Yet another game site hypes up this bogus battle between the PSP and DS, and… Surprise, both portables are winners (according to them)! IGN writes: “Nintendo and Sony, for all their competition, can take heart in the fact that the time and money invested into their handheld battle has at least had the effect of destroying all the other competition in record time, from the Zodiac to the Gizmondo to the N-Gage.”
Don’t get me wrong, the PSP has some good games (w/ load times mind you). But I think using the word their in the above statement discredits what the DS has done for gamers, non-gamers, and the industry as a whole. It was Nintendo that blew the handheld competition away this past year, not Sony, much to the same way that the PS2 blew the ‘Cube and Xbox away in terms of marketshare over the past several years. But the DS stole the PSP’s spotlight long ago and has been tanning under it ever since.
Yeah, I’ll say it, you’re on a subjective Nintendo site. But tearing down the IGN handheld spin only gets easier in lieu of the dismal UMD sales announced today. I’ll gladly pay $100 bucks to the first major game site to acknowledge that the DS is “winning” when it comes to games.
Napoleon
It should also be noted that the Gizmondo and N-gage blew themselves away.
vakerorokero
hahahah… Why don’t you save those $100 bucks for buying one of those DS lite that are so hard to find? I guess you can say you’ve beaten the competitors when you can’t advertise it anymore due to mass hysteria your product is causing to consumers. Even then, people are getting your competitor´s product to play YOUR DISCONTINUED GAMES by homebrew software, since their games aren´t selling and their movies are leaving the shelf space in store displays. IGN gets paid advertisement from everyone, as the saying goes “he who follows 2 masters might end up falling in the river”. I stopped believing in IGN when days before the matrix game they had front page advertisements and then review the game a week later the game was in stores, and even then said the game was decent with a 7.2!!! hahahahah…
“That said, it’s worth a play to see the extra footage and experience the bullet-time and focused hand-to-hand combat. At times the game makes you completely forget its flaws and hone in on the joy of creative carnage. The first time you pull off a spinning kick off the wall, don’t be surprised if a smile creases your lips.” yeah right, the same smile you do after spending $50 on a crappy game you can´t return to the store.
Jack
hese numbers are too topical, as I noted on another, but far more inferior gaming site. I think they should dig down, ask the gamers how long it took for them to “get tired” of their chosen system. I imagine with PSP it’s a few months, just judging from personal experience with friends.
Rollin
Blake, chill out brotha. Go take a walk.
Anonymous
I sold my PSP to some sucker on eBay that thought he was getting a good deal on one. Even if you could pick one up for 5 bucks it wouldn’t be a good deal.
Its too big and not as easy to use as an iPod.
Its too expensive to be a good portable movie player (why spend $25 on a UMD movie that you probably already have on DVD).
The battery life is too short to make it a good portable gaming device (you basically have to play it with it plugged into the wall for any long sessions of gaming).
Did I mention the load times, YEESH!
Needless to say, for all the things that the PSP is supposed to do the PSP doesn’t do any of them very well.
So I took my $200 from the sucker on eBay and bought myself a DS Mario Kart bundle and haven’t turned back since. Why? Because the DS does what it is supposed to do (play games) and it does it well.
InvisibleMan
Really? I read somewhere that the PSP is going to have a huge comeback in Japan in the form of… downloadable PORN! Yep, that’s one area the PSP can beat the DS on! Way to go Sony!!
(Personally, I think the PSP is too big to sneak into a restroom, and you might get arrested…)
Padrino José
A crappy not standar movie player
A crappy (expensive storage) music player
Crappy software for integrate common task in the PC, and forget to spent 30 more in a crappy software.
And finally a not so much bad game device, the big problem the load times and the battery life… many of the charge are spent in nice looking loading graphics.
thats it.
InvisibleMan
I guess I would be better off grabbing a Playboy than a PSP then, huh?
Anonymous
It should also be noted that Sony fails in video games, whereas Nintendo is the epitome of excellence in said industry.
Black Adonis
Here’s a question for Infendo: Why do game journalists hate Nintendo?
My theory is that back in the early 90’s, Sega had been beaten by the SNES and Nintendo ruled the market, but their reluctance to go more mature (ie. blood Mortal Kombat) branded them with the image of being a company devoted to children. This image was further magnified by the immense success of the Pokemon series.
Feeling insecure and desperately wanting to prove how cool and macho they were, game journalists waged a brutal campaign of further scrutinizing Nintendo for being too ‘General audience.’
Suddenly, games didn’t matter anymore and it became a matter of appealing to social standards of chic or ‘cool.’
Fast forward to the release of the DS and the gaming media wasted no time in expressing how kid-oreinted and gimmicky Nintendo’s handheld was. Nevermind the fact that Sony had elected to force feed proprietary media, DRM, and watered down movies to consumers. The only gimmick that journalists saw was the innovation of marrying a handheld console and touchpad.
Sure handhelds aren’t new and touch pads aren’t either, but no one else had the balls to put the two together and invest the time and money into making it succeed.
Now, it’s over a year since the launch of the DS and it’s a resounding success all throughout the world. The handheld that game journalists said would make you ‘un-cool’ was well received by so many people, causing a phenomenon of sorts. But does Nintendo get its due recognition? No.
Puppet media sites like IGN (owned by FOX, by the way) wage attacks against the system by disregarding its success and telling its readers that it and the PSP are equal in value and enjoyment. That’s just spin anyway you put it, but I just don’t see why this attitude exists.
I can’t think of one well known Ninty fanboy (and no, Cassamassina doesn’t count), but the media sphere seems to be full of Geoff Keighleys and Major Nelsons–rabid Sony and Microsoft fanboys, elitist techno-trash, and graphics whores.
I believe that the Revolution will be a spectacular system as was the Gamecube before it, but it’s an uphill battle for Nintendo when the media is turned against them.
CNN, WSJ, NBC, etc. sold the XBox 360 in America because the system garnered nothing but positive press despite its lack of a memorable launch title. The hype and media stamp of approval was enough to send people out in droves.
Compare that to the media attention given to the Gamecube following its E3 debut. I remember CNN making numerous statements to the fact that the Gamecube was underpowered and juvenile. The graphically weaker PS2 was praised for its DVD playback abilities (no doubt to appease the movie industry that saw the earning potential there) sleek design, and mature appeal as though those things had any bearing on actual gameplay.
If history is any indication of how the Revolution will be received in America, it will fail. There’ll be endless talk of its gimmicks and the novelty of playing old games. And, on the media circuit, there will always be some talking head, sporting a goatee and spikey air who says how cutting edge and serious the PS3 will be (whether it’s released this year or not) and how it’s the essential capstone to any home entertainment system. And people will lemming their way to Wal-Marts to buy the PS3 while the Gamecube rots on store shelves. I’d like to be wrong, but experience tells me otherwise.
InvisibleMan
Well, I’ll have to agree with that: most game reviewers and the media are suspiciously weary of praising Nintendo’s successes. Almost as if they were afraid of what MS and/or Sony will think of them. The most favorable reviews I’ve seen express more amazement and confusion about the success of a Nintendo gadget than praise.
Anonymous
I can’t think of one well known Ninty fanboy (and no, Cassamassina doesn’t count), but the media sphere seems to be full of Geoff Keighleys and Major Nelsons–rabid Sony and Microsoft fanboys, elitist techno-trash, and graphics whores.
Major Nelson is not a journalist, he’s the director of Xbox Live. He also is a Nintendo DS fan.
And why isn’t Matt a Nintendo fan? Cause he owns a X360 and a PSP? The traitor! Seriously, in my book anyone who trys to have sex with their copy of Metroid Prime is a Nintendo nut.
Black Adonis
InvisibleMan: Thanks for not making me feel like a paranoid psycho, blowing things out of proportion. I’m glad someone else notices.
@ Anonymous: Major Nelson isn’t a journalist, by any means, but he is a huge part of the media and information spehere that disseminates opinions. He has a lot of sway. He apparently does like the DS, but I was really thinking about his comments on the Rev. Also, Matt isn’t a fanboy. He certainly likes Nintendo, but he isn’t willing to compromise journalistic integrity for them. I respect him, but it would be nice to see a true nintendo fanboy, if only to counteract all the SONY and MS spin.
Anonymous
“I’ll gladly pay $100 bucks to the first major game site to acknowledge that the DS is “winning” when it comes to games.”
Well, in IGN’s Weekly Episode 5 video, Cassamassina straight up said “The DS is kicking the PSP’s ass in software.” The video just got put up today, I think.