Slashdot Mirror
Sony Describes DS As Gimmick
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?
Go figure.
That is why the PSP, the superior product, is outselling the DS worldwide...
Wait a minute...
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.
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.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I was going to type a lengthy retort to all you sony burning nintendo fanboys with my psp's built in browser but..i'm....running ..out ~!#()@$ batteryyy.y........
Sounds like the remarks of a desperate man, If there is one thing that Nintendo know about it's the handheld market, They've dominated it for so long.
I think Sony have missed the point about battery life and original software something which saw the end of the Game Gear and the Atari Lynks(sp?)
Is the PSP technically superior to the DS? Yes, Was the Game Gear technically superior to the Game Boy? Yes. Which console won?
I have to agree. The dual screen rarely brings anything to the device that a larger screen or better use of existing screen real-estate doesn't. I hate the second screen in that respect, because it constantly diverts my attention from where it should be: the gameplay. There are a couple interesting uses for it, but I have yet to see any use of the second screen that justifies it.
That being said, the rest of the device is a dream. The games that have come out for it (or are right around the corner) are almost always sure winners: Nintendogs, Kirby, the new Sonic, the new Mario, Castlvania, the upcoming Animal Crossing, Lost in Blue, Meteos, Advance Wars DS... I held off on buying a DS until yesterday (a few run-ins with coworkers playing Nintendogs finally sold me), and I think the library of games and creativity shown in each one really, genuinely offers something new to gamers. This is mostly because of the stylus interface, but they use the wireless and flip-top covers in wierd unique ways as well.
The only thing else I could ask for would be that it played the old GB games, an analogue stick, and maybe a nice emulator (ala PSP). And considering that the PSP has all of those, that brings me to my point: the only reason the DS won me over for Portable Platform Money-Sink 2005(tm) was because the games are awesome.
Let's count the corpses left in the wake of Nintendo's (almost always) "inferior" hardware:
Game Gear
Nomad
Lynx
That portable TurboGrafix16 (Name anybody?)
Wonderswan, Wonderswan crystal / color
GP32
NeoGeo pocket, NeoGeo Pocket color
Tapwave Zodiac
Ngage
That's just a short list off the top of my head, I'm sure that there are others that a more thorough search would reveal.
The PSP is simply not in the right price/battery life/durability range for most people to be attracted to it. It will do well with the money-to-burn crowd and with the hard-core gamers who buy everything, price be damned. As for the casual gamer that is the bread and butter of the industry, I forsee it remaining sort of "meh".
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Quite frankly, I think I'd prefer the new GPX2 over either of them. It's the successor to the superb GP32, and plays Xvid, Divx Ogg (and others), out of the box, has 128Mb and an SD slot, USB2, 8 hours of battery time for video playback (2xAA batteries), runs Linux, and actually has emulators (MAME etc.) on the feature list!
They highly encourage homebrew software.
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.
Even Nintendo regards the DS as just a gimmicky, experimental product and pushes it as a separate architecture from their flagship Game Boy line. So, what's really gimmicky here is the GBA backwards-compatibility in the DS, just to provide it with a temporary library of games to start up with.
Just play Pac-Pix or Kirby Canvas Curse and you'll see the DS has a future, albeit in its own niche. Furthermore, the touchscreen and the microphone make the DS better suited for Internet gaming than the PSP, however sexy the latter might be. I know the PSP can use external USB devices, but we all know how the market responds to add-ons.
Sony is just jealous that Nintendo's gimmick product is outselling theirs worldwide, and is actually making a profit. Now imagine when Nintendo announces the next-gen Game Boy.
The big N's next-gen handheld could use an architecture similar to the Gamecube (as has been rumored) so that the development environment can be shared between the GCN, the Revolution and the GBA2. Things are not going to get any easier for Sony. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the PSP2 comes with an embedded mic and a touchscreen.
Now don't take me wrong, I have both devices and love them, but Sony trying to make a stupid comparison at this point can only backfire.
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
Even though he said it was "well seen" he didn't bother showing it to us? Even though the ONLY THING SLASHDOT DOES IS LINK TO OTHER SITES IT STILL FAILS AT IT?!?!?
Go figure.
So what PSP games are you playing with your friends over the internet?
None, right? Which PSP games support infrastructure wireless co-op or VS play?
Every once in a while I like to masturbate a new word into my vocabulary, even if I don't know what it means.
I don't see any posters at this time who have recognized Zonk's post for what it is -- an attempt for Slashdot to be more than just a blog. The last major push for that backfired, nobody liked what Jon Katz had to say. Since day 1, Slashdot has been an approval system for links that we the readership submit. The editors have made some attempts to editorialize and have occasionally been flamed for it, but the editorials have been very light and Slashdot's readership has been flat for over a year.
Slashdot can continue to mature and grow readership by doing a little research. Dig up some links from the past and make a comment. Zonk could have taken a small step in either direction by posting how well (or not) the DS has done to continue to refute Sony's stance (or show that the issue is still unresolved).
Thanks, Zonk, for taking a small step in the right direction. We don't want a Slashdot newspaper, over-editorializing everything, but some light commentary would entice readers to get our feet wet in new subjects and make Slashdot an easier read for new visitors.
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.