DS vs PSP - Developers, Press Sound Off

Sean O'Neill writes "Over at GCAdvanced.com, we've got a large feature interviewing handheld developers and gaming press about the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Marc Nix of IGN says: 'I think a lot of system fans and game reporters are gearing up for a big Portable System War of 2005, but the problem is, gamers traditionally haven't cared all that much about handhelds.' However, it's also pointed out that 'incredible features for the new handhelds... will undoubtedly elevate their appeal' - the article then gets responses from more than 20 developers/press on their views of the conflict to come."

Comments

Handhelds are the future!

[tod_miller]

I have been having some fun in the palm of my hand, err, developing for PDA's. I use several models daily, and they suck!

However the potential for a mobile PC with camera / peripherals, and more importantly, instant, fast, GPRS or local connectivity (WiFi) that can easily be built into games (and lets not forget GPS) will make a whole new breed of gaming.

This is already happening, and the whole of Tokyo is host to the first (?) real life MUD, where people can walk around the city using GPS to reposition themselves in the game, and taking different commutes to work to fight new monsters.

Pocket PC's are shockingly cheap now, and except for thier bland input keys, the stylus mode of input can be used as an analogue stick (by orbiting around a fixed center)

Quake2 plays nicely on my Axim30. Of course, this is about 'console' handhelds. As the price barriers blur between the two, it is hard to say what is what.

A sony and nintendo will have something that PPC will not have - a distribution chain. Even though we want digital distribution, cartidges will probably still be developed, or a mini dvd disc.

Perhaps games will come on SD cards in the near future, bringing their costs down for all other users.

The good thing about OTA distribution is the ability to on the fly encode some DRM (yuck!) that would disable the full game if copied onto another device, unless the person 'transfers' the license somehow....

Re:Handhelds are the future!

[lpp]

and taking different commutes to work to fight new monsters.

Imagine that a significant portion of the commuting population were vested in this game. They had the hardware and the desire to play this game and did so.

Imagine that this population also wanted to fight these new monsters in game, so they all started altering their commuting patterns.

I wonder how, if at all, this would affect traffic congestion. High traffic areas with much congestion might see some relief as commuters elected to pick different routes into and out of town, just to get the better pickings in less travelled areas.

Then again, commuting could be made worse. Instead of everyone getting on a bus or train (where *everyone* is hacking the some mobs), they all jump into their individual vehicles, creating additional nodes on the traffic system.

Of course, given the initial assumptions about the population size, I doubt it would have much of an effect.

Still, an interesting thought.

DS guaranteed winner

[Apreche]

The DS is a guaranteed winner. In the very best situation it rocks, has a lot of games that rock and everything is awesome. At the very worst it ends up like virtual boy, and you get to be the cool kid on the block who has a virtual boy.

Remember back in the day gameboy vs. game gear? Even Nintendo admits openly the game gear was superior technically. But gameboy won because it had Tetris. It had portable games. The PSP is going to have console games. Taking PlayStation games and making them portable will fail for the same reason that taking PC games and putting them on console systems fails so miserably. Just because you can take a game with you in the car doesn't make it a portable game in the same way that playing Quake 2 on the N64 doesn't make Quake 2 a console game. You get it? Nintendo is the only company that seems to understand this. Look at advance wars, that's a portable game. It wouldn't work any other way. But it looks like Sony is just going to try to miniaturize the playstation, and it wont work for the same reason the game gear didn't work.

Nintendo knows this. Nintendo is making portable games. Sony is making a really small console.
You can read it here, straight from the horses mouth.

Re:DS guaranteed winner

[Guppy06]

"But gameboy won because it had Tetris. It had portable games."

IMO, part of why Game Boy has successfully trumped so many competitors is that they don't make "portable games." They make games that happen to be portable. While most other handhelds seem to take the stance of "Now you can play your favorite colsole game X on the road!" (with versions that often paled in comparison), most of my favorite 4-shade Game Boy games didn't really have console analogs, at least not initially. SaGa and Seiken Densetsu were re-branded in the US but didn't have anything in common with Final Fantasy beyond their new names. Gargoyle's Quest* went on to inspire sequels on the NES and SNES. Metroid II is just... well... Metroid II. And don't forget where Kirby got his start.

And with the Game Boy library maturing with the hardware itself, Sony and the PSP's publishers will have to try that much harder to be something far more than "the hand-held version of the PS2," I don't see much hope for it.

When the Super Game Boy came out for the SNES, relatively early in the Game Boy's life, people scoffed. "Game Boy is supposed to be portable! Why would I want to play portable games on my TV?" Things have continued to build, Nintendo has released their Game Boy Player for the GCN and people are no longer laughing. Forget about playing PlayStation One/2 games on your PSP, the PSP won't be able to succeed until people start to want to play PSP games on their PlayStation 3.

* Capcom was making noise at one point about an MMORPG based on the Ghouls & Ghosts & Goblins/Gargoyle's Quest/Demon's Crest universe. What happened to that?

It all comes down to game base

[ShroomSolo]

IMHO the DS is gonna beat out the PSP. Grant it it will be a close race but the DS has the games. I'm sure there are loads of parents who will look at the DS for little timmy over the PSP just because he has 50 games to play for it already. I don't have the cash on hand to pay $150 for a console than another $50 just for something to play on it. I'm far more inclined to get the DS just for Castlevania and the other Vania GBA games I already have that it will be able to play. Its just not gonna be a total slaughter on either side. Just my 2 cents. ... and no I don't know how to spell

It's a 3-way fight.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, while there's a lot of focus on the PSP vs the DS, in my opinion it's a three-way fight. If the PSP is equivalent to a portable Playtation and the DS a portable NES, then the cell phone is your portable PC.

Like the PC, cell-phone games are a little trickier to build (for the same reasons: multiple platforms and standards) but also like the PC in the 90s, it has a major advantage over the "consoles": connectivity. You can play your buddies (even if they're not in the same room, which is as much as you get for connectivity with the PSP and DS. Add to that over-the-air delivery of games, and you've got something going on. And everybody will own a cell-phone anyway...

And sure, the first Ngage sucked hardcore, but they'll fix it. Unlike Nintendo or Sony, Nokia is used to changing and improving their products yearly, and you better believe the other cell-phone makers are working on gaming handsets too.

Just you watch, the major feature of the PSP2 and/or DS2 will be more robust online and over-the-air access, but by then they'll be playing catch-up (kind of like how the PS2 and XBox are trying to catch up to the PC in terms of connectivity).

Sure is an interesting time to be a gamer...

GameSpy Does it again

[Doomstalk]

From the article: "Dave 'Fargo' Kosak of GameSpy.com predicts: Here at GameSpy the general consensus is that the Sony handheld will blow the market wide open -- our editors often consider it to be the "iPod of Gaming," the must-have peripheral that'll make portables cool."

I'd take this more seriously if it came from a source with a shred of journalistic integrity. These are, after all, the people who listed such classics as Donkey Kong Country, Halo, and Quake 2 in their "Top 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time" list. Considering the fact that all three of these games are generally considered to be excellent by most gamers years after their release, they're obviously not overhyped. This is compounded when you consider, as Penny Arcade aptly notes, that Gamespy plays as much a part in the hype machine as anyone else. It's rather obvious that they were picked by Gamespy to create controversy instead of presenting a list of games that deserve the shame of being called overhyped. It seems to me that the "iPod of gaming" remark is yet another of these gambits, aimed more at ushering more hits their way than providing any useful information.

Don't know, the PSP looks way way way better

[SmallFurryCreature]

The gamegear was better but not light years ahead. The PSP seems to be far more powerfull then the GBA. Will this make a difference? Don't know but I think the DS is far from a sure winner, lets not forget the GBA and GBA SP had some serious design flaws. No reason nintendo can't screw up the DS as well.

Further more in the time of the Gameboy Nintendo was THE company. That is no longer the case. Nintendo is now an also ran in console land and Sony has the shelf space.

Frankly I like my gba but the screen is poor and the graphics are at best passable. I am ready for a more powerfull handheld. The DS sounds intresting but it is all going to depend on how well the split screen is used. Unless they come up with some truly great games I think the PSP is going to win IF Sony is smart enough to just put it on display with a running demo and does not screw up the battery life. Then again real hardcore gamers will probably get both anyway.

Re:Will there really be a war?

[mausmalone]

Technical superiority (which the PSP undoubtedly has) doesn't always win the war, its all about the games.

I'm not sure about undoubtedly. All of you who think this is gonna be a portable PS2, think again. It's not. It may be a similar archetecture and based off the same technology, but it's not gonna be nearly as fast. It would draw too much power and require too much cooling to be that fast. The DS is damned powerful from what I've seen, and I've yet to see a reasonable screenshot of something actually running on the PSP. At any rate, I'm really interested to see what the PSP has to offer, but nothing about it is without doubt right now.