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Originally posted by: Jollus
Check out this article over at C-Net
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-1001675.html?tag=fd_top
Look down near the bottom.
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Nintendo of America Vice President Perrin Kaplan didn't seem too concerned during an interview at E3. "We really don't know that much about it, and it's going to be 18 months before anyone sees one," Kaplan said of the PSP. "A lot can happen in 18 months."
Does that just sound like a huge tease to anyone else?
You know what Sony has done to me? Gotten me Hyped about the new GAMEBOY not their PSP.
That's Nintendo greatest problem. They do not generate hype! They sit on everything fro ever and ever until the last minute, but by that time, everyone is already hyped for the competetors prodouct. While I certainly do antitcpate the next gameboy, I anticipate it with a sense of nervousness, that it may be another N64, rather with a sense of excitement. That's not good.
Well, I think there is one thing we can all agree on:
Sony's anouncement is about a year early. While I disagree with some people
who belive that Sony threw this together overnight, I also don't think that
Sony has a working protype yet either.
Ok, now. Sony obviously has a very good idea of what the final system will
be. They know exaclty what the screen will be like. They know what type of
porcessor they will use, they know what 3d techonologies they will emply.
They know what the sound system will be capable of. They have designed an
all new media, which is no doubt been optimized for this very application.
The know that it will have a USB 2.0 port, and a memory stick interface. The
know basically everything short of details, like clock speed.
Now, it should be clear to everyone, that based on the above, and the
rumours that have been going around for nearly a year, that Sony has been
working on this for a long time. While it would seem they have not yet
finalized the physical design of the unit, nor the control scheme, they
definitly know where they are going with it.
That's said, they anounced a product a year and a half before they expect to
release it, which serves only one purpose, as others have said, to take the
steam out of Nintendos GBA sales, and create a buzz. I do not know if they
will succeed with the former, but they certainly have accomlished the
latter. I, as a devout Gameboy fan, can stop thinking about the PSP and the
possibilities in entails. The PSP is the talk of e3, and has spawned for
than a dozen pages long threads on this forum alone. Every major news media
outlet covered the story. As Sony continue to throw a bone now an then
throughout the months ahead, people will become more and more hyped and
excited about the product. Sony will have carved out a user base, as with
the PS2, before the product even hits the market. Watch and see.
Now, I wonder what the market it that Sony is trying to reach. If you ask
me, it is actyally not the gameboy market. In fact, I do not belive Sony is
planning to go after the traidtional handheld market at all, sony is
planning to chnage what the handheld market is. Sony is certainly not
planning another gameboy clone, like the wonderswan, or the neo geo pocket.
Sony is planing something all new. Sony is planning to chnage the way we
think about portable games, and revolutionize the portable market, a market
that in my mind, has been stagenent for a LOOOOONG time. Like it or not,
Sony are the real innovators in the games industry. nintendo likes to think
they are, but as much as I love Nintendo, I have to admit that Nintendo
would rather not innovate, short of making quirky games that appeal to a few
out of many. Remeber back to 1994 when we first heard whisper of a Nintendo
CD add on for SNES? Remeber how that played out with Nintendo hemming and
hwaing, and eventually abandoning the project altogether, and returning to
carts, this, as the entire PC industry was embracing CD rom, and sega and
sony were leading the way in the console realm.
Nintendo, like it's hardcore fans, hate change. They fight against it, and
even turn thier noses up at people who embrace it. Portable games should be
short, and simple they say, while at the same time every GBA game review
under the sun closes with "if we had one complaint, it is that the game is
too short". I want my 2d, 3d has no place on a handheld! Well, I have news
for you, I like 2d games too. Some games just work better in 2d, like
castlevania, for instance, or strategy games, and so on. But who can argue
that the wind waker is a lot more fun that Link to the past?
The Gameboy's days are not numbered. Yet. But Nintendo does have some
choices to make. They can do what they have always done, or they can grow
with the times, and that includes gorwing in the portable market, which is
about the chnage big time. They cannot underestimate the imapct that Sony
will have on the handheld market. And they cannot count on thier core
audience od 10-13 year olds either, because this is the group that is the
MOST suseptable to hype, and the most lustful over the "most powerful"
system.