Life after death: Gamecube

[Fox5]

The GC market is 25 million. If Nintendo could sell the equivalent of 50 million GCs in the form of a portable, even if they're selling old titles, they're making money off every game. A game doesn't have to be new to be profitable, especially for the platform holder. And heck, look at sales of ancient games on the latest, greatest devices out there! Old arcade games, NES games, MSX, PS1. There's a market for (re)selling old content. A successful portable GC would be a great way to make money on existing content.

Not if it plays old gamecube discs, of which there is an extremely large market out there. Think PSP games would get very many sales if it could play PS2 games, and ps2 games came on psp sized discs from the start? The used market would cannibalize sales, if they even got that many would just be satisfied playing their existing game collection. The nomad definitely didn't drive genesis game sales.

 

[Capeta]

Why bother? Flash mem is so cheap these days, and getting cheaper all the time. There's no point to a portable optical drive. The ony reason to have one would be to play GC games. And if you're not playing GC games, I have to wonder why you're putting the GC innards into a portable! The topic Life-After-Death for the GC. If you're creating a Frankenstein's Monster that doesn't play GC games, is that really the GameCube living on?

It doesn't have to be a handheld to play GC games. Like I said it would be a palmtop console (built-in LCD) nothing more. Also the reason why you'd buffer the game onto SD cards instead of built-in flash is due to cost and durability. If the flash was separate the console would be cheaper to make and therefore could be sold at a more mainstream price.

That'd be a very smart addition for PSP's remodelling, so games can still come on UMDs but they don't kill the batteries.

Uh the thread is about a GC portable not PSP2...regardless is SONY even offering buffering games to MS today?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If the flash was separate the console would be cheaper to make and therefore could be sold at a more mainstream price.

2 GB of Flash will probably add about $10 to the price.

Uh the thread is about a GC portable not PSP2

Sure, but i thought it was a good idea with cross-over relevance worth mentioning.

...regardless is SONY even offering buffering games to MS today?

I'd like to answer that question, but I'd be going off topic... (no )

Also, copying games to removable flash has the worry about people taking the flash out and putting it in another handheld, or ripping the file. Internal Flash would stop that without any complexities.

 

[Capeta]

2 GB of Flash will probably add about $10 to the price.

Sure, but if you sell millions of them. Remember every dollar counts to Nintendo, otherwise they would've added the tilt sensor to DS which cost what? $5?

Also, copying games to removable flash has the worry about people taking the flash out and putting it in another handheld, or ripping the file. Internal Flash would stop that without any complexities.

I thought it was called Secure Digital for a reason.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I don't think it's possible because it would get too hot. Even at 65nm the GC chipset would still draw maybe 5W total. I also don't see a portable handheld using GC discs. I could see a GC palmtop device though. Maybe even integrate a WiFi adaptor into the unit and wireless controller receiver.

Dont think heat is really a problem. There are homemade portable Dreamcasts, PSX, and ps2's.

Sure, but if you sell millions of them. Remember every dollar counts to Nintendo, otherwise they would've added the tilt sensor to DS which cost what? $5?

They didnt add a motionsensor because that would suck your going to see nothing if you need to move the complete handheld in a game. Besides its a handheld because you need to be able to use it in alot of places. That wont work if you need to move alot.

Also, copying games to removable flash has the worry about people taking the flash out and putting it in another handheld, or ripping the file. Internal Flash would stop that without any complexities.

Dont think that would be to hard to work around. You can already copy Wii VC games to a flashcard but you wont be able to play them on a other Wii.

 

[Capeta]

Dont think heat is really a problem. There are homemade portable Dreamcasts, PSX, and ps2's.

Heat is a problem. A homemade portable DC that works for 1 minute isn't proof that heat isn't a problem.

They didnt add a motionsensor because that would suck your going to see nothing if you need to move the complete handheld in a game. Besides its a handheld because you need to be able to use it in alot of places. That wont work if you need to move alot.

So you work at Nintendo? Last time I checked Miyamoto said they wanted to add the tilt sensor but it would've increased the price of the hardware. So tell me which department at Nintendo do you work at? Engineering?

BTW tilting doesn't require moving a lot. We're not talking about a Wiimote, we're talking a 2 axis tilt.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I didnt know that DC portable only worked for 1 minute. Thought the guy said it worked fine (afterall, he said the batteries last for something like 4 hours so I assumed he played on it for that long).

And no, I dont work at nintendo (yet ) But im pretty sure a tilt sensor wouldnt really be a big succes. You could easily emulate the same effect with the touchscreen and I dont think alot of people are willing to ''move'' in public while gaming.

 

[Capeta]

Whether a tilt function would be a big success or not wasn't my point. My point was Nintendo wanted to include it in the DS but didn't due to cost. Since it cost only $5 that says a lot about how important a few dollars is to Nintendo.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Well they sold something like 25million DS already? 5bucks might seem little but it would have already costed them 100+million.

 

[Capeta]

Well they sold something like 25million DS already? 5bucks might seem little but it would have already costed them 100+million.

Exactly, that's why I suggested that a portable GCmicro should buffer GC games onto an external SD card instead of internal flash to lower the cost of the console. And since flash has a limited number of writes, if it goes bad you just replace the SD card. If it's internal you're SOL.