| RolStoppable said: Sounds nice in theory, but the NGP itself is in competition with smart phones as well and if it gets cannibalized by them, then Sony has wasted a lot of money on their handheld. With the growing popularity of <$10 games a traditional handheld can only survive, if its $40-50 games offer good enough content in the consumers' minds. That's going to be a much bigger hurdle for Sony to overcome than Nintendo. Besides, what type of defeat are we talking about here? I can only assume the total number of devices that play PlayStation games, but I don't think Nintendo would be concerned much, if they made billions in profit with the 3DS and far eclipsed whatever Sony made. |
Yeah, marketshare was basically the measure I was using. And even if Nintendo make a killing from the 3DS, I doubt they'll be happy to lose marketshare, and especially to strategies revolving around smartphones, since it may mean that Nintendo's own strategy is becoming obsolete.
And I agree about the games, but I think there will be sort of a duality to it. Despite the rampant piracy, the PSP still manages to have some high selling games, so I don't think the big games are going anywhere, there's just going to be a more clear distinction of what makes a $50 game and a $5 game. Some games that fit in the big price range earlier probably won't anymore because they're too reminiscent of the small games. But you'll still have the big sellers that do well.
@ Squilliam
Yeah, Amazon is going to be a big competitor definitely, but it kind of depends on the aim of the store. Sony are aiming to offer a place for people to buy quality games, that will play well on any PS Certified hardware, not to mention the NGP, whereas Amazon seems to aim for some one on one competition with the Android Market. I could see Amazon as heavy competition, but they seem to be aiming at quite different targets, so not necessarily.
@ Mr.Metralha
That's an attitude Sony are only now evolving after Kutaragi left, and one that is only going to help Sony in this case. All games being developed for the PS Suite will be playable on the NGP after all, so aside from giving Sony a presence in the Android gaming market, it helps ensure that the NGP recieves a bunch of games designed for portable play.
And I'm not saying that PS Suite sales will be counted with the NGP, but I'm saying that there a two sides to Sony's next generation handheld strategy, 1) the NGP and 2) the PS Suite. This means that Sony are using both a dedicated handheld and smartphones to bolster their marketshare and revenue, whereas Nintendo are using only one device, hoping that consumers will opt for a dedicated handheld over just using a phone for gaming.
And I agree that the PS1 games will probably make for a poor portable gaming experience on most phones (not the PlayStation Certified devices obviously), but these are just filler until the Suite gets off the ground. If it takes off and does well, you'll see many games designed for portability, which is what Sony is aiming at having in the end.
