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Portables (Games) Businesses Nintendo Sony

Nintendo Gives No Ground In Handheld Wars 187

Posted by Zonk from the headshot! dept.
TomO wrote to mention a news item on the site Pro-G reporting on a general consumer confidence in the DS, greater than that of the PSP. From the article: "Wavemetrix, a company that specialises in working out what customers think of products, has released a new report on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The report, rather shockingly, reveals that the 'DS is better than the PSP in every important area.' This includes games, quality, screen and value." Relatedly a Gamespy article states: "Few could have imagined it, but the DS is becoming the most significant new console in Japan since the PS2. What started as a rumbling -- with great novelty games such as Wario and XX/YY -- has recently turned into a full-scale dual-screen uprising led by Electroplankton and Nintendogs."
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Nintendo Gives No Ground In Handheld Wars More

Nintendo Gives No Ground In Handheld Wars

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  • Old news but... (Score:2, Informative)

    by rerunn ( 181278 )
    The DS has already been somewhat hacked: http://users.belgacom.net/bn967347/ [belgacom.net]

  • Study: -1 Troll (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Aero Leviathan ( 698882 ) on Saturday July 09, 2005 @06:58PM (#13023101) Journal
    Why is this being reported as true? The linked Pro-G article basically describes the conclusions the study comes to as 'baffling', concluding with: 'I don't think that the general opinion on the two systems is as clear cut as the report suggests.' Joystiq [joystiq.com] agrees: 'A report like this is hard to take seriously.' Then again, so is /. these days...

    • Re:Study: -1 Troll (Score:5, Interesting)

      by macshit ( 157376 ) * <snogglethorpe@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Saturday July 09, 2005 @08:24PM (#13023490) Homepage
      I think the real answer is a comment made by an earlier poster in this thread: the PSP was way over-hyped in the beginning; sure the screen is extremely nice, but a nice screen is not nearly enough!

      It's very, very hard to build a "perfect" handheld, and neither the PSP nor the DS even comes close. The DS is notably annoying in some ways (my main complaint: it's too damn big for those small screens!), but having a 2nd screen with a stylus really opens up a lot of possibilities.

      Sony's secret weapons with the PS2 were their installed base and their insane over the top hype. In the case of the PSP, they don't have an installed base ... and playing the hype card apparently wasn't enough. Now they've got to compete based on merit, and it's going to be a long, hard, slog...
      • Nintendo is fighting Sony with 4 handhelds at the same time: Gameboy, GBA, GB color, DS. Not to mention, Nintendo will have the new Nes Micro handheld next year.

        Can you imagine 5 handhelds vs. the PSP alone. That's unbelievable competition. Keep in mind, the PSP isn't even Sony's flagship product. Sony's flagship product is the PS2/PS3. The flagship product usually have the best game for the company. The DS is Nintendo's flagship.

        • Re:Study: -1 Troll (Score:5, Informative)

          by DarkYoshi ( 895118 ) <elispiro@gmail.com> on Saturday July 09, 2005 @10:14PM (#13023946)
          Nintendo is fighting Sony with 4 handhelds at the same time: Gameboy, GBA, GB color, DS. Not to mention, Nintendo will have the new Nes Micro handheld next year.

          Nintendo is no longer producing the Game Boy, GB or GB Color, nor are they making games for it. The PlayStation 2 did not have to compete with the NES or SNES, only the N64 for a year and the GameCube.

          Nintendo will have the new Nes Micro handheld next year.

          First, it is the Game Boy Micro, not NES Micro. Second, it will be another Game Boy Advance, not an NES.

          Please tell me you are not using EGM as a resource for this, as they are the only people bad enough to make monkey-poo rumors like that.

          • Damn dude... why are you so upset that I called it NES micro instead of Gameboy micro. That thing doesn't even have a finalized name yet.

            You're right, PS2 only competed with Dreamcast, N64, Gamecube, Xbox.... and STILL WON.

          • Nintendo is no longer producing the Game Boy or GB Color, nor are they making games for it.

            Nintendo is still producing the GBA SP, which is officially compatible with 99 percent of GB and GBC games sold at independent stores [mcvans.com] and other secondary markets [ebay.com]. How many titles is PSP 1.52 compatible with?

        • By your logic, the PS2 is directly competing with the GameBoy, GameBoy Pocket, GameBoy Light, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Advance SP, and GameBoy Micro, all thanks to the GameBoy Player for the GameCube. That's seven consoles, and I'm not even counting actual consoles! And the PS2 is being completely outsold by the original GameBoy! And the GameBoy isn't even Nintendo's flagship product!

          Your argument is horribly flawed. You can't just count every existing product as competition. For all inten

  • I can understand it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Saturday July 09, 2005 @06:59PM (#13023109) Homepage
    I purchased a PSP first because of the initial draw of Metal Gear Acid (eh - not bad, but not that great really). Putting movies onto it lost its appeal, and right now I'm using it as an emulator with the 1.5 BIOS hacks. (Playing, oddly enough, my Game Boy Color games that I haven't finished, that I can't play on the DS).

    But the DS has a ton of games. Between the Ace Phoenix, Advance Wars (drool), Castlevania (mega-drool), Animal Crossing (eh, but I know many geeks going ga-ga over it), the Coded Memories (or Another Code, whatever the name is, and I'm too damn lazy to look it up), and on throughout the year, the next six months look *very* nice between the GBA and the DS - and with my new blue DS I can play both of those.

    If Sony wants the PSP to do better, it better stop focusing on the UMB movie announcements. Where are the friggin' games, Sony? The only one that looks interesting to me is "Ghost in the Shell", maybe Popocrolis and Medieval (probably not the latter). I look at the "upcoming games" list on ebworld.com, and it's looking good for the DS, and only good for the PSP if you don't plan on buying movies on DVD anymore (and transferring them to my Memory Stick Duo 512 MB).
    • Odd, as i read your post I was agreeing with you. Then I went to GameRankings and was surprised to find that the DS has no games with an average score over 90, and only four over 80. The PSP is actually marginally better: one over 90 and eight over 80. Obviously that doesn't take into account games not yet released, which was where your prime qualm was, but it still shocked me a little and is good to keep in mind.

      One could also make the argument that those critics are only rating the games in comparison
      • In my opinion there are only two really good DS games out at the moment and one that's pretty good: Meteos, Kirby: Canvas Curse, and Mario 64 DS. Part of the reason that I bought my DS recently though was because of the massive slate of really good games on the horizon: Castlevania DS, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, New Super Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi 2, Mario Kart DS (with the new online multiplayer), Trauma Center, Sonic Rush, etc. Not to mention the many solid GBA titles coming out that also run on it a
        • I'd add WarioWare to the list of good games- yeah, its a tech demo, but its a fun game anyway.
          • Wario Ware is the reason I bring my DS with me into the bathroom when I take a shit. I can play it while I poo and when I'm done I'm not in the middle of the level so I can stop playing and wipe my ass. Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits is a pretty fun DS game, too. Not a reason by itself to buy a DS, but if you've got one it can be a fun way to waste some time. I've heard good things about Bomberman, too.
            • You can rarely go wrong with Bomberman. But aside from the fact that it's Bomberman, it supports 8 player wireless from a single card. So if you happen to know 7 other people who own a DS, only one needs to own Bomberman to have some multiplayer fun.

        • Meteos is like crack... on crack. Must play....

          • I just thought I'd chime in with a "hell, yes." I picked Meteos up earlier today for my mom (she's a puzzler addict - ruined the battery in her Tungsten T playing the Popcap lineup) and I played a few games. I'm going to have to chain myself to something for the next couple of weeks just to keep from blowing $180 on my own DS and Meteos. I was planning to hold off until August/September for the big Nintendogs and Advance Wars releases, but I don't think I'm going to be able to make it that long waiting f
      • Too many websites judge a DS game's graphics harshly for being 2D and not fully utilizating the system. Then they will turn around and judge 3D games harshly, because they are not as good looking as the PSP's. Others don't like the stylus input for one reason or the other, and take points off for that.
      • Did you look at numbers for games released in the US, or games released in Japan? By my understanding, the big reason the DS is keeping ahead of the PSP by a noticible lead in Japan is that the initial hype carried the DS long enough, until software like Nintendogs came out. The US still hasn't seen this title yet, but it is being described as a major system seller.

        Honestly owning both the DS and the PSP, I'm rather disappointed in both. They both launched with a bang, and neither have done anything sin

      • Re:I can understand it (Score:2, Interesting)

        by LKM ( 227954 )

        Then I went to GameRankings and was surprised to find that the DS has no games with an average score over 90, and only four over 80.

        True, but you need to look at the games. DS games like Elektroplankton, Wario Ware: Touched or Pac Pix aren't going to get really good reviews because they're so subjective. I know many gamers will hate Pac Pix. It's got crappy craphics, it's repetitive, and it's quite short. By console standards, they are hardly real games at all.

        The PSP, on the other hand, gets many con

        • Yeah, the way someone plays portable games is really different from how a console game gets played, but I imagine that most magazine reviews are done in a more console-like fashion. Meaning the reviewer sits down with the game, and plays all they way through it in one or two marathon sessions. They play through it once, maybe twice, and then write their review.And then they make up a score for replayability, because that's not something you can figure out quickly. It's not really fair to a handheld game.

          I
    • But the DS has a ton of games. Between the Ace Phoenix, Advance Wars (drool), Castlevania (mega-drool), Animal Crossing (...), the Coded Memories

      Sad that you don't mention one game that exist currently.

      By your logic, the PSP as a lot of game too. We are all waiting for Christmas. Both library of games are equally crappy...

      //I have both machine too. I gave the DS to my girlfriend so she can play The Sims. Sadly it is CURRENTLY the only ORIGINAL (nearly) game that is any good on the DS.
      //Didn't tr
    • Playing, oddly enough, my Game Boy Color games that I haven't finished, that I can't play on the DS

      You know, you can buy a flash linker [gameboy-advance.net] that comes with emulators... to play GB games on the DS. There are a few caveat, there are no 'ds' specific linkers, they all work for both GBA and DS, so only a handful have NES/GB emulators included, and some of the loaders GB emulators have limits to the size ROM they can play. sure, your PS has a bios hack that lets you play GB ROMs, but you have to buy memory sticks

      • Grandparent: Playing, oddly enough, my Game Boy Color games that I haven't finished, that I can't play on the DS

        Parent: You know, you can buy a flash linker that comes with emulators... to play GB games on the DS.

        The Game Boy emulator you speak of is Goomba [webpersona.com], and it's compatible only with monochrome (gray cart) and dual-mode (black cart) games. Specifically, it is not compatible with GBC exclusive (clear cart) games.

  • It's the Games, Stupid (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Saturday July 09, 2005 @07:36PM (#13023278) Homepage
    I'm not that suprised, is anyone else? I'll have to mention that the PSP's screen is MUCH better than the DS's, but that's a side note. I own both, I got both the day they came out.

    The PSP is a very nice system. I loved Lumines. I'm playing through Hot Shots Golf right now. But none of the games are the little pick-up-and-play-for-10-mins kind of games that really keep me going back. I plan to play some old SNES games after I'm done with HSG. I just don' think the PSP has a killer game yet. If Metal Gear Acid was a normal Metal Gear game and not a card game, I think that could have done it. I think the PSP was way over hyped by the gaming press (suprise). But once more (and better) games start to come out, the console will probably hit it's stride. Wait untill around Christmas this year. If GTA: Liberty City Stories is halfway decent, the PSPs will start flying off the shelves.

    As for the DS, it's been a underdog. Many people thought it was gimmicky and wouldn't be around long. If you look at upcomming games, it's quite clear that Nintendo is pushing it HARD and the GBA well is drying up. The DS has had a few great games (XX/XY was interesting, if short; Kirby Canvas Curse really shows off the DS; as does Yoshi's Touch and Go). But the future is bright. As another poster mentioned there will be Animal Crossing (there go my grades again), Advanced Wars (the touch screen should be a REAL boon here), the new Mario game, Mario and Luigi 2 (the first was fantastic, I loved the Prince character from the Bean Bean kingdom), and much much more. The DS has been doing fine, but if they could have pushed up a few of those games (or even just Mario Kart) near launch then the DS would have been a MAJOR force. So far the games have been trickeling in, but the gates are opening and by Christmas it will hit a good flow (I hope).

    I like 'em both. Right now I think that the DS is more solid, but the real battle will be this Christmas as they both get some great games and developers learn the system better.

    But I agree with the basic idea of the article. I have played and enjoyed my DS quite a bit more than my PSP so far. The PSP has had decent games, but nothing great (for my tastes).

    • I got the DS the day it came out. I waiting in front of gamestop from 7am until they opened at 10:30 (the guy told me the day before that they'd be opening at 9, but to be there at 8, and I was up, so I walked the two blocks, hit starbucks and waited).

      It was a pretty awesome system. Mario64DS (I didn't have an N64, so I never played it before) was pretty badass, as was metroid hunters. I also picked up Mawaru: Made in Wario (aka Wario: Touched!) in chinatown a couple days after it was released in japan. th
      • MS's entry (well, not really, but it DOES use a MS operating system) would be the Gizmondo [gizmondo.com]. It's a do-all device, even more so than the PSP - heck, it's even got a GPS, Bluetooth and a GPRS modem! (Can you say "FREEPING CREATURISM!"?)

        It doesn't have many games, though, and I didn't see any big-name franchises (which make or break a console - look at the GP32. Technically superior to the GBA, but have you heard of it? No - there's no big franchises, that's why (and it's a chicken-egg, as well)).

      • Exclusivity? (Score:2, Informative)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        I also picked up Mawaru: Made in Wario (aka Wario: Touched!)

        Nit: Wasn't Touched == Sawaru and Twisted == Mawaru?

        The only games that I still have/play are RidgeRacers, Lumines (HOLY CRAP, GREAT GAME), and Minna no golf (Hot Shots Golf).

        If your argument is that they are well-produced, then you're correct. But as for exclusivity, nyet [jk0.org].

        but I've got the emulators on the PSP

        The versions of the PSP that can run emulators are no longer for sale. All shipping units run 1.51 or 1.52 firmware, which ha

        • The versions of the PSP that can run emulators are no longer for sale. All shipping units run 1.51 or 1.52 firmware, which have not yet been cracked, and given Sony's cat-and-mouse mentality, there will likely be 1.53 by the time a 1.51 crack appears.

          you mean shipping.

          My friend picked up a PSP just this weekend and I was surprised to find that it still had the 1.50 firmware on it.

          He was excited because he didn't think he'd be able to play Final Fantasy 1 again. (he's got no interest in a DS or SP... I k
  • Electroplankton was a straight flop, actually.
  • I haven't seen a PSP. I don't know anyone who's got one, and none of the stores have 'em on display. They all have the DS, though.

    It's not surprising Nintendo has the consumer confidence when most people will only have seen the DS as a real product.

    • and none of the stores have 'em on display.

      Do you think that stores would want little kids to crap up their $300 PSPs?

      • Well, if stores won't.. why would parents?

        And what precisely do you think the biggest demographic for handhelds is?
      • No, but Sony should want that. Do you think the DS on display at target is a normal one that the employees took out of a box and built a display stand for? No, Nintendo designed those to show off their system. Some of them have gotten wrecked, but plenty of them have not. It seems like a far better use of an advertising budget than putting billboards up everywhere.

        If they want to keep little kids off of it, they should design a stand that mounts it higher up, to protect it from smaller children. Sure, some
    • My local Target has free life-size cardboard cutouts of the PSP. Does that count?
    • Sadly, video game specialty stores (at least in the Richmond, VA area) seem to be treating the DS as a second-class citizen.

      You can pick up a DS from EB Games or Gamestop anywhere, but they only carry three games for it (not counting GBA games); Mario 64 DS, Robots, and occasionally you see The Urbz.

      It's a shame, because for me and my roommates most of the time video games are impulse buys (and there's an EB Games within walking distance.) Guess I'll be mail-ordering mos of my new DS games. Or making the

  • capabilities (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gogo0 ( 877020 ) on Saturday July 09, 2005 @09:34PM (#13023778)
    Theyre both fine systems, but the DS is really the only one that has catered at all to the portable market.

    Who is surprised?

    On one hand we have a game system that plays homemade videos, a proprietary movie format, mp3s, and games.
    On the other hand we have a game system that plays... games. And not even regular games, but weird new stuff that can literally only be done on this one system

    People have gone on about the PSP's lack of quick games. The DS is perfect for this, and developers seem to be tailoring games to this philosophy. Dont have much time? How about a "2-Minute War" in Meteos? A quick time trial in Kirby? An attempt at a new high-score in the falling portion of Yoshi? Really the only game that I can use like this on the PSP is Lumines, but Lumines was meant to be played for a long period of time, not in short relays like Meteos.
    I keep my PSP at home where it is safe and where I can sit down after work and play. I keep my DS in my briefcase where I can take it out during a break (or slow work day) and play (and then quickly hide if a customer comes through).
    • I could just wait for the emulation scene to get around to it, but I wouldn't mind paying for a gamepack including a bunch of simple things like checkers, minesweeper, solitaire, bejeweled, bustamove, etc. Just those incredibly simple games that I've been playing on computers for as long as I can remember, but still manage to be fun and addictive. They've survived this long because they're simple and quick. They'd all work really well with a touchscreen. And I'd love to be able to take them with me wherever
      • I wouldn't mind paying for a gamepack including a bunch of simple things like checkers, minesweeper, solitaire, bejeweled, bustamove, etc.

        You can't get all those games in one, but they are all slated for the DS.

        Upcoming:
        Checkers, Chess, etc [ebgames.com]
        Bust-A-Move [ebgames.com]

        and Zookeeper (Bejewelled) has been out since January, and Ultimate Card Games (solitaire, etc) has been out for a couple of months.
        • That Ultimate Brain Games pack with the checkers and chess are exactly what I'm talking about. I still think Nintendo should've built in a handful of those types of games, instead of pictochat. It would've been a minimal cost for then to implement, but would have added a whole lot of value to the DS.

  • Short, simple, sweet? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MeanderingMind ( 884641 ) on Saturday July 09, 2005 @10:05PM (#13023900) Homepage Journal
    As as been said, one of the many problems facing the PSP is its lack of viable "pick up and play" games. Those short wondrous games you can just power on, hit start, and do something. Exactly why this is so damaging hasn't been hit on the head yet.

    While huge, involved games are the power houses of the home console, the environment there is rather different. While there are a significant portion of people who do not have time to plunk into Final Fantasy XXIXIIVICIXIVIXM, a larger number of home console gamers have hours to waste on RPGs, and involved action titles.

    The handheld market is the opposite. You have games there that take time to complete, and ask for a greater time investment per session (any Legend of Zelda game for example). However, the most common use of a handheld fits into the "I need to kill a half hour as I wait for X" category.

    When most of your titles for a handheld fit the home console demographic better than the handheld one, you've got a problem. This is what Sony is facing. Nintendo hasn't dominated the handheld market for no reason whatsoever, they understand the demographic and have used that knowledge to well.

    The PSP has sold enough units to potentially bounce back. It just needs to rework the battle plan a bit. Unfortunately, things have been set up to be an uphill battle.

    Like all other things, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
    • And I just ran out of mod points, damn.

      I'd have to agree with your statement, but even if Sony realizes that quick play games are useful, they have a big thing to worry about: They still use the CD format.

      Even if they get the ten-minute-a-play game with ultra nice graphics and intuitive play, the loading time of a game could kill any interest in the game. With intuitive programming and caching, they would be able to get around this.

      Plus, with the short battery life of the PSP, it isn't good for long trip
      • well in all honesty. i have to agree with the quick games being useful statement. i agree there are not many "quick" games available. but does that mark the PSP a failure? not really. i am sure that there will be plenty of pickup and go games available for the PS over the length of its lifecycle. for those that only use your portable for games such as this, perhaps the DS is more your cup of tea.

        however, keep in mind that the bulk of gba and gb games from the past have followed the same model that the psp

        • library building takes time. but it will get there.

          With all the power of the PSP, why couldn't Sony have made a PSP program that emulates a PS1 ISO stored on Memory Stick Duo media? That would surely increase the PSP's library. Before you kneejerk answer "piracy enabler", consider that Sony could require the ISO to be ripped from a genuine PS1 CD using Sony's tool and that the ISO could be encrypted to work with one PSP unit's serial number.

          as for it shooting discs out, i would probably crack the scr

  • DS didnt start well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ceirren ( 849938 ) on Saturday July 09, 2005 @11:39PM (#13024295)
    When i originally started reading previews and press releases about the DS, i was curious. But i was quickly turned off by a couple things that were said, like when they said that the DS would be a seperate line from the gameboy, and would be completely different. This made me think of this as just an offshoot, possibly something not big. The dual screens seemed kinda useless to me, as they originally said something like "Well, if you are playing a soccer game, you can have the regular view on one screen and an overview of everything on the other..." Also, i didnt know about the touch screen. Or i just didnt pay attention. What won me over is when i played it. Was standing around at best buy, a working DS was on display. I had tried one of those before, played metroid. I didnt like it, so i forgot about it. Wasnt the DS's fault, i just think metroid for the DS sucks. Anyway, the DS i played had the pac man drawing game. The creative use of the touch screen was so awesome that i knew i had to have it. Now. Well, i didnt get it then, but after hard work and many hurdles, i got it soon. My friends were surprised (to say the least) that i got a DS. They thought it was crap or some sissy system. It is hard to explain how phat the ds is. Some things in this world can't be told in verse or prose. The Nintendo DS is one of those things.
    • Yeah, I don't know why Nintendo decided to bundle the metroid game demo other than hoping to gain some hype from the sucess of metroid prime on the gamecube. Or maybe as a tech demo, just to show that the system could do 3D in a somewhat reasonable fashion.

      That sort of gameplay isn't fun on the DS, the controls take a bit too long to get used to, and the screen really is too small for a FPS. And like you said, it wasn't a terribly innovative use of the touchscreen, more like adapting it to make up for the

      • and the screen really is too small for a FPS.

        Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom II ran in 320x200 pixels. Is that really so much bigger than the 256x192 pixels of the Nintendo DS top screen?

        • There are plenty of pixels, they're just too small. I can see and react to a character that's an inch wide much better than the same character only an eigth of an inch wide, even if they have the same number of pixels.

  • Personal sales experiences (Score:3, Informative)

    by Grave ( 8234 ) <awalbert88@nOspAm.hotmail.com> on Sunday July 10, 2005 @12:27AM (#13024524)
    As an employee of a major video games retailer, I can state that we sell far more PSP systems, games, and movies than we sell in DS. I don't have the actual numbers available here, but I'd wager it's almost a 10:1 ratio. Worldwide the DS might be on par with the PSP, but not in my local experience. I suspect that in North America, the PSP outsells the DS by a wide margin, just as the XBOX outsells the GameCube by quite a lot in NA.
    • As an employee of a major video games retailer, I can state that we sell far more PSP systems, games, and movies than we sell in DS. I don't have the actual numbers available here, but I'd wager it's almost a 10:1 ratio. Worldwide the DS might be on par with the PSP, but not in my local experience.

      Well, the PSP is not even on sale in Europe yet, so obviously the DS outsells it there.

      The DS is also currently outselling [the-magicbox.com] the PSP in Japan by a pretty significant margin (scroll down a bit), and is now ahead
    • "As an employee of a major video games retailer,"

      Ever notice how in "major video game retail stores," the shelf space dedicated to Game Boy, easily the most popular and numerous video game platform today, is typically smaller than the GameCube shelves and nowhere near as big as the PS2 section?

      Combine this bias against Nintendo handhelds (goes along with your general anti-Nintendo bias, but peculiar when you consider the GBA is where Nintendo makes most of its money) with the currently small library of t
      • -- "just as the XBOX outsells the GameCube by quite a lot in NA."

        Define "quite a lot."

        Last I heard, "quite a lot" in this context is roughly equivalent to "not all that much." Something like 10%-15%. I could be wrong.

        Though it could depend on whether you're talking outsells or has outsold...I would wager GC sales have tapered off more than Xbox.

        I think a lot of people have this idea that the GC has sold horribly in North America, when really is has sold quite well. People assume that just bec
    • Since we're using anecdotes I'll give you mine.

      I was at an EB Games yesterday in a suburban mall in Canada's captital city. A family (father, mother, with a son and a daughter) walks in and asks for a PSP. The salesman asks the right question by saying "Who are you buying this for?" The father says "My son" (who looks about 6 years old). The salesman then spent about 10 minutes explaining to the father how the PSP would be a terrible purchase since the machine is delicate, prone to defects (dead-pixels etc

  • DS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nukem996 ( 624036 ) on Sunday July 10, 2005 @02:52AM (#13024992)
    My gf and I bought a DS a few weeks ago and we love it. DS graphics are amazing! I bought Goldeneye today and its graphics are at the same level as Quake III. I did not expect the graphics to be this good. The stylus is a great addition and is useful in many games, in goldeneye you use it like you would a mouse when playing a FPS on your computer. Even when playing a game that dosnt use the stylus it uses the extra screen to display something useful like a map. We originally looked at the PSP saw it has no games that we liked and very few if any in the future. Most of them are sports games and ports of PS2 games not to mention the price of it! What it comes down to is that Nintendo made sure the DS had good games and as others have said Sony just ported PS2 games.
    • I did another post to this thread in support of the DS, but...

      Isn't Rogue Agent (the game you LOVE so much) a port of a console game?

      And what is Mario 64 DS? Brand new? It was the flagship launch game, and is even included with the Blue DS (I think)

  • That Pro-G article.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PhotoBoy ( 684898 ) on Sunday July 10, 2005 @08:14AM (#13025849)
    ... reads like it was written by a Sony apologist. The article spends more time looking for things to criticise about the DS than actually acknowledging where the DS has apparently got it right over Sony. But then most games reviewers have been pimping the PSP as the "best thing evar" and probably feel pretty stupid that people have ignored them and bought the DS.

    I own both machines myself, I only use the PSP for emulators at the moment, and aside from GTA:LCS and Burnout Legends there aren't any games on the horizon that I'm interested in compared to the 10 or so for the DS.

  • Played em both, prefer the PSP (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Sunday July 10, 2005 @10:59AM (#13026427) Homepage
    I've played both the DS and the PSP, and frankly I much prefer the PSP. There's simply more options with the fact it plays movies on UMD or encoded on the memory card, views photos, and can play back music. If you crunch the numbers, the DS might have a lot more games, but that certainly doesn't mean they're all good.

    Friends of mine who have a DS constantly complain about the lack of more mature types of games for the platform. And from a hardware perspective, the PSP's screen is pretty impressive.

    PSP or DS? A lot of it is personal preference. I picked the PSP because of the game lineup at launch and the stuff that was coming. I love the WipEout series, and with Rockstar's involvement on the platform the prospect of a handheld Grand Theft Auto is just too compelling. ;)

    • There's simply more options with the fact it plays movies on UMD or encoded on the memory card, views photos, and can play back music.

      Any GBA with a flash card can display photos and play music [pineight.com].

      Friends of mine who have a DS constantly complain about the lack of more mature types of games for the platform.

      Mature in what way? Blood and guts? T&A? Some would say that smacks more of "immature" products designed for high school and college students.

      And from a hardware perspective, the PSP's scre

      • Mature in what way? Blood and guts? T&A? Some would say that smacks more of "immature" products designed for high school and college students.

        Oh my! That was harsh. I liked it. Time for an obligatory PA quote... From the strip [penny-arcade.com].

        "I think I've had enough of all the "Kids games," "Adult games" thing. It completely misses the point. Are they afraid playing a game with colors will make them a dork? Well, that boat already sailed. You play videogames? Welcome to Dorksville. You wanna know how co

  • What makes a handheld sell (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ureshii_akuma ( 745410 ) on Sunday July 10, 2005 @12:20PM (#13026765)
    Time and time again, we've seen what goes into making a handheld sell:

    1) Price
    2) Baterry Life
    3) Portability (size and protected screen are big factors here)
    4) Games - particular ones that can be played in short bursts

    It really is no surprise to me that DS is outperforming PSP in marketshare and apparently mindshare, given these factors. (Of course, given these factors, I still maintain that the GBA SP is the best portable system on the market).
    • It really is no surprise to me that DS is outperforming PSP in marketshare and apparently mindshare, given these factors. (Of course, given these factors, I still maintain that the GBA SP is the best portable system on the market).

      I think it will be a long time before anything dethrones the GBA SP for all-time King of Handheld Gaming. As you said, size, battery life, games, and price...no other handheld has been able to flip shut, protecting the screen, and fit into a pocket so well.

      Not to mention th
  • Goldeneye. Don't give me that Rogue Agent crap. Put the original Goldeneye for N64 on the DS. Multiplayer is a must. Single cart multiplayer for bonus points. Online optional (but encouraged if you can do it right).
    Look, it's not hard. Cut-down Timesplitters engine + original Goldeneye textures, maps and models. It's super-optimized, plus the online multiplayer code is already there.

    • Goldeneye. Don't give me that Rogue Agent crap. Put the original Goldeneye for N64 on the DS.

      Won't happen. That game was a collaboration among three entities: Nintendo, Rare (now a division of Microsoft), and Danjaq (the owner of copyright and trademark in James Bond). Danjaq has licensed the James Bond franchise to competitor Electronic Arse, and Rare's parent company now makes two machines, Xbox and Pocket PC, that compete with Nintendo's products.

  • But I'm playing FF 4-6 and the original Chrono-Trigger on my PSP. Never had the chance to play them in the Heyday, and I cant seem to find 20 games on anything but... stupid..easilly broken... rom carts.. anymore...

    The PSP is probabally gonna have a heyday of a 3rd quarter this fall. The "Hax" have only been out for 3 weeks, and already the're deep into the WiFi controls, and about to make a big step into homebrew for the Graphics chip.

    The biggest problem with the PSP right now is it's suffering the sa

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