Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo DS to Launch November 21
mcc writes "PlanetGamecube is reporting the upcoming Nintendo DS handheld has been given a launch date of November 21st and a price of $150 ! It is also being reported that the Nintendo DS will ship with PictoChat (a sort of chat/whiteboard software) and some form of the Metroid Prime Hunters multiplayer FPS bundled in. A fact sheet is also available."
Doomed like the Gameboy which DOMINATES the handheld market? I don't see a changing of the guard anytime soon.
"But is it doomed much like Nintendo's previous hardware? PS/2 and XBox are royally kicking Nintendo's ass at the sport that Nintendo once ruled." Actually, XBox is losing to Nintendo. The GameCube sold more units and Nintendo raked in more profits than the XBox. But yeah, the PS2 is beating the GameCube and XBox put together. Not only that, but Nintendo still rules the handheld market. The GameBoy Advance SP is utterly unrivaled. And the only competitor to the Nintendo DS- the PSP- costs twice as much ($300), and requires you to buy the same games you might already have on playstation 2 on minidisks. I predict Nintendo will remain in dominance in the handheld market. " I, for one, still find the best games ever to be ones that came on the NES and SNES. Final Fantasy series up until 6 (3 in the US), etc. FF aside, Nintendo is still home to some of the best RPGs ever made. Lets hope the DS does the same." I expect it will. I hope we see a Zelda DS :)
That are from 30 to 100 feet away! Save the energy of actually looking at people, or raising your voice slightly.
Is there some aspect of the chat feature that I'm missing or not understanding? If you're playing a game with someone within 100 feet maximum, shouldn't you be able to see and/or holler (holla for all you kids) at them?
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Bullshit. Many people have tried to enter the handheld market (at least 4 large companies have launched handhelds in the US that I can remember).
The reason Nintendo owns the handheld market right now is the same reason they ruled the console market until technology passed them by by a full generation - they are a game company, not a software company, not a video game company, not a consumer electronics company - they make games that hook kids like crack cocaine.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
As others have pointed out, nintendo is FAR from getting spanked in terms of actual sales in the market, especially in terms of handhelds.
While it might come as shocking, not all video gamers are rabid 20-something zealots who think the kiddie gamecube games aren't manly enough for their elite skills. Even more shocking... VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS TARGETTED AT CHILDREN STILL SELL. There is, in fact, a video game market outside of the "living in mom's basement" niche.
I don't know who are worse, xbox fanboys or playstation fanboys. The gamecube crowd seems to mostly shut up and just enjoy their games. Maybe because the gamecube crowd is mostly children who go to school all day instead of posting to seven hundred online message boards while "looking for a job" in the aforementioned basement.
My point: stop your silly video game prick waving. All three systems have good and bad games. All three systems aren't going anywhere. And all three systems are going to continue make a shitload more money than you're ever going to see.
child: disposition, time, no money
adult: disposition, money, no time
senile: time, money, no disposition
so, it only get worse. enjoy.
Yup, it seems that Nintendo is much more comfortable underhyping the capabilities of its systems. You can also see this back when they presented the Gamecube, they didn't use the inflated possible poly per sec stats and instead noted what they thought it could reasonably put out under game conditions (numbers which have been bettered in actual games since then).
Frankly, with Sony refusing to properly clarify how many hours the PSP can be played on a charge with an actual game, I'm guessing that the DS is gonna last significantly longer than the PSP. And that has been a key factor in the Gameboy systems beating all of its technologically superior competitors. Sony can talk all it wants about the PSP's capabilities but if I am charging for 2-3 hours to play less than 4-5 hours...
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
Sega dominated the console market, and just couldn't pull it off in the handheld market. Heck, some people say their efforts with the Game Gear and Sega CD sank the Genesis and let the SNES win out in the long run. Sony's got a fragile design behind them right now. I don't think they're going to end up with a system that can withstand the punishment a GBA can withstand (and gets inflicted on it regularly). I don't think the PSP will do nearly as bad as the N-Gage did, but ten years from now, I expect we'll all be talking about it like we talk about the Game Gear now. It was around for a while, it was kinda cool, and the Gameboy is still going.