What's Eating at Nintendo?

[gamevet]

Did anyone say Sony got lucky?

[Drewbacca]

Anyone who says that Sony just "got lucky" is a goddamn retard. They made a great system, they made it easy to program for, they made it at a price point that people liked, and they worked their asses off to get games on it that people wanted to play. It wasn't Sony's fault that Sega launched Saturn with bullshit ports of Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter, but it is Sony's fault that the PSX was launched with killer versions of Tekken and Ridge Racer.

You don't just get lucky for... 8 years in a row, dude. Especially not in the corporate world (there's nothing more ruthless than that shit). Sure, Sony capitalized on the other company's mistakes, but that's business.

You don't get lucky in business. You see what the other guy is doing wrong and you capitalize on it and take advantage. That ain't fucking luck, that's skill.

And Twisted Metal. That game sold me on the PSX immediately. I loved all the secret little things too, like how you could blow up the pyramid.

[SonofdonCD]

Did anyone say Sony got lucky?

At least someone is making sense about all of this. I feel that until Sony's portable hits the sub-100$ price range, that it will likely fail. I am not exactly excited to play PS1 quality games on the go as much as my GBA. 16 bit bit simply translates better on the go. I am not living in the past, nor am I saying 2-D forevar or whatever. Sony simply got lucky during the 32 bit era and capitalized on Nintendo's retarded and greedy ideals about carts and storage in general. This will not be a repeat of history. Sony is being far too ambitious and quite frankly, they seem to be repeating Nintendo's same mistakes themselves. Time will tell what they are going to do, but it isn't going to be PS2 -style domination again.
I think both Nintendo and Microsoft have learned from their mistakes

[gamevet]

Oh! Luck had nothing to do with it. It was timing and giving the consumers what they wanted.

[Jeremy]

Yup, and in my case, Wipeout and Twisted Metal made the PSX an easy purchase. Zoop and WWF WrestleMania: the Arcade Game, my first two PSX purchases, made me love the system originally, but the first two games amazed me in screens. Twisted Metal still dazzles me to this day.

[Diff-chan]

Yup, and in my case, Wipeout and Twisted Metal made the PSX an easy purchase. Zoop and WWF WrestleMania: the Arcade Game, my first two PSX purchases, made me love the system originally, but the first two games amazed me in screens. Twisted Metal still dazzles me to this day.

Zoop? What the hell is the matter with you?

[James]

I haven't thought of Zoop in years, I can't believe I remember it existed. Next up, that pyramid/puzzle game on 3D0 that I can't remember the name of.

People are already asking after the PSP. It's total vaporware at this point, Sony has said that they won't show a thing until next E3 at the earliest, and people already want it.

What I'd do to make the PSP beat the GBA- Software, duh.

Bigger screen, like Tapwave Zodiac sized, assuming the screen is as big in reality as it looks in the ads. With scratch-guard, of course, or a replacable covering.

Better controller with more buttons, although I'm pretty sure they've said they've got that covered already.

And that's it, if Nintendo does absolutely nothing at all and just sits there. Judging by the design of the GBA SP, I think whatever happens should make for an interesting fight.

James

[Tommy Tallarico]

Zoop? What the hell is the matter with you?

No shit. Zoop and a horribly shitty port of a terrible arcade game, those are killer aps.

[Anthony]

Well, a key point here that has been touched on, then flamed, then touched on again ect. needs to be explained. Ok, in the current state, playing alot of video games is not seen as "cool". I cannot stress how big of a factor public opinion of your actions is on the majority of people. We have got average joe, I will call him johnny (since that appears to be the trend).

He is deciding what system to go and buy. If he picks up a gamecube, the immediate image that will be seen by his peers (if he is age 16-25ish, wait, what's sony's market?) is that he plays games more than casually. Trust me, i have heard it in the tone, seen it happen to others, had it happen to me more than many times. So, they will pick up a playstation, ps2, whatever the flavor of the 3 years is. I have worked at gamestop for longer than i would like to mention, and you see this as the driving factor behind many peoples decisions. (that and misinformation)

So, now your left with a guy who has a ps2, is relatively happy with his decision, and will play it now and then, sometimes with his friends, not looking like a hardcore gamer. This is where the portable market switches. It is absolutely impossible for the population of this country to assume that someone who takes his games with him on the road or out of his house is not a gamer. Now, the counter-argument i will post to save some time:

diffusionx or someone else: Having a nintendo or snes was not "cool" back in the day, but ps changed it. Its going to happen again, nintendo is going to die bc they no nothing of buisness and can't make a good system if thier lives depended on it. Screw Sega/Nintendo/too a lesser extent Xbox.

But, that idea is false. As was said earlier, WHEN YOU CHANGE FROM GAMING IN YOUR HOME NOW AND THEN, TO TAKING IT OUT ON THE ROAD, IT CHANGES FROM A CASUAL HOBBY TO GAMING, WHICH LOSSES COOLNESS POINTS WITH ALL THE OTHERS WHO THINK JUST LIKE YOU. If you are into games enough that you consider that what you would like to do to kill a minute or two before the movie starts, with your face down looking at a screen, ignoring your surroundings, then you are a gamer, i know it, and more importantly, the world WILL know it. Honestly i think it comes down to the facilitation of social interaction. Gaming at your home 30 mins or so is accepted, to kill time or in place of tv ect. But when you bring yourself to a public place, and bring games with you, you are shutting out contact with the outside world, since you are not only using your visual concentration to look at the screen, but also your hearing. This is opposed to a cd player, where you can listen, but still look, notice friends at the mall, whatever. If you get this system just use the multimedia apps, and play the games at your home, wait, what casual gamer wants to play ps quality games when they have one of the 50 million sold ps2's sitting at the foot of thier tv?

Aww shoot, maybe all those people who want the hip hop gadgets are going to get an n-gage, at $199. Thats selling like wildfire. They can all get down with some sidetalking. Under the assumption that casual gamers will not be "all over this", it leaves what, us hardcore gamers, and the big clincher, children. Now, i would wager that hardcore gamers is a term that is becoming more lenient, and therefore a larger portion of the market share. This is going to be the portion of people that you will see the most sales of the psp too. Im sure you could take a poll on this site and get a good idea. But wait, what about the children. As im sure diffusionx knows, working at eb, children buy gba and gba games in rediculous levels. There is no contest for children, gba will beat psp in that area. So, the counterargument is, can the psp attract the casual gamer? I propose, at least in america, that is not a possiblitly

[Diff-chan]

You are trying to convince me of the failure or success of the system based on "coolness points"? Give me a fucking break man. Myself, CV, and others bring up things like market, prior success, and who knows what else, and you give me rambling nonsense on... coolness points.

*BLING BLING* COOLNESS - 1 FOR DESTIN! THE PRICE IS WRONG!

N-Gage is a failure because it's a piece of shit, not because the idea isn't sound and not because people don't want such a device. Go read up on how many people play cell phone games on their phone in Japan, it's fucking ridiculous really. The market's obviously different here than in Japan, but in Japan it has caught on quite well, and they are years ahead of us in that regard. What makes you think it won't happen here?

Obviously nobody is gonna be sitting in a club and bust out their PSP, but really you have to be a fucking idiot to think that's what Sony is hoping for (oddly enough I believe Nokia was hoping for things like this, but that tells you a lot). Nobody is gonna be walking around in the mall and say "hey, time for me to get back to PSP!". Obviously. OBVIOUSLY. Just not gonna happen if you're not 8-years old or a member of the Planet GameCube forum.

However, 10 years ago nobody would've said that the market... 18-34 or whatever, would ever really want to play games. They dont wanna play videogames! Their lives are much too busy and grand! Clearly, this is not the case. But why the discrepancy? Because nobody sold games to them (well Sega did with the Genesis but only somewhat, and that was because of the sports games). Nintendo obviously didnt give a fuck about that market. Nobody has tried to sell handheld games to that market before and actually put out a competent product.

The Game Boy Advance is clearly for kids... the name, the fact that it turns your hand into a deformed claw, the tiny d-pad, the games are all ports of SNES games (which were designed for kids back in the day)... its for fucking 8-year olds. Obviously it takes a very... special person to be into it if you've graduated elementary school. Is it a surprise to you that very few people 18-34 dig GBA? I dont think its as much of a story of coolness points as it is Nintendo doesn't give a shit about that age bracket and it shows.

Like I said, Sony knows its audience, it knows portable electronics, it knows it has a fuckload of name recognition and brand loyalty with the people it most wants to sell to. My guess is that people who are happy with PS2 and PSX will hear about PSP and have their interest piqued, and, just like they found a way to welcome PSX into their lives, they will find a way to welcome PSP into their lives. $200 for a cool device ain't a lot of money for a working 20-something yuppie.