Nintendo Gives No Ground In Handheld Wars

TomO wrote to mention a news item on the site Pro-G reporting on a general consumer confidence in the DS, greater than that of the PSP. From the article: "Wavemetrix, a company that specialises in working out what customers think of products, has released a new report on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The report, rather shockingly, reveals that the 'DS is better than the PSP in every important area.' This includes games, quality, screen and value." Relatedly a Gamespy article states: "Few could have imagined it, but the DS is becoming the most significant new console in Japan since the PS2. What started as a rumbling -- with great novelty games such as Wario and XX/YY -- has recently turned into a full-scale dual-screen uprising led by Electroplankton and Nintendogs."

Comments

It's the Games, Stupid

[MBCook]

I'm not that suprised, is anyone else? I'll have to mention that the PSP's screen is MUCH better than the DS's, but that's a side note. I own both, I got both the day they came out.

The PSP is a very nice system. I loved Lumines. I'm playing through Hot Shots Golf right now. But none of the games are the little pick-up-and-play-for-10-mins kind of games that really keep me going back. I plan to play some old SNES games after I'm done with HSG. I just don' think the PSP has a killer game yet. If Metal Gear Acid was a normal Metal Gear game and not a card game, I think that could have done it. I think the PSP was way over hyped by the gaming press (suprise). But once more (and better) games start to come out, the console will probably hit it's stride. Wait untill around Christmas this year. If GTA: Liberty City Stories is halfway decent, the PSPs will start flying off the shelves.

As for the DS, it's been a underdog. Many people thought it was gimmicky and wouldn't be around long. If you look at upcomming games, it's quite clear that Nintendo is pushing it HARD and the GBA well is drying up. The DS has had a few great games (XX/XY was interesting, if short; Kirby Canvas Curse really shows off the DS; as does Yoshi's Touch and Go). But the future is bright. As another poster mentioned there will be Animal Crossing (there go my grades again), Advanced Wars (the touch screen should be a REAL boon here), the new Mario game, Mario and Luigi 2 (the first was fantastic, I loved the Prince character from the Bean Bean kingdom), and much much more. The DS has been doing fine, but if they could have pushed up a few of those games (or even just Mario Kart) near launch then the DS would have been a MAJOR force. So far the games have been trickeling in, but the gates are opening and by Christmas it will hit a good flow (I hope).

I like 'em both. Right now I think that the DS is more solid, but the real battle will be this Christmas as they both get some great games and developers learn the system better.

But I agree with the basic idea of the article. I have played and enjoyed my DS quite a bit more than my PSP so far. The PSP has had decent games, but nothing great (for my tastes).

Re:It's the Games, Stupid

[bhtooefr]

MS's entry (well, not really, but it DOES use a MS operating system) would be the Gizmondo. It's a do-all device, even more so than the PSP - heck, it's even got a GPS, Bluetooth and a GPRS modem! (Can you say "FREEPING CREATURISM!"?)

It doesn't have many games, though, and I didn't see any big-name franchises (which make or break a console - look at the GP32. Technically superior to the GBA, but have you heard of it? No - there's no big franchises, that's why (and it's a chicken-egg, as well)).

Re:Study: -1 Troll

[macshit]

I think the real answer is a comment made by an earlier poster in this thread: the PSP was way over-hyped in the beginning; sure the screen is extremely nice, but a nice screen is not nearly enough!

It's very, very hard to build a "perfect" handheld, and neither the PSP nor the DS even comes close. The DS is notably annoying in some ways (my main complaint: it's too damn big for those small screens!), but having a 2nd screen with a stylus really opens up a lot of possibilities.

Sony's secret weapons with the PS2 were their installed base and their insane over the top hype. In the case of the PSP, they don't have an installed base ... and playing the hype card apparently wasn't enough. Now they've got to compete based on merit, and it's going to be a long, hard, slog...

NOW LOADING

[tepples]

But you also need a strong line-up of "waste 10 minutes" games, which the PSP lacks (except for Lumines, which is best after you've been playing for a while so it gets hard).

Problem with "waste 10 minutes" on the PSP is that NOW LOADING will waste at least 2 of those 10 minutes. At least one high-profile racing game for the system takes a minimum of 1:50 to get through all the menus between booting and gameplay. And that's if the disc doesn't pop out while you're holding the system.

I got so fed up after reading all the reviews criticizing system defects and loading times, the cat-and-mouse game of anti-homebrew firmware updates, and all the notices of delays in Europe (essentially handing much of the English-language market over to Nintendo), that I decided to skip paying $250 for a PSP, instead making a GBA clone of the only notable PSP exclusive title. Luminesweeper is the alternative to Lumines for GBA.

Re:Study: -1 Troll

[superpulpsicle]

Nintendo is fighting Sony with 4 handhelds at the same time: Gameboy, GBA, GB color, DS. Not to mention, Nintendo will have the new Nes Micro handheld next year.

Can you imagine 5 handhelds vs. the PSP alone. That's unbelievable competition. Keep in mind, the PSP isn't even Sony's flagship product. Sony's flagship product is the PS2/PS3. The flagship product usually have the best game for the company. The DS is Nintendo's flagship.

DS didnt start well...

[Ceirren]

When i originally started reading previews and press releases about the DS, i was curious. But i was quickly turned off by a couple things that were said, like when they said that the DS would be a seperate line from the gameboy, and would be completely different. This made me think of this as just an offshoot, possibly something not big. The dual screens seemed kinda useless to me, as they originally said something like "Well, if you are playing a soccer game, you can have the regular view on one screen and an overview of everything on the other..." Also, i didnt know about the touch screen. Or i just didnt pay attention. What won me over is when i played it. Was standing around at best buy, a working DS was on display. I had tried one of those before, played metroid. I didnt like it, so i forgot about it. Wasnt the DS's fault, i just think metroid for the DS sucks. Anyway, the DS i played had the pac man drawing game. The creative use of the touch screen was so awesome that i knew i had to have it. Now. Well, i didnt get it then, but after hard work and many hurdles, i got it soon. My friends were surprised (to say the least) that i got a DS. They thought it was crap or some sissy system. It is hard to explain how phat the ds is. Some things in this world can't be told in verse or prose. The Nintendo DS is one of those things.

DS

[nukem996]

My gf and I bought a DS a few weeks ago and we love it. DS graphics are amazing! I bought Goldeneye today and its graphics are at the same level as Quake III. I did not expect the graphics to be this good. The stylus is a great addition and is useful in many games, in goldeneye you use it like you would a mouse when playing a FPS on your computer. Even when playing a game that dosnt use the stylus it uses the extra screen to display something useful like a map. We originally looked at the PSP saw it has no games that we liked and very few if any in the future. Most of them are sports games and ports of PS2 games not to mention the price of it! What it comes down to is that Nintendo made sure the DS had good games and as others have said Sony just ported PS2 games.

Re:I can understand it

[LKM]

Then I went to GameRankings and was surprised to find that the DS has no games with an average score over 90, and only four over 80.

True, but you need to look at the games. DS games like Elektroplankton, Wario Ware: Touched or Pac Pix aren't going to get really good reviews because they're so subjective. I know many gamers will hate Pac Pix. It's got crappy craphics, it's repetitive, and it's quite short. By console standards, they are hardly real games at all.

The PSP, on the other hand, gets many conversions of PS2 titles. These are "real" console games.

But if you think about it, what would you rather play on a portable console? A quirky, fun, original, quick game of Pac Pix or a hour-long session of a game you already played on the PS2, even if it got better marks?

I think many DS games get rated down for exactly the things that make them great portable games. Most DS games are clearly lacking in the graphics area, but they're making it up in gameplay and originality. Unfortunately, that often won't help their ratings.

Played em both, prefer the PSP

[Winterblink]

I've played both the DS and the PSP, and frankly I much prefer the PSP. There's simply more options with the fact it plays movies on UMD or encoded on the memory card, views photos, and can play back music. If you crunch the numbers, the DS might have a lot more games, but that certainly doesn't mean they're all good.

Friends of mine who have a DS constantly complain about the lack of more mature types of games for the platform. And from a hardware perspective, the PSP's screen is pretty impressive.

PSP or DS? A lot of it is personal preference. I picked the PSP because of the game lineup at launch and the stuff that was coming. I love the WipEout series, and with Rockstar's involvement on the platform the prospect of a handheld Grand Theft Auto is just too compelling. ;)