Nintendo Is About to Shit All Over Sony In A MAJOR Way

[Trauma-san]

I think everybody knows Sony is DOMINATING the home console market right now... and Sony has announced a while back that they will be bringing out a playstation portable device, which of course is huge news since Nintendo has sat unchallenged in the handheld arena for years, after putting 11 other handheld consoles out of business with their low-tech Gameboy series.  Well, Nintendo has been making MAJOR moves lately, basically ensuring their continued dominance of the marketplace (they have 99% of handheld game sales worldwide currently)

First, Sony announced their PSP, and then Nintendo quickly announced a handheld system called the "DS", with 2 screens.  More details arrived shortly, and the device has a touchscreen built into it, the first time a system has utilized that technology... Nintendo kept rolling out news that the system was coming out before the end of the year, and Sony said theirs would as well.

So, Nintendo starts rolling out screenshots and playable demos of games @ E3... and Sony showed a mockup of the PSP, but no playable versions of games.  So, then, Nintendo comes out with a more tightly designed DS after the initial crowd reaction was pretty positive @ E3, and announce 100 developers (companies) are producing games for the DS, as well as lowering costs to 3rd party developers, so it makes it cheaper for people to develop games for the system.

Next, Nintendo fends off the anticipated arrival of the DS and the PSP from hurting Gameboy SP sales, by lowering the price of the SP to 79.99... which boosts sales by 70% heading into the early holiday season. 

Next, Nintendo holds a press conference revealing the final design of the DS (I mean, they are RUNNING with this thing) and announcing they will have 6000 Dual Screen's sent out to retail locations for people to demo, and that the DS will be wireless.  When asked about the PSP, Nintendo's president hints that Sony has major issues with the battery life of the PSP, and are ultimately going to have to postpone the debut of their system...

As we sit today, Nintendo's about to roll out the largest marketing campaign they've used for any system on the DS, and Friday, they're holding a press conference to launch the system and the games that will be available @ Launch in November, which include a Mario game, a Metroid game, and others yet to be announced... Industry analysts are speculating that the PSP is about to be postponed to not come out until November of NEXT year. 

On top of all of this, foreign exchange rate fluctuations just helped Nintendo re-estimate it's first half fiscal year profits up from 225 million dollars, to 415 million dollars. They're on FIRE, even the fucking exchange rate is making them money. 

Of course you know I'm a Nintendo fan, but It's just interesting to see two big corporate giants play press chess like this... Nintendo basically fucked Sony's whole world up, I'm wondering now if Sony should have just not even announced the PSP so soon? They're ultimately going to dissapoint by pushing the date back so long, Nintendo fucked up in the past with the Nintendo 64 by doing that, pushing dates back, promising things that never happened (Super Nes CD), etc. and that's how they lost their place on top. 

[Thirteen]

it's a shallow victory, i never saw sony as competition in the hand held market anyways... now if nintendo can keep this momentum going for their home console....then i'll be surprised

[Sikotic™]

The 2 screens are impressive, but I just don't feel alot of Nintendos games.

[MANBEARPIG.]

yes on DS


Nintendo got the gaming industry in a consistent chokehold

[Don Seer]

looks very cool.. however.. i was v impressed by gameboy advance pre-release info, then couldnt stand the screen.


and jesus.. its got 802.11b wireless on board... that means it can access a PC, the internet, whatever!!

my unanswered questions

1) does it have a lot of storage on it? can that be expanded? (smart media card? / CF / MMC )

2) can it play mp3s from that storage? and can they be transferred via wireless to/from a PC.

3) what does DS mean? (destroy sony? lol)

[.:TimeLock:.]

i don't even play games really but this shit is hella impressive

[7even]

as much as sony is dominating the home console market, nintendo used to and still does dominate the hand held market. nothing changed mayne.

although Im sure microsoft will dominate everything in 10 years. they always win in the end. always.

[.:TimeLock:.]

as much as sony is dominating the home console market, nintendo used to and still does dominate the hand held market. nothing changed mayne.

although Im sure microsoft will dominate everything in 10 years. they always win in the end. always.

micro who runing what neva dat son

[Shallow]

Both of these handhelds are gonna bomb. It is was and always will be about the original Gameboy, and it's adavancements. People don't want to play high tech games on small screens. People want simple games like basic side scrollers, and puzzle games. Action RPGs like Zelda are also very popular. People don't want to play something like Metal Gear Solid, or Madden 2005 (console version) on a screen smaller than my fist.

The only hand held that had a chance of competing with the Gameboy was the Game Gear, and that lost due to Sega's lack of dedication and poor game selection. If Sega had put time and thought in to the Game Gear instead of the Sega CD and 32X, then the Game Gear could still have been around today. All they had to do was keep upgrading, change the design every time, and create better games. Sega always had some of the most innovative game makers in the business, and I'm sure they could have come up with some bangers, but instead they wasted time on trying to win a console war that no one even knew they were in. The Genesis was good and did it's best to compete. The rest were a joke, in business terms (except for the first stage of the Dreamcast). I still love the Saturn and Dreamcast. I can only imagine what could have happened if Sega forgot about trying to desperately win the console wars and focused on hand held.


Oh, and Trauma; The 64 didn't bomb because of pushed back dates, it bombed because it sucked. 3rd party developers were afraid to commit because they stood to lose so much per game due to it being cartridge based, and that they didn't want to learn the Silicon system. This had games coming at as few and far between as possible. I think it was less than 50 games after almost a year. They tried pushing that "quality over quantity" crap, and that didn't work because of the 30 games they'd release every 9 months, only a couple were good. They also had no sports genre to speak of. That was fine when the Genesis had edge over the super because that was the only edge it had. The Playstation had everything going for it, and there was no way the 64 was going to beat it.

[Trauma-san]

looks very cool.. however.. i was v impressed by gameboy advance pre-release info, then couldnt stand the screen.


and jesus.. its got 802.11b wireless on board... that means it can access a PC, the internet, whatever!!

my unanswered questions

1) does it have a lot of storage on it? can that be expanded? (smart media card? / CF / MMC )

2) can it play mp3s from that storage? and can they be transferred via wireless to/from a PC.

3) what does DS mean? (destroy sony? lol)

1. It uses 1 gigabite memory cards, I'm not sure about on board memory... it comes packaged with a software wireless communication package, some little notebook thing you can use to talk to other DS's within a certain range of yours.  The DS even turns itself on when another DS comes near enough to it to communicate.

2. I seriously doubt it will play MP3's, because I don't believe it's designed to download anything from a computer... I believe the LAN connection is for wireless hotspots and things so you can play against others connected to the internet.

3. DS means "Dual Screen"

[Trauma-san]

Both of these handhelds are gonna bomb. It is was and always will be about the original Gameboy, and it's adavancements. People don't want to play high tech games on small screens. People want simple games like basic side scrollers, and puzzle games. Action RPGs like Zelda are also very popular. People don't want to play something like Metal Gear Solid, or Madden 2005 (console version) on a screen smaller than my fist.

The only hand held that had a chance of competing with the Gameboy was the Game Gear, and that lost due to Sega's lack of dedication and poor game selection. If Sega had put time and thought in to the Game Gear instead of the Sega CD and 32X, then the Game Gear could still have been around today. All they had to do was keep upgrading, change the design every time, and create better games. Sega always had some of the most innovative game makers in the business, and I'm sure they could have come up with some bangers, but instead they wasted time on trying to win a console war that no one even knew they were in. The Genesis was good and did it's best to compete. The rest were a joke, in business terms (except for the first stage of the Dreamcast). I still love the Saturn and Dreamcast. I can only imagine what could have happened if Sega forgot about trying to desperately win the console wars and focused on hand held.


Oh, and Trauma; The 64 didn't bomb because of pushed back dates, it bombed because it sucked. 3rd party developers were afraid to commit because they stood to lose so much per game due to it being cartridge based, and that they didn't want to learn the Silicon system. This had games coming at as few and far between as possible. I think it was less than 50 games after almost a year. They tried pushing that "quality over quantity" crap, and that didn't work because of the 30 games they'd release every 9 months, only a couple were good. They also had no sports genre to speak of. That was fine when the Genesis had edge over the super because that was the only edge it had. The Playstation had everything going for it, and there was no way the 64 was going to beat it.

If Nintendo would have launced the 64 while it was talking about launching the SNES CD, it would have been competitive.  Instead, they pushed the launch of both back, because they spent so much time fucking around with the SNES CD, and then dropped it, making the arrival of their next system, the 64, arrive well past the age of the cartridge system.  If they would have launched it before the Playstation, however, it would have done great. 

You're wrong about the DS 'bombing', and I'm going to prove it to you this fall, when it sales a SHITLOAD of systems.  Nintendo is pumping more money into promoting this thing than they have with anyother system, and the DS is backwards compatible with the 550 games Nintendo has released for the Gameboy SP; as well, it's only $149.00, whereas the PSP hasn't announced a pricerange, but nobody's expecting it for under 300 dollars, possibly much higher.  The DS is going to sell a bundleload of systems, man. 

[bez]

mehhhhhhh...wont catch on.

[Trauma-san]

Just like the presidential election that everyone is too pussy to bet on, would anybody like to bet on whether or not the DS bombs?  Put your money where your mouth is. 

[Shallow]

If Nintendo would have launced the 64 while it was talking about launching the SNES CD, it would have been competitive.  Instead, they pushed the launch of both back, because they spent so much time fucking around with the SNES CD, and then dropped it, making the arrival of their next system, the 64, arrive well past the age of the cartridge system.  If they would have launched it before the Playstation, however, it would have done great. 

Mario 64 would not have been ready during the time the SNES CD was supposed to be coming out, and that is what sold the systems. The problem was long term. Developers realized that they only stood to lose a dollar for every game that wasn't sold, as opposed to $30. So they went with the more efficient CD platform. The cartridge was fine when there was no CD based platform that was successful but once The Playstation took off there was no more reason to continue losing money to cartridges. Plus, the cartridges didn't hold shit, as far as space, which is why Square had no interest in making any games for Nintendo. This was big blow, particualry in Japan. The Super Nintentdo strived off it's great RPGs. The 64 had none, other than Zelda. I don't care when 64 was released, it would have failed long term. Particularly when they were marketing to children. Nothing is wrong with that in general, but in '96 and '97 it was a very bad mood. The kids of the 80s were all grown up and wanted something more than kid's stuff. This is why adult based (not porn) video games really took off. The same happened in Wrestling, the little hulkamaniacs weren't little any more and wanted something more "adult", which is why the nWo, Stone Cold, and the Rock, made more money combined than the rest of wrestling history. A kids boom period is a great thing, but limited because they can only buy as much as their parents let them. However, if you can tap into those same kids 10 to 15 years later with the same product but more mature, then a real boom happens, because they can now buy things themselves. That is what Sony did, that is what Vince McMahon did, and that is what Eric Bischoff did until he fucked it up. Nintendo failed to do so, and the kids that were being targeted were more interested in what their cooler older brother and friends were playing, rather than what Nintendo was offereing.

You're wrong about the DS 'bombing', and I'm going to prove it to you this fall, when it sales a SHITLOAD of systems.  Nintendo is pumping more money into promoting this thing than they have with anyother system, and the DS is backwards compatible with the 550 games Nintendo has released for the Gameboy SP; as well, it's only $149.00, whereas the PSP hasn't announced a pricerange, but nobody's expecting it for under 300 dollars, possibly much higher.  The DS is going to sell a bundleload of systems, man. 

I'm sure it'll be an initial success, just like the Dreamcast. Remember, the Dreamcast had the highest openning sales in entertainmet history, with over $90 million spent by consumers. But, the Dreamcast went down hill from there, and I feel, so will the DS. Lot's of systems come out strong, but fail to keep interest. Remember the Virtual Boy? Man, I remeber how hyped up I was about that. In the end I feel that Nintendo will fall back the only thing that had remained strong for almost 15 years now; The Game Boy. However, arguing this is pointless. We'll talk in a year or two and see where the DS is then.

[bez]

Just like the presidential election that everyone is too pussy to bet on, would anybody like to bet on whether or not the DS bombs?  Put your money where your mouth is. 

lol