Is Nintendo losing its grip on the handheld market?

From MagicBox:

- David Gosen of Nintendo confirmed that the company is already developing a successor of GameBoy Advance, and it is a different system from Nintendo DS. The launch time of the system will base on how well the Nintendo DS will do in the market. If Sony PSP gains more market share, Nintendo will launch the successor of GameBoy Advance as early as 2006, otherwise the launch time will push back for another year (which is 2007).

It' s not the fact that they' re developing a GameBoy Advance successor, it' s that they' re planning to release it so soon after the DS if the PSP becomes a hit.

They may claim that the DS is in a different category than the GameBoy Advance and its real successor but in some peoples' minds I think the only thing that will register is that Nintendo has released two handheld units within a very short time frame of each other, which some may see as some type of warning sign.

I' d rather see them pull the DS from production, return to the drawing board and combine the idea of the DS with the specs of their GBA successor and release only that unit in 2006.

The DS could perhaps be the next Virtual Boy with slightly better marketing. I wonder if they will fire and murder the employee who came up with the DS like they did to the one who came up with the Virtual Boy? :)

Let us not start on that debate again

Personally, I think Nintendo really needs to take a look at what in annihilation their marketing people are thinking - if they launch the next Game Boy within three years of the DS, they' re going to lose a lot of people to Sony' s camp quite quickly, simply because they' re more stable (at least in the eyes of the populace).

" The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves."
-from Oedipus Rex

^ That' s one thing I like about Sony. So far, they proven that if they are putting something out, they are going to go thru with it. Since they know their product is giong to be around for a while, they make it high quality to begin with.

I want a PSP personally, but I still thought nintendo might come out ahead in the handheld market. It' s a little too early to guess, since we don' t know the prices or really anything about the software coming out for them either.

Yeah, PooDoo, especialy those high quality PS2 DVD drives.

All jokes aside, I have never had any trouble from a Sony console (other than my DVD playback on my PS2). And I really think that they want the handheld market from the (not so) Big N, which would give them even more reason to create a high quality system.

So, I think yes. It may be time for Nintendo to go the way of Sega....

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

no its not they r perfect and r not losing their grip.

*Gasp* No they are not losing there grips. They are as strong as ever. I am still amazed they are still breaking records. I mean with all those colors coming out, special edition SP' s, it' s mind boggeling. I bet an average person has already bought like 3 SP' s or 2.

www.myspace.com/dokidokijapan

i agree starman

Hahah it' s awesome that you agree with me on most things vanswa. That' s awesome.

www.myspace.com/dokidokijapan

because you are always right.

There is a serious possibility for Sony to conquer the handheld market.
I hope this will never happen, because it would mean the end of gaming industry, and the begin of " promotional gaming" industry.

Nintendo could lose many fan, because many of them believe that Nintendo DS will be the successor of GBA.
Otherwise, the DS is only a beta project to see how many success can earn, the real successor of GBA is very far.

Nintendo didn' t get where it is today, in the handheld market, by being easily pushed aside by newcomers.

They will be here for a very long time and will offer all those (and more) wonderful games/franchises that you see today.

Sony has a lot to prove with their system. They know their system may fail, so they will do just about anything they need to to make it a success...but even that will take time as the handheld market seems quite a bit slower to accept handheld entries from newcomers - even if it' s Sony.

Now, to answer your question more bluntly...Can' t lose anything without the competition releasing their entry.

Don' t worry...everything will be just fine for Nintendo and gamers.

Videogaming is the contemporary interactive pasttime.

I don' t think Nintendo are losing their grip at all.

I think that the " successor" to the GBA won' t come out for awhile.
Even if it did, the DS won' t be another virtual boy.
Developers are really excited about making games for it,and the DS will appeal to a lot of people-even more so than the SP in a lot of cases.

I' ve put off getting a GBA for a long time,but I' m not passing up the DS.

I' ll start tomorrow, starting tomorrow.

i think the DS is gonna lose to the PSP

i dont mean Nintendo is losing their grip on the handheld market. i just think the PSP is better than the DS

The GameBoy line of products will always rule its own section of the handheld industry, in my eyes

and besides, has anyone heard of the zodiac? that might worm its way in.

i think the DS is gonna lose to the PSP

i dont mean Nintendo is losing their grip on the handheld market. i just think the PSP is better than the DS

I used to think that but have changed my position...
I have every reason to believe that the DS is gonna wipe the mat with the PSP for several reasons.

#1 is that the DS is still on target for release this year. The PSP' s release date has been wavering non-stop as of late with strong rumors suggesting a worldwide delay- Causing it to miss the all important Holiday sales period in Japan.. The DS will eat that up as it' s supposed to be available in both regions before Christmas.
Couple that with backwards compatibility with GBA games and we have a winna!

#2 Is just a personal opinion but I think the idea of Dual screens is gonna really appeal to many people. Once Nintendo advertises that puppy on TV and show the dual screens being utilized in some cool ways I think alot of gamers are gonna wet their pants going OOOOOOH!!!!

#3 Reading Konami' s impressions of both handhelds, they were like " Eh" with the PSP but were like " Yum!" with the DS. I' ve read similar reactions from a few other developers.


I only brought up the concerns in my original post because it seemed wayyyyy too early for Nintendo to introduce yet another handheld sooo soon after the DS. But I' m willing to see how things play out.

eh

i wasnt really thinking in terms of releases and stuff

i just was thinking in terms of the quality and stuff

every game ive seen so far for ds has the 2nd screen being used for a map, and... first impressions are a big deal to me. i dont know why

the psp' s release has been wavering, but that might be due to some last minute tweaks. and, last i heard, i heard it was coming out next may