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?

Totally misleading...

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

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.

Sour grapes

[Daetrin]

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. [gamesarefun.com] 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.

Re:'entry'

[mrchaotica]

They meant "entry" as in "contest entry," not "initial offering." Nintendo is entering the DS as their contender for this round of handheld game devices.

Some hotspots require a web browser

[tepples]

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.

Re:Yeah, it's a gimmick!

[Anonymous Coward]

as a video student i will tell you betamax IS superior to VHS. in fact it has separate tracks for luminance and color information, which when used with an s-video cable is sent directly down the cable to your TV without any modification whatsoever.

When viewed this way, Betamax rivals many DVDs produced at home (esp. those done on cheap software for windows). So as far as a home recording format Betamax was far ahead of VHS. Way better.

Access point to what network?

[tepples]

You can do WiFi in a peer-to-peer manner, you know.

A lot of existing Nintendo DS games do use the ad hoc mode of 802.11b.

If a device can speak 802.11b, it can act as an access point.

I thought that in order to act as an access point to a given network, a device had to be able to speak both 802.11b and the layer 2 used by the network (one of Ethernet, DOCSIS, and DSL).

Re:Translation

[tepples]

If you look back at handheld gaming history, I don't think *any* "widescreen" format (system oriented horizontally instead of vertically) has ever been a big hit.

Game Boy Advance sold well even before the SP came out.

ROFL! Is this a joke?

[GFLPraxis]

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

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

Yeah but...

[Anonymous Coward]

How many original games for the PSP can you name?

Sure, a few here and there. But most of the PSP games are remakes and PS2 adaptations.

Personally, I like to see new things, not re-buy old ones..

Re:Gameboy

[yammosk]

Which PSP games support infrastructure wireless co-op or VS play?

Ummm... What is Twisted Metal a PSP launch title? How much did I win Alex?

Re:'entry'

[schnikies79]

game & watch wasn't a wrist watch, they were two or three fold lcd games.

linky! [gameandwatch.com]

Re:PSP is great

[Cerberus911]

The PSP loading times CAN be pretty bad, and rather frustrating. But one thing the PSP has going for it that the DS does not is the ability to suspend it at essentially any point and turn it back on right where you left off. That helps to mitigate the loading times in that you dont have to wait for the game to load each time you start playing.

Fold your DS. Now open it again. OMG. Wasn't that something. Now have fun with your newfound knowledge.