Topic: Report Says DS Outplays PSP

[evil intentions]

Ahh, the PSP was doomed from the beginning.

[RABicle]

OH NO! What about that DS give peopel a rare form of epilepsy that doesn't have any of the usual epilepsy symtoms, instead giving them head spins. Remember, your EB guys know more about it than doctors, who are part of a conspiracy to increase the net profits of drug companies and their 4 years of univeristy education with twice the workload of otehr courses is why they are so under acheiving.

Obviosuly this report didn't monitor Planet Gamecube.

[Nephilim]

psporn = japanese porn = blurry porn = bad

[GoldenPhoenix]

What is sad, in Washington State at least, you are hard pressed to find accessories for the DS in non-gaming stores yet find a ton for PSP!

[Hostile Creation]

The internets prove my argument right.
This is pretty cool news, though.  It's nice to get confirmation on something I believed all along (and which is, in fact, a matter of opinion ).
I can't wait to get Meteos, but problems keep blocking my attempts to get to a game store.

[Smash_Brother]

It's all about the killer app.

If Animal Crossing Online and/or Mario Kart Online hit before the PSP can get any form of killer app out there, then it's going to be game, set, match: Nintendo.

There is currently no true killer app available on the DS, but once it goes from being a simple handheld to being an online portal device, love for the machine will increase tenfold.

I've read some of the details for AC DS. It's like Nintendo robbed my bank of AC online ideas. I'm not saying I'm taking credit, but everything I could think of which would make AC online fun, they're already doing.

-SB  

[mantidor]

isnt Nintendogs already the killer app?

[Smash_Brother]

I've not played it so I couldn't say, but it's a new franchise which may not even appeal to the American segment and it doesn't feature online play. I understand the game has excellent reviews and all, but that's from Famitsu and the Japanese segment tends to have a great deal more affection for the "giga-pet" genre than the US does.

I'm not doubting the selling power of Nintendogs, but unless Nintendo fires up a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the game in the US and hypes it like crazy, then I doubt it'll see the same sales here that it did in Japan.

I cite MK and AC because we already know they've both succeeded around the world AND there has been a great deal of fanfare about seeing both games online (MK more so than AC, but AC was still widely speculated as being an excellent potential online game). Before the release of MKDD, people were going crazy over the notion that it COULD feature online play.

If Nintendo launches the game with an online meeting server, ladders and even tournaments, then I expect it will tear up the sales charts for quite some time and lend the DS its first TRUE system-seller. Right now, my friends who don't own the console find it to be a neat gimmick, but I don't yet have a game I can place in front of them which will cause them to say, "I need to buy this." However, AC online would do that in a heartbeat and MK online would likely do the same.

Maybe Nintendogs could perform the trick, but I'll have to play it before I can make a judgement call and thus I'm not certain. Unless MK and AC are royally botched, then they'll both haul DS systems like nothing else has yet.

-SB

Edit: And no, that was not intended as a pun.

[Bill Aurion]

"I understand the game has excellent reviews and all, but that's from Famitsu and the Japanese segment tends to have a great deal more affection for the "giga-pet" genre than the US does."

So where does that leave the "Tamagotchi" phase in the U.S.?

[mantidor]

hehe, well I see it as a "the Sims" game with dogs, and based on that I dont see it performing badly at all, even in NA. Regarding online, Im not quite sure about the outcome, but it will be interesting, I personally doubt very much that Nintendo will achieve the 90% DS users playing online goal, even with titles like Animal Crossing. Maybe in a distant future, but in the next couple of years? not likely, what I really like about that scenario is that Nintendo will have the proof that they werent that crazy when they said "gamers dont want online", and that listening to their "fans" sometimes is not such a good idea. Of course theres always the possibility that Ill have to eat my words, which I wouldnt mind but I really cant see a 90% goal of online players as a realistic number.

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
So where does that leave the "Tamagotchi" phase in the U.S.?

Not to marginalize it by any stretch, but in comparison, the Japanese market eats up the genre in ways the US doesn't. That's purely by comparison, though, and maybe I should check the sales of the game in Japan before I say things like that, but I still don't think 'Dogs will be the truly "killer app" that AC or MK would be in the US and Europe.

I don't expect 90% of DS users to be online. I think that's a heinously unrealistic number, but I credit Nintendo for shooting for it and I believe they've done so because of how much they intend to streamline the process of getting online. I've read a list of the AC features and one of them is to simply enter the town and name of your friend and you can access their town if they've given you specific permission. In other words, no screwing with IP addresses, no setup beyond talking to the Copper at the main gate of the town and saving your friends to your buddy list so they can enter the town again later.

Again, 90% is unrealistic, but they're going to make it as easy as possible.

I think of MK and AC as killer apps because they'll be the first games which will allow Nintendo gamers to either compete or congregate over the internet in a game setting. The online element of the games could easily determine their success. Players who have been hesitant to pick up a DS would probably be brought in by one of the two, be it the die-hard competition of MK or the community-based nature of AC which just became literally hundreds of times larger and more detailed.

In fact, I dare say it's the brand recognition which will sell these games so well. AC was a hit on the cube and Mario Kart is Mario Kart and has been popular since its inception.

I'm not going to shed a single tear if 'Dogs sends DSs flying off the shelf in the US (with all the dog lovers out there, it could be a coiled spring waiting to be unleashed (again, no pun intended)), but I think the game which I'll be able to place in front of any modern gamer which will sell them a DS would either be MK or AC.

Again, I'd love to be wrong, but that's my current prediction.

-SB

[Ian Sane]

"I'm not doubting the selling power of Nintendogs, but unless Nintendo fires up a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the game in the US and hypes it like crazy, then I doubt it'll see the same sales here that it did in Japan."

I think Nintendogs will sell well but it will be to a different groups than the traditional videogame audience.  Most people who would consider purchasing the PSP won't give Nintendogs a second look so in that sense it won't be a killer app in that it "steals" PSP userbase.  However if it increases the userbase then it could attract more third party support which will "steal" PSP userbase.

[IceCold]

Whatever new users are drawn in by Nintendogs are good for Nintendo. There will be enough "traditional games" and "traditional gamers" will buy DSes as well, but these new users have the potential to become hooked on "traditional games" (especially if they have an expensive console with only one game) and that results in more software sales. I'm not too concerned about the audience of the DS. And if Nintendo can market their big upcoming games well enough, the DS would be set, especially because, as Deguello said, there isn't another PSP title for a month, and it is in the middle of one of the worst droughts in history.

And, as Ian said, a big userbase attracts third parties; they don't care if "non gamers" have the console (look at the PS2)

[Smash_Brother]

I didn't think of it that way: if Nintendo will be aiming for the non-traditional gamer with 'Dogs, they'll likely pull a whole different audience. However, I stand behind the need for a HUGE ad campaign to accompany the launch of the game. In order to hit new gamers, they're going to need to get the product in their faces, showing people of all ages having fun playing with their pups and the plethora of activities they can do with them. Advertising could easily make the difference between 'Dogs being a "hit" or a "sleeper hit".

I think MK and AC online will hit a different gamer, mostly the gamer who was once a fan of Nintendo but fell away from the company when they became disappointed with its performance. It could have been a GC drought period or even way back in the day when Shiggy showed the cel-shaded Zelda trailer. I remember IGN reported that they saw the highest number of people go from the GC forums to the Xbox forums on that same day.

I believe these two games would bring some of those players back, with Nintendo finally offering them a real online experience and games which have already been established as solid franchises. There will still be plenty of nay-saying by the aforementioned types who would dismiss Nintendogs as nothing more than another frivolous virtual pet (I've already seen it on forums I visit), but online Mario Kart? How do you dismiss THAT?

Like I said, though, it'd be great if Nintendogs were to fly off the shelves in the US the same way it did in Japan. I'd rub that in the faces of the PSP fanbois...

-SB  

[nickmitch]

Well how many people on the fence do you think will compare the online line ups? If people see the PSP online as nothing major then that'd be great.

[Smash_Brother]

I've heard nothing about the PSP's online lineup. I haven't been listening, but I would expect my resident PSP fanboy to be oozing over upcoming online PSP titles, if there were any.

Also, it's my firm belief that Nintendo's games being online brings something to the table which no other company has yet done. Nintendo is best known for its multiplayer mayhem, but a number of its titles are so obvious as potential online games that it's both frustrating and exciting at the same time. When games like Pokemon and Fire Emblem, games which could run over a 2880 baud modem because they're turn based, are passed up because Nintendo believes gamers don't want online play, it's frustrating. However, Reggie admitting that it was a mistake to ignore online play the last time around is a relief, as well as the knowledge that the online Nintendo games ARE coming.

I know there's almost a stigma around the notion of it, but I've always seen Nintendo's online offerings as being so much more than what Sony or MS could ever hope to accomplish. I can play FPSs and racing games online on my PC and I don't have to pay to do so. Games like these have been done and done to death. However, I cannot enjoy a community-themed game with friends (AC), a strategy RP (Fire Emblem), or a MMORPG in which I raise a team of creatures and combat other players and NPCs for the glory of victory (Pokemon).

Maybe I'm over-enthusiastic about it, but I just see Nintendo's franchises going online as something which will provide vastly more entertainment value than previous online console offerings.

-SB

[stevey]

"I've heard nothing about the PSP's online lineup. I haven't been listening, but I would expect my resident PSP fanboy to be oozing over upcoming online PSP titles, if there were any."

It a short list wipe out pure, the game with an evil clown, and the santionist EA sport games. They all came out on relase of the psp and up coming game is a game with zombie the you shoot with your blood and other fluid from you. I know this because of I use to look at G4 but they sold out to sony after the bouth tech tv (that love ms) and now it just one big anit-nintedo place that must be kill.

[nickmitch]

So wait, SB, what you're saying is that you're excited that games ARE comming, but you aren't excited about Nintendo's franchises going online? Are you just happy for Nintendo and not yourself?

Personally, I'm hoping for a rev oniline custom robo. It could work on DS, if they allow you to change items via the touch screen (like how you can use items during play in Bomberman).

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: TVman
So wait, SB, what you're saying is that you're excited that games ARE comming, but you aren't excited about Nintendo's franchises going online? Are you just happy for Nintendo and not yourself?

Personally, I'm hoping for a rev oniline custom robo. It could work on DS, if they allow you to change items via the touch screen (like how you can use items during play in Bomberman).

I mean that I'm damn excited about Nintendo's online titles because I can finally pwn my friends at fishing.

But, in the past, I was frustrated to see games released by Nintendo which would have been so insanely improved by online play: Animal Crossing, SSB, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Battalion Wars, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, etc. etc.

A lot of Nintendo's franchises are original in their design and offer something which I cannot get from Sony or MS's online offerings. The fact that Nintendo is finally taking their systems online is a huge relief as well as a welcome change.

And CR would absolutely rule online. The main problem I found with the game was that everyone needs to understand the game in order to truly do well in multiplayer combat, including the various robos, weapons, bombs, etc. This was difficult to come by, as getting everyone up to speed just didn't work unless you each had the game or had one copy and passed it around to everyone.

Online play would remove that problem in a heartbeat for CR and any other Nintendo franchise. I quiver at the thought of ALWAYS having a competent opponent to fight at the press of a few buttons. I can only imagine that the replay value of these games will increase exponentially for this reason alone.

-SB