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"Handheld gaming nearly the end?"

Due for release soon is the GBA(Game Boy advanced), its set to be a must have for all GameBoy owners. This new Handheld game machine will be 17 times more powerful than the gameboy and is nintendo's first to have horizontal alignment. It uses a 240 X 160 pixel display compared to the gameboy colors 160 X 140 pixels. One of the most exciting features is it can also be connected to the Gamecube and acts as a controller with an extra screen built in. But is the future of hand held gaming going to decrease. before we had the Sega Gamegear, Atari Lynx and the gameboy.

But now in the Uk we only have the GBa set for release. There are two others on the market, Bandai's WonderSwan and SNK's NeoGeo Pocket but these are only available in Japan and there is no plans to release them in the USA or Europe. So what will happen after the GBA, is it over for the handheld market? Are the days of travelling long didtances playing your fav games over? Lets hope the GBA is a succes and handheld games continue to liven up those boring journeys.

After chewing on some wrigleys decidably chewy gum I decided that I had better not lie. Mind you I still have never heard of these handhelds before.

Poor Bloke wrote:
Hmmm I had no idea. Strange
> that seeing as I work for Microsoft isn't it.

I dunno man...

I was contracted for work in Reading myself... still didnt know all that much of what was going on in the US entertainment division... ???

Armitage Shanks wrote:
> Both Sony and MS are currently developing Hand Helds...

*********

Hmmm I had no idea. Strange that seeing as I work for Microsoft isn't it.

Both Sony and MS are currently developing Hand Helds...

Aliboy wrote:

But now in the Uk we only
> have the GBa set for release. There are two others on the market,
> Bandai's WonderSwan and SNK's NeoGeo Pocket but these are only
> available in Japan and there is no plans to release them in the USA


Justcorrecting this - Neo Geo released to Pocket Colour in Britain a while ago, I should know, I bought one of the damn things...
It had to compete with the Game Boy Colour, and lost too many sales to be a financially sound product to continue, so SNK stopped selling them over here. They're still available in Japan, where the market is significantly more open-minded.

Aliboy wrote:
> But why would other companies invest. The market is totally
> dominated by Nintendo. The sell around 90% of all hand held
> consoles. Other companies like sony would rather concentrate on the
> large consoles because they will always be popular.

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Nintendo sell about 90% because there the only good company making handheld consoles!

It is a fact that if GBA had other handheld consoles as rivals it will be a better machine. As now it has nothing to beat and no one to out sell, so it doesn't need to improve! But it still will be ace!

But why would other companies invest. The market is totally dominated by Nintendo. The sell around 90% of all hand held consoles. Other companies like sony would rather concentrate on the large consoles because they will always be popular.

In my view there is no way that the GBA will fail. There is no other handhelds out at the moment as you have said so what does it have to compete with. Many current gameboy owners have decided that they are going to buy a GBA so even if no one new buys it it will still be very succesfull.

Aliboy you've got it all mixed up, companies will see how succesful GBA is then other companyies will invest in this area of gaming! I think that the next conosle Sega make will be a handheld one!