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Sony PSP/Nintendo DS Opinion Piece
Mr Nash writes "The Armchair Empire has posted a lengthy op-ed about Sony's PSP and Nintendo's Dual Screen where the writer comes to the conclusion that "the market just doesn't appear to be ready for a pair of new handhelds to step onto the scene."
Old news for the fans who have been tracking down those devices for a long time.
(I would like an explanation about how a brilliant Super Mario 64 port is a bad thing.)
When sony will spill the beans about the psp price? Battery life was already kicked into the developers yard, so I expect that most games will have small load times before gameplay (2-10 seconds) so they can put on the game box "Expected battery life: 3 hours".
Interesting times.
It's like the iPod. The iPod is doomed.
People are just not ready to spend hundreds of dollars for a portable music player when they can just as well listen to the music at home.
Or they use their MD-Player or Discman the bought just a few years ago.
Nobody will buy another music player.
I don't need a signature.
I wouldn't be so sure that the market isn't ready for new portable gaming devices. The "desktop" console market has been operating on a much faster cycle than the handheld market. Handhelds are traditionally cheaper and have more of a tradition of backwards compatibility, so there's no reason why consumers can't be persuaded to buy a new one every couple of years. The gameboy was supreme for years, Nintendo almost certainly hoped that the GBA could manage a similar feat. After all, they hadn't had an even vaguely serious challenge to their monopoly in this market since the Game Gear, over a decade ago, and even that was seen off quite easily.
However, all that has changed. The N-Gage was a flop in terms of sales, games and design, but it did drive up technical expectations of consoles. Once Sony started sniffing around the market, Nintendo didn't really have much choice but to offer a new device. So far, we've mostly been hearing the Nintendo fanboys ranting about how the DS will see off the PSP and Nintendo will remain supreme. In the very short term future, this might be true.
However...
Sony (and even Nokia) have deeper pockets than Nintendo. If they want to make a serious assault on the market, they can afford to do so over a period of several years. They can afford to research, develop and release a new product every couple of years. Indeed, Nokia have already announced their intention to continue to refine and enhance the N-Gage. If Nintendo don't want to be seen to be left behind in the eyes of the average consumer, they have to try and keep up. Their old strategy of putting out a winner and then milking it for years and years just won't work. This, I'm sure, is how Sony are hoping to take over the market from Nintendo. On the basis of what happened in the "desktop" console market, I think they'll eventually succeed.
The article had very little positive things to say about either side, it's almost as if the author worked on the N-Gage and was bitter...
Nintendo has said they want the DS to be a third pillar in gaming, with GCube and GBA as the other two. And the holy trinity series makes sense, or at least helps to explain they're not trying to do away with the GBA.
The PSP on the other hand has been pushed back a year....11/05 so Sony can work on the battery life. Perhaps the market will be ready then.
http://www.commaecho.com
Video gadgets require attention, and the price of low battery life or just plain high price leads to failure to adopt or abandonment. The Gameboy established itself because it had excellent battery life and a low price. I can't see these doing much of either.
Despite the hue and cry from certain parties, the U. S. economy is in pretty fair shape and still getting better. It's not dotcom-bubble level, but it's not bad. It was worse when the SP was released.
That said, I think his criticisms of both systems are pretty well on the mark, but I'm still confident that the DS will perform sufficiently to stick around. It has a large and growing library of games stretching back to the original GameBoy, in addition to the titles planned for exclusively for it. Remakes can be a bit of a drag, but remakes of good games are still good games, and many of today's gamers did not grow up with an NES. If Square decides to release their FFIII remake stateside finally, it will be a brand-new game, practically speaking, for the U. S. market.
What looks, to me, like a more interesting parallel is between the original GameBoy and the Lynx, TurboGrafx, Game Gear, and other portable consoles of the early to mid nineties. The GameBoy has consistently beaten its competitors by being good enough for a lower price. Despite all the other feaures of the PSP, I suspect that's what will happen here, too.
Canthros
To hit the high points, lets start with his conclusion.
The latest Nintendo handheld platform (the Gameboy Advance) launched in 2000 (the SP is just prettier, not more functional -- it's the same device). Clinton was President, some parts of the world still liked Americans... and we were typing away on piii 600s, with 64mb of ram. In what way are we not ready to move on? Of course we're ready for a new platform, and maybe even a new idea or two (it's about damn time I had a real FPS in my pocket, and fragged others wirelessly). I'm a married man with a kid, I don't have too much cash to spare... but I have a GBA, a GBA SP and I'll get myself a Nintendo DS when it comes out (I'd consider the Sony, but it is beyond my price range).That's the big picture. Some smaller points:
Sony:
-he's only got 2 complaints about the PSP:
One: Battery life: Yes. But batteries get better and for all we know they'll offer a fuel-cell pack for this thing in a years time. I give Sony props for putting out the polygons.
Two: Price: He's got a point, it's expensive. But people by iPods and I think they're crazy.
Nintendo:
-His arguments against the DS make even less sense.
One: "remakes aren't innovative". New software reshaped to take advantage of a new platform using new features... the only thing that's still around is the Mario face on the box.
Two: The GBA is out there and it's cheap. F3@r this? Really? You have a gi-mungous installed base with compatible games and you're offering updates for those legacy titles when used on the new H/W (pokemon gba titles can d/l updates at the new movie, in the DS)... this is market leverage, not a liability.
I guess this guy gets recognized for maintaining his luddite-ish "I-hate-new-things" tone for the entire article, but this just means he's taken a stand, not that he's thought it through.
This article doesn't pay attention to the biggest reason companies are going after the portable market with two new systems - they're trying to finally break into that 18-35 year old market that portables have never nailed before. Sure, the GBA SP is sleek and cool, but the games, for the most part, are dinky, 2d, kid-focused titles, and sales for older gamers certainly aren't in the same realm as consoles.
This guy's analysis assumes that the target consumer already owns a GBA or an SP. His assumption is WRONG. There are a lot of older gamers who don't see a need for a portable system, particularly the CASUAL adult gamer; the one who buys Madden and GTA and rents a few other games. Both companies are going for the wow factor to nail the older audience into thinking they need a portable system. The PSP has the edge in the "cool" factor, thanks to Gran Turismo, MGS:Acid, etc, but the DS has the battery life and price point that PSP desperately needs to convert its "cool" factor into pure sales. And Metroid Prime: Hunters might be just enough to get older gamers to pay attention and give a crap during launch. Furthermore, Nintendo has already announced an expected shortage this X-mas season. That is terribly intentional - the buzz of the "hard to get, super-awesome toy of the season" will put the DS in the lead with both sales AND reputation well before anyone even holds a PSP in the states.