Sunday, December 12, 2004

Sony PSP vs Nintendo DS


It's been a hot topic lately. Today is 12/12/04... the day Sony PSP is launched in Japan with only 200 000 in stock. Nintendo DS launched on 21/11/04 and have already secured 1 million units sold. click. Many people are having the hardest time deciding which to buy.. since they're both a Sony and Nintendo loyalist.

The DS is very innovative: a touch screen with stylus and 2 screens. It is backwards compatable with GBA games and a satisfactory battery life.. With better than N64-like graphics, it looks like developers will have loads of fun making cool games. There's already a SSB-like game coming out in Japan.. (Shonen) Jump Superstars 1 2 3 4, and there's also a game called Nintendogs currently in development. The DS holds a lot of potential. There's even a petition which many people have signed, begging Blizzard Entertainment to port StarCraft to NDS.

The PSP is a sleek multimedia device with 16:9 ratio screen. It is able to display pictures, play (atrac/mp3) music and (mp4) video through a memory stick duo, but everyone seems to be aware of it's less-than-ideal battery life..click. Also, it's been know that all who have challenged Nintendo at the handheld market have failed: Top Ten Handhelds that Never Made It
Company executives noted that this isn't the first time a competitor has challenged Nintendo in the mobile market, but pointed out that nine of nine have failed to succeed.

"As a tenth serious competitor makes a run at Game Boy, we're raising the bar before they even get started," said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president, pointing to the company's upcoming dual-screen unit. "This redefines portable entertainment."

On a side note, one reason why PS2 is doing better than GameCube right now is because the fact that people were also buying a DVD player when they bought a PS2, compared to the GameCube which acted strictly as a gaming console. The same might apply here: buying a portable picture displayer, music and video player when you buy a PSP will drive sales, while the Nintendo DS will focus on interactive gaming. Nintendo has previously stated that

If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell. The next two years will decide Nintendo's fate.

It will be good to see Nintendo gain some of its lossed share in the gaming industry. This can only happen with the greatest SNES ports and interatives games coming to NDS. If not, it will be a shame to see Nintendo leave and industry in which they've made their presence known for decades. It's a tough decision.... maybe I'll just buy both.

here are some pictures: pics
and another good blog on the issue.

Dec. 13, 2004 update: One day after it's launch and gamers reported problems with the PSP... They include (the common) dead pixels, broken analog nubs, and UMDs flying out of the drive when you twist the PSP in a certain way... Although it is a defect, why would anyone want to twist a brand new PSP like that?!

Dec. 21, 2004 update: Nintendo has announced that NDS sales have reached 2 million units. Amazing... source

Friday, December 10, 2004

'Tis the season to be @$$ raped

I did it... After sleeping at 5am for the past few nights, working and studying, I have managed to finish 3 assignments and do 2 exams over 4 days: CSC207 Exercise 5, CSC258 Assignment 3, STA247 Assignment 3, CSC207 exam and AST101 exam. All this hard work better pay off one day.... If not, I'll forever regret not going to Waterloo for it's co-op program. On second thought... CS@Waterloo is under the Faculty of Mathematics... I definately would not survive.

There's a saying: The best bridge between hope and despair is often a good night's sleep. I better catch up on some sleep for more ass rapage on Tuesday and Wednesday where I'll have to face 2 more exams.. CSC258 and STA247... two courses where I think I'm clueless....