Who will triumph and why? I guess the DS is off to head start over in Japan. Anyword on the matchup here in the States? Also, do you believe Nintendo when they say a newer GameBoy will be the real competition?
Versus
12 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Yorrike
The GBA is going to be unveiled at E3 2006. I can’t remember where I heard that, but it seems reasonable.
I think the GBA/DS combo will sell at a rate just over that of the PSP for the next 12 or 18 months, with the PSP gaining a minority foothold (remember the GBA has been out for almost 5 years now), but come May 2006, Nintendo will unleashed the most perfect handheld ever conceived.
I think the PSP will have it’s work cut out, as I see the GBA2 fitting in with the Revolution marketing. Connect your GBA2, through wireless networking to your Rev and download everything upto GameCube games for play on the go, as well as the entire library of the thousands of GB/GBA games.
Now, you maybe thinking “that would make the Rev a bit pointless, wouldn’t it?”, but stick with me here. This could be a link to ponder.
I think the GBA2 could be the Revolution’s revolution. The GBA2 could be the Rev’s controller. Nintendo, in a wild moment of game marketing clarity decide to tie the 2nd place home console position to the almost monopolistic handheld position, following through on what they tried with the GameCube, except making the tie so close that owning one means owning the other. Their deployment of wireless networks in Japan would aide this in allowing people to download games to their GBA2 while on the move to play once they get home, or whenever and where ever they want.
This is why they didn’t show the controller at E3, becuase the PS3 controller was only a concept, and the PS3 design is fluid enough to be changed to mimic this strategy.
GameCube development becomes GBA2 development. The kits are already out there, which means no extra investment from third parties. The GBA2 could feature 4 face buttons, an analog stick and shoulder buttons, allowing the play of games from all generations.
Play Yan mp3 tech, which has been developed and sold in Japan, is built into the GBA2. And teaming up with a music distribution company such as Napster, Real Networks or even Apple, Nintendo turn the GBA2 into the gamer’s iPod, making money off old games and music.
robotplague
I think we’re for the most part all biased, cuz…well, we’re at this site. But in all honesty I do believe the PSP will die out eventually. I don’t think there is really anyone out there that can say that by the end of 05 the PSP will have a better line up of games against the DS. The DS is coming out with some titles that have more buzz around them then handfuls of upcoming PSP games, which will only strengthen their market share.
I’m not a “hater” though. Right now at the moment I own both a PSP and a DS. I play the DS just about daily if not every other day. My girlfriend loves it (i bought her one, cuz she wanted one), friends love it, mostly everyone that i’ve had play it loves it. The PSP on the other hand, people are initially impressed with the graphics and the quality of the screen, but beyond that its kinda a miss. My DS gets far more love then my PSP. Which, is why it’s currently on EBAY. I haven’t used my PSP in a very, very long time. My DS however has a permanent place in my messanger bag when i’m on the go.
The DS has more mass market appeal and really does make gamers out of non gamers with such games like Nintendogs coming out. The PSP I think looks a bit more intimidating to the casual or non gamer as well with all the doodads and humdingers. The price of the PSP is also a factor. The load times are god awful as well, thats one of the reasons why I never play it…it takes 2 years to turn it on, load a game and actually play it. The DS is much, much faster for quick gaming spurts. Does anyone know if the UMD movies are doing well? A friend that works at Best Buy said they werent. anyway, thats my 2 or 3 cents.
Sturek
Well….I can’t do anything else but to agree with both of you.
I don’t think Nintendo will make the GBA2 the main controller of the Revolution, but I think that the connection between GBA2 and Rev is VERY important. Maybe you will be able to connect your DS to the Rev too and Nintendo will offer a Play-Yan like SD-card reader/writer for the DS, so you can download GB/GBA/DS/NES/SNES/N64 Games to your DS too. I don’t htink you’ll be able to download GC games, just because they’re VERY big, but maybe the GBA2 will play GC-discs….. ahhh I love speculation 😀
Nicholas Roussos
I think the same backward compatibility that the Revolution has will be built into ALL future Nintendo consoles and handhelds.
Developers will love that. There games never die. They make it once and can keep selling it forever (maybe with the price reducing over time). Maybe the next GB won’t accept disks of any kind. You download all the games… Doubtful, but still possible.
mo
yorrike, no offence and, sorry to spoil your “wet-dream”, but GBA2 just ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN for a long time yet.
Remember when the likes of Gamegear and Lynx were competing with the original dot matrix GB? It took Nintendo several years to finally release GBC. In 1998 in-fact. 9 Years after the release of the original GB.
Now – I know GC has constant disk-access and you know that GC has constant disk-access. If Nintendo designed a portable GC (which is what many Nintendophiles want, I have no clue why) the batteries would be completely flat in just 2-3 hours.
What I’m trying to say is this: the battery technology just isn’t there at this point in time, to manufacture the h/held GC you want, just as the battery technology for a colour display wasn’t there at the time of the original GB. By battery technology I mean substantial battery life akin to the SP.
For the first time ever we have a dual, touch-screened h/held capable of displaying true 3D graphics at a winning, mass-market price. AND we have GOOD BATTERY LIFE.
If Nintendo want to develop a h/held GC and have it co-exist with DS (eventually phasing out the GBA line) that’s fine by me, but it ain’t gonna happen for a several years yet – if ever.
Might I add that I’m just lovin’ the DS – it just works as a package and I would love it to have an active life of 7/8/9 years. The latter of which, incidentally, is how long the original GB lasted for.
Finally, might I also add that Shigeru Miyamoto as well as conceding that “connectivity” wasn’t such a great idea after all, also said that Nintendo have no intention, as of yet, to develop another new h/held. They’re only just scratching the surface of the possibilities of what the DS has to offer.
D.Vader
Why by any Nintendo gameboy when you can emulate it on the PSP.
http://theconsolewares.net
mo
Why bother with emulation when you can have the real thing for just a fraction of the cost?
Might I also add that SP, DS and now Micro – solid-state devices with no moving parts and instant loading – are far more durable than PSP could ever hope to be?
Nintendo machines are built to last. Fact.
Anonymous
Why the PSP will die:
1.Games-few in number and all very poor; very few great looking PSP games were revealed at E3
2.Price-it’s ridiculous: $40-$50 a games, memory cards from $50-$150, and of course the $250 price tag
3. Impractical- Even though the DS and GBA are portable, I still generally play them at home. Why would I want to waste money buying a game for the PSP when it’s out for the PS2?
4. With all those functions, the only one I could actually see being usefull is the fact that you could download porn to the system
Blog
DoucheVader how can you emulate the touch screen?
Anonymous
Great debate here, and I agree with most of you, the DS in the long run will be the victor, for many reasons posted earlier. I am a big fan of the Nintendo, every consle they’ve made I’ve loved, so the obvious chose for me was the DS, and I couldn’t be happier, however, despite the fan I am of Nintendo, I really feel they’re headed into a marketing trap with the gameboy systems
The problem is that Nintendo has engaged itself on the market by creating up to three different models of the gameboy advanced. I spent a $100 on the original model, and of course couldn’t justify putting up another 100 for the same console, simply because it had a better design. Many gamers have found themselves in the same bind. So unfortuantley I think by the time the “Micro” gets out, anybody who wants a gameboy has either already bought the original or the SP. I really can’t see the Micro doing well on the market. And another thing I’m confused on here. Is not the DS the new gameboy? If someone wants to buy a portable they’re not going to go with a system that may stop producing games in a year. I had this problem when I got a GB color. It was right at the time the GBA was coming out, so I had a real tough time finding games, and finally bought a GBA. So why, oh why, is Nintendo making another GBA model? And in the intial article that we are all reponding to, I got the feeling that the new “Gameboy” was the Micro. Or were they really talking about something even further down the road? And if the DS is not considered a gameboy, then what category does it go to? I really could use some help here.
Anonymous
Th whole portable gamecube isnt that high fetched the psp has a beautiful screen and it uses cd’s and it has 333 mgz of processing power which is higher than the ps2’s and also its battery life is somewhere between 3 6 hours well gamecube has 485-6 mgz of processing power well with a lower rate screen you could have battery life matching that of a psp oh and the gizmondo has 400 mgz of processing power and it has a smaller screen and it also has a camera ,gps among other royalties and it’s battery life is just about 4-6 hours so I think a gamecube portable without those features is more likely than not to be possible
Anonymous
Th whole portable gamecube isnt that high fetched the psp has a beautiful screen and it uses cd’s and it has 333 mgz of processing power which is higher than the ps2’s and also its battery life is somewhere between 3 6 hours well gamecube has 485-6 mgz of processing power well with a lower rate screen you could have battery life matching that of a psp oh and the gizmondo has 400 mgz of processing power and it has a smaller screen and it also has a camera ,gps among other royalties and it’s battery life is just about 4-6 hours so I think a gamecube portable without those features is more likely than not to be possible