simply by deciding to challenge Nintendo, don' t you think?

Definitely! Nintendo have dominated the handheld market fot the last 15 years and so know it better than anyone. It is the success of the Gameboy Advance that kept Nintendo going through some of their dark days on the home console front. I think it would be very foolish for Microsoft to enter the Handheld market but I don' t see it happening.

Considering Nintendo' s past I think that the PSP is doing really good. Nintendo has lost lots of marketshare because of the PSP. Think about the fact that lots of those PSP owners would' ve bought a DS if it weren' t for the PSP. Sony has dealt major damage to Nintendo' s handheld bussiness.
Even though the DS outsells the PSP, the PSP is still a success.
So Microsoft missed out on something by not going handheld.
But this wasn' t about how good the DS or the PSP is doing.
It was about the choice Nintendo did. I stick by my idea that Nintendo didn' t have much of a choice. Their image was already damaged and Sony going handheld made lots of people interested. The whole success of the DS rests on the fact that it was different, innovative and cheap.
A GBA2 VS PSP would' ve been a terrible battle to fight for Nintendo.
Making the DS was a way to avoid that battle.

Just a little confession:
I actually enjoy playing the DS more than I enjoy playing the PSP so overall I personally think the DS is the better console.
But I love fighting games and I think the PSP is showing more on that front.
I also feel you can play fighting games without arcade sticks, even though it' s not as fun.

Hi everyone! Nothing to do with the last post, but I have to share my thoughts on Nintendo' s strategy: I think that the Wii will fail, and that is because of one very major flaw in it' s design and conception. That is that the future of gaming is not in ever evolving hardware but in software. NIntendo took the easy and ONLY way out (they had) when they decided to make a console with lower specs and a motion sensing controller. So now, any game released for Wii does not actually have to be good int eh traditional sense; it just has to present an interesting use of the Wii-mote. And finally, I believe that the real future of gaming lies in better AI and writing, to create more immersive virtual worlds, and novel concepts like Spore which push the boundaries of our imaginiation ever further. I think that gaming has to really evolve before it can change.

As a respons to your post I will say that I think Nintendo' s strategy is right for some people while it might be wrong for others.

Technology: I prefer great gameplay above everything else. Games can have low technical standards as long as it' s fun and the art direction is good.

Gameplay: I think, and really hope, that the Wii-mote will enhance the gameplay in many genres, but it won' t work with all of them of course. For example, I can' t imagine playing a fighting game with the Wii-mote instead of a regular controller, something I believe the team behind Super Smash Bros would agree with.

Experience: The Wii brings a unique side of gaming that we haven' t seen before and as the only product available with such features (not counting the DS) I think the Wii is a valuable product.

The market: Of course, the ideal console would be a console with the horsepower of the PS3 or the 360 combined with the Wii-mote.
But such a console would cost quite a lot and Nintendo' s strategy besides innovation has been appealing to the mass market aswell as lowering production costs for developers.

The future: When developers have understood the concepts of the Wii-mote it will get tons of great titles, just like the DS. And when that happens I' ll be there

I said it before and I will say it again. When the DS came out people said the touch screen was a gimmick and that the DS would fail against the PSP and look at it now! The launch of the Wii was a masive success! I don' t think even Nintendo expected such a response. If the Wii can deliver quality titles I have no doubt that the Wii will succeed.

Just to set one thing straight though: DS is by no means a great console; the PSP simply sucked ass. So, devoid of a better alternative, people obviously went for nintendo' s much overrated handheld.

DS is by no means a great console

LOl.. u crazy? DS is one of the best ive ever owned, Probably THE best.. No other Company has not, or could not come up with anything better. DS is almost the perfect Handheld, in software and the way we play the thing.. Hence it Boosting Nintendos Market share even higher than before.


In response to Gin and thingking that PSP stole alot of nintendos market share. Nah they never, Nitnendo vstly boosted their own share due to making the DS acessable to All kinds of gamers. (IE girls, moms, Dads, old gamers).

DS is by no means a great console

Too bad the DS is not a console, its a handheld
Theyre meant for different things.

Handheld: Short, fun, addictive gameplay(which rules out the PSP with its minute+ load times. If you think the DS isnt the best handheld in history, youre blind.)
Console: Online competetive or deep story-driven gameplay

ORIGINAL: Nitro

I have high hopes for iRiver G10...





...and XGP...





Right now though all i want to do is play Portable Ops. I want to know where DMC PSP is too!

While the aesthetics are great, these devices are destined to fail just like the NGage. Little to no software support means a slow and painful death on the market. I can' t see any big publishers jumping on these bandwagons for long.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne


While the aesthetics are great, these devices are destined to fail just like the NGage. Little to no software support means a slow and painful death on the market. I can' t see any big publishers jumping on these bandwagons for long.

Well XGP wouldn' t be direct competition anyway as the two previous machines were almost exclusively used for playing homebrew and running emulators.

iRiver have had some success in the MP3 player market and their machine could amass a hardcore following like Wonderswan did. But like you say, big publishers wouldn' t risk it. That' s not necessarily a bad thing though.

Would love to see a version of flow on either of those.

And BTW: Maybe DS is the best handheld of all time. I suppose I just don' t much care for handhelds.

I didn' t care about handhelds at all until I saw the DS.
But then I got a PSP anyway, just like I got a 360 instead of a Wii...
WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH ME???