Sony announces PSP's battery life...

[A Black Falcon]

Mainly just the Nintendo faithful.

True, though not only, because of the large number of RPGs... Nintendo fans aren't exactly the only ones who like those. :)

I hope that's true but I'm not going to get my hopes up. Better to be pleasantly surprised than let down, I say.

Pessimism is just fine, but sometimes you can go too far...

You don't think they care? I certainly hope that they care!

Its quite obvious that they don't care as much as their competitors do.

Yeah they gradually get smarter and smarter but it takes them soooo long. They still haven't announced any plans to release EB1&2 or the superb-looking Magical Vacation(which has been out for over a year in Japan) in the states. Nintendo is too afraid of taking risks.

But this is Nintendo, just about the least risk-taking company in the world... they go too far too often. :(

The Genesis was never far ahead of the SNES in terms of sales. When Mortal Kombat came out and Nintendo decided to edit their version of the game Sega certainly got a nice boost, but near the end of the SNES' life Nintendo was definitely on top. Sega's downfall began with the Sega CD.

Remember, Genesis came out well before the SNES... like a year before. In that time it built up a good lead... and held it for quite some time. I am sure that I've read that for years after its release the SNES was behind, at least in the US... it started out way back but gained ground steadily, especially as Sega's mistakes mounted.

Well the Gamecube name doesn't mean much, it's 'Nintendo' that sells systems.

The Gameboy name is probably almost as big as the Playstation name among children, but that's not the largest percentage of the video game market. Adults buy the most games now, and if Nintendo doesn't aggressively target their next handheld towards adults then they're gonna be in big trouble.

That is true, but on the other hand they need to keep that children's market... without it Nintendo would be in serious trouble. They'd need to find a way to attract the mass-market consumer, something they haven't had success at in many years... so yes, they must diversify. But not at the cost of losing that base that sells most of their consoles... it may not be the majority of the market anymore, but it is a big part. They just need to find a way to attract adults too without losing the younger market... they could do it if they do it right. I certainly hope so.

Oh, and a more powerful console should help with the adult market... I know that power isn't everything, but people these days like nice 3d graphics so much... :(

The PSP is going to be successful because Sony will be targeting the PSP towards adults and the mainstream, the same thing they did with the PSX and PS2. Don't forget that kids also love the Playstation because kids like to play the same things that their older siblings/role models play. Although I doubt that the PSP will sell as many units to kids as the GBA since it will be a lot more expensive than the GBA.

If Nintendo continues to target children but also adults then they have a good change of staying at #1 in the handheld market. They've been trying that with the Gamecube but with very little success, so I don't know if they'll be able to pull it off. Of course they didn't try to target adults until later on in the GC's life so it was a bit too late, but you know...

By the time it comes out you'll probably be able to buy four or five GBA's and almost as many GBA SPs for the price of a PSP... that will pretty much kill much adoption from children. Not many parents buy $300 consoles for their kids... not when what they have is still 'perfectly good'... but yes, in the adult market they should do much better. I'm not sure how well, but just by force of marketing it should work among gamers... I don't see it making people switch from cellphone games to PSPs or anything, though.



Oh, and what about the PSP's layout? Analog stick, D-Pad, 4 face buttons (X, Square, Circle, Triangle), 2 shoulder buttons (L and R)), Start, and Select... that's 8 buttons, unless the analog stick is clickable (didn't mention it so I doubt it). That's fewer buttons than a PSX or PS2 so just like with GB ports would need to be reworked... but you can only fit so many buttons on a portable and have it remain portable.