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PSP Launch Coverage
Sony's handheld console has launched with great fanfare, and already there are plenty of places to get opinions and reviews. Shacknews has a nice hands on with the player itself, Gamespy has reviews of the launch titles, and Gamespot has coverage of just about everything on its PSP Launch Center page. From the Shacknews hands-on: "Technically speaking, the PSP is a far superior machine to the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS. It's a powerhouse device, capable of displaying modern graphics, playing robust sound, and can even replace a portable DVD player. However, many of its launch titles are just watered-down versions of PS2 games and Sony has no experience in portable gaming. Nintendo has been doing it right for a decade and half, why should we think the PSP can just waltz onto the scene and take over? Can it even be done?"
People asked the same things when Sony announced the original Playstation. Give them a shot, it's not like they're totally out of touch with the gaming community.
"Nintendo has been doing it right for a decade and half, why should we think the PSP can just waltz onto the scene and take over?"
Maybe I'm crazy, but it looks to me like Sony already has experience in the whole "beating someone after over a decade of dominance" thing.
I think this is kinda like when the XBox came out:
Microsoft has no experience in console gaming. Nintendo has been doing it right for a decade and half, why should we think the Xbox can just waltz onto the scene and take over?
While these are not quite the same scenarios, both MS and Sony have advantages in these new markets: MS had a hojillion dollars and Sony has the console market by the balls. PlayStation fans will probably pick up the PSP, and that could really make the PSP turn up in the black (not to pun the PSP's color)
What I see a problem is perception. Most of my friends enjoy playing games like Minish Cap and old school mario on their GBA's.
In fact, playing these games on the GBA is almost an excuse to return back to the simpler, yet highly addictive, 16-bit era where pixels were the rage and polygons only existed in arcades.
When I think of Sony, I think of Gran Turismo and realistic RPG's, not quirky sprites with catchy music that makes me want to play my GBA.
Maybe if Sony could get something like Bubble Bobble or another old franchise, PSP would have more appeal.
Just my two cents.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
I don't know a single person who's even considering getting a PSP. Sure, we all agree it looks like a great little machine, but it seems that almost all it's selling features are just so... limited. The comment from the post is right on. Do I really need another Wipeout or Ridge Racer game? Wasn't I playing those on the first Playstation, like um, ten years ago?
I can play more music on a dedicated mp3 player, and for less money. A 4 gig iPod Mini costs 199, and this is 249 + another 119 or so for a gig of storage. That's not very good. I can also use an iPod for days before it dies, when a PSP will probably wear out in about five hours, which is shorter by far than your average work day.
Oh, but it can play movies! Yeah, but I'm not going out and buying the same movies I already own just in case I randomly want to watch them on a 4 inch screen (assuming they even come out), or spending the time to convert a movie to the MP4 format, then copy it to a huge memory stick, only to erase it again if I'd rather take something else on the go, well, that just seems like a pain in the ass to me.
So, I'm left with games, pretty much. Games that I played and got sick of ten. years. ago.
I'd say the PSP is a _much_ better mp3 player than the iPod is a game machine. Sony isn't saying it's an iPod-killer, so get over it, already. It's a gaming machine that does other things, and that's cool.
2D games like Guilty Gear X (and sequels)? Alien Hominid? DDRMAX? Contra: Shattered Soldier? Gradius?
(OK, at least with the last 2 they're rendered with 3D, but they're still 2D sidescrollers.)
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Ah yes. Who can forget the Sony Playstation's handy defeating of the Atari Jaguar, the 3D0, the CD-I, and the Saturn? If Sony can outlast this guantlet, surely they can defeat anyone.
Wait, no, that isn't it at all. The only reason Sony got anywhere with the original Playstation was everything else at the time fucking sucked. The Jaguar and Saturn were jokes, the N64 wasn't what consumers wanted and only had like three good games max (all by Nintendo), and Nintendo was such a jackass in the mid 90s under the old CEO that nobody wanted to work with them.
Sony's takeover of the video game industry in the mid 90s and their capable defending since of the ground they took shows an enormous degree of business saavy. What it doesn't show is skill. Sony grabbed the market in the startling way they did less because of what they did right than because of what everyone else did wrong; all their competitors were either incompetent or, in Nintendo's case, incompetent and repulsive.
Well, the handheld and media player markets that Sony is trying to slip somewhere indeterminately between right now are a good bit different from the video game industry when the Playstation was released. The media player market is extremely rich right now, and on the video game side the PSP (unlike the Playstation) actually has a viable competitor; Nintendo is no longer particularly repulsive to developers, and they're even doing things lately that you could almost call competent, sometimes. Meanwhile, frankly, looking at the Playstation, the Playstation 2, and the PSP, the first two of these are just plain good products. The third... how shall I put this... seems to me rather lacking, and doesn't really seem to serve any utility at all unless you really want a Video iPod and don't mind spending lots of money on memory sticks. This seems likely to be a bit of a hard sell given alternative systems with a fair degree of quality really do exist.
I'll agree the person you quote is being silly; I don't think there's any reason to think that Nintendo can magically and eternally defend itself from all challenges to the Game Boy. But if you look at the products on the market right now... meh, I think it's pretty safe to say they can defend themselves against the PSP.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
That's pretty much it. They are in completely different leagues, but they're still playing against each other.
I do think the fallout will be pretty minimal, though. The PSP is going to be big, oviously. It looks like it'll be bigger than the DS by far, and challenge the GBA.
But, something that people have largely stopped pointing out is that Nintendo and Sony target different groups for the most part. Nintendo targets younger gamers more than older ones. Yes, they sell to older gamers, like me, but Sony's games and systems have appealed to me more for a long time.
Sony doesn't have the "kids" games that I've seen. Nintendo doesn't have the "grownup" games. Both of them will be able to have solid places in the market without wiping each other out.