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Nokia's new handheld a gba killer

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nolimit19:
i really can see this as the end of nintendos glory days. i dont want to sound all negative, but i cant help but think that no one really likes nintendo that much. there are already some big developers that are making games for this thing. nintendo is barely alive in the console market, will it become the same in the handheld market??? i think it may.

Ian Sane:
"Nokia gave no word on prices, saying only that the consoles will cost less than 500 euros (about $539)" - Gamepro.com

Over $500?  I think the GBA's market share is safe.  Nokia is clearly targetting a different market with that price.  Plus the N-Gage is pretty much a European only device.  GBA sales will be largely unaffected.  The GBA will be affected by the N-Gage less than the PS2 is affected by the Gamecube and Xbox.

Mingesium:
The N-gage is basically for cell phones users who want to play games not the other way around. I can see Nokia having a big advantage over other cell phone makes, but the GBA is a different market. The handheld market is different than the console market. The most powerful handhelds have been defeated by the gameboy. I think that there are three keys things for success in the handheld market:

1) Price (keeping cost down on the system. nothing over $100)
2) Battery Life (Nintendo pays a lot of attention to this. thats why they didn't have a backlight because the drain in batteries)
3) games (until Nokia can come up with something better than Pokemon, then it has no chance)

BlkPaladin:
To have a chance they have to get more developers on board than the ones they have its a good start but it takes more than five developers to support and undertaking such as this. They have Sega, which is no surprise since they announced they were going to make software for something like this as the dreamcast was dying.

A good example is the Wonder Swan they are supported by Capcom, Bandai (believe it or not but they are a big name in Japan), and Square and look how well its incarnations are doing.

The only way this gets a user base is that its a cell phone that has game functions. It won't be a gold mine since gaming isn't the primary objective of cell phone users its a good perk.

RickPowers:
The GameBoy's market is safe.  The only way Nokia is going to get a foothold is if they can get it priced UNDER the Game Boy, and I don't see that happening in it's lifetime.  Plus, there is so much software for the GBA that Nokia will never catch up, Sega or no.

Then there's the fact that the screen is tiny, far to tiny to game on comfortably.  It also seems like there have been some significant compromises in their typical phones to make the device, namely the thicker size, awkward layout, etc.

And the battery life SUCKS.  

Seriously, while this might appeal to people who game on their phones anyway, aren't interested in carrying two devices, and can afford the steep price ... none of those people are in Nintendo's core market.

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