"What About the Next Game Boy?"

Ikaruga wrote:
Haven't Nintendo just released hardware/software that lets you watch movies and play mp3's on the DS though. kinda knocks the whole 'just doing it for the games' into touch. Just that the DS' screen is too small for movies imo. he PSP, a proper 16:9 4" widescreen on the other hand, is far better. Though I can't honestl see people buying UMD's. More likely they'll rip their dvds to pc, to then convert to file suitable for mem stick pro and PSP.

IMO, both are in competition with each other, as both are portable games machines first and foremost. Most people alreay have i-pods for portable music, and surely you'd be better off with a portable dvd player if you don't want to watch movies. Especially when most people already have dvds at home, and portable players are very cheap now, bigger screens etc...

Nintendo tried to claim the GC wasn't in competition with the PS2/XBox because they were more focussed on games than the competiton.....

You got me with the sales thing, though the fact Sony is behind and all, while Nintendo get a bigger user base has to mean something significant, though it is very early days.

The whole Play-Yan thing wasn't made by Nintendo though, it's just like what Panasonic did, you can do all that on the DS, but Nintendo are aiming it for gaming, developers can do wahtever the hell they want. Besides watching movies on the DS wouldn't be too hot, as you said, its screen sucks compared to the PSP's, which is b-e-a-utiful. But I think the multimedia aspect is a very important one, people I speak to say that is the case with PSP over DS who have played both, you can't actually compare them as they are so different. And not all have an I-Pod by the way, like me who are poor and waiting for the ultimate music player to be made.

In sales terms the DS and PSP are pretty much in competition, just you can't compare actual consoles, except for the games, but then it is a little unfair in favour of the DS due to the touchscreen and other new options. I agree as sales go, they are pretty much in the same league, no denying that.

Ikaruga:

I think it only makes sense for nintendo to release GBEvo towards the end of the PSP's lifespan; it's swansong in the face of the PSP2. If the PSP proves to be as big as the DS, which it almost undoubtedly will, Nintendo releasing the GBEvo in the peak of the PSP's popularity will make a good fifty percent of the market (the PSP owners) think "why bother?". There is a reason why the next big home console generation gets released in one big go, and the new competition in the handheld market will probably go the same way.

As to speculation about the nature of the DS, I think it will be the "twenty minutes solo on the train" to the DS's "band brothers with friends in the park", or "co-op mode sitting in the car on a long journey". I can imagine it being nice looking (unlike the ugly brick that is the GBA, or the spartan presentation of a standard GBASP), but a fair shot more rugged than the PSP. There is a great little piece in the new issue of EDGE, on the intro to the Hype section, that talks about taking out the PSP on the tube to work, sliding it carefully out of it's slip case, polishing the screen, coveting it's beauty etc. etc., compared to taking out the GBA, turning it on and playing Wario Ware without caring about the fingerprints scratches all over it. That paticular article finishes by saying that the real evaluation of the PSP and DS can only be made when they are complete with scuffed corners and signs of heavy use, but I know that if I owned a PSP I wouldn't let it get into any kind of state. It just looks too nice.

But I digress...

I've no idea whether the PSP or DS will prove more popular in the long term, but the DS certainly has a huge advantage in that Nintendo is managing to get significant units to both Jap and USA pretty quickly, (and demand is there).

It will be interesting to see what the attach rate for both handhelds is after 6 months or a year. Now I may be wrong with this term, but I believe it relates to the average number of games bought per unit sold. Edge wrote in the latest issue, (146 Feb), that the XBox had possibly the highest atach rate of any console at almost 7:1. If the DS had a significantly higher attach rate thanthe PSP that would suggest people are using their DS' mainly for games, and perhaps PSP owners using their handheld for other things. Though it could also suggest that PSP owners are more likely to be casual gamers and hence buy less games.

[ Edited by Ikaruga on 2005/1/21 20:26 ]

Apparently trying to keep the PSP clean and neat is a hard task, though that was from a little slightly subjective review of the PSP.

The PSP does seem like it could be used a little bit more for MP3s though the amount of good games it is going to get probably mean it will be used more than just for its multimedia thangs.

I wonder how many people in Japan will end up buying both handhelds? Most people were expecting the PSP to be nearer

I think Nintendo will always make brilliant games. & now with the revolution leak & the movie/MP3 players for DS & GBASP, it seems Nintendo will do a lot better with the Modern Market.

The PSP will be about

... and what source is this?

[ Edited by Rob W on 2005/1/22 9:53 ]

He probably read the countless posts on the subject over the past few weeks and summed up what everyone said.

GBA2, GBE, SGBA or however is called has to be out in 2007 or later, many DS owners will be mad at nintendo, me included (since I bought my SP a year ago adn now i'm selling it because i have the DS).
Also I think the DS was a gap bettwen 32-bit GBA to (hopefully) 128-bit+ GBA2-GBE-SGBA, etc. So if rumours are true, in two yearsor more, you could be playing the new gamecube Zelda Game in your Revolution (backward compability) then you have to go, you save, turn off revolution and continue playing in your GBA2-GBE-SGBA, etc. THAT would be cool.

Gastrian wrote:
He probably read the countless posts on the subject over the past few weeks and summed up what everyone said.

Which in history class is what's called an "unreliable source".

The more I think of it, I'm starting to feel that the GBE is just Nintendo's Plan B--In the unlikely event the NDS fails. Not a bad idea--It's always good to have a Plan B, but any Plan B should have some type of exit strategy for NDS users to not totally piss them off, like Rob W and me.

maybe GBE will be capable of playing DS, gamecube and GBE's games aswell?? not, that is too farfetched without 2 screens, one touchable and mic, etc.

O_o;

I doubt it could play GCN games.

Well it's graphically possible and the discs are small enough to fit in a portable device. The only probkem I see is with the buttons- it would need all of the gamecube buttons, including two anolouge sticks. Think about how big a GC controller is. Now imagine having to fit a 3-4inch screen on it as well and still making it comfortable and portable - it ain't gonna happen imo.

[ Edited by fenno2001 on 2005/1/23 12:05 ]

I'v read about the revolution having conectivity with the GBA2 which could just be false, but perhaps this means the GBA2's prime use is for Revolution conectivity, like downloading features onto each format or possibly playing the same game on the Rev' and then switching ti the GBA2, similair to the PSP-PS2 connectivity.

UPDATE:

Another recent entry on IGN's mailbag has proven note-worthy; more specifically the quoted portions below (... and bolded text). More to be found through the link of course...

@IGN - http://ds.ign.com/mail/2005-01-24.html (if that link doesn't work just use the already stated general IGN DS Mailbag URL)

With all this DS and Revolution talk, no-one is talking about something else I know lot's of us are rooting for. It's the successor to the GBA. Don't forget that the DS is the THIRD pillar Nintendo introduced to it's gaming platforms. And since the Gamecube is soon to retire, how about the GBA? Has Nintendo disclosed anything about this? Are there any known plans at all? Or should we wait and see at E3 2005?

Cris Konert

Actually, Matt over on the IGN Cube channel sort of opened up that can of worms last week in his mailbag. See, since there's really nothing interesting happening on that system until Zelda, he feels the need to encroach on my territory. The bastard.

So, yes, there's been talk of the next generation Game Boy, which shouldn't be surprising considering that even when the Nintendo DS was revealed, Nintendo has always stood by the statement that the DS wasn't the next Game Boy, and that work was continuing on the future of the Game Boy line. Matt seems to feel that the next Game Boy system, strongly hinted for an announcement at this year's E3 show, will be a portable GameCube. My theory is a little closer to reality: it will most likely use GameCube technology, but it won't play GameCube games. The graphics chipset and hardware, still pretty damn impressive, will, if we've been hearing the rumors correctly, be shrunk down and be made power conservative, which would certainly bring the Game Boy branding in line with what Sony's pushing with the PSP.

But why am I saying it won't it play GameCube games? Well, first of all, games for the GameCube weren't made with conservation in mind. Many titles constantly read the disc for data, and that motor would cause a severe drain on the power of the unit, something Sony's frowning upon in the world of the PSP. Two is multiplayer: In Super Smash Bros. Melee, how do you get four systems to talk to each other wirelessly in a way that will "trick" the software into thinking it's playing off one unit with four controllers? It may be technically possible knowing the hardware skills of Nintendo engineers, but I'd guess that they'd leave something like this out of the realm of possibility.

But on the positive side, if Nintendo goes the way of using GameCube technology for its next system, much of what developers have created engine-wise can potentially be moved to the handheld with very little cost. And the GameCube has already proven itself worthy enough to emulate hardware as powerful as a Nintendo 64 (think Ocarina of Time) which makes it a bit more feasible for Nintendo to revive existing properties on the Game Boy "Evolution" (or whatever they're going to call it) for low cost game software. And, of course, it enables Nintendo to re-issue existing GameCube games as upgraded "remixes," much like what the company has already done with Super NES titles on the Game Boy Advance.

Yes, this is the more likely of the two scenarios.

-- Craig

I was wondering even though nintendo hasn't said anything about wifi hasn't someone cracked open the ds or searched on a wireless network for a wifi chip or signal?

Justin

Technical savvy Nintendo DS owners have indeed been poking around the DS hardware to see what sort of WiFi capabilities the system has, and in fact, just a few days after the system shipped several people with the necessary equipment noticed that PictoChat was actually sending the DS system's MAC address out wirelessly via 802.11. MAC addresses are, like an IP address, an identifier attached to pretty much any networking equipment, but unlike IP addresses, a MAC address is permanent/hardwired to the hardware. So it's just a matter of time until someone cracks the DS broadcast code and enables games to broadcast over the internet.

In the meantime, however, there's been rumblings at Nintendo that indicate that the company will finally unwrap its DS online plans very very soon. As it goes, Nintendo left the keys to the WiFi car in the hands of the third-party developers, but the third-party developers didn't want to drive it without Nintendo making the engine. So, as a result, if we've been hearing things correctly, Nintendo will finally and very, very soon, reveal its own "Xbox Live" like service for developers to adopt. And the first game out of Nintendo to use this service will be one of those massively killer Nintendo brands that people have been wanting to play online for years...

-- Craig

Interesting stuff huh? E3 is not coming fast enough!

And the first game out of Nintendo to use this service will be one of those massively killer Nintendo brands that people have been wanting to play online for years...

yea read those, very nice bits of info

There's absolutely no way that Nintendo will allow people to play their existing GC games on the GBA 2: and it has little to do with the constant disc access draining the battery. Simply, Nintendo want to sell you the games you already own all over again., (as well as new ones). Like they did with the GBA, and like they've started already with M64 on the DS. In the same way movie companies originally sold their films on vhs tape, then dvd came along and everybody replaced their old vhs films with the new dvd. Out in a year or so are 2 new hi-def formats where you get to replace all your old dvds with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs.

Just look at the recent NES classic range on the GBA.

Ikaruga wrote:
Simply, Nintendo want to sell you the games you already own all over again., (as well as new ones). Like they did with the GBA, and like they've started already with M64 on the DS.

Well its good for those who don't already have that game and never got to experience it, have that option open for them to get it on either console that suits them. For those that already have a certain game thats already been released, I doubt they'll re-buy it. In my case, I bought Zelda:LttP for the GBA because I never got my hands on the SNES copy and luckily it came along with the added bonus. Then there was Metroid: Zero Mission, a re-worked edition of a classic game and well worth the purchase in my opinion. So its not all bad, but I understand where you're coming from. Newer consoles do need fresher games and there are those games that do fufill that need. Sometimes they don't seem to come along soon enough, but they do eventually, don't they?

EDIT: The rest of your points, I can also understand.

[ Edited by TrUeShAdOwLiNk on 2005/1/25 7:13 ]

Ikaruga wrote:
Just look at the recent NES classic range on the GBA.

You can probably play NES games on your PC for free if you know where to download them.

I think the GBEvo will come out in late 06-early 08 depending on the ds's sucess.

I think that the release of the GBE is all about how the DS does. If it starts to die quickly it will probably come sooner. Now that Nintendo actually has a competitor (PSP) I doubt they will let their arrogance get in the way like with N64. Hopefully.....or Ninty will go the Sega way.

Also, I am surprised at the amount of language you guys use to "emphasize" your oppinion. Is that really nescesary?