Topic: PSP vs NDS: Capcom Support Rumors

[ruby_onix]

On the GameFAQs boards earlier, a Capcom VIP was "unofficially" relating some things he's been hearing from their R&D departments.

Basically, Capcom apparently thinks the NDS will pwn the PSP.

They think the PSP is some extremely-powerful hardware, but with the size of the PSP and NDS's screens, the PSP could have a LOT more polys on the screen that the NDS, and it would be tough to tell the difference. It's just too hard to see the details on the small screen.

And that's the way Sony's going. They're pushing for high-polygon 3D games, and PS1 ports. While Nintendo doesn't want developers to overreach with the NDS. So there probably won't be many direct PSP/NDS comparisons, but if there were, the NDS would probably do a pretty good job of holding it's own.

Also, there is currently no financial model that allows hardware makers to sell the system at a loss. They think that the PSP will be horribly overpriced, while the NDS will be about par for a Nintendo handheld.

Supposedly the NDS is really well designed. Clean, simple, and a dream to develop for. Previous GameBoy experience makes it even better. The PSP... ummm... isn't.

And here's one I haven't heard before. The disk media of the PSP is a horrible mistake. Sure, Sony can make minidisc players that almost eliminate disk skipping, but they only REDUCE the chance of skipping. And when you're playing an mp3, and it skips, the song might stutter. If you're playing a game, it will crash. Combined with Sony's infamous quality reputation with the PS1 and PS2, the disk media is a flat-out mistake.

So umm yeah. That's pretty much what they think is wrong with the PSP. The guy didn't even bring up anything about the possible new gaming applications of the NDS.

He was saying that the "PlayStation brand" will obviously sell a fair number of units, especially if Sony tries to market the system to older people who might be able to afford it, but their high-price and possible alienation of the younger markets will make it impossible for them to go beyond being a "niche" market.

But he says that Sony's planning on "pulling a Microsoft", and sticking with the handheld industry, even if it's a "failure", just so they can keep creeping in, with more and more marketshare, until they've been there so long that people are used to seeing them.

Apparently Capcom's planning to fully expoit the PSP's market, and has multiple PSP games in the works (not all of which will be launch titles, of course), but their REAL favored system is already clearly gonna be the NDS, barring any unforseen hurdles, like year-long hardware launch delays.

[KDR_11k]

If we keep Sony's balance sheets in mind it's hard to believe they'd try to pull an XBox... But then they're not going to lose a lot of money on the PSP, that's why they announced the price at GBP250 (roughly 450 US dollars)

[Ian Sane]

The source for this is the Gamefaqs board?  Sorry but that doesn't seem too reliable.  How do we know the a real Capcom VIP was on the site?  It could have just been some punk blowing hot air.  Plus I doubt anyone from Capcom would publicly rag on the PSP when they're making games for it that they want to sell.

Now I do think that from a hardware point of view Nintendo obviously is going to make a more reliable machine since they have so much more experience.  Sony has always been great a marketing and courting third parties but from a hardware perspective they've always released unreliable products.  How many Playstations had to be arranged on their side or upside down just to f*cking work?  Of course portable hardware has to be solid as a rock and able to withstand virtually anything so I do think that will be a problem.  If the original design has skipping problems or is too fragile I expect a redesign to be released shortly afterwards.  Hell a couple of redesigns wouldn't surprise me considering that even Nintendo redesigned the GBA and Nokia is doing the same with the N-Gage.

As for Capcom's support who can really tell what they're going to do?  Most of their games this gen are for the PS2 but one could argue that their "best" games are all for the Cube.  I think they're strong Nintendo supporters but that doesn't mean it's the hardware company they support the most.  I predict Capcom's support for the PSP and DS will be very similar to their PS2/Cube support.  They'll release a lot of generic PSP titles (both originals and ports) and release the really creative stuff on the DS.  Considering the major differences in the hardware I imagine most third parties will release completely different games for the two portables.

[Bill Aurion]

The thing that is believable is the hardware "ease of use"...Considering that Nintendo is getting better with making hardware that is easy to develop for(GC in comparison to the N64) while Sony isn't...

But disc media truely is the thing that scares me away from the PSP...

[Draygaia]

PSP vs NDS?

[mouse_clicker]

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The source for this is the Gamefaqs board? Sorry but that doesn't seem too reliable.

That's what I was thinking- it does all sound logical and well thought out, but just because some guy on a message board says he works at Capcom doesn't mean he actually does- the fact that it's from GameFAQs further raises its BS score.

[ruby_onix]

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but just because some guy on a message board says he works at Capcom doesn't mean he actually does-

Just to clarify, this person has recognized "VIP" status at GameFAQs, meaning that the board administrators have been able to confirm that he really does work at Capcom. Of course, they can always be fooled somehow, but it's rare (still possible of course, but rare).

He explained that he's not a "tech guy", and hasn't seen either console's innards, nor would he know what to do with them if he had the chance. Supposedly his job at Capcom ("not a translator" is all he would reveal on the message board) involves daily contact with Keiji Inafune (the producer of Megaman and Onimusha). While he's not needed, and other producers aren't busy, they're apparently very friendly people, willing to show him things they're working on, and ask for input, as well as chat about various topics. The game Shinji Mikami is most recently playing is supposedly Hitman.

Discussions about the future of handhelds apparently always come up when he's talking about long travel times to/from work in the Japanese transit system. And those conclusions about the PSP vs the NDS are all supposed to be the nearly unanimous opinion from just about everybody involved with R&D inside Capcom.

It all seems to make logical sense, but it's just hearsay at best, so that's why I called it a "rumor". People can take what they will from it.

I figure that until we get some real info from E3 (and even after we get real info), we can make-do with some rumors and gossip, to fill things out.

[mouse_clicker]

That lends some credibility to the story, but I'm still very skeptical. In any case, the guy doese raise some good points, regardless of whether or not he actually works at Capcom.  

[vudu]

care to link to the thread?

[ruby_onix]

Yeah, that would've probably been a good idea.

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.asp?board=213&topic=13287154

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.asp?board=213&topic=13368418

I should warn you that he got into a lengthy argument with a troll.

And knowing the GameFAQs message boards, these links will expire LONG before this post on PGC will.

[JonLeung]

I suppose there are business-related and technical issues, but Capcom's support for Nintendo has kind of been waffling.

Sure, in the NES and Super NES days, they rocked with platform games like Mega Man and some Disney games.  They had some games on Sega systems, but not very many, and it didn't seem like those they did release weren't as big as the Nintendo releases.  Maybe the standard Super NES' number of buttons were helpful in that when they got into fighting games.  When the PSX came along, though, they expanded into more genres, but I think all they gave the N64 was that Magical Tetris game with Mickey Mouse.  Sure, they later gave the N64 an enhanced Resident Evil 2 and the grossly mislabelled Mega Man 64 (which should've been called Mega Man Legends 64, in my opinion) but both of those were still just ports.

Then the GameCube comes along and they pledge the main games in their major survival horror series to that.  And then they have this whole big thing about the "Capcom 5", which whittles down to 4 and then Capcom wants to put Killer 7 on the PS2 as well as the sequel to Viewtiful Joe.  From a list of Capcom's games at the next E3, they clearly have more PS2 games than those on the GCN (and Xbox), so I wonder why the big deal about those 5 (or 4).

For the consumer there's very little difference between an actually-pledged exclusive and a game that isn't ported over to other systems (for any other of a number of reasons).

So if Capcom likes the NDS over the PSP, yay for Nintendo fans, yay for Nintendo, and if it does turn out that the PSP is a flop in some sense and the NDS holds up then yay for Capcom.

I'm not sure where my point was, but in typing all that stuff about Capcom's varying degrees of support in the past, I suppose I could make the point that if there's truth to that original post that that one guy at Capcom thinks the NDS is more viable than the PSP.  So there might be some smart business moves there.  But when you boil it down to that, it may just be one guy who thinks that.  I heard a former Square-Enix guy (there sure are a lot of them though) say that the GameCube was like the second coming of the Super NES.  Kinda hard to gauge that one...

Oh well, Capcom is a big name, I'll give them that.

[jasonditz]

You can't be too hard on Capcom, their present financial situation is less than ideal. A few more years at this rate and they wind up like SNK did.

I still say Nintendo should just buy them outright. Mega Man would fit right in to the next SSB

[JonLeung]

Some people I know seemed to think Mega Man was a Nintendo character.  I don't know if it was from Captain N or something weird like that, but even so, in the PSX days some people still thought that.  Weird.

[jasonditz]

Captain N did kind of link Mega Man to Nintendo... same with Simon Belmont.

Still seems weird to see Castlevanias on other consoles.

[JonLeung]

Furthering my point about the pointlessness of the "Capcom 5", the PS2 now also gets not only the sequel to Viewtiful Joe, but the original Viewtiful Joe itself, with the inclusion of Dante, from Devil May Cry.  Doesn't this bring the "Capcom 5" down to two, with Resident Evil 4 (which many knew was likely to be exclusive anyway) and P.N.03, which wasn't as big of a hit as they'd hoped?  However, that's the GCN.

On the DS, someone mentioned before somewhere about how cool it would be to have a survival horror game with one screen being the point of view of the predator.  Some derivative or side story of Resident Evil might be kind of neat.  Capcom's created all sorts of new franchises lately, so if that flow of creativity doesn't stop, maybe Capcom could come up with some pretty neat DS-specific stuff.

Perhaps one reason the DS has appeal to developers is that the dual screens must be some wild innovation that works, and though the PSP might become decent in sales and power, it's just a single screen for playing games, no different in game design from previous handhelds or consoles, really.  It's kind of neat to see a whole new product borne from innovation.  Sure, Nintendo may have brought back analogue sticks and popularized force feedback for the N64, but then Sony copied those for its analog Dual Shock controllers.  Having a whole 'nother screen with a good enough function is tough to implement without starting from scratch, though.  Any game on the DS with both screens being vital to play couldn't be easily ported to the PSP.

If the above in the original post(s) about the Capcom employee has some truth to it, then that'd be great for Capcom fans when and if it translates into games.

[jasonditz]

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Originally posted by: JonLeung


On the DS, someone mentioned before somewhere about how cool it would be to have a survival horror game with one screen being the point of view of the predator.  Some derivative or side story of Resident Evil might be kind of neat.  Capcom's created all sorts of new franchises lately, so if that flow of creativity doesn't stop, maybe Capcom could come up with some pretty neat DS-specific stuff.

Wow, that's the first I've heard of that idea, but I really really like it. I mean, we don't know for sure exactly how much of the DS is going to be about the two screens, but if you had the predator going around on the top screen and could see him e.g. massacring your friends... yeah, I'd be all about that.

[Polyethylene]

According to GameSpy developers are more excited about the DS:

Link

[vudu]

it makes sense that they'd be more excited about the ds--which do you find to be more exciting--a handheld system that has similar capabilities to the ps/ps2, or an entirely new system that that two screens, one of which is possibly a touch screen?  the question is, which do they think will make them more money?  the answer to that question i'm not so sure about.

[Bill Aurion]

I have a feeling Sony doesn't know what the heck they are getting into...From what we know of the PSP, it's just a handheld PS2...Well, whoop-de-freaking-doo...Give me back my innovation, please...

[vudu]

i think you're forgetting the ps2 is the most popular home gaming console ever.  it doesn't matter if there's zero innovation.  the general public with eat it up.  leave the innovation to nintendo.

[Ian Sane]

I imagine the main reason that developers are more interested in the DS is because it's Nintendo and since they're the portable market leader third parties are going to support them over a newcomber, even if the newcomber is Sony.  Plus if you think about it there isn't really anything the PSP can do that the DS can't.  The DS can play one screen games and two screen games and the PSP can only play one screen games.  The DS is just going to provide more flexibility.  Even if a third party has no ideas for a dual-screen game they might as well support the DS just for the option in case they do think of something.

[vudu]

that's like saying the gamecube can do anything the ps2 can, so third parties will be more likely to support it.  we both know that's not the case.  third parties aren't going to support who can do the most; they're going to support the system with the largest user base.  and while nintendo might have that with the gameboy, that's doesn't automatically translate to large ds sales.  sony is the electronics giant--the bringer of the ps2.  as far as the general gaming public is concerned, they can do no wrong.  that is some tough competition for the ds.

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Plus if you think about it there isn't really anything the PSP can do that the DS can't.

from what we know, that's not entirely true.  the psp looks like it will be able to handle better 3d graphics engine.  while that might not mean a whole lot to those of us who consider 2d to still be a viable format, many people consider 2d to be inferior to 3d.  couple that with the fact that the psp will most likely have video playback, mp3 capabilities, etc (no clue if the ds will have any of those features) the psp will be able to do quite a few things the ds cannot.  granted, many of those features will have no bearing on gaming, but if the general public eats them up, the ds could be left out in the cold.

and while more and more people own multiple home consoles, i get the feeling that most consumers aren't going to want to buy more than one portable gaming system per generation.

[Ian Sane]

"third parties aren't going to support who can do the most; they're going to support the system with the largest user base."

What about the N64/PSX scenario?  Initially the N64 had the larger userbase and Nintendo was the market leader going in.  However because the Playstation's disc medium allowed for more flexibility all of the third parties supported it.  In this case two screens provides more flexibility.  A DS game that makes full use of the system cannot be ported to the PSP in any recognizable form.  That's an advantage.

Plus it doesn't make any sense to assume that because Sony is the console market leader that they'll instantly take over the portable market.  In the portable market Nintendo IS Sony.  In fact they're even bigger because they have a virtual monopoly.  There is no stronger name in videogaming than "Gameboy".

[vudu]

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There is no stronger name in videogaming than "Gameboy".

wrong.  there is no stronger name than "playstation".  at least not to the casual gamer.  plus, the ds probably won't carry the gameboy name.  and there's no weaker name in mainstream gaming than "nintendo".

[Bill Aurion]

The Game Boy has sold more than the Playstation ever has or will...