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Harry : wow, that was awesome. you must be a very well educated person. you talk like a university profesor, and i agree with you in every way. Bravo!
It is with this background, I made my rather harsh judgement about the Nintendo DS over a year ago. While I indeed bought my DS on launch, of course to have Mario, it was entirely in my mind a stop-gap, a diversion while waiting patiently for Sony to launch the PSP in Europe. I bought a selection of, I thought, mediocre games, and I confirmed my view the stylus and microphones and even the dual screen were pointless quirks that diverted resources away from processing power and screen size.
And from the of the PSP release onward, things followed, for me at least, the predicted pattern: the DS took its place in the nightstand and I spent a shedload on games for the PSP that I thought were pretty damn good - Everybody's Golf, Virtua Tennis, Grand Theft Auto, Ridge Racer etc.
The one blip on this was the launch of Mario Kart - a much needed injection of class for the DS which at the time seemed to be relying on a supply of bizarre, banal titles involving taking people out on dates and being a pretend lawyer. Not my idea of gaming nirvana.
What was worse was seeing the DS and PSP go head to head. Ridge Racer for example, shows just how lacking in gut power the DS, whereas the PSP version really is a minor miracle in your hand. So to sum all this up in the ultimate gaming cliche 'Game Over'.
I really did think we would see a Virtual Boy style meltdown for the DS or at the very least, N64/Gamecube style relegation to the B-league.
Yet, as I sit here writing this, DS games pepper the UK chart top 20, the DS is outselling the PSP globally and the top PSP game in the chart is placed at 30.
How can this be?
It's not down to price - yes the DS is cheaper, and the games work out marginally less expensive. But the margin is not that great, and when you add in the phenomenal extra functionality the PSP offers, it is the true bargain.
it can't be about content - the range of games on both machines is broad, and the launch rate of new titles broadly similar for both.
Please, don't anyone tell me the DS is winning out on looks or chic value. Even the new DS Lite can best be described as 'neat' whereas my old clunky version looks and feels vaguely Eastern European.
Don't be too hard on me - I was not alone. The games press were entranced by the PSP, whose looks and styling elevated it to the position of fetish object running up to launch. The screen - THAT screen particularly exceeded the expectations of the gaming media to some degree - which is always a nice thing - from a hardware manufacturer's perspective - to do.
So where did it all start to go right again for Nintendo. The N64 was a judge's decision and the GameCube a definite strike out, so how did the magic get rekindled?
No one game, release or decision, I think. Just perhaps that Nintendo was closer to appreciating the public's satisfiers for mobile gaming than the gaming press or Sony was. There are perhaps resonances with my own experience with my PSP in the first year or so.
I particularly wanted to get 'deep' games for my PSP - action adventures like Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter. Hours of immersive, expansive gameplay, but in my hand: console quality experiences - on the move.
Great but...
When I actually had these games, I realised something else. I didn't have time for those immersive experiences on the move. You can play Sudoku on a rattling tube, but not negotiate a level of Syphon Filter. You can sneak in a game of Mario Kart into the lunch break, but don't have the focus to persevere on a difficult later mission with Grand Theft Auto.
As well as bite-sized gaming, Nintendo was also prepared to be as adventurous in its choice of software development as its hardware; Nintendogs, Trauma Center, Brain Training: the hardcore may sneer but there is something interestingly original and fresh with what Nintendo are trying to do with the interface and a broader audience.
It's working. DS is selling now through word of mouth - it might not be sexy, but it's actually seen as quite cute. Nintendo have negotiated the dodgy 1st generation of releases and the next 12 months should see graphically better games and perhaps some of the deeper titles someone like me would be interested in. The one problem is perhaps longevity. The DS feels like dated technology already, and I can't imagine more than a couple of years will pass before the next model is being touted. However, Nintendo have actually proved the stylus/touchscreen interface model can be made to work, so what comes next is more computing power.
So where do Sony go? Well, they can go for price parity. That will hit them, with their expensive componentry, a lot harder per unit than it will Nintendo. They can add gadgets and peripherals to expand the functionality, but the PSP is already handomsely provisioned and peripherals rarely pay back the investment they soak up. The touchscreeen interface is out, and Sony must kick themselves every time they use that analogue stub controller - which is the achilles heel (or should that be nipple?) of the PSP user interface.
There is no point making the games longer or deeper: some already offer 30 or more hours of gameplay. It seems like Sony has been beginning to pick up on the need for different types of games and applications outside portable versions of PS2 classics and franchises. Misfires like 'Talkman' at least shows someone is showing ingenuity.
Jeff Minter said recently Sony is arrogant. This has to be discounted somewhat coming from a man whose most memorably masterpieces were written within 16K and who last had a decent hit with the Atari Jaguar. Minter produced some good 'singles' but I doubt he would have the wherewithal to produce a good 'album'.Britain's Miyamoto he is not.
However, the complacency tag probably could be applied. Sony have expected and anticipated success ever since PlayStation took off. They think they know what the public wants and it coincides with what they want to produce. PlayStation 3 looks like more of the same. Much more. DS maybe is an argument that sometimes less is more.