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HappySqurriel on 15 February 2010
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patjuan32 said:
HappySqurriel said:
leo-j said:
and they released the DS 3 YEARS after the GBA? WTF?

I could be wrong, but I suspect that the DS was released so early (as a third pillar) because Nintendo saw the PSP being released in late 2004 as a significant threat to the handheld market. While the impact can be debated, Nintendo has stated that they believed that a core reason why the N64 and Gamecube struggled against the Playstation and PS2 was Sony had an 18 month head start with both systems.

The DS releasing because of the PSP could be true simply becasue the Gameboy Color's life was cut short by the release of the Wonder Swan Color. That's how the GBA came in to existence. But the DS vs PSP could all be for naught. If we look at the last gen we can see that Nintendo was introducing features as a work around to being online. For example, connectivity between the GameCube and the GBA. In Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles up to three or more GBAs were needed to have other players play the game in mulitplayer. The GBA has an accessory called the link cable that would allow players to link GBAs together to play multiplayer games. Those two features were eliminated when Nintendo and Gamespy began to set up Nintendo's own Internet service. Since the GBA could not take advantage of this service a new portable system had to be introduced. Furthermore, cell phones not the PSP is more the likely cause of the DS. Cellphone gaming is big in Japan and is getting big in the west. Nintendo's current president actually speaks about cellphones and there technology regularly.

 

HappySqurriel, the Wii launched last this gen. The N64 and the Gamecube both had a similar problem that would limit their success even if they launched earlier, The size of the storge media. Cartridges and mini disk just did not provide the capacity comparable to CDs and DvDs. L:et's not also forget that RPGs were big in Japan and in the U.S. in the 90's and last gen and Nintendo did not have those on their system. But, I do remember Nintendo using the head start of the Playstation and the Playstation 2 as a reason for the performance of their home console. However, the portable market is different. The PSP launched after the DS and was beating it in sales for about 8 months until Nintendogs and the DS Lite came on the scene.

Had the N64 become the dominant console I think we would be talking about how the low speed of the CD prevented the Playstation and Saturn from being successful because most of the games that were really successful on the N64 required the rapid load times that only a cartridge could provide ...

 

The point I was making was that Nintendo was (somewhat) paranoid that Sony could release the PSP to market, and establish it as a credible platform, years before Nintendo was set to release a new handheld. While it is possible to debate the outcome of previous generations endlessly to no gain, I think it is fair to say that allowing a console which is direct competition to establish itself in the market before you release your system will have a significant impact on the sales you can achieve.