Sony: No PSP in Europe for Several Months

I beg to differ.

Hardcore will buy the DS no matter what, if they haven't already imported it. This is the first week/month surge that every platform gets. This is what we are seeing now.

Older gamers will see sequels and old games and wait for the better games to come along.

Casual gamers will not be impressed by the launch line-up, they want FIFA and the like. They will wait for the popular, mainstream games.

Given a choice between the GBA and the DS, a working parent isn't going to know the difference. They will buy the cheaper console - the GBA.

All of the above will cause a dip in sales, probably after Easter now, but it will happen.

For Nintendo to keep the momentum up, they need to get a lot of mainstream games, innovative games and must-have kids' games onto the DS. They also need to educate people in why the DS is so revolutionary, and, more importantly, why that is such a good thing.

Once the hardcore rush is over, Nintendo are going to suffer with this line-up, unless they can get some games out there that are better for the above markets.

Unfortunately, to attract the mainstream casual gamers, that means getting games out there that "we" (the hardcore, Internet-savvy gamers) will despise. More EA games, to be precise. And that means shovel-ware ports aplenty, which will undermine the "novel" and "revolutionary" aspect of the DS.

You do mean Seppuku, right?

Only gaijin refer to it as "hari-kari"

And only uneducated ones murder the spelling so completely.

Divine Wind! *parp*

Does anyone remember Star Control? That s**tty little rodent's (Shofixti?) ship's "special" weapon was called that, and did exactly what it said on the tin (no, not waterproofing protection)

Ultimatly, I think that both the PSP and DS will do well. In the long-term I would expect the PSP to replace the GBA/DS as the market leader.

However, I still believe that the DS (here I go again!) does offer a unique opportunity for gaming, something far and above the PSP. Thus, I cannot agree with Roddy Toddy that the PSP is hundreds of thousands of times better than the DS. They are just different.

If Ninty does release a new handheld console then the market will change again.

Well I personally hope both psp and ds are a big success. I'm currently somewhere in the middle of playing project rub and really loving it. That's the sort of game that I bought a ds for. I can't imagine that running on any other system and I'd love to see the psp games do something like that. Games that are pushing the system's features instead of trying to shoehorn old ps1 and n62 games into them.

I'm not at all surprised that EA is one of the first to push out DS games that in some respects are lame since they are used to doing this anyway. I understand that the DS will get some N64/PSone conversions over it's life but I also feel that in time the true DS gems will shine through the sea of cheap lazy dross. I know they aren't all from EA but the have the most games out so far. Even though Ubisoft put out Rayman at least they also tried sothing new with Sprung (though I know it's not out yet here).

This shows the gulf of creativity between east and west when Sega can push out a well thought out game like Project Rub and EA disrespect us and the DS by pushing Tiger Woods and The Sims Urbz out of the door thinking we won't notice how shameful they are. EA are in for a quick buck ride and it should be really interesting to see how innovative they get with the DS. I said once before that they DS will show the pro developers from the amatuers and from someone who relies so heavily on sports games I see EA in the later catagory.

Meanwhile smaller developers like Majesco prepare the brilliant looking Nanostray making EA look like the amatuers they are labelling themselves as. What is wrong with this picture and who is better DS developer in your opinion out of the two? In the end smaller developers may become more valuable to Nintendo than EA on the DS, while EA opt for the easier route of pushing their wares on PS2 conversions to PSP and the like because it's easier while putting the knife in the heart of the industry slowly.

I'll be watching EA like a hawk to see if their games improve for the future, but with Need For Speed Underground 2 in the DS pipe line their lack of originality is starting to show compared to others. I also find it hard that they push such games when we could have a C&C game which is more suited to the DS interface (time will tell on that one).

As for the PSP delays I hate it when this happens but these are the chess moves of Sony looking to make money and they don't mind being second for now so long as it pays off in the long term to getting them first.

I think you are spot on about the smaller developers.

Do you remember the company called crawfish that made gameboy advance games? I think they made eks vs. sever and ported a streetfighter game. They were doing some impressive things on the GBA but despite that it didn't save them from closing. Everyone else at the time seemed unwilling to do anything except the safe option. I couldn't see games like warioware twisted coming out back then and they showed that kirby roll about demo thing about a million times but they were never brave enough to release it.

But I think the markets for such things have changed since crawfish were around. The handheld market right now is probably the most interesting, more so than the console market. There seems to be a lot more ideas being thrown around and a lot more desire to come up with something different.

well ANYTHING would be better than EA boring us all to death with their wares

That's a really good point, Joji.

If Nintendo can support small developers, and hobbyists, then their developer base will grow. Small developers produce innovative titles - and small acorns grow into big oaks. Nintendo would be investing in it's future.

In this case, even if the mainstream developers stop supporting the DS Nintendo could rely on smaller developers - remembering that it could publish the titles itself.

However, in this senario Nintendo would have to take a backseat. Recently, they brought a small UK developer on board to produce a game - unsurprisingly it became Super Mario Ball. We don't want more of the same crap. Small develoeprs could provide the new, fresh, modern, non-childlike games with a little cash from the giant.

In reality I just can't see Ninty having that much sense.

That really has a lot to do with how good GBA2 is.

I love the Office PSP, and was counting on getting one for my birthday next month... but now they are not coming out till (much) later, and I have the office one to use if I want, I'm much more likely to wait and see how good the GBA2 is. If it matches PSP for screen size, can take some form of removable memory and can play GC games, I'm just as likely to buy a GBA2.

OK, that's just me. But you can't write Ninty off in the handheld market. They know it best, and they have most experience.

I'm not wiritng them off yet, but I think that they will have to produce something beyond everything they've ever produced before to get the market back from Sony if they let them have it.