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This has always amazed me. Why don't Sony make a portable handheld console like the GBA? Sony could get away from cartridges, and even use their own MiniDisc media for holding the games. If nothing else, it would offer some competition to Nintendo.
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Na†ßu© wrote:
> Thy did make the pocket station which was pants but then they made the
> PSOne portable but the portable screen was too expensive.
I thought those Pocket Stations were just rip offs of the DreamCast VDU (Visual Display Unit) memory cards...?
> Thy did make the pocket station which was pants but then they made the
> PSOne portable but the portable screen was too expensive.
I thought those Pocket Stations were just rip offs of the DreamCast VDU (Visual Display Unit) memory cards...?
Think about it for a second. The GameBoy has had games made for it since... I dunno when, early 80's I think? There are literally thousands of GameBoy games out there. And I think they all work on the GBA... The GBA has it's own games as well as over 2 decades of GB games, which granted you won't find on the shops, but if you like retro games and can find somewhere that sells them (local independant games store, or Ebay or something similar on the net) then you have pretty much unlimited games and they'll all be pretty cheap as they're old. Then you have lots of new games that are made for the GBA, and many look great.
And there has been competition to the GBA (not in Europe maybe...) such as the Wonderswan and the NeoGeo both released in Japan.
Despite the fact that they had arguably better games and were arguably better consoles than the GBA, the GBA has a HUGE range of games, the support of masses of developers, is easy to make games for, and is the established handheld.
Much as I hate to say it, the GBA is the equivilent of the PS2 in handheld terms, except it has an even larger back catalogue of games, is even more ahead of the competition in terms of being well established (there has been practically NO proper competition to the GB and its reincarnations since it first came out in the early 80s), plus it the GBA has the added advantage of being similar to the SNES which many developers worked a lot with, and so know what it can do and can handle. I mean, if you don't believe the GBA is the handheld equivilent of the PS2, just read the paragraph above this one, but read all 'GBA's as 'PS2's... (oh, apart from the 'easy to develop for' bit... and 'handheld' should obviously be read 'console')
But think about it. MS and Ninty are trying to compete with PS2 now and they're not doing too badly, but if Sony were to start competing with Ninty on the GBA it'd be the equivilent of Nintendo releasing the Gamecube in about two years time when PS2 has even more games and is even better established and hoping it would compete. Unless Sony pulled some technological genius out of the hat it wouldn't happen.
Plus the fact that Sony aren't willing to take that risk. Why do you think it's called the PS2 not something new? It wasn't that Sony couldn't be bothered to think up a new name, it's that 'PlayStation' is an established brand. Unless they called their handheld the 'Mini PlayStation' it wouldn't necessarily be assosciated with the PlayStation, therefore being a totally new brand, which the Joe ublic probably wouldn't recognise.
Anyway... in conclusion it's unlikely to happen, for Sony to even begin competing they'd need to create a very good machine and some very good launch titles, and unless they want the handheld competing with their own home console they'd need some sort of link up thing (like GC-GBA link up) which I doubt they'd want to invest in and the PS2 may not have the technical capabilities to do so anyhoo since they haven't planned to release this handheld... the only way I could see it working would be a co-release with a console (PS3 perhaps...?) where it connects up and works in harmony with the console...
Doubt it'll ever happen though.
Oooh, lookie at my essay! :D
And there has been competition to the GBA (not in Europe maybe...) such as the Wonderswan and the NeoGeo both released in Japan.
Despite the fact that they had arguably better games and were arguably better consoles than the GBA, the GBA has a HUGE range of games, the support of masses of developers, is easy to make games for, and is the established handheld.
Much as I hate to say it, the GBA is the equivilent of the PS2 in handheld terms, except it has an even larger back catalogue of games, is even more ahead of the competition in terms of being well established (there has been practically NO proper competition to the GB and its reincarnations since it first came out in the early 80s), plus it the GBA has the added advantage of being similar to the SNES which many developers worked a lot with, and so know what it can do and can handle. I mean, if you don't believe the GBA is the handheld equivilent of the PS2, just read the paragraph above this one, but read all 'GBA's as 'PS2's... (oh, apart from the 'easy to develop for' bit... and 'handheld' should obviously be read 'console')
But think about it. MS and Ninty are trying to compete with PS2 now and they're not doing too badly, but if Sony were to start competing with Ninty on the GBA it'd be the equivilent of Nintendo releasing the Gamecube in about two years time when PS2 has even more games and is even better established and hoping it would compete. Unless Sony pulled some technological genius out of the hat it wouldn't happen.
Plus the fact that Sony aren't willing to take that risk. Why do you think it's called the PS2 not something new? It wasn't that Sony couldn't be bothered to think up a new name, it's that 'PlayStation' is an established brand. Unless they called their handheld the 'Mini PlayStation' it wouldn't necessarily be assosciated with the PlayStation, therefore being a totally new brand, which the Joe ublic probably wouldn't recognise.
Anyway... in conclusion it's unlikely to happen, for Sony to even begin competing they'd need to create a very good machine and some very good launch titles, and unless they want the handheld competing with their own home console they'd need some sort of link up thing (like GC-GBA link up) which I doubt they'd want to invest in and the PS2 may not have the technical capabilities to do so anyhoo since they haven't planned to release this handheld... the only way I could see it working would be a co-release with a console (PS3 perhaps...?) where it connects up and works in harmony with the console...
Doubt it'll ever happen though.
Oooh, lookie at my essay! :D
Thy did make the pocket station which was pants but then they made the PSOne portable but the portable screen was too expensive.
The GameBoy Advance DOES need some competition, but that's just part of the problem really. Why would gamers want to play a handheld console they don't know about when they could be playing something they love just like everyone else??
It would have to be something pretty special to beat-off the GBA!
It would have to be something pretty special to beat-off the GBA!
I hope this doesn't turn into a console war thread....
This has always amazed me. Why don't Sony make a portable handheld console like the GBA? Sony could get away from cartridges, and even use their own MiniDisc media for holding the games. If nothing else, it would offer some competition to Nintendo.
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