Neepo]

He also seems to think you're going to be REQUIRED to use the touch screen. I doubt a fighting game will require touches on that pad while trying to kick ass.

From what I've seen

[Chris Acheson]

There seems to be a lot more consumer excitement about the Nintendo DS. It might be some sort of geek bias, since I'm going off what I've seen on internet forums, but I can see how the DS would be much more successful.

Obviously the big issue will be what games are available for each system. This remains to be seen, but the backwards compatibility seems like a very big advantage for the DS. The DS will have a massive previous-generation game library, just as the PS2 does. This is less of an issue as a system reaches maturity, but it's important for a newly-launched system.

The other major issue is the price of each system. The DS will cost (so we've been told) $150. That's only $50 more than a GBA SP. The PSP will be priced around $250, resulting in significantly slower consumer uptake. Combined with the earlier launch date of the DS, the PSP will have a difficult time breaking into the market.

I think Sony would have done better to create a PSone-sized machine capable of playing PS1 and PS2 games, as well as audio CDs and DVDs. Sure, it couldn't really be considered a handheld system any more, and you'd need a carrying case for it, but they're trying to market the PSP as an all-in-one media player/game system. Why not make something that actually plays your media? Creating a new disc format specific to the PSP and only allowing it to play Sony's DRM-encumbered music files seems like a mistake to me.

On a not entirely related note, how many of you have thought about the possibility of running Linux on the DS? The features seem perfect for it. We just need a port.