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Portables (Games) PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3 330

Posted by simoniker from the meeeeeeooww dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There's a Wired News article up discussing the fight for handheld game console supremacy starting at next week's E3 Expo. According to Wired News, 'Nintendo, the biggest seller of video-game consoles 15 years ago, once again faces a tough street fight against Sony, the upstart that stole much of the video-game business with its PlayStation. This time, the fight is over handheld video-game machines, and if Nintendo loses, it could be in serious trouble.' It explains: 'Nintendo is expected to give peeks at its next-generation handheld system -- code-named the DS -- while Sony will release more information about its PSP. Both companies will be vying for the hearts and minds of gamers and -- more importantly -- software developers.' Who's gonna win?" Slashdot Games recently ran a related story that has developers and journalists analyzing the showdown to come.
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Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3 More

Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3

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  • Like always... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Pidder ( 736678 )
    The system with the best games will win.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by The Other White Boy ( 626206 ) <theotherwhiteboy@gma3.14il.com minus pi> on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:16PM (#9076348)
      my Dreamcast and Saturn beg to differ.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GFLPraxis ( 745118 )
      When it comes to handhelds, portability is also a factor. I don't want to be carrying a fat portable playstation if it uses disks...

      • Re:Like always... (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ps_inkling ( 525251 )
        I don't want to be carrying a fat portable playstation if it uses disks
        You mean like this [classicgaming.com]?

        Yes, it's a homebrew. Yes, it's nifty. Yes, the server may fall over.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kisrael ( 134664 ) * on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:18PM (#9076376) Homepage
      The system with the best games will win.

      Uh, given how one gamer's "best" is another gamer's "complete waste of bits", this is a meaningless statement.

      And if you think time-to-market and name brand recognition don't play a major role, you're nuts. There's a ton of other factors to. (In particular, I think certain genres make or break systems as much as particular games.)

      I'd cite examples, but than my rampant fanboyism might show through.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by lpangelrob2 ( 721920 )
      Well, then Nintendo should've run [nintendo.com] away [capcom.com] with the winning title [metroid.com].

      Or maybe it depends on more than just the best games... like actually bothering to advertise and get gamers' attentions in the places gamers go [ebgames.com].

    • Re:Like always... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by the morgawr ( 670303 )
      The PSP is going to have to have some damn good games for it to get me to switch.

      Unlike a console set up where I can have them both and play games on both, it's a real bitch to take two handheld systems with me. I'll have to pick. Given that I've got a GBA and over 50 GB, GBC, and GBA games, the PSP is going to need a ton of omph for me to even consider getting one. Once my overall disapointment with the PS2 is added in, I'm not seeing myself buying one.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gldm ( 600518 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:25PM (#9076445)
      And how do you get the best games?

      Back in the day when Playstation was new, everyone thought Sony had gone absolutely insane entering the console market because they'd made almost no good games for existing consoles.

      But what they did instead was interesting. Sony made alot of programming tools for the PS and helped developers make games on it. Sega's Saturn was technically more powerful but a pain in the ass to program for, and Sega kept all the best secrets to themselves for their own games. Nintendo 64 was much more powerful, but stayed on the expensive cartridge format and Nintendo liked to have control over who could make what for the system, both of which scared off many developers. Sony didn't have a reason to keep secrets or keep other software developers behind them, as they didn't really have their own software divisions worried about keeping an edge over competition. It was only later when games like Gran Turismo came out that Sony started making decent games themselves.

      I think Nintendo's going to lose this fight just because they're too used to getting their way and ruling their software library with an iron fist. Granted it's lightened up a bit since the SNES bloodless Mortal Kombat days, but I think Sony's just going to bring more developers to the market with them.

      • Re:Like always... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by drzhivago ( 310144 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:37PM (#9076561)
        It's pretty funny that the Playstation 2 has done as well as it has. Yes, you're right, the PSX was much easier to develop for than the Saturn. With the PS2 though, development was much more difficult than even the Saturn.

        Regardless, there are 2 factors you didn't take into account: time to market, and cost of games. Since the PSP is essentially a mini-PS2, complete with large capacity discs, the overall development time and cost for PSP games will be substantially larger than for GBA games. Longer development time = less games. To offset the larger incurred costs, expect PSP games to be on-average more similar to it's console brethren than portable competitors. I think those 2 factors will determine whether the PSP (and DS possibly) succeeds. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the day, the GBA is still left standing as the winner, even against a system from the same company.

        • Re:Like always... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Gldm ( 600518 )
          Thing is development cost is high for the inital development. Since the PSP is essentially a mini-PS2 as you put it, ports will be far easier than redoing a game from scratch to fit a traditional handheld's meager resources. These days companies really like it if you can recycle most of your effort spent on making a game into a fairly cheap and easy port, like Xbox to PC. PS2 to PSP ports will probably be what kills GBA. I don't own a PS2 yet specificly because I'm more interested in the PSP and playing the

    • This is largely a misconception.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JMZero ( 449047 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:27PM (#9076457) Homepage
      Systems with better games get purchased. This is true. But this is not causation.

      The root is that good games are developed for good hardware that's released at the right time with the right marketing effort. Developers create launch titles for systems that they think will do well (or that pay them). At launch, consumers buy systems that have good hardware.

      The NGage wasn't dead because it didn't have game support - it didn't have game support because it was a horrible platform.

      Conversely, you can't tell me that the PS2 had good games at launch - and yet it sold like hot cakes. Why? Because it was the right hardware at the right time - with the right marketing accompanying that hardware.

      As a console matures, the two re-inforce each other. Good games get made for successful hardware, and those quality games in turn make that hardware more successful. There are anomalies here - like Nintendo's guaranteed quality first-party titles or Street Fighter II selling SNES's - but in general they hide the real truth.

      The PSP/DS fight will be fought mostly on hardware. The DS should have a guaranteed lead going in in terms of software support (Metroid, Zelda, Mario...) - but I think it'll squander that marginal advantage by being silly hardware.

      The much more conventional PSP will end up being the system that's more successful and has better games - but the latter doesn't cause the former. Both will be caused by it being a better platform.
      • The NGage did have horrible games. I remember looking at a list of all the games review on gaming sites about 4 months after the NGage came out every single game had gotten a terrible score.

        NGage had the misfortune of having both terrible hardware and terrible games.

        Yet they are stupid enough to try and rerelease the same games on SLIGHTLY different hardware. Ditch the phone entirely man, then it would have a good chance to do well.

    • Re:Like always... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Joe Random ( 777564 )
      I think a more important factor (and one that leans in Nintendo's favor) is the access to recognizable games. Nintendo has such franchises as Pokémon, Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. Sonay has . . . well . . . I can't really think of any popular series of games that Sony has a monopoly on.

      Based on this, I would say that Nintendo has the front pole position in this race. Sony's PSP will have to either be a much better system, or appeal to a wider audience, than the DS for it to come out the victor.

      N
      • This is a good point. One of the surprising things to me is how well PS2 has done w/o that many franchises.

        One thing though; I think Nintendo better work on some NEW handheld games within their established franchises. GBA has really milked the NES/SNES Mario port to death.

        "DS" does seem like a gimmick, alas. I would've rather seen a straightforward backwards-compatible successor to the GB line.
    • Not always true.

      But in that case, Nintendo is leading, and will continue on, even if the PSP is released against the GBA SP. When it comes down to the games, Nintendo is the King.

  • Well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chrispyman ( 710460 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:16PM (#9076346)
    If I remember correctly, didn't Nintendo say that the DS is not a sequel to the GBA? Besides, one of the real selling points of the GBA (and PS2) was that it could play every single Game Boy game ever released since the system debuted in the late 80s, and thats certainly a negative for Sony's PSP.

    • Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mrgreen4242 ( 759594 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:44PM (#9076651)
      If I remember correctly, didn't Nintendo say that the DS is not a sequel to the GBA?

      Regardless of wether that is the case or not, it is going to be perceived as the sequel to the GBA. It is going to have the GameBoy name, and be a new handheld from the Nintendo. People will naturally assume it is the next GB. As a comparison, look at the GBA SP and how many times you had to tell people it was EXACTLY the same inside as the GBA, just a different case w/ a backlight and built in batter.

      Also, if this is NOT a 'sequel' to the GBA, then they are introducing a device that will directly compete with their other products. Wether this would be a negative factor I'm not sure. I'd be curious to see how non-SP GBAs are selling now.

      Lastly, is there any info yet on the backward compatibility of the DS? I agree with the parent poster, that backwards compatibility will probably make or break the system. Remember the Virtual Boy? That wasn't a direct sequel to the GB, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...

      In an already crowded video game market it is going to be rough to get a new system off the ground. If the DS is backward compatible with the GB/A, it will probably sell well, if priced right. If not, it's going to be a tough sell when there are so many other options out there.

      The PSP will have success based on 1) (in the short term) Sony/PS fanboys who will buy it and all the launch games just because, and 2) (in the long run) how easy it ends up being to port PS games to it. If a developer can take a PS1 game, run it thru a magical Sony PSP compiler setup and have a nearly ready to ship PSP game, it will be an easy way to build up a library of good games fast, and put a huge dent into Nintendo's handheld market.

      Or I could be full of shit, who knows.

      Rob

  • Final Fantasy I Final Fantasy is the reason I picked Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and then Playstation and Playstation 2 :) -A

  • Game play Length (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nickroethemeier ( 676503 ) <nick@nOsPaM.roethemeier.net> on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:17PM (#9076354) Homepage
    Although I don't see either of these devices going the way of the Game Gear, They have to have simple, fun games or they will die. Its flat and simple. Most people only play hand held games for short bursts, and they play console games for hours on end (Final Fantasy). The puzzle games of old (tetris) had it right. Simple, Fun, Short.
    • But when you think about these quick puzzle games, what comes to mind besides tetris, that isn't a blatant tetris knock-off?

      The *other* successful games for handhelds were ones that didn't need to have anything saved, as the original Game Boy couldn't handle it. Imagine playing Final Fantasy I and not being able to save...

      That said, I think that the technology is definitely there to put little memory chips in the games, which would open up a whole new market in addition to the short, pithy games.

      Of cour
      • Wow, so you are saying that Tetris (the first Gameboy game ever) magically pulled my high scores out of its butt? Or wait...could it be there was a battery backup in that little cart :P The first game to use the battery was the original Zelda in the US...since then saves have been possible.

    • Re:Game play Length (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lotsofno ( 733224 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:27PM (#9076460)
      Most people only play hand held games for short bursts
      You're forgetting GBA's great selection of RPGs.. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? Zelda? Sword of Mana? Fire Emblem? Shining Soul 2? Mario and Luigi? And of course, Pokemon? Nintendo has developed a HUGE following off quality titles like these that aren't only portable, but able to stand up next to their console counterparts.
      • RTS and RPG games also have quite a lot of merit on a handheld. Why not slay a few slimes, or move some tanks around while you get your hair cut. Time to go? Just save game, and pick up later.

        It's like playing a long-term chess game with an opponent who will wait forever.

        -Jesse
    • A single long story isn't really necessary, IMHO. Having blown hours without realizing it trying to beat higher levels of Tetris on the original Game Boy and knowing many people who do the same with Minesweeper, Frozen Bubble, Nethack, and so on, I can say it doesn't even have to have a story. It can be short and addictive.

      One of the major games behind the success of the Game Boy Color was the Pokemon series. It can have a blah predictable story if it can tap that kind of a following (Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon B

  • Obvious Winner (Score:5, Insightful)

    by $lingBlade ( 249591 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:17PM (#9076366)
    Sorry to state the obvious, but the winner will be us as consumers. For once we'll have two powerful companies fighting for our money with products that kick butt.

    • Re:Obvious Winner (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Until we find out that half of the games we want aren't available for the system we picked.
    • This new handheld isn't the successor to the GBA. Nintendo has yet to unveil anything regarding the next Gameboy.

      Though they are coming out with a cool-as-shit NES-themed GBA in June, complete with a release of old emulated NES games like SMB and Zelda.
      • A great free NES emulator has been available for the GBA for years now. Back then Nintendo would even claim that emulation was illegal... now they are cashing in? I still like the idea of a NES-themed GBA. I will buy that and a nice flash cart to use with the PocketNES emulator.

  • fight it out! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:18PM (#9076368)

    Nintendo, Sony Start Handheld Gaming Battle At E3

    Nintendo rolls a 16, hitting with the Vorpal Blade!
    Sony makes the saving throw and takes 8 HP of damage!
    Sony casts a Magic Missile spell at Nintendo and hits for 6 HP!
    Nintendo hits Sony with the Vorpal Blade again, with an 18 roll!
    Sony fails the saving throw, Sony loses its head!

    • Re:fight it out! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You fool! Vorpal weapons do not allow a save, and only activate on a critical hit :)

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:38PM (#9076569)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • If only I had mod points, this would go insightful. In Asia, Final Fantasy is THE killer app for gaming consoles. And it doesn't due too badly here- I know I got the PS2 over the gamecube initially for FFX. Nintendo needs to kiss ass at S-E badly and get them back into the fold. That alone would shift the console wars in their favor.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • But hey, can you blame 'em? Dragon Warrior (Quest) III was the best game in the series, IMHO :P

            Fully configurable parties, plus as soon as you get your ship, the linear portion ends and you're cut loose into the world. It's one of the longest and most non-linear RPGs you'll find.
      • Nintendo makes a saving throw against franchise, and summons plumbers, Link, and Samus.

        I can't believe I just responded in this thread. Nn-hey, with the glaven.

      • Re:fight it out! (Score:4, Funny)

        by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @09:50PM (#9080067)
        Sony uses "Wand of Square-Enix!"
        Final Fantasy series ports have been summoned!

        Nintendo has four hours to come up with a counter attack while the summon animation is playing.

  • A little hard to compare (Score:4, Informative)

    by Painaxl ( 673056 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:19PM (#9076387)
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the DS a side project, and NOT Nintendo's actual follow up to the GBA? Calling it Nintendo's "next generation handheld" implies that it's a replacement for the GBA, which I'm pretty sure is not what it is intended to be.
    • I am pretty sure you are right, the DS will live side by side with the GBA.
    • implies that it's a replacement for the GBA, which I'm pretty sure is not what it is intended to be. Oh come on, you gotta be kidding, you are also waiting for Bush to find weapons of mass destruction in Irak?

      The DS is a 3d capable handheld with rumoured backward compatibility to the GBA if thats not a succesor then exactly how would you call it? Nintendo is just being a bit "discrete" because the DS is pretty much in an "acceptation" phase however if everything goes as planned dont expect nintendo to

  • Just imagine if Microsoft came out with a handheld (Score:5, Funny)

    by vosbert ( 544192 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:20PM (#9076398)
    It'll be complete with a hard drive, cpu, cpu fan, and disk drive. It'll be the size of a briefcase and weigh about 10 pounds. It'll also come in handy as a bludgeon.

  • And the truth is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by clichekiller ( 665320 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:20PM (#9076400) Homepage
    There are enough people out there who will buy both to keep both companies happy.

    Also, in a way, they go after two different markets. The Gameboy is poised for the younger crowd, with their Pokemon and such. This isn't to say there are no good games for adults, Advance War I & II come to mind, just that I see more GB, GBC, and GBA in the hands of little kids then I do adults. The PS2 will almost certainly go after the older teen market and adults.

    And ask yourself how many of you own more then one gaming console. I used to own a Gamecube, XBox, PS2, and Dreamcast. I know of plenty of other people who own at least two. So I don't believe Nintendo is in that big of a trouble, if they can keep their niche alive and prevent the PSP from encroaching they should be fine.
    • I've never understood the whole "people buy two consoles argument." The money is made on the games and I doubt many people buy the same game in different console formats.

      Personally, I've owned a PS2 for a while and just bought a Gamecube. I have the PS2 for SSX, Tony Hawk, etc. I bought the Gamecube primarily because it has the Gameboy player and I really wanted to be able to play the "classics" (Mario, Sonic, etc.) on a modern game console. I've never understood why the classic side scroller has disap
    • One problem, if I have two consoles, they can both sit by my TV. If I have two handhelds, I have to carry them both with me. Call me lazy, but I'm not toting around two (hell carrying around one is enough of a hassle).
  • All I can picture is that episode of the Simpsons where Lenny and Carl duel with microscopes.

  • Hint to Sony (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:25PM (#9076442) Journal
    RCA Video and Audio out jacks. You can find the real estate for it.

    I should be able to plug into any TV with convenient front a/v jacks and play up on the big screen.

    The A/V hack for GBA is by far the coolest, IMO. Build this functionality in, don't try to sucker me by offering me a 60 dollar addon for a 100 dollar console to play my games on TV (GBA player).

    I'd spend so much more time playing the games (and consequently buy more games) at home on the TV. As it stands, GBA is good to occupy you while you take a dump, but it's not something you sit down to play.

    • The obvious question is if you wanted to play videogames on your TV, why didn't you buy an actual console?

      Granted, $60 for $10 worth of A/V adapter parts is pretty obscene, but what do you expect when you try to force-fit a product that wasn't designed for the home console market?

      • Granted, $60 for $10 worth of A/V adapter parts is pretty obscene

        The $60 he's talking about is for the gameboy player for gamecube. It isn't an AV adapter, it is actually a box that hooks up to the cube and allows you to plug GBA cartridges in. They give you a disc for the cube which is a software GBA emulator that'll run the game on the cartridge on the cube. So the game is actually running on the cube so you can use its controllers and you don't have extra cables to run.

  • N-Gage? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mgs1000 ( 583340 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:26PM (#9076453) Journal
    Meanwhile, Nokia huddles in a corner and cries...

  • Sony does this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fahrvergnugen ( 228539 ) <fahrvNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:28PM (#9076474) Homepage
    Sony's PR department has a history of doing this sort of thing.

    Dreamcast is about to ship? Announce the PS2. Show clips of amazing rendered video being run through an Emotion Engine chip, and claim it's being generated in realtime by a Playstation 2. Claim a near release date. Get everyone so excited about the PS2 that they're willing to wait. Push the release date back once it gets too near.

    PS2 Ships. Aside from SSX, launch games are a crushing disappointment, as not one of them beyond this title demonstrates clear technical superiority to the aging Dreamcast, despite the huge gap in their release dates.

    X-Box ships. X-Box Live! ships. Christmas buying season approaches. Sony announces the PS3. Talk about the fantastic power of grid processing and cell chips. Imply that the backward compatability of the PS2 will also be in the PS3.

    Nintendo ships GBA SP. Sony announces PSP in concept, claims a near release date. Push back as release date approaches.

    Nintendo is about to announce portable dual-screen system. Sony re-hypes PSP, releases a few more tidbits of detail, the tech press predictably goes rabid.

    Gamers decide to wait for the PSP.

    As gamers, how long are we going to put up with this shit from Sony? Haven't we learned from our mistakes by now?

    PSP is vapor, and shitty vapor at that, until proven otherwise.

    • Re:Sony does this (Score:3, Insightful)

      by chobee ( 555901 )
      "PS2 Ships. Aside from SSX, launch games are a crushing disappointment, as not one of them beyond this title demonstrates clear technical superiority to the aging Dreamcast, despite the huge gap in their release dates." Gran Turismo 3 A-spec.... This title by it's self was a HUGE selling point for the ps2. On top of that you have the ps2 leveraging all its past ps1 titles. That is why Sony's backward compatibility is such a big deal even today. Right now the ps3 could come out with zero games designed

    • Re:Sony does this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:50PM (#9076714) Journal
      The difference between sony's hype and nintendo's hype has always amused me. Sony talks about numbers and cinematic graphics and whatnot, and the fancy technologies built into the hardware while Nintendo talks about trying to get developers excited about the possibilities of two screens, or their new controller design, with certain buttons being prioritized, and how that might lead to new types of games.

      Maybe I'm just being naive, but it makes me believe that Nintendo, as a company, just might have a better philosophy and culture in regards to gaming.

      • Re:Sony does this (Score:3, Interesting)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 )
        "Maybe I'm just being naive, but it makes me believe that Nintendo, as a company, just might have a better philosophy and culture in regards to gaming. "

        I was on board with that thought the moment Sony announced that the PS2 could push 66 million polygons a second. They were all single point polygons being drawn to a buffer that wasn't going to the screen. Nintendo showed us 3 cars rotating in real time, they like... oh correct me if I'm wrong, 150,000 polygons a piece? Maybe it was 100,000. Not su

  • bad feeling about the DS (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dioscaido ( 541037 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:33PM (#9076515)
    Looking at the descriptions, I have a bad feeling about the DS. I know I'm not the first one to say it, but it reeks of another nice system, much like the black-and-red '3d' system that flopped years ago.

    So we have a nice two screen system by nintendo, vs a simple (and elegant, if anything like the VIAO systems) PS2 portable. The sony system will win hands down.
    • nice = niche. doh!
    • The virtual boy had a lot of problems, no doubt. It was so completely out there, so entirely different than anything else. I don't think the DS is so wacky that people will be afraid of it. Plus it probably won't give everyone headaches in the same way.

      Honestly, I cannot imagine how sony intends to get reasonable battery life out of the PSP if it really has all this good stuff that they're claiming. On a console system, the two most important things in order of relevance are games and hype. On a portable,

  • Who's going to win? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:46PM (#9076671) Homepage Journal
    If history is any indicator, Nintendo.

    They beat Sega, Atari, NEC and SNK in the handheld market. They're in the process of killing Nokia. Sony is wasting their money developing such a product.

    LK
    • If history is any indicator, Nintendo.

      They beat Sega (genesis), Sony (Playstation), Sega (Dreamcast) Sony again (Playstation 2) and Microsoft (Xbox).

      Yup, Nintendo's N64 and GameCube have really taken over the market and competitors should stop wasting their money.(Sarcasm shutting down)

      Nintendo will be dethroned. Competition is great for the market.

      • I think you're missing the point of the parent post. While Nintendo's success with its home consoles tends to vary, it has (historically) had real staying power in the handheld market.

        Sony does look like a serious contender with the PSP, but back in the day, so did Sega with the Game Gear...

        • No, I got the point.

          People thought Nintendo had a lock on the home console market with the NES. Over the years, that was challenged because people saw the HUGE market available.

          Right now, many see the giant market in handhelds. They will, without a doubt, begin chipping away at the big-N. Nintendo can't hold the lead forever, especially since they seem to be in a regurgitation stage for the GBA - "Super Mario 8 did great on SNES? Port it to GBA... it will make a lot of money!"

    • Nintendo is the Apple of the gaming industry, might get pushed under the rug and trampled on and often hated,and has proprietary hardware/software but manages to survive regardless.

      I like my gamecube. and the games and the quality of the graphics, I also like the fact it can play GBA games with an addon that connects to the bottom of a system (wouldnt that make it a gamesquare?)
      (and there is a 3rd party connector that connects to the memcard port)
      and the fact it can go online, and can be portable itself (c

  • Nintendo DS info: GB lib. will be included. (Score:4, Informative)

    by ITR81 ( 727140 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:47PM (#9076682)
    In EGM the May edition the Nintendo DS will play the entire GB lib. So no-one will be left out. In EGM the June edition Nintendo HQ admits the codename for the DS is the "Nitro". DS second screen is rumored to have a touch-sensitive pad, handle 3D graphics, a microphone input, and a wireless functionality(wireless connections to the next gen Cube?). Controls list: D-Pad, L, R, A, B, with additional X and Y buttons being considered.

  • Consider This... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:47PM (#9076687)
    I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but what of power consumption? This is a huge factor when it comes to portable game systems. I used to own a Sega Game Gear, and while it was a superior system (to the Game Boy), it burned through 6 AA's in a hour. I did the majority of my playing on it via the AC Adapter, totally defeating the purpose of getting a handheld.

    According to Sony, the PSP uses an optical drive of some sort. Does anyone have any idea how the drive motor is going to impact battery life?

  • It's all about battery life (Score:5, Interesting)

    by realmolo ( 574068 ) * on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:48PM (#9076701)
    Nintendo and their Gameboys have stayed on top for 2 reasons: lots of games, and long battery life.

    None of the other competitors in handhelds have had these 2 things. Yes, there have been more powerful handhelds. But they didn't have games, or the battery-life sucked.

    Sony will have the games, no doubt. And from what I've read about the PSP, they'll have good battery-life, too. Not to mention really, really powerful hardware (for a handheld). So Nintendo may be in for a battle.

    As far as Nintendo and their flagship titles/characters- Does anyone really care about Mario or Zelda or Pokemon anymore? They're good games, but I think burnout has really set-in for most gamers when it comes to the Nintendo brands.

    That said, I love my GBA. Best system Nintendo has had since the original NES, if you ask me.
    • You would think a company like sony that has a TON of R&D cash to throw around(if they want) on researching batteries, plus having a lot of other handheld electronics to practice with would have battery life mastered, but they actually only have a 3-6 hour limit, not bad, but not impressive. I guess it depends on how gamers use it. If you use it on a trip to grandmas should be fine, but a cross country roadtrip, you are going to be pissed :P
  • "Both companies will be vying for the hearts and minds of gamers..."

    I find it absolutely mindbendingly surreal that someone was able use his phrase in this context, apparently in earnest.

    Based on recent less-than-totally-successful attempts to win the "hearts and minds" other market segments, gamers are in for a rough time

  • Sony charge 25000$ for PSP SDK and god only know how much for license to produce game. So Sony probably will not overwhelm customers with numbers of titles on release. Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers. Of cause most of this games will be crap, but by sheer numbers there bound to be some gems among them. And numer of titels have strength in itself too.
    • Nintendo already have GBA base, and if it would release free SDK and make it easy to get license it will attract a lot of small/indie developers.

      Right, because Nintendo gets along so well with 3rd party developers and the indie gaming scene. Read "Game Over"... Nintendo wants CONTROL and lots of it.

  • DS is an independent platform. Same with PSP. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Viewsonic ( 584922 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @02:58PM (#9076781)
    The Gameboy DS will not compete, upgrade, or compliment the current or future Gameboy line. Anyone with any sort of idea of the current gaming industry already knows this. Nintendo has said over and over that the DS will be its own unique niche market that will not compete with other handhelds simply because it will not work like others. It will offer two screens that will provide a very unique gaming experience that simply isn't possible on a single screen system, and wasn't meant to be. Wired as usual, is entirely clueless of the gaming world and this article only proves it once again.

    Also, Sony is gearing the PSP as a multifunctional handheld for many things other than games. Think movies, GPS, MP3 playing, PDA, etc .. They have stated that they wont be in competition with Nintendo whatsoever with the PSP. Once again, Wired is spewing misinformation. How this made a news story is beyond me simply because its entirely full of factual errors and presumptions.

  • Nokia will win.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Freedom Bug ( 86180 ) on Thursday May 06, 2004 @03:07PM (#9076914) Homepage
    I think it's fricking hilarious that everybody's counting out Nokia. Right now the N-Gage is for developers and those early adopter freaks that spent $1000 for a DVD player. And they failed there.

    But remember that Nokia plays in a different world than Nintendo. Nintendo is starting to move from 3rd generation to 4th. (GB -> GBC -> GBA -> DS). That's a rate of about 1 generation every 4 years.

    Nokia does a generation every 6 months. They've already fixed the "dork factor" and the "remove the battery" problem.

    In 12-24 months, 75% of Nokia phones sold will include the N-Gage "feature". Since everybody wants a nice colour screen anyways, the added cost of N-Gage is miniscule. And the cost will be $0 (with a 2 year contract).

    This will be every kid's preferred phone: sure the video games selection sucks now, but it'll text well and there'll probably be at least one good game. A cell phone is a mandatory kid-accessory.

    And kids will prefer to buy games for their phone rather than for their Gameboy: you're more likely to be carrying your phone than your Gameboy.

    Poof, demand exists, good games start coming, critical mass happens and Nintendo is looking for that truck's license plate.

    Sony will eventually integrate PSP into Ericsson phones. Will it be soon enough? They have the critical mass problem and a timing problem.

    Nintendo's in good shape though: they can license the GB to Motorola and the other cell phone manufacturers. They've got the momentum: a cell phone that is GBA compatible is a lot more valuable than an N-Gage phone. But they have to get those partnerships in a timely fashion.

    Convergence has to be done right: people will not put up with a crappy phone or a crappy game system just for convergence's sake. I believe Nokia will iterate and "get it right". Any partnership will have many more problems doing so...

    Bryan
    • You're right: A cell phone IS a mandatory kid-accessory.

      But you're wrong about kids wanting the Nokia N-Gage. It's way too big. Kids want something that they can slip into their pocket, and with today's fashions, those pockets are getting smaller (and lower) every day.

      It's one reason why those Virgin Mobile slide-phones are popular with kids.

    • "But remember that Nokia plays in a different world than Nintendo. Nintendo is starting to move from 3rd generation to 4th. (GB -> GBC -> GBA -> DS). That's a rate of about 1 generation every 4 years.

      Nokia does a generation every 6 months. They've already fixed the "dork factor" and the "remove the battery" problem."

      Interestingly enough, you've highlighted the exact reason that I don't think the N-Gage will ever be a contender in the video game market. A new generation of hardware every 6 mont

  • Journalism errors (Score:5, Informative)

    by M.C. Hampster ( 541262 ) <`M.C.TheHampster' `at' `gmail.com'> on Thursday May 06, 2004 @03:13PM (#9076974) Journal

    I'm not even past the first few paragraphs, and I've already found errors:

    In fact, the Game Boy Advance is carrying a lot of water for the company, since the GameCube, Nintendo's flagship gaming console, is rapidly falling behind the PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox in sales.

    Since when is the GameCube rapidly falling behind the XBox in sales?

    In case you haven't been in close proximity to any 12-year-olds in the past five years, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is a $100 portable game device the size of a slice of bread.

    Wrong. The Game Boy Advance SP is $100, the normal Game Boy Advance runs around $70.

    I guess we've all just gotten so used to the mainstream media just getting their facts wrong that people don't even notice anymore.

  • A surefire way for Sony to win.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by apetime ( 544206 ) <ape.com@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday May 06, 2004 @03:37PM (#9077231)
    ..but something they would never probably even consider is to give the millions of people that already own stacks of Playstation games the capability to play them on the PSP for basically free.

    I'm not sure about the details of the drive that they're using, but it would be very cool, and lucrative in terms of getting a massive installed base of PSPs, if they let people burn the PS1 games they already own on to mini-CDs or mini-DVDs or whatever and just stick those into the PSP. If the drives were capable of doing it, all they'd need to do is set up some funky logic in the PSP to bypass the PS1 copy protect and region encoding. And since this thing is supposed to have the power of the PS2, it should be able to emulate the PS1. It's not as though they make tons of money selling PS1 games anymore, but im sure there are a whole ton of people with stagnant libraries of those old games. Even without a huge library of PSP games on release, this one cheap feature would cause a rush of people to run out and buy one of these things, and it would cost Sony almost nothing to implement, provided that the optical drives can run standard DVDs... which come to think of it, I don't think they do. (UMD was it?)

  • Once again, Nintendo, which has a HAMMERLOCK on the portable game console industry is facing a "tough fight" with a company that has NO PRESENCE in the portable game console industry.

    Meanwhile Sony is invincible in the home video game market, and has never and will never face a tough fight with anyone except Microsoft, because Sony and Microsoft are the greatest companies in the history of the universe and we, the media, can do nothing except gape at their publically displayed cash hoards.

    Meanwhile, Apple
  • For example, the GBA lacks the X and Y buttons of SNES, thus making a lot of the ports very awkward to control.

    They started to lose footing with N64 by going cart based instead of CD based, and as a result, lost quite a bit of licensing. Bye bye, Squaresoft! No FF7 for Nintendo. Don't get me wrong, the console had a few good games (like Zelda), but there weren't many... just like with the GC. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Remake, and Zelda (although I wish it was longer) were decent games, but... that's abo
  • Sony was BRILLIANT in tapping the 20-something videogame market 8 years ago. They targetted professionals with their sleek Playstation systems. However, I don't really see men and women in business suits playing handheld videogame systems. I just don't see it.
    • I see it, at our office, pretty regularly. On business trips, it's not difficult to find another professional to hook up a link game with at the airport. It's more common among adults than you'd think, because they're cheap, simple, and fun.

      Of course, just because I see it frequently doesn't make it universally true. Just adding my anecdote to yours.

  • Gizmondo (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kjeldor ( 146944 )
    Why must the title of "Best Handheld" go to Nintendo of Sony? Another very overlooked device that will also be showcased at E3 is the Gizmondo by Tiger Telemantics. This unit contains a 400Mhz ARM9 processor with a 2.8" TFT color screen running Windows CE. Although its primary selling point will be gaming, it also functions as a camera, mp3 player, movie player, and messaging system. Some of the more interesting features are built in GPS, GPRS, and Bluetooth capabilities. I personally think this will b
  • If the rumors are to be believed and it ends up having A B X Y and L R buttons, it could turn into the elusive perfect SNES emulation device. Now before anyone brings up the GP32 or other competitors which have come up short, the DS will have a usable screen and wide availability, some things the GP32 never had.

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