E3: Sony announces portable system

[SNYder]

E3: Sony announces portable system (http://www.gameforms.com/news/?816)

Some specific specs (of what little are known) (http://www.animenation.net/news/index.php?id=4900)

[Mr Jones]

Sony jumps on another bandwagon.

Nintendo will always be the handheld king, but all power to Sony if they get this off the ground, they are gonna have to shift some units to get ahead of Ninty however, what was it, 140million GB units at last count, including mine ;)

I'll take some convincing to swap over, what with my several thousand GBA roms, linker cable and flash cart , all back up's of course....

[SNYder]

They may jump on bandwagons a lot, but when they do they make great products. This system sounds sweet. It has most of the features of Microsoft's Media2Go (portable media player) and all the power of the PSOne with the rumored ability to play any PSOne game, though the games will probably have to be re-purchased on these new UMD. Plus I guess the games would have to be touched up to work on a lower-res 16:9 screen.

If nothing more, it will atleast provide some good compatition for Nintendo, and competition is good as it will force Nintendo and other companies to make better products.

I bet if Nintendo had had some decent competition while it was making the GameBoy Advanced then it would have originaly come with a lit screen and rechargable battery.

[edit: added shit]

[dlinkwit27]

GBASP! woo hoo! gotta love teh light up screen. Advance wars rules!

[Mr Jones]

Originally posted by SNYder

I bet if Nintendo had had some decent competition while it was making the GameBoy Advanced then it would have originaly come with a lit screen and rechargable battery.

[edit: added shit]

True 'dat, although they would probably argue the case that thin film back lit screens, without the need to carry two suitcase sized batteries around with you, only became possibility within the last couple of years.

The only problem I can see with what sony are trying to do, is the same problem they have with the PS2, and it's where Nintendo have always scored points against them, is that this new handheld dosn't quite know what it wants to be, is it a games machine, is it a portable DVD player, is it a audio player?

Nintendo have always without fail said "this is a gameboy, it plays games, it's focused on being a games machine, it won't cook your dinner, won't play your favourite porn movie, it's a games machine" it's partly why they are so succesful in the handheld market, and at the same time, probably why they are lagging behind in the home market. Few would argue that the Cube is a kick ass piece of dedicated games technology, but people want it to sing and dance and do everything for them.

Personally, I have a PS2, and I think it's great, but it's seriously lacking when you look at the cube, ok, it plays DVD's as well , wooo, it plays audio, woooo, but it's just toooo much, if sony had poured that extra effort into the game side of the machine, which essentially it is, then it would have been kicking ass for many years to come.

While I am no big supporter of Nintendo, I do appreciate the hand held market they have, I used a GBC for many years and now my GF has bought me a GBAsp I couldn't be happier with it, it does exactly what it says it does, plays games, bus rides to work have never been so much fun.

I see a lot of this cross technology stuff in the future, have you seen the new nokia phone, the Ngage or whatever it's called? is it a phone with games, or is it a hand held console with phone capabilities?

[SNYder]

You do have a point. But Games and Video both fall under the catagory of onscreen entertainment and even use many of the same components, so if you can effectivly bring them together into one unit, most people would surely want that. And who else to more effectivly bring them together in one unit then Sony

They make money and the majority of the people are more happy with the product.

But if it was a better world, they would of course seperate the two.