No no no, you're not getting it. NEC is a huge electronics company with many divisions. And I don't know if you remember, but at one point the PC Engine (TG16) was the most popular system in Japan (late eighties, early nineties).
Yes, NEC is, but being able to make great monitors is hardly going to help as much with a video game console as Sony's music and movies divisions will help them with PSP and what they plan to do with it. If nobody makes movies for PSP, SOny still can, and they have tons of stuff to release. If Sony wants to release music albums on their discs, they can do that too. If they sell well, other companies will follow suit. NEC is a huge company, yes. They have many divisions, yes. Still, few people know about them or care about them because they make stuff that isn't nearly as noticeable as Sony's products.
As for the PC Engine, you're absolutely right. In Japan, a lot of things happen. The WonderSwan actually sells well, and the Saturn didn't suck there. It's crazier than the Twilight Zone. I'm not saying the PC Engine is by any means a bad console, but the difference (as you also said) is that Sony also has a huge base already in the USA, and in Japan, and in Europe, and pretty much everywhere. That's a big difference if you ask me.
Don' get me wrong - I really like NEC. I just know that the PSP will be a lot different than anything NEC ever put out in terms of financial success.
The PC Engine GT played console games. I still maintain this is why it failed, and is why the PSP will ultimately fail. Why spend 20 hours playing GTA on the PSP, when you can sit in your comfortable arm chair with surround sound and play the thing on a much bigger screen? Most of the time people will be playing the thing when on the bus, on the crapper, etc. I'm talkiing like 10-20 minutes at a time. It's very important to keep in mind that nobody here is the "typical" gamer. You might rock a PSP game for 3 hours at a time, but I will bet good money the average consumer will have no desire to do so. I will also wager the DS won't do nearly as well as it's predecessors, but better than the PSP in the long run because of GBA backward compatability.
We have to step back and look at what was so successful on the Gameboy(s): Warioware, Tetris and other puzzlers, platformers with saves at the end of each level, pokemon for the kids, etc. etc. Most definetely NOT your typical modern day console games.
OD
Excellent points. One thing that is probably a little different now though is that these games will be developed for a handheld system. Sure, some of them may require more playtime, but some of the small things that make a TurboExpress or Nomad not as cool won't be problems here. With those consoles, reading menus and scores, or even seeing what's going on is nearly impossible since the game's visuals were designed for a large screen, rather than the small portable one. This won't be a problem for PSP.
Also, many of those console games had no way to save, so when you only play one race or a level or two, there's no way to start where you left off. Think about how much worse a NGPC would be without the internal battery save feature. Metal Slug would still be great on it, but it's a lot better since it was designed to work with a handheld. This kind of thing (which PSP will have in one way or another I assume) will help those games with many hours of gameplay be a lot better on a handheld.
You're right in one respect that developers could definitely go overboard with this thing. I do think though that the thing will still sell well because some of the problems with the Nomads and Turbo Expresses of the world won't be existent here, and Sony has a big userbase that will buy anything with the name Sony on it, regardless of whether or not it sucks.
Back to the GTA topic quick, does anyone else realize that GTA is already on a handheld, and it sold for shit! The gba has a version already and nobody wants a pint sized gta, they want it big screen. So to say that it will be a force for PSP i disagree, but FFVII now thats another story.
Yeah, I know about this. There were also GTA games on GameBoy Color. They suck. I really doubt that the announcement of GTA for PSP means they are making another 2D GTA with SNES graphics. Remember, this thing can put out graphics on par with a PS2. I fully suspect this new GTA to be 3D, like GTA3, Vice City, or San Andreas. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what will be coming out. If so, it's a big deal. If it's 2D, Rockstar is stupid.
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