The winner of Next Gen: Portables

[Opaque]

Zerodash, Nintendo's got TONS of money left, they won't be a third party until they're broke. Also, EvilMog, tell that to my collection of great GBA games like Mega Man and Bass, Mega Man Zero 2, and Sonic Advance.

Dear Mega Man and Bass, Mega Man Zero 2 and Sonic Advance,

You fucking suck. PLZ die kthx.

Love,
Opaque

[salmonax]

I dunno, maybe if cell phone gaming really takes off, but PSP and DS won't do much to wrest the title from consoles. America's not safe enough for people to justify brandishing a $150+ piece of electronics in public.

It depends on the neighborhood. But it certainly hasn't stopped people here in New York from flashing expensive cell phones and iPods in public. I think portable gaming is so popular in Japan because so many people don't have the space for a decent AV setup at home. Even middle class families in America have gigantic TVs compared to the Japanese. (Insert dick joke here.)

[JMET]

Dear Mega Man and Bass, Mega Man Zero 2, and Sonic Advance,

You fucking suck. PLZ die kthx.

Love,
Opaque

[Super-Eggroll]

The home console will always reign supreme.

I buy GBA games and play them on my over-priced Gamecube Gameboy Player adapter. I think I'm just getting old and can't stand staring at tiny screens anymore.

I played the hell out of my Neo-Geo Pocket, though.

[EvilMog]

I guess I will break down and buy the new Zelda for sure but I still thinking portable gaming FUCKING SUCKS overall.

[Agent X]

It's a distinct possibility.

I predict that within a few years, the line will be blurred between portable video games and traditional "home" video games (TV-based systems), to the point where they are practically one and the same. You'll be able to play the same games on your handheld that you typically play on your home console.

Playing home video games on the go was already attempted by NEC with the TurboExpress and its ability to play TurboGrafx-16 games, and later by Sega with the Nomad and its ability to play Genesis games. Nintendo approached this concept in the opposite direction by offering the ability to play traditional handheld video games on a TV-based console with the Super Game Boy for SNES, and again more recently with the Game Boy Player for GameCube.

Each of the above had certain problems that prevented them from really catching on with the general public. The TurboExpress was very expensive, and had a very tiny screen (one of the smallest ever on any handheld), which was a hindrance considering that most TG-16 games were formatted for viewing on a larger TV screen. The Nomad had a somewhat larger screen, but still suffered from the problems of most games being designed for a big screen, and the LCD they used had a tendency to blur the image during fast-moving action sequences. Also, the Nomad was released over six years after the Genesis first came out, when Sega was already winding down Genesis support in favor of the new Saturn system. The Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player were affordable and worked pretty well, but the graphics and sound were low quality compared to the contemporary home console experience.

I can see a future that's not too far away, where you could buy a game for your handheld and play it on your home console, but the relationship would be different. I'll use PSP and PlayStation 3 as a hypothetical example, but other companies could also do this.

Imagine that you just bought a great new game for your PSP. After playing it on the go for a little while, you take it home and think how much you would love to be playing this same game on your PS3. You power on the PS3, then whip out your PSP with the game in it and hit a couple of buttons. Suddenly, the game you were playing earlier that day on the road is visible on your TV screen, but with a much higher resolution image than the PSP screen. This is possible because your PSP disc also contains an executable program for the PS3, which was transferred from the PSP to the PS3 via the Wi-Fi connection between the two systems.

After playing your new game for an hour, you decide to take a break, and catch up on last week's episode of WWE Raw that you recorded to your PS3's hard drive, but still haven't watched yet. But wait! Your little brother and his pals want to watch Rugrats on the big TV instead. No problem--you hop on the couch with your PSP, slip on your headphones, and stream your recorded WWE Raw program from the PS3 to your PSP via the Wi-Fi connection.

This is how I see the future of handheld video games. People don't really want shoddy, watered-down renditions of "big system" games that are shoehorned into an underpowered piece of hardware that can't even come close to doing justice to the source material. People want a quality gaming experience on the go, just like they would expect on a home system. It's just like portable music players. When people use Walkmans or iPods or iRivers or other portable music players, they get to listen to songs that sound like they came from a CD--not like some little wind-up music box playing a rudimentary melody. Eventually, video games are going to work the same way. The sooner this happens, the better.

[jarrod]

Nintendo will go on to be a popular and profitable niche 3rd party.

I doubt we'll ever see Nintendo develop for a non-Nintendo platform.... Pico notwithstanding.

[obomo]

It's a distinct possibility.

I predict that within a few years, the line will be blurred between portable video games and traditional "home" video games (TV-based systems), to the point where they are practically one and the same. You'll be able to play the same games on your handheld that you typically play on your home console.

Playing home video games on the go was already attempted by NEC with the TurboExpress and its ability to play TurboGrafx-16 games, and later by Sega with the Nomad and its ability to play Genesis games. Nintendo approached this concept in the opposite direction by offering the ability to play traditional handheld video games on a TV-based console with the Super Game Boy for SNES, and again more recently with the Game Boy Player for GameCube.

Each of the above had certain problems that prevented them from really catching on with the general public. The TurboExpress was very expensive, and had a very tiny screen (one of the smallest ever on any handheld), which was a hindrance considering that most TG-16 games were formatted for viewing on a larger TV screen. The Nomad had a somewhat larger screen, but still suffered from the problems of most games being designed for a big screen, and the LCD they used had a tendency to blur the image during fast-moving action sequences. Also, the Nomad was released over six years after the Genesis first came out, when Sega was already winding down Genesis support in favor of the new Saturn system. The Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player were affordable and worked pretty well, but the graphics and sound were low quality compared to the contemporary home console experience.

I can see a future that's not too far away, where you could buy a game for your handheld and play it on your home console, but the relationship would be different. I'll use PSP and PlayStation 3 as a hypothetical example, but other companies could also do this.

Imagine that you just bought a great new game for your PSP. After playing it on the go for a little while, you take it home and think how much you would love to be playing this same game on your PS3. You power on the PS3, then whip out your PSP with the game in it and hit a couple of buttons. Suddenly, the game you were playing earlier that day on the road is visible on your TV screen, but with a much higher resolution image than the PSP screen. This is possible because your PSP disc also contains an executable program for the PS3, which was transferred from the PSP to the PS3 via the Wi-Fi connection between the two systems.

After playing your new game for an hour, you decide to take a break, and catch up on last week's episode of WWE Raw that you recorded to your PS3's hard drive, but still haven't watched yet. But wait! Your little brother and his pals want to watch Rugrats on the big TV instead. No problem--you hop on the couch with your PSP, slip on your headphones, and stream your recorded WWE Raw program from the PS3 to your PSP via the Wi-Fi connection.

This is how I see the future of handheld video games. People don't really want shoddy, watered-down renditions of "big system" games that are shoehorned into an underpowered piece of hardware that can't even come close to doing justice to the source material. People want a quality gaming experience on the go, just like they would expect on a home system. It's just like portable music players. When people use Walkmans or iPods or iRivers or other portable music players, they get to listen to songs that sound like they came from a CD--not like some little wind-up music box playing a rudimentary melody. Eventually, video games are going to work the same way. The sooner this happens, the better.

Am sorry ,but I can't agree with you. The way you sound it is like the PSP is an accessory to the PS3. The PSP will have no exclusive games and people will see no reaso to pick one up at all. The heart of SOny userbase is casual gamers and they won't buy a handheld version of their exact same game on theri more powerful console with no difference, The GB has done so well becuase it grew oiut of the nintendo home console shadow and made it's own image. Uing the PSP like that will keep the PSPin the shadows and be seen as nothing but a cheap add-on.(Like Gameboy Player)

Also why do so many people onthis thread hate portable gaming anbd Nintendo. Opaque how an you judge the Rev when you don't know a damn thing about it.Am giving each console a equal shot next gen and not keep over past biases for no reason. ( Most fanboys don't have a reason for hating another console and am sure Opaque is one of them.)

[Opaque]

Also why do so many people onthis thread hate portable gaming anbd Nintendo. Opaque how an you judge the Rev when you don't know a damn thing about it.Am giving each console a equal shot next gen and not keep over past biases for no reason. ( Most fanboys don't have a reason for hating another console and am sure Opaque is one of them.)

I own the GC and I'm sure I will by a Revolution, but I'm not foolish and I know that Nintendo's appeal has been and will continue sliping. They are no longer doing well in the console wars, and I doubt things will turn around next generation. I'm not saying anything based on fanboyism, just on observations of current trends. Honestly, the Revolution could despense money and give it's users oral sex, but if it has the same problems the GC had it's going to get destroyed by the Xenon and PS3.

[Agent X]

Am sorry ,but I can't agree with you. The way you sound it is like the PSP is an accessory to the PS3.

That would be partially accurate, according to my imaginary scenario--the PSP would be an accessory of sorts to the PS3. Likewise, the PS3 could also be considered an accessory to the PSP. It would all depend on the particular application at any given moment.

The PSP will have no exclusive games and people will see no reaso to pick one up at all.

Wrong.

In my scenario, the PSP wouldn't have any "exclusive" games in the sense that you could also play those same games on the PS3.

But, isn't this exactly the situation today with the Game Boy Player and the GameCube? The GBA doesn't truly have any exclusive games, because all you would need to do is buy a GameCube, and then buy a Game Boy Player for it, and voila, you now have one system that plays GC and GBA games. Using your logic, no one should want to buy a GBA, and Nintendo should've sold a few million GC systems with Game Boy Player attachments this holiday season.

[QUOTE=obomo]The heart of SOny userbase is casual gamers and they won't buy a handheld version of their exact same game on theri more powerful console with no difference,[QUOTE]

Read my scenario again. People wouldn't need to purchase two games. They'd only purchase one game, but they'd have the choice of playing it at home on the big screen, or on the handheld.

The GB has done so well becuase it grew oiut of the nintendo home console shadow and made it's own image. Uing the PSP like that will keep the PSPin the shadows and be seen as nothing but a cheap add-on.(Like Gameboy Player)

No, it would have the opposite effect. It would break the barriers between home and handheld video gaming.

Video games on handheld systems are usually noticeably inferior to video games on TV-based consoles, for a variety of reasons. Most of these reasons have to do with handhelds being a generation or two behind the contemporary home console, from a technological standpoint (particularly true of Nintendo, since they've been so prevalent in the market). There are other reasons that I won't go into detail now, but they boil down to game development budgets and the perception of a different consumer demographic that plays handhelds as opposed to gaming at home on the big screen.

What I'm saying is to think of the handheld as having a different relationship with its "big console" counterpart. Instead of thinking of the handheld as an "accessory" in the strict sense, think of it more as an "extension" of the home system. Likewise, think of the home system as an "extension" of the handheld. They're two distinct experiences only in the sense that one machine is tethered to your television (and home theater system, and maybe even your personal computer), and that the other machine slips into a pocket or a bag and goes wherever you want to go. You'd be able to play the same games on either system. The handheld game wouldn't be some dumbed-down loose interpretation of the home game--it would be the home game. Sure, there would be some difference in audiovisual quality based on the TV screen versus the handheld LCD, and your living room sound system versus the headphones you have connected to the handheld, but the general gaming experience would be virtually identical.

Let me try my analogy with portable music again. Are you familiar with the Apple iPod? It's a pocket-sized portable music player with a tiny hard disk drive in it. You can connect the iPod to your computer, and use a program called iTunes to transfer music from your computer to the iPod. The music could be taken from individual files that you've downloaded from the Internet, or from store-bought CD's that you insert into your computer's CD-ROM drive.

Once you've transferred your music to your iPod, you detach it from the PC and carry it around with you. You can walk around and listen to it with headphones, or you can play the music through your car stereo, or you could take it to a friend's house and play the songs on his home stereo. It's your choice.

Here's the cool thing about it all: The songs on the iPod sound reasonably close to what you'd hear if you stuck a CD into your big stereo at home and played the same song. There's a slight reduction in sound quality due to digital compression, but it generally sounds like a CD, with the full vocals, all of the instruments, the violin, cello, trumpet, tuba, etc.

What if the iPod was of an inferior grade? What if the iTunes program didn't transfer near-CD-quality music to the iPod, but instead reinterpreted it into a cheesy MIDI-like file? Maybe it would strip the vocals and the background rhythm, and get rid of the distinct sounds of the piano and the saxophone and the harmonica, giving you some simple plinkety-plink music box melody instead. Would people still want to buy the iPod?

Folks, this is the way things ought to be with video games, too. I think it's a goal the industry should work toward, even if it takes a few years. I also think that the Sony PSP (as it actually exists, not necessarily my imaginary scenario) is currently the handheld best suited to working toward this eventual goal, considering its ability to connect to computers to transfer music/movie/video content onto Memory Sticks, as well as its relative closeness with the PS2 from a technological/developmental perspective. It will certainly take some time, but I hope that someday, some company (whether it be Sony, Nintendo, or someone else) makes it a reality.