DS pre-orders hit 2 million in Japan - Shares rise 4.5%

I don't think there's anyone who argues Nintendo won't still be market leaders, though Sony did commandeer the lead pretty much immediately after their launch of the PS ten years ago. The times were different then of course, Nintendo wasn't ready with their entry into the 32-bit age, and now they'll actually launch before Sony. Not to mention they'll be the cheaper option too, which counts a lot in the handheld market. Therefore I think it's safe to say they'll remain the leader, though that can change in the future, Sony isn't aiming to play second fiddle in perpetuity and Nintendo has a disturbing history of becoming complacent whenever they're on top. Perhaps they've learned their lesson finally.

 

There in lies my problem with Nintendo. They are hacking out handhelds like crazy. Why should I get nds if I know GBA2 is coming out in about a year or two. I still beleive they threw the ds together when sony announced they were making a handheld last year. The real reason they didn't want to put the gameboy name on the DS because they were afraid it would become the next virtial boy. I'm happy sony decided to jump in, because if they didn't we would still be playing our GBAs. Competition is good.

 

WHy ?

Most likely the gb2 (not gba2 ) will be a break from the other systems.

So if u buy a ds you can play all your gba games and all your ds games .

Then you can get a gb2 in 2 years time or 3 years time nad have the ds to play your older games on.

 

As much of a graphics whore that I am, I really am not really looking toward the PSP. There has'nt been anything I've seen that blows me away. Sure some of the games look like a cross between the Dreamcast and PS2 but so what? It's gonna be cool to be able to play these games with near console graphics on the go but there's nothing really new with the software for PSP.


Now the DS give developers really new and fresh approaches for games. Case in point. Look as Spiderman 2 for both DS and PSP. With PSP Spidey youv'e got another 3D 3rd person action game. It may turn out to be a good game but nothing new. With Spidey DS you've got a very unique play experience. The touch screen is completely used in two different ways. the first being a 'special move' screen. As you unlock them the move you push with your thumb is immedialy 'mapped' to the 'R' trigger on the fly.

Later you play several bosses and the play switches to the bottom touch screen and you have to use the touch screen to actually web snare debris and attacks that are being thrown at you. Very cool.

And S2 does'nt even begin to use the DS' features as much as some of the other games. VV developed the game in 5 months. Amazing. I have just been excitingly impressed with the DS and I can't wait to see the next wave of games for it.

 

PS was not an immediate success. (Check out the mess between Sony and Nintendo too) In Japan, PS was initially outsold by Sega Saturn. But it gained the market share gradually because of its 3D ability superior than that of Saturn. Then it was revealed that N64 is a cart-driven system, FF7 migrated from Nintendo platform to PS. Slightly before the release of FF7, another critical hit boggled Nintendo - it was announced that the no.1 RPG in Japan, Enix's Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) would migrate to PS. In Europe, games like Wipeout and Tekken created a new market. In the US N64 was a modest hit, but in other territories, many 3rd parties fled from restrictive Nintendo platform to the PlayStation.

Nintendo's 'Project Reality' was annouced in 1993. Nintendo set the targeted price at 25,000 yen ($250) which was the price of SNES. Meanwhile, in 1994, Matsushita 3DO, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, NEC PC-FX were released with far higher prices than $250 and Nintendo's Yamauchi had assumed they wouldn't sell like hotcakes, but the prediction missed the trend as you know today. 'Project Reality''s demo contained one by Square, but even Square abandoned it. When N64 was released after 3 years of R&D, it was too late.

If Nintendo hadn't brought up the DS card they incubated in R&D against PSP and had waited until GBA2 arrives, it'd be more or less the same picture where N64 failed. DS doesn't have to be a huge success as long as it keeps Nintendo's market presence against the competitor for some time. Fortunately DS has an innovative feature as a selling point, so you can release it immediately without a cutting edge technology. This dilatory tactics will work well unless PSP owns DS 10:1 or the second version of PSP matches GBA2.

 

gba2 can be easily be gb revolution you know... possible right?

 

The DS is far more "interesting" than the PSP IMO. Despite that I think their Gamecube strategy is a fiasco, I have complete faith in Nintendo's handheld strategy. Second touch screen is a good gimmick that I'm sure creative developers will find cool uses for. GBA backwards compatibility (something that I think is FAR more important in a portable system ) insures success.

 

According to this survey, Europeans at least are not interested in portable video devices:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3971715.stm

Or for that matter portable game players:

Yeah I won't be watching too many UMD movies, even though the screen is obviously one of the biggest draws of the PSP. But already, while the control scheme may be novel, the Spidey game on the PSP will look a lot better than the DS version. Likewise with a lot of games which will release on both systems.

If the price difference is $50, PSP should win over a lot of people at retail who look at the same games running on both systems and seeing the difference.

 

Depends which factor they will prefer most: new gameplay concepts, or pretty graphics.

 

The important thing isn't "new gameplay concepts", what really matters is simply IS THE GAME ANY F'N GOOD OR NOT?

A touchscreen or dual screen setup can easily get as gimmicky and pointless as a USB camera if neither is approached with a truly original idea as a basis. Sure one can do things DIFFERENTLY, give "new gameplay concepts", but will they truly be any better than the ol' regular joypad? Mostly not.

DS and PSP are very much indeed an apples and oranges situation. I wouldn't want to compare them straight up, sure they're both portable consoles, but that's as far as it goes...

 

I don't believe sony immediately became market leader...
I think it took them a few months to overtake saturn, and the n64 overtook the psx really quickly, but by mid 1998 the psx had retaken the lead.(and I believe as of 2000 the two systems were very close in america, not sure who was leading, but I believe sony eventually gained a large advantage in america since the psx continued to sell for another 3 years afterwards)

 

Quite contradictory claims, especially, since the second screen is used for the map, in this game.

BTW, i might repeat myself, but the DS should not try to push this kind of games, read 3D games that need a lot of texturing.
It looks ugly as sin, no matter how people try to put it in perspective. IMO, of course.

 

this game doesn't run that much better then the ngage version to be honest...

 

Well, it's probably a port from the ngage version so I wouldn't expect it to look too much better, but at the very least I think it benefits from higher resolution, which can make a huge difference.(and I think it does)

Also, how fast does the ngage version run? Even on the commercials for ngage games they don't even seem to be hitting 20 fps.(many look even choppier than perfect dark, which I think spent most of its time around 15-20)

 

i have it on my nokia 6600 (with fucked up colours) and yes, it doesnt run 60fps,. more like 20-30 at best

 

So the game looks better on the DS, runs at a higher resolution, and 2-3x the framerate and you don't think it runs much better? That's like saying a dreamcast game doesn't run much better than conker's bad fur day imo.