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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Will the Switch ever get a Direct competitor?

Wyrdness on 22 February 2019
Nuvendil said:

 

Bofferbrauer2 said:

It was doing miles better than the competition (Atari Lynx and PC Engine GT), though, which is why I meant to consider it, too.

It's main Problem was that Sega decided to focus entirely on the Megadrive/Genesis, thus leaving software support for the Game Gear pretty bare and mostly released Master System ports. After 94 it didn't sell much anymore due to this, those 10M came mostly just from the 2 first years.

I think the bigger issue is that it was $60 dollars more expensive (150 vs 90) and used 6 AAs which it burned through in under 5 hours vs the GB getting up to 30 from 4.  

Try 1 hour instead of 5 the liquid screen burned through batteries sometimes in 20 minutes.



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oniyide on 22 February 2019
DonFerrari said:
zorg1000 said:

It's kind of crazy to think that in 30 years and dozens of attempts, only one handheld system not made by Nintendo has managed to find success.

And that when this happened the competitor reached a level close to older Ninty HH, but still was half of what Nintendo done that gen.

That was a gen that will be hard to match on total numbers.

DS = 155M

Wii = 102M

PS3 = 87M

X360 = 86M

PSP = 81M

Total = 511M

That may have been the reason that MS higher up was expecting 1B systems this gen.

THat MS higher up was a fool



zorg1000 on 22 February 2019
Bofferbrauer2 said:
zorg1000 said:

That's not true in the slightest bit.

Game Gear lifetime shipments-10.62m

Gameboy FY92 shipments-10.67m

 

Gameboy shipped more in the year that Game Gear launched than Game Gear shipped lifetime. This is even true for Europe.

It was doing miles better than the competition (Atari Lynx and PC Engine GT), though, which is why I meant to consider it, too.

It's main Problem was that Sega decided to focus entirely on the Megadrive/Genesis, thus leaving software support for the Game Gear pretty bare and mostly released Master System ports. After 94 it didn't sell much anymore due to this, those 10M came mostly just from the 2 first years.

Doing better than colossal failures is not a reason to be considered.

I dug up some old numbers on neogaf for yearly shipments.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/retro-sales-age-thread.981407/

FY91-0.20m

FY92-1.70m

FY93-2.45m

FY94-3.50m

FY95-2.40m

FY96-0.37m

 

Compare that to Gameboy

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/nintendo-historical-shipment-data-1983-present.701305/

FY90-3.93m

FY91-8.06m

FY92-10.67m

FY93-7.80m

FY94-7.47m

FY95-5.58m

FY96-4.16m



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Bofferbrauer2 on 22 February 2019
Wyrdness said:
Nuvendil said:

 

I think the bigger issue is that it was $60 dollars more expensive (150 vs 90) and used 6 AAs which it burned through in under 5 hours vs the GB getting up to 30 from 4.  

Try 1 hour instead of 5 the liquid screen burned through batteries sometimes in 20 minutes.

Never heard of such crappy ones before, must have had some defects or really shitty batteries (like in 500 times recharged already).

Mine generally held up for about 4-5 hours, similar to the Switch in fact. Could get up to 6 hours with Zinc/Carbon batteries, but those where too expensive back then.



The Nintendo eShop rating Thread: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=237454 List as Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aW2hXQT1TheElVS7z-F3pP-7nbqdrDqWNTxl6JoJWBY/edit?usp=sharing

The Steam/GOG key gifting thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/242024/the-steamgog-key-gifting-thread/1/ 

Free Pc Games thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248138/free-pc-games/1/

Wyrdness on 22 February 2019
Bofferbrauer2 said:
Wyrdness said:

Try 1 hour instead of 5 the liquid screen burned through batteries sometimes in 20 minutes.

Never heard of such crappy ones before, must have had some defects or really shitty batteries (like in 500 times recharged already).

Mine generally held up for about 4-5 hours, similar to the Switch in fact. Could get up to 6 hours with Zinc/Carbon batteries, but those where too expensive back then.

It's hard not to hear such stories they were very common, in the UK the game gear became a running gag as a result and the batteries used weren't crappy ones either they were from notable brands like Duracell.



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Bofferbrauer2 on 22 February 2019
Wyrdness said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:

Never heard of such crappy ones before, must have had some defects or really shitty batteries (like in 500 times recharged already).

Mine generally held up for about 4-5 hours, similar to the Switch in fact. Could get up to 6 hours with Zinc/Carbon batteries, but those where too expensive back then.

It's hard not to hear such stories they were very common, in the UK the game gear became a running gag as a result and the batteries used weren't crappy ones either they were from notable brands like Duracell.

I know 5 persons who had a Game Gear but not one came even close to such bad battery life, 3-5 hours was the consensus we had.



The Nintendo eShop rating Thread: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=237454 List as Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aW2hXQT1TheElVS7z-F3pP-7nbqdrDqWNTxl6JoJWBY/edit?usp=sharing

The Steam/GOG key gifting thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/242024/the-steamgog-key-gifting-thread/1/ 

Free Pc Games thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248138/free-pc-games/1/

Wyrdness on 22 February 2019
Bofferbrauer2 said:
Wyrdness said:

It's hard not to hear such stories they were very common, in the UK the game gear became a running gag as a result and the batteries used weren't crappy ones either they were from notable brands like Duracell.

I know 5 persons who had a Game Gear but not one came even close to such bad battery life, 3-5 hours was the consensus we had.

Anecdotal as I know 10 people who had a GG and they struggled to get an hour out of the thing I even had one and had the same issue.



Bofferbrauer2 on 22 February 2019
Wyrdness said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:

I know 5 persons who had a Game Gear but not one came even close to such bad battery life, 3-5 hours was the consensus we had.

Anecdotal as I know 10 people who had a GG and they struggled to get an hour out of the thing I even had one and had the same issue.

Anecdotal for both of us I guess. I never heard of such low battery life before, and couldn't find evidence of such short battery life either. Unless you guys bought the cheapest NiCd batteries, as they where total crap no matter the brand. What batteries you used mattered a lot for the Game Gear. just look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpfvy_iZxCc

With more modern batteries the Game Gear lasted 7.5 hours, twice as long as the OG 3DS.



The Nintendo eShop rating Thread: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=237454 List as Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aW2hXQT1TheElVS7z-F3pP-7nbqdrDqWNTxl6JoJWBY/edit?usp=sharing

The Steam/GOG key gifting thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/242024/the-steamgog-key-gifting-thread/1/ 

Free Pc Games thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248138/free-pc-games/1/

Wyrdness on 22 February 2019
Bofferbrauer2 said:

Anecdotal for both of us I guess. I never heard of such low battery life before, and couldn't find evidence of such short battery life either. Unless you guys bought the cheapest NiCd batteries, as they where total crap no matter the brand. What batteries you used mattered a lot for the Game Gear. just look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpfvy_iZxCc

With more modern batteries the Game Gear lasted 7.5 hours, twice as long as the OG 3DS.

Duracell are the go to brand for batteries over here they weren't the cheapest and using a comparison with modern batteries is very moot because people wouldn't be using those back in 92 the same batteries when in a GB lasted 30 hours. The 3DS comparison is also moot as it's running more demanding games, the hardware is more advance, has 2 screens and the battery is rechargable.



Kerotan on 22 February 2019

I doubt it. The biggest threat long term is mobile and steaming services but that's very long term. Right now I can't see anyone building a rival hybrid.