Nintendo DS

[Mike Leon]

Word around the office has it these things are already sitting in the stock room. SRP $149.99

I haven't been paying much attention to handheld systems lately, but I'm now positive these things are going to own the market. Aside from DVD capability, the DS does everything the PSP does (and has at least three times the battery life) for half the price. Furthermore, it's easy to upsell these from the GBSP because they're so much more capable for a minimal price increase. If some clueless mom is looking to buy her kid an SP for Christmas and I say "Look. This is so much newer and cooler and it's only $50 more expensive." She's probably going to realize it's the better deal.

I'm going to make two predictions here.
1. The DS will beat the hell out of the PSP in sales.
2. The DS will be EXTREMELY hot for Christmas this year.

We'll come back and see how those pan out in January.

[Arrrhalomynn]

I'm not so sure. Graphically the DS is a lot less than the PSP, and that's pretty important nowadays. The DS might have a good start with a low price, backwards compatibility and an earlier release, but Sony's marketing works brilliantly.  And being able to play movies on it IS a pretty cool gimmick.

I'm also not sure if Nintendo's games will make it a super succes. The games I've seen so far aren't very impressive. They don't make good use of the second screen, look mediocre and are mainly sequels. I can't imagine much people nowadays still have a craving to play Mario 64. Sure, they'll buy and enjoy it, but it's not the killer game the DS needs to take customers away from sony.

And where did you read the ds has thrice the battery life of the psp? I did some searching and I can't find the details on that anywhere. I thought no information has been made official yet about this. Besides, even if the DS will have a longer battery life, it'll probably still be short, because it has to power those 2 screens.

Clueless moms might buy the shiniest cheapest thing in store, but more informed customers will probably put some more thought into it. Maybe the DS will be a top seller for kids and the PSP a top seller for adults.

In short, I don't agree with your first prediction, but your second might come true. But mainly because the PSP won't be out yet.

[Zimbacca]

Word around the office has it these things are already sitting in the stock room. SRP $149.99

If some clueless mom is looking to buy her kid an SP for Christmas and I say "Look. This is so much newer and cooler and it's only $50 more expensive." She's probably going to realize it's the better deal.

I'm going to make two predictions here.
1. The DS will beat the hell out of the PSP in sales.
2. The DS will be EXTREMELY hot for Christmas this year.

The SP is actually only $75.00, so the DS is actually going to be $75 more.  I do think that you're predictions are right though.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Just remember that the Gamecube was cheaper and it got killed in sales. Though if I was rolling in dough I might actually get it for Mario 64 that games awsome.

[Zimbacca]

True, but Nintendo already owns the handheld market.  Unlike the console market where its actually had competition.

[Arrrhalomynn]

Nintendo USED to own the console market, when sega took half of it with the genesis and sony later took much more of it. Just like Atari used to own the market. I don't really think that matters.

[Zimbacca]

Well, I'm just saying that they have an advantage.

[Antimind]

Personally I'll get a DS because I'm a Nintendo fan girl however...

The (Jap) releases that I've seen for the PSP sound really appealing as opposed to what I've been reading about the DS. At this point I'm more looking forward to getting a PSP for Darkstalkers and the Tales series. Either way I won't get either system for a while cause money is very tight. I'm gonna hold off until the PSP is released and wait to see who gets a Tales game first and whatnot. Might sound screwy to you guys to hold off because of one game and one game alone but I've come to realize that I really really love the Tales games and I play them a whole lot more than all of the games I've played in the past few years combined. To me it makes more sense to buy something I'll actually get my money's worth from.

[Arrrhalomynn]

Here's a nice comparison between the DS and the PSP.
DS: Ridge Racer




Madden 2005




PSP: Need for Speed




Tiger Woods





Of course these 2 screenshots don't say everything, but there's a huge gap in quality between them.  I may be shallow (and so are most people), but if I can choose between 2 handhelds, and I get these 2 graphic examples shoved under my nose, I won't won't have to think longer than a second to decide which one I'd choose.

The more screenshots I see, the more I get the feeling that the release of the ds, is like releasing a playstation, while the playstation 2 will be released in half a year. It'll probably sell to the hardcore gamers and the fanboys, but I expect the mainstream to go for the psp.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Those screenshots are kind of hard to ague with when it comes to graphical quality.  What sticks out at me even more, though, is that second screen is displaying a steering wheel.  That's almost the stupidest thing I've ever seen in video games, right after Extreme Sports with the Berenstein Bears.  Why in the world do I need a second screen to show me how much my steering wheel is turned??  What good does that do except waste battery life, distract me from the action, and give Sony fanboys something to point and laugh at?

[Arrrhalomynn]

I guess you can use the touch screen to steer. As dumb as that may sound.

I don't understand why they just won't put everything at the second screen; the speedometer, the clock, etc. Now it's still in the way when making a corner. That's some very bad use of the 2 screen feature.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Oh.  Well, the way I see it is it's:

1.) just an excuse to use the touch screen and therefore a gimmick
2.) probably not nearly as effective/accurate as a D-pad
3.) distractive because you have to look at the second screen
4.) still a waste of battery power

[Arrrhalomynn]

IS it actually possible to have one screen turned off?

[Lord Nepenthean]

I don't know, but I would hope the thing is at least smart enough to turn one screen off when you're playing a GB/GBC/GBA game on it.  I haven't been following much of the tech side of this thing though, since like I said in another thread about DS, it just doesn't interest me much.  That said, will both screens be backlit?  If so, I hope they at least have the sense to allow the backlight to be turned on and off of each screen separately.  Being able to turn one off completely would be good too.

[Izret101]

WOW i guess thoes are just more things to pack on to my trhoughts of the DS being highly overrated and sucking compared to the "revolution" it was supposed to cause