With Sony finally entering the handheld
games market after years of speculation, fanboys have crawled out of
the woodwork, either proclaiming Sonys PSP to be dead on arrival or
digging a grave for Nintendos venerable Game Boy. The amazing thing
is that the rhetoric is flying without any concrete knowledge of what
the PSP will ultimately be when it is released over a year from now.
Sony has provided gamers with some raw specs and details about its
entrant into the handheld market but theyre just numbers and
figures. Was there anyone who wasnt somewhat excited when Atari
announced that they were releasing the first 64-bit console to the
market? No one couldve guessed that the Jaguar would be Ataris
last attempt to release a console, not with the fanfare with which
they touted the 64-bit console. So what do we know so far about the
Sony PSP? At E3, gamers were told that the PSPs screen would be
widescreen (16:9 ratio) and backlit, that it would use a disc-based
medium that could hold 1.8GB, and that it would have 3-D graphics and
stereo sound. In addition, it would have a rechargeable lithium-ion
battery, and would have slots for USB 2.0 and Memory Sticks. Sony
announced that the potential for the PSP would be limitless as it
would not only be a gaming machine, it would also be able to play
music and movies (using the MPEG4 codec) on their proprietary disc
medium, UMD. The way Sony speaks of the PSP, it has to remind
people of what the original PlayStation and the subsequent PS2 were
being marketed as; that their video game consoles would do more than
just play videogames, they would be convergent devices, combining many
forms of entertainment in one device. With all the facts presented so
far, one would figure that Nintendo would be scared, figuring that
their iron grip on the handheld market would be loosened. So far,
Nintendo has shown no signs of fear at Sonys announcement of the
PSP. In fact, it would seem that Nintendo is confident (some would say
arrogant) that they will be able to continue their dominance in the
handheld market. Nintendos confidence is well earned, as there have
been many contenders to their throne and all have failed. Since the
1989 release of the original monochrome Game Boy by Nintendo, there
was the color Atari Lynx, the NEC TurboExpress that played
TurboGrafx-16 games, the color Sega GameGear, the Sega Nomad which
played Sega Genesis games, the NeoGeo Pocket Color, and the Bandai
WonderSwan. All of these contestants were superior in some way to the
incarnation of the Game Boy that was available in the market at the
time. Each contender fell prey to the same problems: the lack of
third-party support, console pricing that kept it from being generally
accepted by the average consumer, and the continued dominance of
Nintendo. All of these factors combined to allow Nintendo to own the
handheld market from the inception of the original Game Boy to the
current Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP. All told, Nintendo
has managed to monopolize pocket gaming for the last fourteen years.
Though there have been many failures to unseat Nintendo from the
handheld throne, Sony feels that the time is ripe for them to make
their play. Turn the clock back to 1995, when Sony released their
original PlayStation to a home console market completely dominated by
Nintendo (this is becoming quite the theme here). There were many that
felt that Sony stood no chance in taking any market share from
Nintendo, let alone completely dominating them. However, Nintendo
never viewed the PlayStation as a threat to its Nintendo 64, and they
paid the price for their arrogance as the PlayStation would go on to
win that generation in a rout. Sony hopes that history repeats itself;
Nintendo hopes to prevent said history from reoccurring.
By going to a disc-based medium for
their handheld, Sonys upped the ante for Nintendo. A disc-based
medium allows for higher storage capacity per dollar than a
cartridge-based medium. If Nintendo sticks with a cartridge-based
medium for their as yet unannounced next-generation handheld (though
you have to believe one is in the works), theyll be able to
carry-over their backwards compatibility to their new system. The
problem is that they may end up with the same problem that faced the
Nintendo 64 when it was up against the PlayStation; cartridge-based
mediums cost more to increase storage capacity, which means their
games will be smaller in size than a disc-based medium for the same
price. Sony used this to their advantage in the PlayStation era by
utilizing full motion videos in their fully rendered glory while
Nintendo had to use cut-scenes using the in-game engine. If Nintendo
moves to a disc-based medium, they will be able to create games with a
lot more storage capacity to play with. Unfortunately, they would be
sacrificing backwards-compatibility with their pre-existing library of
Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games. This would level
the playing field for Sony as both sides would start from nil. Sony
has the image of being a more adult, hipper player in the videogame
arena while Nintendo has been saddled (unfairly) with the image of a
kids-first company. This perception has allowed Sony to run away with
the home console market but does this axiom extend to the handheld
market? Historically, it has been shown that the handheld market has
always skewed younger than the home console market. The image of a
child playing a Game Boy is normal while an adult playing a Game Boy
looks childish. It may be an unfair and inaccurate perception, but it
exists nonetheless. With the release of the Game Boy Advance SP, that
perception has started to fade as the flip-top nature has made it more
culturally acceptable for an adult to play with. Despite the growing
number of adult owners, children continue to make up the majority of
handheld owners. Sony hopes that a good number of their PS2 owners
will take to the PSP, thus creating an instant installed owner base.
From that point on, its a contest to
see who will court more third-party offerings. There are a variety of
routes that both companies can take to woo third-parties to develop
games for their systems. They can offer discounts for developing for
both home and handheld consoles. They can be nasty and force them to
develop for one market in order to develop for the other. Whomever
gets the lions share of the third-party games stands the best
chance of winning the market. What will it take for either side to
claim victory? For Sony, they have to come out of the gate with a lot
of games that appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers. Its true that
when the PS2 came out, great games (or games in general) were few and
far between, but they had the advantage of already being the leader in
the market and the first to make it to retail. They dont have the
same advantage with the PSP as the fifteen-year-old Game Boy library
will be sitting there and still going strong. Sony will also need to
find a way to differentiate itself from Nintendo in order to carve
their own niche in the handheld market. Their best chance to succeed
is to not compete against Nintendo, per se, but to fill in the gaps
that Nintendo misses and then quietly expand into Nintendos
strongholds; heck, it worked for the PlayStation. For Nintendo to
succeed, they need to remember what made them the dominant force in
handheld games. The Game Boy Advance has been host to many ports of
old Nintendo favorites and although these games are enjoyable, they
need to come out with more original games in the vein of Metroid
Fusion. Innovation is the key to victory for Nintendo, something that
they have very rarely lacked in.
Who knows who will win the
next-generation handheld war? Does it really matter that there be a
decisive victory anyway? One hopes that competition will bring out the
best in both companies, leading to some great games that will someday
be mentioned in the pantheon of great gaming. The answers will start
arriving in 2004.
Gary
Wong (09/08/2003) |