22nd September 2003, 11:12 AM
Quote:Oh, the SP is a move towards older gamers, for sure... not so sure if its for the casual older market, since I just don't see killer ap games for casual older gamers in the lineup (unless they like the genres that GBA has lots of, like strategy/tactical games and RPGs). Its trying to expand the GB market, sure, but its also there just for the GB's own older fanbase... since a lot of them were annoyed with certain features of the GBA... now if they'd have launched the SP with some new games or something for older gamers and lots of (good) marketing maybe it would be different, but that's what I see. And anyway, two years after a console comes out is a bit late to finally be trying to attract a market that isn't particularly drawn to an established console... but I don't know. Its a move but given the realities of the GB and Nintendo it can only do so much.
So you finally admit that Nintendo's target audience for the GBA isn't adults. And that last line of yours doesn't make even a tiny bit of sense. "Trying to attract a market that isn't particularly drawn to an established console"... uh, that's kind of the point of the word "attract". You get people who aren't already playing the games to come to the system, since attracting people who already have Gameboys is kind of a stupid thing to do. You want to get the people who don't already have a Gameboy to buy one.
Quote:Those things are all absolutely true...
And that's why I expect to see Nintendo repeat similar mistakes with their next handheld as they did with the N64/GC.
Quote:I didn't mean the GBA about that, just the GB (and GBC to a lesser extent). The NES didn't exactly have 'mature' games in big numbers either...
That's because it wasn't until Mortal Kombat 2 came out that Nintendo started to allow real violence in their games, so everything before that was kid-friendly. There were a whole bunch of violent games available for the 2600 (like like Custer game where you rape Indians... seriously), so technology isn't what kept Nintendo from releasing violent games on the Gameboys.
Quote:I don't think it hurt that much...
Are you kidding me? Why do you think that when the PS2 first came out most people bought DVDs instead of games? While it was bad for Sony at first since they lost money per PS2 shipped, it gave the system an enourmous userbase so when the good games started rolling in they sold extremely well. The whole DVD player debate was very popular during the X-Box and GC launch, in case you forgot. I can't even remember how many people I saw in Babbages and Best Buy ask "which system can play DVD movies?" and bought them because of that.
Quote:Nope. When the PSX came out the SNES was pretty old. It was near the end of its life, technologically for sure. Nintendo had just been through a tough fight with Sega, and had barely pulled out a win... Nintendo had over half the worldwide market, but not by a huge margin. Sega had dropped, sure, after the CD and 32X, but it was still there... Nintendo was NOT 'clearly dominant'. And Sony came in at the perfect time, when Sega was down and Nintendo running on clearly aging technology for several years... Yes, Nintendo did make some great games in those last years, and that's why they managed to survive until the N64 came out. Their share dropped, but they lasted quite some time against better competition just on sheer inertia and great games... for their fans. Sony exploited the situation with great marketing and a powerful console. They just hit at the exact right time... the CD systems before them had the right idea, the technology just wasn't ready yet. It was when the PSX was designed. The general public admittedly likes the great graphics, and the PSX did that... SNES did great for a console in its situation, though, I would say. Better than Sega at that point for sure (remember for a while Genesis and SNES were tied...).
You're missing the point. The GBA technology will be far more inferior to the PSP than the SNES was to the PSX, so that evens things out. At the end of the SNES' lifespan Nintendo was king of the market. And remember that Sony didn't become insanely popular until around the time FFVII came out, so the Sony that fought against the SNES was not popular at the time. I'd also like to remind you that the first generation of PSX games looked like crap, so it wasn't that big of a leap over the previous CD systems that came out.
Quote:Oh, and as for the 'make cool to general public', I'd say the first campaign like that was Sega's with the Genesis. Not Sony with the PSX.
Sega tried that but it didn't work on a large scale. They were just "cool" amongst gamers, not mainstream America.
Quote:You make them sound far, far more similar than they are! In this case, Sony will be coming against a console in the middle of its life... past its prime perhaps but still strong. Okay, so there are some comparisons -- the GBA will surely, like the SNES, last quite some time just based on inertia and great games being released... but there are also key differences.
Like 50-55% vs. 90-98%. That one matters. A lot.
It sounds similar because it is, you dolt! And do you know what else is different? Nintendo isn't half as popular today as they were ten years ago. Also, the generation gap between the GBA and PSP will be over twice as large as the gap between the SNES and the PSX, no doubt about it.
Quote:How about this? The N64 was a year behind the PSX. The GC was a year behind the PS2. Both of those greatly hurt Nintendo. They clearly learned that that will not work... now in this case they do not need to be there on day one with Sony, no way, but they can't be a year behind. Three months? No problem... as I said the GBA will do great for some time after the PSX comes out... I don't know how it'll compare to the SNES and the PSX, but I think it could do as well as that one did. And, especially in Japan, the SNES did very well for years...
That's Japan, and that was back when Nintendo was the most popular gaming company in the world. They're not the most popular anymore. It's not just time that Nintendo has to worry about, it's also the capabilities of their next handheld. Sony is clearly going to target an older, mainstream audience and because of that Sony can make their handheld more expensive than the GBA. I really don't know if Nintendo is going to do that. It's probably going to end up much like the PSX/N64 war where Sony got ahead by attracting adults and non-gamers while Nintendo just stuck to kids and hardcore gamers.