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"Handheld gaming."

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Fri 19/10/01 at 23:14
Regular
Posts: 787
When you here the term Hand held gaming the first company that comes to mind is nintendo. They had massive success with the first gameboy, it offered everything you could want, gaming on the move, hundreds of games to play and fairly small. It was even easy to get power for it with the use of AA batteries. This went on for many years till eventually Gamebot Colour was released, this took the franchise to a huge new step, no drab looking games in that brown colour, it brought games to life. This again was even more succesful. Then finally GBA was released which brought us 3D gaming on the move, this is currently doing very well with many games coming out for it. I am even getting one myself. Over the years, Nintendo have had this market to themselfs, the only competition they had was the game gear which was not all that good. So what of sony?

Well, back in 1998 i beleive,plans for a Pocket Station were released. This was a small unit that resembled a Cyber Pet, the graphics were very basic. It was also a standard memory card with 15 slots. The main idea was to use it for mini games from certain games for PS1. One example was FF8, here you would go to a choboco farm and load one onto the Pocket station. This then became a cyber pet that you had to raise and look after and build the stats up as much as possible. You could then race them in the real game. The only other game i know it to work for in the UK was RR type 4, there may be more. But the fact is, this was not really gaming on the move is it. Low res, if you can call them graphics and basic missions. SO because of this we never got the....pleasure of getting one.

Sonys next go at gaming on the move was PSone. This is just a smaller version of the old PS1, but without the port on the back. But this was able to have a small moniter attached to it for gameing on the move! It was something to behold, all your great PS1 games available to you in places other than you house, on a small screen. But was it? No. This constuction was one full wires around it, you had to use the basic PS1 pad so it was not really as agile as a Gameboy. Its too big also, the screen alone is bigger than GBA and the only real place to use it was a car where you could use the Ciggeret mains. Yes some moniters allowed you to use batteries, but they often dont last long. All this imedieatly halts it to becoming as hand held.

So why have sony never really gone into this line of buisness? With all the little gizmos they come up with why have they never been able to come up with anything. There above 2 attemtps were a little below the mark and never really offered the feel of gaming on the move. Surely this is somewhere sony can make a presence.
Sat 20/10/01 at 12:11
Posts: 0
if we going on visual appeal then nintendo definitly gonna lose. i mean i've seen better designed cardboard boxes than that gamecube. my little cousin who's 4 could have come up with a better design and the controllers still too chunky. you need great big hands to be comfortable with it
Sat 20/10/01 at 11:52
Regular
"360: swfcman"
Posts: 6,953
Code: 144 complete wrote:

Sony tried making the PSone a handheld but the price they charge those screens at its no wonder why many people still think the PSone is a console that needs to be pluged to your TV.

very true, the gameboy was very cheap compared the screen and PSone and was really out of anyones price range for a Handheld. And the thing was rather big to be classed as a handheld.

Blatant money grabbing?
Sat 20/10/01 at 09:12
Regular
Posts: 23,218
yeh that is the only thing that they havent done and been at the top with i bet you we will see a PS2 one a bit like the dreamcasts VMU
Sat 20/10/01 at 08:05
Regular
Posts: 1,037
I really dont think that the gamecube is going to win the console wars, look at its launch they were less consoles available at launch than the PS2 yet they didnt sell out. This is a bad thing coz we are talking about Japan here because these guys buy much more games and consoles than any other market and if you aint selling very well here and your competition is then you will lose out no matter how mush your selling in the US and Europe even thoughg the Us is also a big market for games.

It also looks like the xbox might do well in the US but maybe not in Japan(which could lead to its downfall) and maybe Europe. So it looks good for the PS2 except in the US where they will be facing stiff competition but we consumers know that competition is a good thing for us and I'm sure in the next few months Sony will start paying more attention to the US market and so prices could drop maybe even they will release the HDD and modem earlier.

Nintendo as always will survive with their handheld GBA if Gc is a flop so unlike any of the other three companies it has a backup in case all else fails.

Sony tried making the PSone a handheld but the price they charge those screens at its no wonder why many people still think the PSone is a console that needs to be pluged to your TV.
Sat 20/10/01 at 00:12
Posts: 0
i think at the moment their focus is on the PS2 and making that a big a success as PSOne. We may see after the fuss of x-box and gamecube has died down and the PS2 sees off those challenges then Sony may concentrate on the handheld side of things
Fri 19/10/01 at 23:58
Regular
"WWJD"
Posts: 6,100
Yeah there deffently good anough for that but yeah they'll probably wait abit
Fri 19/10/01 at 23:55
Regular
"You Bum!!"
Posts: 3,740
Good idea. Nintendo got most of their profit thanks to the Gameboy and not the Nintendo consoles. Gameboy is still the best-selling ummmm thing that you can play games on (since its not a console and its the only decent handheld out there).It sold more than Playstation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 etc.

Sony would definetely succeed if they were to bring out a handheld because they sure know what they are doing. They proved they can do it after bringing out the screen for the PSone. It was possible to play it anywhere thanx to the small size of the screen and the PSone itself.

The technology certainly allows Sony to produce a handheld console and I think that when the time comes they will go down that path. Its just that I think they want to concentrate on the PS2 for now, bring good games out, establish the online capabilities and make sure it wins the console war since the GameBox and the X-Cube are coming out soon.

So I think Sony will bring out a handheld whenever they think it will be appropriate to do so. I definetely think they are good enough to challenge Gameboy for the handheld console supremacy.

Thank you
Fri 19/10/01 at 23:40
Regular
"WWJD"
Posts: 6,100
that would be cool
Fri 19/10/01 at 23:33
Regular
"360: swfcman"
Posts: 6,953
If Sony did come up with one, they would have no shortage of game licences to put on there, they could use a whole cateloge of games from PS1.

I would like news ones too of course.
Fri 19/10/01 at 23:30
Regular
"WWJD"
Posts: 6,100
They deffently try and make a hand held one it would be great! id buy it if it was good and knowing Sony they will make a good one

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