My theory also involves a better PSP catalog than today's. Add that to price cuts and improved battery life and you got a pretty nice portable. On the other hand, sony is making too many mistakes lately (PS3 anyone?) so they may fuck things up again, just like they did releasing a weak number of games during the first year of the PSP. Whatever, we're, once again, stuck with something that's not that good and some other stuff that's just shit. Hope MS enters the portable market too, we could get something powerful yet with some decent games.
You know, I really can't see the point in buying something with fantastic graphics for a hand held. For a start the screen is too bloody small to see anything (yes even the PSP). I play games on my mobile phone if I want mobile gaming. Sure, the games look DS quality or slightly higher but that doesn't bother me as long as they are fun to play. Maybe it's just me but I have never played a hand held for a long leghth of time. In fact do you kno wwhen I mostly use handheld gaming? Yep, that's right. When I'm taking a dump, :lol: Yakumo
PSP win the war down the road? I doubt it. I think Sony is going to be too busy trying to not lose the console market they've ruled for so long to really push the PSP much. The 360 is poised and ready to snatch the western markets out from under Sony's nose, and if the DS is any indication, Japan is tired of "graphics" and just wants fun and quircky games, thus giving the Wii the Eastern market. The PSP can house as many clones, remakes, ports, and collections as it likes; thats not going to stop the juggernaut that is a new 2D Mario, online Mario Kart, Brain Games, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, and God only knows how many more insanely successful new IPs/new entries into popular series. Sony scared Nintendo, and Nintendo quickly showed Sony that they will not be caught with their guard down twice.
You should also remember how the original mono chrome gameboy kicked the superior Game Gear's ass. The beefy handheld has pretty much never come out on top. Infact the beefy system (processing & graphics wise) has never come out on top from what I remember. I like my PSP but I really just bought it to play the Mega Man X and Mega Man Powered Up games.
The PSP wont win for the fact that sony is not backing it like they should. Nintendo not only stands behind the DS but they pretty much sling shot it into everybodys hands. Sony on the other hand treats the psp like you're supost to want it so bad they dont have to do anything. This sadly does not work. Over all the graphics, raw power & games will allow the psp to stand strong in the USA & European game markets. Yet it will never overtake japan.
I'd like to just ask why everyone always mentions the Game Gear as the bulky handheld that failed while never mentioning the Atari Lynx, that things crazy.
maybe because the Lynx was that bad that it's a insult to even mention it in the same sentence as Game Boy. Only joking. The Lynx was quite a beast in its day but like with all US made systems until the Xbox, the software was crap for the most part. Yakumo
Heres the real question, though: How much more powerful is the DS then the normal Playstation and Saturn? It has been shown that games like RE can be ported on the DS, but only in a watered down, grainer version (Granted, that is partly due to the rendered backrounds, but even that would look like shit in full 3D on the DS). From the looks of it, this is what it looks like: The DS seems to be on the same level as the Saturn, a more powerful 2D platform that can support 3D games. If you look at the main difference between the two Castlevania games, you will see that the sprites are more in-line with SoTN then the GBA titles (Granted, they did port pretty much everything from SoTN, but still). From the looks of it, the DS can hold a average Playstation game (besides the large FF games/Metal Gear Solid, various FMV scenes, etc). We have already seen that the DS can take early N64 titles without too much trouble, although at a lower Polygon count (The DS Mario 64 model was a port of the GCN model with less polygons and grainer textures). In general: Better graphically then the SNES/Genesis era titles, better quality then the GBA, More powerful then the saturn and playstation as long as there is some downgrading for some games, and can handle N64 games with serious downgrading in some areas. Basically, it is better suited as a 2D system with 3D touches (Sonic Rush, Castlevania, etc), although it can handle 3D games on par with the Playstation if the polygon count is lowered and lower resolution textures.
A huge contradiction. I think it's down to the low resolution screen that games appear to be on par with the N64, Saturn and PS. It's a fair bit less powerful hardware-wise, but it doesn't mean anything since it is not competing with those machines. The games speak for themselves.
w3rd. The PSP is nice hardware to be sure, but Nintendo seems very much back in the zone with the DS from a software standpoint. Lots of very original stuff coming out that is of "OG" Nintendo quality. Nintendo is not to be laughed at when they're in the zone, least of all in the handheld market. I do agree that PSP will gain some momentum over here because stupid 20-somethings want to rip off a hooker's head in GTA or whatever other dumbass thing....but luckily for us retards do not yet rule the earth and just because they're the majority of posters on IGN Boards doesn't necessarily make them the majority of the game-buying population.
K, I think there's a bit of a problem with comunication in here. The PSP going up is an hypothetical theory that depends on many other points. Some of you talk about graphics like if PSP was that great. Shit, most games look like PSone ports. The point of the PSP was playing on the go what you play in your house, but where's that? the only game that looks pretty much like something on PS2 is GTALCS, and that's an expansion BTW, not a PSP first. The killzone that's about to be launch could be run in DS too, why didnt' they make it into a FPS? the original one wasnt that good but this isometric version doesnt look better either. So what does sony do? release a bunch of DS clones, intead of giving us the real thing: a portable experience that equals the console one. But whats my point? they can solve the games problem by just releasing good games, they can solve the battery issue with a new one, etc.. The PSP has no problems that are THAT hard to solve, but the DS lacking power is a big one, cuz the only solution is to launch another console to take its place. And say what you want: the lack of power soon or later takes it's toll on gameplay. For example, where's the RTS games for DS? the touchscreen would be even better than a PC for that, yet I dont see starcraft, warcraft or even the old C&C being released, is that due to lack of processing power? or the SDK problems subbie said? My opinion is that PSP still has the possibility to take over the market, but since the people in sony seem to be inside a reality distortion field (again, check the PS3) this possible scenario where the PSP reigns the market may never happen. There's the Iran's president and most of our politicians, and the idiot-casual represents the biggest share of the market. In other words: this is doomsday:evil:
Graphics, historically speaking, have never been the "make or break" feature of portables. I really doubt this is ever going to change. You mean like Advance Wars: Dual Strike? Or Ages of Empires DS? Or Real Time Conflict: Shogun Empires? Or Battles of Prince of Persia? Yes, the latter totally suck. But the point is, they make 'em. I imagine people just don't thinking RTS is exactly the best "portable" genre... Besides, its not like Blizzard is going to pop their heads out of their ass and decide "Hey, lets not just sit back and not do shit and make millions off of WoW!" anytime soon (or if they do it certainly won't be to develop for a portable console).
Yeah but never in history a portable had the power of a current generation console (the TGexpress doesnt counts since TG16 was an 8bit era machine) like the PSP does compared with PS2. And there's the fact cellphones equiped with 3D accelerators are just around the corner. Sure the Ngage didnt catch-up, but that was becos of Nokia's own mediocrity, like sony with the PSP. I could go on and on about how 3D phones will reign supreme in the near future, but to make it short remember: some years ago people from PDA companies said smartphones were just another lame gimmick. Look who's the king of the hill now... I wouldn't play a portable Homeworld unless I was in a 12 hour intercontinental flight (and had enough batteries:nod but there's a lot of other RTS that are way more quick and fast paced. About Wow, well here's when irony begins: a portable version would kick ass since fans of the series could login from virtually anywhere (work, malls, the bus, etc...) yet there's no way to do it. From the 2 portables in the market, one has the controller yet lacks the capacity (DS) and the other has the power yet lacks the ways to imput information (PSP). That's why a PSP-powered DS would kick ass. I hope that "friendship" ninty and MS seemed to have during E3 could mean a future joint-venture between the two, maybe in a portable form...
Someone thinks way to highly of the ps1. PSP games are more around Dreamcast quality (if not a bit more in some games like daxter). This year we should really start seeing games push the psp since people will better understand the hardware. There is huge amounts of power to tap from if a company does it right and not just try to port down a ps2 engine.
What do you mean "Just around the corner"? They've been out for ages. The latest thing is digital TV. Yep, no more shitty analogue fuzz-a-vision TV for mobiles. Yakumo
Actually, this is Sony's real failing in the majority of their PSP game selection, I think: they're trying to make console games work on a handheld, instead of playing to the strengths of the handheld platform. The DS clones are a tiny proportion of the PSP catalogue, the vast majority are handheld versions of PS2 franchises. Why is Lumines generally considered the best title on the platform? Because you can pick it up and put it down in 10 minutes, but it keeps you coming back. Console games don't work like that: usually you want extended play, a decent plot, character development and all that crap that just doesn't work on a handheld. That the current crop of PSP games are mostly sloppy ports is irrelevant, the real issue is that they're trying to make console games into handheld games, which is like fitting a square into a circle. That's why you get people complaining that the controls aren't good in a lot of games: they were designed to fit a dual shock, and then thrown onto the PSP where they don't fit. Sony don't seem to have realised that what makes a good game on a console does not necessarily make a good game on a handheld. If they do, and adjust their strategy, they could be a threat to the DS. If they continue to churn out poorly-executed ports then they won't be.
But then... The point os this portable nextgen was simple: if you want console graphics go for PSP, but if you want gameply then go for DS. The DS pretty much succeded in that aspect, yet the PSP didnt. The sloppy ports you mention dont represent the "portable PS2" experience some people wanted and sony said it would. I think subbie is right and the problem was the lack of experience developers had with PSP. I hope the next batch of games help the sales of the console. After all, we dont want another ninty monopoly in this sector. Remember the GBC days?...
My point was that it doesn't matter that the ports were sloppy. The fact that they are ports from a console means they generally don't work too well on a handheld. Even if you had an actual PS2 in a handheld, it wouldn't be a good game experience because most games wouldn't suit the circumstances of use.
Is a good point, after all a portable version of a normal console would be like those big laptops: a desktop replacement. But on the other hand there's some console games that can be played in quick sessions, like Counter Strike. In the DS is impossible, yet the PSP has more than enough power. although the fact you cant use the Dpad and analog at the same time may fuck up the entire game.
