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Sony Describes DS As Gimmick

Posted by Zonk on from the sore-loser dept.

1up.com has news, via MCVUK, that PSP VP of Studios Phil Harrison has classified Nintendo's entry into the handheld market as 'irrelevant'. From the article: "The idea of a handheld rivalry with Nintendo is an irrelevance...Those formats don't appear in our planning. It's not a fair comparison; not fair on them, I should stress. That sounds arrogant, maybe, but it's the truth." 1up.com's commentary is well seen. From their piece: "Whether or not you fully agree, Nintendo DS can come off as gimmicky, but Sony's commentary is fairly strange." Read on for my own short commentary. I know that, for the most part, comments like Harrisons are just the marketing version of "my processor is faster than yours" but I'm honestly surprised at the level of arrogance displayed there. Since the PSP's launch, Slashdot Games has posted article after article with titles like PSP Reception Lukewarm in U.S., PSP Not A Sellout Hit, What's Up With The PSP?, and most recently PSP Usage Lower Than Expected. This last article is especially disheartening for Sony execs because those numbers come from Japan, a nation that has traditionally been Sony's bread basket. If it's not doing well here, and it's not doing well there...do they really think that many Europeans are going to buy it when it launches there next week?

4 of 453 comments (clear)

  1. Totally misleading... by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Harrison merely said that the DS' touch-screen was a gimmick, not that the DS itself was a gimmick.

    He also said that the DS was not part of Sony's planning as well as it shouldn't be. He believes they're targetting different markets, so why should it?

    Way too much irrelevant Sony hatred. Sony does stupid things, but not everything they do is stupid.

  2. Sour grapes by Daetrin · · Score: 5, Informative
    And their "gimick" is not only outselling the "real" PSP in japan, for the past several weeks it's been outselling every other piece of gaming hardware combined. How irrelevant of it.

    Of course if you want to glorify the "technical race" over gimicky things like novel methods of input (like joysticks and d-pads?) than PCs have the dedicated gaming systems beat hands down.

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  3. Some hotspots require a web browser by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Was there any legitimate excuse for DS not having FULL wi-fi capability at launch?

    The Nintendo DS does have full Wi-Fi. It's just that none of the current games use IP over Wi-Fi.

    I don't even mean being able to hack it and use a web browser like PSP, I mean playing online games with people all over world using free wi-fi at Starbucks.

    One problem is that you'd have to use a web browser in order to connect to some hotspots in restaurants and elsewhere, as they will route your packets to the Internet only if you can connect to an SSL web page and read and accept the TOS. Some even need you to enter a code printed on the receipt. That's part of why Nintendo wanted to roll out its own hotspot network before launching IP capable games.

  4. ROFL! Is this a joke? by GFLPraxis · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=14588 3

    The DS is outselling the PSP by 4 times in Japan and has a 1.2 million unit lead worldwide. "Irrelevant" my foot.