Topic: Nintendo Reveals "Third Pillar"!

[DevAdvocate]

For all the doubts that exist for how successful Nintendo's "DS" will be, I would have to say that all those same things apply to Sony's PSP. The concept photo's for the PSP look quite nice, but when you step beyond that, it's essentially a Playstation 2 or near-Playstation 2 clone that has been miniaturized and will be resold at year 2001 prices ($300) or higher in late 2004 or 2005. Rumor has it that Sony is not willing to have the PSP follow in the PS2's footsteps in terms of not being profitable from a hardware sale standpoint. I think there is also a legitimate question as to whether the probable price/graphical power are overkill for something with a 4.5" screen. Perhaps the USB port that has been mentioned will allow connectivity for playback on a computer monitor...Sony VAIO anyone?

Essentially Sony is looking for the general public to repurchase an old product in a new form. Is that really very different from Nintendo's portable gaming strategy? Nope. The only real difference is that Sony also owns large lucrative concerns in other areas of electronics and entertainment, and hopes to graft those on top of Nintendo's tried and true portable gaming strategies. That's always been their leverage, not that they have better ideas or "vision" about gaming products. I think portraying Nintendo as being in the dark about these things is pretty misleading.

[KDR_11k]

The PSP is as much a rerelease of the PS2 as the GBA is a rerelease of the SNES.

[badibills]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
Okay, can someone tell me this. What can you do with two separate screens that you cant do with one really long screen?

That question is hard to answer. One thing is certain is that:

Two small screens are MORE PORTABLE than only one bigger screen.

This is going into deep speculation, but the two screens could be sandwiched one on top of the other to look abit like the SP clamshell shape. On the other hand, one big screen would determine the size of the system, i.e. big portable system. Seeing as you could unite both screens into one, I think that this would have been a good idea even for the GBA successor for portability issues. Does that help a bit?

[revolg_98]

It probably folds like a wallet.  You put the game in the middle, on the sides it is like a gameboy sp.  So the to sides fold up then u fold them over the middle.  Not a pocket system.  

[BurningShadows]

Ok I have heard alot of this before. Thinking Nintendo has screwed up. Which it has just like all other companys. Now I too beleive that there shall be more than just the two screens. Now I'm gonna wait it out before I say it will be awsome or Crappy or just plain average (and thats normaly not the case) but there were a bunch of people who said  Zelda Wind waker would just flat out suck because of cell shading and look at it now. ratings of 10. by almost every magazine. So I say Nintendo knows what they are doing.  

[cubedcinder128]

Quote
Originally posted by: BurningShadows
Ok I have heard alot of this before. Thinking Nintendo has screwed up. Which it has just like all other companys. Now I too beleive that there shall be more than just the two screens. Now I'm gonna wait it out before I say it will be awsome or Crappy or just plain average (and thats normaly not the case) but there were a bunch of people who said  Zelda Wind waker would just flat out suck because of cell shading and look at it now. ratings of 10. by almost every magazine. So I say Nintendo knows what they are doing.

That's how I pretty much feel. Some people seem to forget about that Wind Waker deal, and as you say, look how it has turned out. Some sources even gave it the title of Best Game of 2003!

Obviously Nintendo sees something in this concept that would make them design a whole new system around it, otherwise they wouldn't be announcing it at all. All I'm doing is waiting until E3 before all final judgment is pressed forward. This is something that gaming sites like IGN and GameSpot are failing to do, and naturally, it's making me lose credibility in sites like that.