I have to admit that I am so surprised by the strong developer support for the DS over the PSP.
As of November 30th, 2006, DS had sold about 26 million units, while the PSP had sold about 22 million units (worldwide, source: Wikipedia) - not that much of a installed base discrepancy.
Furthermore, the PSP is, at first impression, a more desirable machine - despite the higher cost, it has (by comparison) lovely graphics abilities, and far more storage. Sure, it has loading time issues, but these could certainly be fixable if the developers were willing to address them (of course, I haven't worked for the PSP, so perhaps that's more difficult than I make it sound).
Why the strong developer support for the DS, then?
Nintendo is insane. They feature weird (and not always functional, in the case of some 3rd party games, see madden) interfaces, mediocre (but good-looking, at least in the case of the Wii and DS lite) hardware. And... profitability.
Which is totally out of the ordinary.
Microsoft and especially Sony are REALLY pushing the graphics/hardware bubble this generation - and either of those systems on HD will produce some fantastic experiences.
But then I've read that both of those systems may not turn a profit for their companies for years to come. Obviously, this isn't a viable strategy for companies. Great graphics are awesome for the end consumer, but if MS/Sony take a huge loss, why did they bother?
Sony has a reason with the blu-ray drive... but is promoting a format worth hundreds of millions and potentially billions of dollars of lost profits? Hell of an advertising campaign.
I only have a background in visual basic, directx 8, and vbscript. But I know Romero has a tendency to hire anyone who submits a resume... where do I send mine?
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I have to admit that I am so surprised by the strong developer support for the DS over the PSP. As of November 30th, 2006, DS had sold about 26 million units, while the PSP had sold about 22 million units (worldwide, source: Wikipedia) - not that much of a installed base discrepancy. Furthermore, the PSP is, at first impression, a more desirable machine - despite the higher cost, it has (by comparison) lovely graphics abilities, and far more storage. Sure, it has loading time issues, but these could certainly be fixable if the developers were willing to address them (of course, I haven't worked for the PSP, so perhaps that's more difficult than I make it sound). Why the strong developer support for the DS, then?
Nintendo is insane. They feature weird (and not always functional, in the case of some 3rd party games, see madden) interfaces, mediocre (but good-looking, at least in the case of the Wii and DS lite) hardware. And... profitability. Which is totally out of the ordinary. Microsoft and especially Sony are REALLY pushing the graphics/hardware bubble this generation - and either of those systems on HD will produce some fantastic experiences. But then I've read that both of those systems may not turn a profit for their companies for years to come. Obviously, this isn't a viable strategy for companies. Great graphics are awesome for the end consumer, but if MS/Sony take a huge loss, why did they bother? Sony has a reason with the blu-ray drive... but is promoting a format worth hundreds of millions and potentially billions of dollars of lost profits? Hell of an advertising campaign.
I only have a background in visual basic, directx 8, and vbscript. But I know Romero has a tendency to hire anyone who submits a resume... where do I send mine?