On his particular quote in the summary, I definitely agree. 'Video games' has the same stigma that 'comic books' have languished under for many years, and perhaps gives us a hint as to how much hope we can have of altering that. It is interesting to observe, for instance, that most people seem have no idea that the video game industry has been generating more cash than the movie industry for several years now. That is but one metric, but the Jack Thompsons of the world would have you believe that this new interactive medium is somehow corrosive to one's personality - I would think that this argument had been beaten to death back when RPGs were supposed to be making teens kill themselves, etc.
Good post - the only thing I would quibble with is, your examples don't go back nearly far enough. But that raises a new question - when is something newly 'invented' and not simply evolved?
For example,
1. Glowing Min/Max/Close Buttons - Ugh, I'm sorry, but this is not an Apple first thing. I've seen this in Windows custom UIs
.. and before that in Bryce, and Kai's Power Tools. And I'm sure examples before that. But Apple popularized it. Which is where we (royal 'we') tend to draw the line at innovation, for better or worse. Apple certainly did not invent the mouse, but they definitely brought it to the masses first.
3. Sidebar and Gadgets/Widgets - Like I said before, the Gadget/Widget thing has been around a LOT longer than Apple fans like to think.
Again, true, but kind of incomplete. I remember Konfabulator, and before that I remember various Windows standalone utilites, and before that I remember System 6 Desk Accessories for the Mac, and before that I remember Workbench applications for the Amiga that did much the same thing.... see what I mean?
There are a lot of things Apple does well, and the article does admit that Apple borrows, often even from Windows, to get its feature set. However, the claim that these features were taken from Apple as opposed to being taken from wherever Apple themselves snagged them is presumptuous.
Again, I'm not trying to detract from your point. I agree with you. But it begs the question, when is a user interface method or widget truly 'fresh'? Apple introduced most of these conventions on a wide scale; I suppose in marketing-land it is the combination of implementation and slick packaging/selling that makes one an 'innovator'.
OK. But I can and do say "I won't buy an xbox because I don't approve of Microsoft's business practices."
Hey, do what you like. I just said it doesn't make a lot of sense. You not buying an Xbox does not tell Microsoft that they have crappy business practices, it just tells them you don't like the Xbox. See, I actually would like to see these companies improve, rather than just call for their destruction. But you must do what you feel is right of course.
I can't count the number of times that I've seen someone claim that the standard minimax decision tree algorithm can be "beaten" by an irrational player.
Man, you're brunch conversations with friends must be downright strange.
I will not confess to know everything about that except that it happened, so do enlighten me.
Linky. At first they wanted to charge $50 to fix a product defect that was purely cosmetic; in the end I think they offered to simply replace affected models - although it took a lot of prodding, they did the right thing in the end.
Rayman comes to mind, that sequence with the cow/chain thing that makes you whirl the Wii remote over your head - that's just asking for trouble.
Not as long as you keep a firm grip on the Wiimote.;)
...which is where we differ, but point taken.
Did not Ars Technica claim that the "fix" actually didn't do a whole hell of a lot?
I'm not sure about the article you mentioned. I do know that it is a (truly) tiny # of affected televisions, and if it didn't affect you, really, what do you care? We're talking customer impressions and rewarding loyalty, as you said earlier. My understanding of the issue is that it is basically an artifact of incomplete HDTV implementations in the early days of selling those. Its comparable to the PAL issues in Nintendo's retro games lineup - not really their fault, an artifact of the 50-60Hz difference for those games, but still a bit tricky to fix.
And what does my disgust for a company that installed a root kit on people's PCs and then had the audacity to state the equivalent of "What's the big deal?" have to do with my support for a company that's replacing wrist straps when they don't have to?
Common mistake. Sony BMG is the company you are thinking of. You simply cannot address 'Sony' as a whole in that way. I know that sounds like a rabid justification but it is absolutely true. (A multi-headed hydra like Sony regularly sues itself.) Or to put it another way, I could say the Xbox sucks ass because Windows sucks ass. Doesn't make a lot of sense. But hey, do what you like. I stopped buying Sony BMG products ages ago. SCEA doesn't dick me around, and Nintendo doesn't dick me around, so I spend money on them. (Incidentally the newest thing I own is a DS; other than that I have no horse in this race, so to speak.)
I'll go through this one more time. Your examples (tennis, baseball, drumming) are things you don't do in your living room, where your expensive TV lives. Also, while you may be able to play Wii Sports with not a lot of buttons, Wii Sports is not the only game people play. Rayman is big for instance, and requires you to do all kinds of wacky things with the controller (like whirling it around).
You're trying to tell me Nintendo designed the Wii with THIS [youtube.com] in mind?! Are you wacky?
No no, of course not, that guy is an idiot, and it is unreasonable to try and design with that in mind. But this is the same video everyone points to - I really don't think its representative of the Nintendo user base. Its one idiot on a video. On the other hand, Nintendo obviously feels that the issue is pressing enough to bother with the new strap, so the problems are there.
Look I really don't get how people manage to throw these things either, it would never have occurred to me that this would be an issue, but that's why you do testing, and their testing failed insofar as they shipped a flimsier strap than they needed. No biggie. I blame games like Rayman and the methods they came up with more than Nintendo itself to be honest.
For Wii Sports you Do not 'Fiddle' with buttons while you are in game. Hell, 3 of them you can play without touching Any buttons.
Wow. Thou dost protest a little too much. Besides not addressing my other point - that you are fucking outside with the other examples - you seem to think that Wii Sports is the only thing you play with a Wii.
How ironic that on a site that seeps Linux fandom on a regular basis I should be chastised for showing my support a company who currently deserves my support. I wonder if you feel the same kind of disdain for those who are as quick to blame Nintendo.
Oh, sure. For instance the whole DS hinge-cracking thing. They handled that well.
I probably came across more snarky than i intended, but its a bit sad that we have to step back and admire a company for simply behaving responsibly; this is how they should all behave. I do think you can put some blame on them as they must have done user testing, and that strap really is kinda flimsy. But more than Nintendo I think the issue falls on the design of certain games. Rayman comes to mind, that sequence with the cow/chain thing that makes you whirl the Wii remote over your head - that's just asking for trouble.
But you are pretty quick to take shots at Sony - the scaling issue, for instance, which seems fixed. They did the right thing as well, no?
I have to disagree with most of the posts here, which will get me modded down, but whatever.
Nintendo designed the Wii with this style of play in mind. You can't just tell people not to play 'like a fucking toolbox' (little twichy motions sitting on the couch) one second and then call them stupid for jumping around and getting into their game. Its exactly what Nintendo had in mind, and the straps were crap on launch day.
Add to this the fact that some people naturally have really sweaty hands when gripping something like a Wii remote for an extended period, and of course we see broken TVs and black eyes.
Nintendo is certainly doing the right thing by replacing the straps. But scremaing 'user error' in this case is just incorrect. The game system encourages precisely this kind of movement.
Sony isn't exactly a powerhouse developer and their hardware is more expensive.
You think? Not sure I agree, seems like they put out a lot of hits... they are not as strong with 1st party stuff as Nintendo, but its not hard to think of huge games released by Sony: Gran Turismo, Shadow of the Colossus, the Wipeout series, God of War, etc.
Actually, if you noticed I was pretty balanced and looked at both game sales and game ratings; the fact is that game reviews are largely subjective and represent how well a game apeals to the core-gamer demographic, game sales represent how a game apeals to to the masses.
I'm sorry, no, I don't see this. This is just cherry-picking one figure and now you are moving the goalposts. You brought up the game reviews first, but lets let that pass.
I also have been trying not to directly compare the PSP to the Nintendo DS, mainly because the Nintendo DS is one of the fastest selling consoles in the history of videogames (because of it's performance in Japan).
Really?
In your very first message, you said:
Over the life of the PSP it has been outsold by both the GBA and Nintendo DS and has failed to make a larger impact largely because it is not a particularly good portable videogame machine.
.. which is what I was responding to.
I also (initially) made sure I referenced that the PSP was lacking in good "portable" games which (for the most part) was not understood by you. The fact is that the vast majority of handheld owners play games in a very different fashion to people who play games at home; traditionally they play in shorter bursts, and they also really like 2d content (most of the people I know who are big portable gamers became so after 2D games were abandoned on home consoles).
I was perhaps not clear enough. What I disagree with is not your 'portable' classification, but rather the assumed superiority for all people. The DS is designed around this quick-play ethic. The PSP is not, nor does it really proport to be. It is called a Playstation Portable after all. I think what you are missing is that some people really do want their PS2 in their pocket, there seems to be a market for it. Not nearly as big as the market for the DS of course; but again I would point to the product names and note that the DS is not a GameCube portable. Do you take my meaning? The DS is simply not hands-down better for all humans across the board, that is disingenuous. There's room for many devices frankly.
Oh yeah and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a movie...
My mistake.
I'll give you Mario Kart, but the difference between the DS and the PSP is the PSP is similar enough to the PS2 that it has recieved (more or less) direct ports from the PS2; most DS games are drastically different than their Gamecube (or other system) counter parts.
Think I covered this above.
You keep jumping around on what you claim my definition of 'failure' is. My definition is essentially that the Gamecube/XBox were successful because they had several critically acclaimed software titles, and sold a reasonable ammount of software per console which imply that they were good systems to own; the PSP has not gotten to this point yet (it would be debatable to say whether the DS has either) and I think it would be foolish to argue otherwise.
Your definition is just completely arbitrary then - because its not sales, and its not reviews, and its not number of titles. We've covered all of this, that's why I posted the metacritic data. The Xbox and GameCube are only successful in building brand awareness (former) and making a modest profit (GameCube). Don't get me wrong, they're both good systems, and had some great games, but really - both portables have been out over a year, I don't think its premature to compare the merits, as we have just done.
I'd like to see you hunt down drivers for a USB wi-fi adapter that would let you play Resistance online. While you're at it throw a few PC USB controllers in there... better yet why don't you plug in a PS2 controller... how about cheaper 3rd party options? You can't do any of those things.
These are bad examples. You can just plug in a standard USB wireless 'game adapter' and configure it from a PC, works like a charm. Buddy of mine did exactly this. You can plug in a keyboard and mouse and they work on things that support it (the OS does). You can plug in a PS2 controller, there are legacy ports.
You'd be right, if it didn't make them make other compromises. For one thing putting in the drive in that tiny space wasn't cheap. Second, the PSP suffers load times which are unacceptable on a handheld and the drive eats batteries like mad.
I agree. It would be nice to see a PSP 'lite' that was thinner, smaller overall (same rez screen), that omitted the UMD entirely. Its really not necessary. (Although Memorystick media was not nearly so cheap when it launched, it is now.)
You don't need to be the best selling videogame product to be considered a success, but you do need to have a lot of good videogames which the PSP really doesn't; the PSP has been on the market for almost 2 years and only has 1 game (Lumines) ranked at over 90% on gamerankings.com and only has 3 games to break a million sales worldwide
Not over 90, sure. But your comparison is one-sided. Here is the data from metacritic:
PSP Top 10 With Scores
1. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 89%
2 Lumines- 89%
3 WipEout Pure - 88%
4 Tekken: Dark Resurrection - 88%
5 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - 88%
6 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - 88%
7 Ridge Racer - 88%
8 Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror - 87%
9 Burnout Legends - 86%
10 Daxter - 86%
Now look at the DS:
1. Mario Kart DS - 91%
2 Advance Wars: Dual Strike - 90%
3 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - 89%
4 New Super Mario Bros. - 89%
5 Meteos - 88%
6 Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan - 88%
7 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - 87%
8 Elite Beat Agents - 87%
9 Kirby: Canvas Curse - 86%
10 Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time - 86%
So you see, they are incredibly close. The DS sells a hell of a lot more than the PSP; it is cheaper, and appeals more to children and women. This is all great for Nintendo, and they have a kickass platform.
But I really think you ought not make such an overtly subjective judgement on the PSP as a failed platform with 'no good games' - again, I would point to the scores and say the PSP owners seem to have plenty to pick from that they are happy with. Conversely, I look at the DS games and I'm uninterested; I don't think they are bad games by any means, but to put it bluntly Mario and Kirby don't do anything for me. I'm just not interested. But that is my subjective opinion, I would not presume to call it a failure. I know its not.
Had Sony focused on making good games, and encouraging developers to make games (that aren't Playstation/PS2 ports) for the PSP the system would be selling better because it was a better gaming machine.
Come on. Mario Kart is not a port? Castlevania, not a port? Again I'm not slamming the DS, I like the DS, but the games have limited appeal for me. The PSP seems to have limited appeal for you. Subjective. The DS 'wins' in pure sales, if you care about that.
The Gamecube/XBox were successful gaming platforms with small userbases because people who bought those systems where happy with their purchase and played (a lot of) games on the; many (if not most) PSP owners are unhappy because they own an expensive paperweight.
The Xbox has never been successful financially, perhaps the quarter that Halo 2 was released, but thats it. The GameCube was a 'failure' by your own definition! There are more PSPs in the world than GameCubes!
Uh, no. That's not how it works. A "cool" product has hype. It's been spun. People are convinced they need one. It's not because it's the best product!
Hmm, I guess it depends on your personal definition. Personally, I separate 'cool' from 'hyped' but perhaps you have a point as far as the general public goes.
Well, that depends on how much Sony is making or losing per PSP. It's an expensive little system to make and they've had to drop the price somewhat to remain competitive. The market has not embraced UMD movies and people tend to have vastly more games for their DSes than for their PSPs, possibly a result of the price of the system itself.
Hard to say - I don't think its that expensive. They've had the PS2 guts down to a single chip for a while now (since the ill-fated PSX at least), and LCDs/memorycards have plummeted. The UMD has not been accepted for movies really but it doesn't matter - have DS cartridges been 'embraced by the market'? I can't do anything with those. In this sense the fact that UMD movies tanked doesn't matter; if Sony had shipped games on memorystick we wouldn't even be having this conversation. It becomes yet another specialized game delivery format just like we've had forever in nintendo cartridges, turbografx PCM cards, crazy reverse-spinning black PS1 CDs, etc.
I'd want to know what sony makes per PSP before I passed judgement either way on this one.
I see this quite a lot, and you know, I really don't understand why you would care. Sony and Nintendo and MS can lose money all day, in as many ways as they can think of - its their problem to be profitable. All I care about, as a 'gamer', is the games; ancillary conern about the financial health of the console's parent company is only interesting insofar as I don't want to buy into a platform lacking suffcient catalog. But thats it. Besides, with an entity like Sony its practically impossible to calculate anyways.
Ah, but you forget, it is now "cool" to hate Sony and talk about how much you hate them at every chance you get.
Sadly, you are right. And I did forget. I wonder what the half-life for that phenomenon is. (Probably the length of time between the rootkit and the first breakout hit for the PS3. Or Spiderman 3, whichever comes first.)
Is it my imagination or is Sony's strategy for their playstation line to attempt to make their product 'cool' rather than to make it a good product for gamers.
You repeat yourself. A 'good product for gamers' is intrinsically 'cool' , is it not? So yes I think they are aiming for that.
Over the life of the PSP it has been outsold by both the GBA and Nintendo DS and has failed to make a larger impact largely because it is not a particularly good portable videogame machine.
When Nintendo comes in 3rd place (GameCube), we rightly point to their streamlined operation and say this is fine, one need not dominate the entire marketplace to 'win' (which is an illusion anyway) as far as gamers are concerned; we like that they continue to produce great products and don't vanish in a sea of debt. To turn that around now and crow about the DS outselling the PSP by a wide margin is just a little two-faced. And we aren't even talking about PS2s, which clobber everything. See how this works? Don't give in to the fanboy one-upsmanship. Its pointless. I'm sure there are plenty of happy PSP owners out there, who the hell are you to tell them that they really don't like their game unit?
I'm looking at something that could be "autonomous", can stand upright by itself, and is more or less cat-proof so my cat can have something to play with while I'm at work.
Well the Robosapien v2 can wander autonomously and right itself from a prone position, but you're never going to find something that will a) keep a cat that entertained, b) have battery power to last days. You're better off hooking some laser pointers to something that spins and fires them randomly at the wall.
Sony seems obsessed with trying to get the market to adopt one of their proprietary media formats.
Even just 3 years ago, I would have agreed vigorously. Now I'm not so sure.
As you mentioned above, these big corps steer like a Buick. Changes take a long time to trickle down. But somewhere between the death of MiniDisc and the PSP, Sony has changed tack.
They no longer sell ATRAC3, their proprietary audio codec. New devices only support this for legacy reasons The PSP, while locked down as far as executable code goes, does support standard things like JPG / PNG / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4. Even the Sony Ericsson phones only play MP3/AAC. Nothing DRM'd.
And now we see that the PS3 has multiple card readers (not just MemoryStick) a Linux bootloader provided and supported by Sony, a standard HDD that is removable without voiding the warranty, and a regular power plug (they used to rape you for those 'special' plugs, remember that?) Say what you will, but these things were basically unthinkable for Sony a few years ago.
I don't know exactly where they are going with this but these are certainly encouraging signs.
Slashdot Mirror
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Note to MTV: my personal Emotion Engine is registering MILD ANNOYANCE
On his particular quote in the summary, I definitely agree. 'Video games' has the same stigma that 'comic books' have languished under for many years, and perhaps gives us a hint as to how much hope we can have of altering that. It is interesting to observe, for instance, that most people seem have no idea that the video game industry has been generating more cash than the movie industry for several years now. That is but one metric, but the Jack Thompsons of the world would have you believe that this new interactive medium is somehow corrosive to one's personality - I would think that this argument had been beaten to death back when RPGs were supposed to be making teens kill themselves, etc.
For example,
Again, true, but kind of incomplete. I remember Konfabulator, and before that I remember various Windows standalone utilites, and before that I remember System 6 Desk Accessories for the Mac, and before that I remember Workbench applications for the Amiga that did much the same thing.... see what I mean?
Again, I'm not trying to detract from your point. I agree with you. But it begs the question, when is a user interface method or widget truly 'fresh'? Apple introduced most of these conventions on a wide scale; I suppose in marketing-land it is the combination of implementation and slick packaging/selling that makes one an 'innovator'.Hey, do what you like. I just said it doesn't make a lot of sense. You not buying an Xbox does not tell Microsoft that they have crappy business practices, it just tells them you don't like the Xbox. See, I actually would like to see these companies improve, rather than just call for their destruction. But you must do what you feel is right of course.
Man, you're brunch conversations with friends must be downright strange.
Linky. At first they wanted to charge $50 to fix a product defect that was purely cosmetic; in the end I think they offered to simply replace affected models - although it took a lot of prodding, they did the right thing in the end.
I'm not sure about the article you mentioned. I do know that it is a (truly) tiny # of affected televisions, and if it didn't affect you, really, what do you care? We're talking customer impressions and rewarding loyalty, as you said earlier. My understanding of the issue is that it is basically an artifact of incomplete HDTV implementations in the early days of selling those. Its comparable to the PAL issues in Nintendo's retro games lineup - not really their fault, an artifact of the 50-60Hz difference for those games, but still a bit tricky to fix.
Common mistake. Sony BMG is the company you are thinking of. You simply cannot address 'Sony' as a whole in that way. I know that sounds like a rabid justification but it is absolutely true. (A multi-headed hydra like Sony regularly sues itself.) Or to put it another way, I could say the Xbox sucks ass because Windows sucks ass. Doesn't make a lot of sense. But hey, do what you like. I stopped buying Sony BMG products ages ago. SCEA doesn't dick me around, and Nintendo doesn't dick me around, so I spend money on them. (Incidentally the newest thing I own is a DS; other than that I have no horse in this race, so to speak.)
You really are just going to dodge, aren't you.
I'll go through this one more time. Your examples (tennis, baseball, drumming) are things you don't do in your living room, where your expensive TV lives. Also, while you may be able to play Wii Sports with not a lot of buttons, Wii Sports is not the only game people play. Rayman is big for instance, and requires you to do all kinds of wacky things with the controller (like whirling it around).
Got it, fanboy?
No, probably not. Nevermind.
No no, of course not, that guy is an idiot, and it is unreasonable to try and design with that in mind. But this is the same video everyone points to - I really don't think its representative of the Nintendo user base. Its one idiot on a video. On the other hand, Nintendo obviously feels that the issue is pressing enough to bother with the new strap, so the problems are there.
Look I really don't get how people manage to throw these things either, it would never have occurred to me that this would be an issue, but that's why you do testing, and their testing failed insofar as they shipped a flimsier strap than they needed. No biggie. I blame games like Rayman and the methods they came up with more than Nintendo itself to be honest.
Wow. Thou dost protest a little too much. Besides not addressing my other point - that you are fucking outside with the other examples - you seem to think that Wii Sports is the only thing you play with a Wii.
Oh, sure. For instance the whole DS hinge-cracking thing. They handled that well.
I probably came across more snarky than i intended, but its a bit sad that we have to step back and admire a company for simply behaving responsibly; this is how they should all behave. I do think you can put some blame on them as they must have done user testing, and that strap really is kinda flimsy. But more than Nintendo I think the issue falls on the design of certain games. Rayman comes to mind, that sequence with the cow/chain thing that makes you whirl the Wii remote over your head - that's just asking for trouble.
But you are pretty quick to take shots at Sony - the scaling issue, for instance, which seems fixed. They did the right thing as well, no?
Well, for one thing, these items do go flying on a regular basis. But they are outside, on a green or in a court, not 3 feet from your plasma screen.
Secondly, there are no buttons that you are fiddling with while swinging your tennis racket or golf club, which certainly has an effect.
And, much like your previous posts, you will be there to remind us that Nintendo has your undying loyalty.
Nintendo designed the Wii with this style of play in mind. You can't just tell people not to play 'like a fucking toolbox' (little twichy motions sitting on the couch) one second and then call them stupid for jumping around and getting into their game. Its exactly what Nintendo had in mind, and the straps were crap on launch day.
Add to this the fact that some people naturally have really sweaty hands when gripping something like a Wii remote for an extended period, and of course we see broken TVs and black eyes.
Nintendo is certainly doing the right thing by replacing the straps. But scremaing 'user error' in this case is just incorrect. The game system encourages precisely this kind of movement.
You think? Not sure I agree, seems like they put out a lot of hits... they are not as strong with 1st party stuff as Nintendo, but its not hard to think of huge games released by Sony: Gran Turismo, Shadow of the Colossus, the Wipeout series, God of War, etc.
Boy am I glad they are finally measuring these things with properly calibrated Fun-O-Meters so we can get an objective read of the situation.
Hang on, '1% of the price?' He got a Dreamcast for $6.50? Nice.
I'm sorry, no, I don't see this. This is just cherry-picking one figure and now you are moving the goalposts. You brought up the game reviews first, but lets let that pass.
Really?
In your very first message, you said:
I was perhaps not clear enough. What I disagree with is not your 'portable' classification, but rather the assumed superiority for all people. The DS is designed around this quick-play ethic. The PSP is not, nor does it really proport to be. It is called a Playstation Portable after all. I think what you are missing is that some people really do want their PS2 in their pocket, there seems to be a market for it. Not nearly as big as the market for the DS of course; but again I would point to the product names and note that the DS is not a GameCube portable. Do you take my meaning? The DS is simply not hands-down better for all humans across the board, that is disingenuous. There's room for many devices frankly.
My mistake.
Think I covered this above.
Your definition is just completely arbitrary then - because its not sales, and its not reviews, and its not number of titles. We've covered all of this, that's why I posted the metacritic data. The Xbox and GameCube are only successful in building brand awareness (former) and making a modest profit (GameCube). Don't get me wrong, they're both good systems, and had some great games, but really - both portables have been out over a year, I don't think its premature to compare the merits, as we have just done.
These are bad examples. You can just plug in a standard USB wireless 'game adapter' and configure it from a PC, works like a charm. Buddy of mine did exactly this. You can plug in a keyboard and mouse and they work on things that support it (the OS does). You can plug in a PS2 controller, there are legacy ports.
I agree. It would be nice to see a PSP 'lite' that was thinner, smaller overall (same rez screen), that omitted the UMD entirely. Its really not necessary. (Although Memorystick media was not nearly so cheap when it launched, it is now.)
Not over 90, sure. But your comparison is one-sided. Here is the data from metacritic:
PSP Top 10 With Scores
1. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 89%
2 Lumines- 89%
3 WipEout Pure - 88%
4 Tekken: Dark Resurrection - 88%
5 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - 88%
6 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - 88%
7 Ridge Racer - 88%
8 Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror - 87%
9 Burnout Legends - 86%
10 Daxter - 86%
Now look at the DS:
1. Mario Kart DS - 91%
2 Advance Wars: Dual Strike - 90%
3 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - 89%
4 New Super Mario Bros. - 89%
5 Meteos - 88%
6 Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan - 88%
7 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - 87%
8 Elite Beat Agents - 87%
9 Kirby: Canvas Curse - 86%
10 Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time - 86%
So you see, they are incredibly close. The DS sells a hell of a lot more than the PSP; it is cheaper, and appeals more to children and women. This is all great for Nintendo, and they have a kickass platform.
But I really think you ought not make such an overtly subjective judgement on the PSP as a failed platform with 'no good games' - again, I would point to the scores and say the PSP owners seem to have plenty to pick from that they are happy with. Conversely, I look at the DS games and I'm uninterested; I don't think they are bad games by any means, but to put it bluntly Mario and Kirby don't do anything for me. I'm just not interested. But that is my subjective opinion, I would not presume to call it a failure. I know its not.
Come on. Mario Kart is not a port? Castlevania, not a port? Again I'm not slamming the DS, I like the DS, but the games have limited appeal for me. The PSP seems to have limited appeal for you. Subjective. The DS 'wins' in pure sales, if you care about that.
The Xbox has never been successful financially, perhaps the quarter that Halo 2 was released, but thats it. The GameCube was a 'failure' by your own definition! There are more PSPs in the world than GameCubes!
Hmm, I guess it depends on your personal definition. Personally, I separate 'cool' from 'hyped' but perhaps you have a point as far as the general public goes.
Hard to say - I don't think its that expensive. They've had the PS2 guts down to a single chip for a while now (since the ill-fated PSX at least), and LCDs/memorycards have plummeted. The UMD has not been accepted for movies really but it doesn't matter - have DS cartridges been 'embraced by the market'? I can't do anything with those. In this sense the fact that UMD movies tanked doesn't matter; if Sony had shipped games on memorystick we wouldn't even be having this conversation. It becomes yet another specialized game delivery format just like we've had forever in nintendo cartridges, turbografx PCM cards, crazy reverse-spinning black PS1 CDs, etc.
I see this quite a lot, and you know, I really don't understand why you would care. Sony and Nintendo and MS can lose money all day, in as many ways as they can think of - its their problem to be profitable. All I care about, as a 'gamer', is the games; ancillary conern about the financial health of the console's parent company is only interesting insofar as I don't want to buy into a platform lacking suffcient catalog. But thats it. Besides, with an entity like Sony its practically impossible to calculate anyways.
Sadly, you are right. And I did forget. I wonder what the half-life for that phenomenon is. (Probably the length of time between the rootkit and the first breakout hit for the PS3. Or Spiderman 3, whichever comes first.)
You repeat yourself. A 'good product for gamers' is intrinsically 'cool' , is it not? So yes I think they are aiming for that.
When Nintendo comes in 3rd place (GameCube), we rightly point to their streamlined operation and say this is fine, one need not dominate the entire marketplace to 'win' (which is an illusion anyway) as far as gamers are concerned; we like that they continue to produce great products and don't vanish in a sea of debt. To turn that around now and crow about the DS outselling the PSP by a wide margin is just a little two-faced. And we aren't even talking about PS2s, which clobber everything. See how this works? Don't give in to the fanboy one-upsmanship. Its pointless. I'm sure there are plenty of happy PSP owners out there, who the hell are you to tell them that they really don't like their game unit?
I'm about to do that really annoying thing and pick on your expression, apologies.
A "steep learning curve" means something can be learned quickly.
I think what you are trying to say is a shallow learning curve; one that takes a while to ramp up.
Well the Robosapien v2 can wander autonomously and right itself from a prone position, but you're never going to find something that will a) keep a cat that entertained, b) have battery power to last days. You're better off hooking some laser pointers to something that spins and fires them randomly at the wall.
Even just 3 years ago, I would have agreed vigorously. Now I'm not so sure.
As you mentioned above, these big corps steer like a Buick. Changes take a long time to trickle down. But somewhere between the death of MiniDisc and the PSP, Sony has changed tack.
They no longer sell ATRAC3, their proprietary audio codec. New devices only support this for legacy reasons The PSP, while locked down as far as executable code goes, does support standard things like JPG / PNG / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4. Even the Sony Ericsson phones only play MP3/AAC. Nothing DRM'd.
And now we see that the PS3 has multiple card readers (not just MemoryStick) a Linux bootloader provided and supported by Sony, a standard HDD that is removable without voiding the warranty, and a regular power plug (they used to rape you for those 'special' plugs, remember that?) Say what you will, but these things were basically unthinkable for Sony a few years ago.
I don't know exactly where they are going with this but these are certainly encouraging signs.