Sony Continues To Lose Ground In Mobile Gaming 202
donniebaseball23 sends this quote from an opinion piece at Industry Gamers:
"On Monday, news came down the pipeline from SCEE president Andrew House that Sony wants to focus on a younger audience for the PSP with future titles. My immediate reaction was one of shock and confusion. After all, in an interview with IndustryGamers at E3, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime noted that, 'the way I would describe the market for the Nintendo 3DS would be the launch market that we had with the Nintendo DS plus the launch market that maybe PSP had.' When your primary competitor is looking to the exact market that you've catered to, why would you abandon that market? There was a time when Sony Computer Entertainment was a trailblazer, bringing things to the industry ahead of everyone else. Nowadays, however, it seems that Sony is content to merely fall in step behind everyone else and simply try hard to not fall too far behind."
Who trusts Sony? (Score:2, Insightful)
After their repeated rootkits, engineered incompatibility, engineered obsolescence, higher-than-market prices, and lengthy history of consumer-hostility, why would anyone want to buy a Sony product?
I sure don't. My house is Sony free. Of course, I have had to side with the lesser of a handful of evils, but that is still better than submitting to Sony.
Trailblazer? (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh, really? Like what? They over-hyped "emotion engine"? Their "Cell" processors?
Sony didn't bring CD-ROM to consoles, even if it all started as a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES. SEGA and NEC both had CD-ROMs for their respective consoles way before that.
Portable systems? Nintendo was there before anyone else. Portable systems with onboard storage? Nope sorry, Nintendo DSi came out before the PSP Go.
Rumble? Nope, that's Nintendo again. Analog stick? Nintendo yet again. Oh wait, DUAL analog stick? Oh yeah, great Sony innovation there.
So, what trailblazing has Sony actually done for consoles?
Hmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Why are you suprised? (Score:0, Insightful)
Everything sony touches they ruin.
And they've been doing it for awhile now...
Re:Young audiences grow up (Score:3, Insightful)
Sony's "core" audience has already abandoned them for jobs and taking care of their families, and it is time to get a new one (i.e. focus on the kids, who can be easily won over with a couple marketing dollars and a hip spokeskid)
Misleading headline and summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Headline should have been "Sony to change focus to younger audience - targets Nintendo's market" - with the submitter's opinion stated *after* the summary of the linked article (start quote at 2nd sentence if you want to be lazy).
Where does the actual source article say anything about Sony losing ground?
How does the submitters' description of Nintendo doing exactly the same thing somehow lend support to that story? Sony's story, which is not contradicted by IG in their article, is not dissimilar - they're strong in one market, better than ever, but wish to grow on their weak markets (i.e: focus on your competitors' market for growth, not the market you own and saturated already).
This summary has almost nothing to do with the linked articles, and it's 90% opinion from the submitter (donniebaseball23)
I happen to agree with his opinion on both Sony's rationale and their chances, but that's not really 'news' and it misrepresents the actual 'news' part as if this is what something Sony admitted to, or actually stated as IndustryGamers' analysis.
The professionalism of Slashdot editors... what is the job description again?
PSP Go messed it all up (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody I know with a PSP has upgraded to the PSP Go. It just doesn't make sense.
You can't play a game, complete it then trade it in for another game. The games shops lose and the customer loses too.
Before launch it was said that you would be able to swap a PSP UMD for a digital version for the PSP Go. This didn't happen, so it made migration expensive if you had an existing UMD collection.
Another problem is downloads, your PSP Go has to sit there while you download the game, which could be hours.
Re:Who trusts Sony? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:PSP Go messed it all up (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah a downloadable as a lot of advantages: it can be revoked at will, when you change console you can be forced to pay for it once more. The publisher can also sell it at the same price as the physical media.
Very convenient indeed.
Re:PSP titles: (Score:1, Insightful)
There are plenty of good games that people want to play. Problem is that by that statement, you assume "people" equals "you." You're not the only one out there.
Re:A general criticism of handhelds. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bad idea (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, because discs and M-rated games make for a "more mature" gaming system.
Insert eye-rolling smiley here.
Myst (Score:3, Insightful)
I just don't like having to draw on a screen to play my game.
Then anybody who has played a PC game relying on a mouse has different tastes from you. Graphical adventures such as Myst sold millions on PC, even if the DS port might have been crap.
Re:Who trusts Sony? (Score:0, Insightful)
I'll give you $100 and pay shipping for your PS3. After all, it is just sitting there. I bet if it was $100 cash sitting there you would have spent it by now so it seems worthwhile. I love it when people say they own a PS3 and never use it. Shows how bright they were. I buy stuff all the time for hundreds of dollars and then just let it sit.
Re:Trailblazer? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, what trailblazing has Sony actually done for consoles?
Sony's innovations aren't really developed with the consumer in mind. The Universal Media Disc, memory sticks, ATRAC-only music players, etc. are all, in varying degrees of blatant-ness, attempts by Sony to drive people into using Sony's own proprietary systems. They announce them as if they're "consumer innovations"; but I imagine the spokespeople have to practice in front of a mirror for a while to be able to keep a straight face when saying that.
You really have to wonder what goes on in the minds of that company's leaders. What other company would develop a PC rootkit and then act surprised when people rebelled?
Re:PSP Go messed it all up (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it a problem for you to wait a few hours for a download.
Because what you call "a decent connection" isn't available everywhere, especially out in the country once the farm chores are done. It's faster to ship a UMD across the United States than to download it over satellite or cellular, especially given that three to six full-UMD games would eat up 100% of the 5 to 10 GB/mo caps that all wireless Internet providers impose.
No not really (Score:3, Insightful)
There are two problems with cellphones as a primary gaming platform, one that you really can't fix:
1) Controls. Cellphones are not well suited to games. The reason the gamepad has endured is not coincidence, it is a good tool for the job. Yes you can add a gamepad, but that makes the phone much larger and people don't like that one bit. While the problem isn't completely unsolvable, it is difficult.
2) Battery life. When you do anything else with your phone, you drain the battery. There are no new magic battery technologies out there that will extend the life a long time. Play games, your talk time goes down. There's just no way around this, other than larger batteries.
This idea that everything unifies on a single device is silly, and you need only to look at other areas of life to see it is not something that happens all the time. You probably have an oven, a microwave, and a toaster in your house. Well why? That oven makes perfectly good toast (try it if you don't believe me). It is also far more flexible at cooking things than the microwave. So why do you have those other devices?
Well you have them because they do certain tasks, tasks you want, better and/or more efficiently. It is worth having the dedicated device because of that.
Games on cellphones work fine when it is a minor distraction kind of thing. You carry around some games so if you are waiting in the doctor's office you can play for a bit. They don't work for longer periods of entertainment. Spend a 4 hour flight playing a phone game and you may find you can't call your ride when you land at the airport.
You're serious? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony brought gaming to a much wider audience than Sega or Nintendo had managed before. Remember the first Wipeout? Remember how wowed everyone was that they could listen to Progidy and chemical brothers whilst they race? Suddenly gaming was cool amongst nightclub going 20-somethings, not just kids and geeks. They created Gran Turismo, a game with a level of depth and wealth of content that no one had been able to match. They pushed Tony Hawk's Skateboarding, gave FFVII a huge marketing pushes. In every area the PS1 was pushing gaming in new directions and providing rich experiences.
Maybe you weren't part of the generation who grew up watching the consoles go from 8bit to 16bit to 32bit but I find it amazing anyone could brush off Sony's acheivements with both the PS1 and PS2.
Add controller sales to console sales (Score:3, Insightful)
at launch Apple didn't allow third-party software
Apple has done been plenty of launches since then: iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2 ("There's an app for that"), iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3 (faster CPU), and now iPhone 4 (retina display).
They happen to play games and they have accumulated a large library over time (enough to advertise as a feature) but they are no more consoles than the Palm V or the Nokia N900 are. I think that a comparison between portable consoles makes the most sense when all involved devices were designed and intended as portable consoles.
If game developers have largely abandoned a portable console (in this case PSP and PSP Go) in favor of a platform that handles gaming well yet is not originally designed as a portable console (in this case iPhone and iPod Touch), then having been originally designed as a portable console isn't much of a bullet point. Besides, even the PSP wasn't as gaming-focused as the DS was at launch, given Sony's initial push for UMD Video.
stationary consoles don't sell as many units as portable ones.
A stationary console has two to four controller ports (except in the case of the TG16, but then almost everybody had the 5-port hub for that once Bomberman came out). A handheld has one controller. So mom will buy one DS for Abigail and one for Chester but one Wii and one extra Wii Remote+Nunchuk because then they can both Brawl at once. So to get a number that compares fairly to handheld sales, try adding controller sales to console sales.
Re:Trailblazer? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would argue that Sony's innovations are developed with consumers in mind, but are implemented with Sony's micromanagement needs in mind. I can't think of a Sony technology that was bad per se. ATRAC isn't bad. Memory Stick Duo isn't bad. Betamax isn't bad. I suppose UMD isn't even bad. But Sony can't help but control the consumer's use of that technology. Sony doesn't know how to just sit back and let go. You did mention the PC root kit finally. That's one move I still don't understand after all these years.
Re:PSP titles: (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's what I Think Sony did when they began designing the PSP:
Sony: Hello gamer focus group, tell us what you don't like about the GBA and it's games.
Gamer focus group: They're shorter than their console brethren and they're often not the same game. Take a look at the GB Tomb Raider..it's a side scroller. They're cut down.
Sony: So you want games more like those on the PS1/PS2? Okay, Give us a couple of years.
A couple of years later:
Sony: here is the game machine you wanted.
hardcore gamer focus groups: What? we didn't want this? It's too big and looks fragile, and why did you use discs and the battery doesn't last long enough, and the games are too much like PS2 games, and it costs too much.
Sony: WTF? But you told us that's what you wanted! You wanted games more like those on the home platforms, that requires a more powerful CPU and GPU and a larger backlit screen, it requires more power. Flash storage is still a bit expensive, we had to go with a disc format for capacity reasons for the larger more complex games you wanted.
Gamer focus groups: But all we want is simple pick up and play puzzlers now, we're fickle.
You see, Grumbel, plenty of folks told Sony what they wanted in a portable was more TEkken and Wipeout, and sony gave it to them, but it turns out that some of those gamers were lying to themselves and didn't really want what they told Sony.
For example, if you liked those games on a PS2 why wouldn't you want them mobile as well?