The PSPgo has gone

Failing to reach its second birthday, the PSPgo is dead. A rumour was flying around the web yesterday about how Sony will be ceasing the manufacture and distribution of PSPgos and today that rumour has been confirmed (via Kotaku). Ever quick to see the silver lining in every grey cloud, Sony added how they’re doing so “in order to concentrate on the NGP,” reminding us that the new system will go on sale later this year.

It’s probably not a bad thing that the PSPgo is being pushed aside to make way for the real generational step up from the original PSP since it’s never been anything but trouble for Sony. From the very start in 2009, numerous retailers where expressing their disdain for the system which has no physical software but instead is solely based on digital distribution. No UMDs meant no additional income for shops who sold the PSPgo and as a result, not many did. Slightly bizarre when the same stores stocked iPods. Nevertheless, the lack of retailer interest was mirrored by the consumer making the handheld one triumphant failure. When publishers even shunned the PSPgo, excluding some titles from its catalogue, I think even Sony had given up on it.

The previous iteration however, the PSP 3000, still continues to sell with a large user-base built up in Japan, helping to keep system alive. I never upgraded from my launch model PSP and was once tempted by the shiny new PSPgo, especially when it was being sold with ten free games. But despite such a generous deal, I thought better of it and after today’s news, I’m certainly glad I did.

Reining on Google’s parade

One of the advantages of Google’s Android platform is also the very same thing keeping the iPhone’s showpiece, Infinity Blade, off the Android Store. Mark Rein and Tim Sweeney, co-founders of Epic Games spoke with Gizmondo (via Gamesindustry.biz) about how Google need to make sure Android developers produce consistent results for their handhelds instead of the current hands-off approach because it’s lead to some fragmentation. The handsets that Android appears on differ in specs meaning the experience for the user simply isn’t consistent which is one of the factors Epic isn’t happy with.

“If you took the underlying NGP hardware and shipped Android on it, you’d find far far less performance on Android. Let’s say you took an NGP phone and made four versions of it. Each one would give you a different amount of memory and performance based on the crap [networks] put on their phone,” said Rein adding “Google needs to be a little more evil. They need to be far more controlling.” I’ve been called an Apple fanboy but my reasons for sticking with their devices stem from what Rein is saying. Buying an Apple product I know what I’m getting and the variations differ on a dramatically reduced scale compared to their competitors. But they’re not free from market fragmenting, with owners of the iPhone 3G unable to play some of the newer games found on the App Store.

The draw of Android is a hard one to neglect however with more and more handsets coming out with dazzling CPUs and impressive functionalities. Google do appear to be addressing the problem of quality on their operating system with the latest version, Honeycomb, only available on tablets for the moment while they figure out how to develop a standard for all others to follow. And Epic aren’t against the platform as a whole since they have made a version of Unreal Engine 3 for Android but even that comes with a few annoyances. Dungeon Defenders and Monster Madness are two games powered by UE3 sitting happily on Google’ marketplace for a number of months. However in the case of Dungeon Defenders, the game is larger than the 50MB limit Google imposes meaning the developer has to host it separately resulting in an additional bandwidth costs for them on top of paying to appear on the Android App Store. Infinity Blade is almost 1GB worth of data so imagine if millions of people suddenly tried to download it all at once.

As Rein points out to GI.biz, this only shows how young Android is and not whether it’s inferior to Apple. Comparisons can be drawn to the Xbox Live Marketplace and its original capping of games’ sizes. In the early days it too only allowed 50MB games because they had to fit on memory cards for those who didn’t own hard drives. Nowadays with that problem almost extinct, XBLA titles can be ten or twenty times that size. It’ll take time for Google to get it ‘right’ for their service but the differing handsets could still pose a problem for them. The standardisation they implement could see a number of lower spec ones to suddenly be obsolete or hinder the potential of superior machines. One thing is for sure, they’ll figure it out.

Nintendo phoning it in

With all the hubbub around mobile phones and tablets, everyone wants to get in on the action with all sorts of companies investing in making their ‘iPhone killer’. Everyone except Nintendo that is. In an interview with CNN (via My Nintendo News), top dog Reggie Fils-Aime told the news corporation that the Smartphone market is something they’re not interested in. “We have no desire to get into telephony,” he said. “We believe that we will earn our way into someone’s pocket without having to offer that (phone capability) as an additional factor.” So far Nintendo has done just that. Europe’s 3DS launch was a personal best for the company, selling over 300,000 units so that’s more than quarter of a million people walking around with one of Nintendo’s products.

As a traditional video game and console manufacture, Nintendo are very good at what they do with all but their early consoles being profitable. As for handhelds, no-one has been able to best them yet, even with more powerful machines. Leaping into the mobile space when so many others do are already doing it so well doesn’t make sense to Nintendo right now: “We don’t want to be in the phone business. We don’t see that as an opportunity. Phones are utilities. Phones are not by definition entertainment devices,” said Fils-Aime adding, “It makes sense to enter a market when you feel you’ve got some sort of competitive advantage. From Nintendo’s perspective, we don’t see that we have a competitive advantage in telephony.”

One thing Nintendo like to do with every machine is innovate. The NES had the d-pad, SNES added shoulder buttons and the now obligatory face button layout, the N64 came with rumble and analog stick, the GameCube featured buttons with a ‘double-press’ function and of course the Wii has waggle. The handhelds followed alongside the home consoles for a while until the DS added a touchscreen, altering the way we play game once again with the revolution of the Smartphone’s own touchscreens taking that even further. So why would Nintendo want to make a gaming platform with phone functionality when there’s not a great deal left to innovate on those devices? You could add a real controller to them but Sony are doing that with the Xperia Play and are yet to really figure out who it is the phone is aimed at. Casual gamers aren’t the sort who need tactile buttons as the most appealing games for them have been designed for systems without traditional controls. The hardcore audience would be more concerned whether the games they want to play will be readily available on what is fundamentally a phone so I don’t know exactly who the market will consist of.

But it’s more than just the innovation side of things, money always comes into it. Producer Hideki Konno added to Fils-Aime’s thoughts: “It’s not that I’m uninterested. However, I look at the business model, and I see so many additional costs that come into play. Would we increase the price of the software itself? The distribution couldn’t be free.” It is a little ironic that Konno mentions the additional fees. The very public debate between Nintendo and Rovio in particular about the state of the industry has highlighted the cost of current games with Nintendo questioning the quality of 59p experiences and Rovio hitting back, claiming they’re only trying to sell “$49 pieces of plastic to people.” Some would argue that devices like the 3DS have games that already come with additional costs being considerably more than those on mobile phones whereas others protest how cheaper games offer cheaper experiences.

It never once crossed my mind that Nintendo would ever be interested in making a mobile phone. They’re console makers with console games. I don’t think just because something can play games means it should be the only way we play them. Mobile phones are entertainment devices, there’s no doubt about that but first and foremost they should be phones. Nintendo are good at offering a different kind of entertainment experience and continuing to better that model can only lead to even better experiences for gamers.

More complex Android games. Do want?

David Hilton, head of Sony Ericsson’s UK marketing believes that the company’s upcoming Xperia Play will fill the void between casual and hardcore gamers, around 9 million of them, according to Hilton. How it will do this is down to the system’s built in controller that Hilton argues will give the Smartphone gamer an experience similar to home consoles. And he claims that this is just what they want.

Speaking with MCV (via CVG), Hilton reveals the tactic Sony are implementing in order to beat the Xperia’s rival, the iPhone: “The main thing is to offer something different. iPhone is a hugely popular product and Angry Birds on iPhone is a delight. But now the hardware allows you to play far more complex games. You don’t want to be playing these with your fingers all over the screen. You want full visibility and the ability to control the games with the sort of interfaces you have on your games console.”

It’s true, rubbing your finger or fingers over the screen is problem that Smartphones in general face, not just the iPhone and is something that can become quite off putting. But the best games or at least those which have the broadest appeal take controls into consideration – like the aforementioned Angry Birds. There’s definitely an allure to the Xperia Play which a lot of Smartphones simply lack because of the control pad and promise of classic PSone games along with potential integration of the PlayStation Store (thanks to the PlayStation Suite) however I’m not sure the complexity of mobile games will increase because of the Xperia Play’s existence. Nor would I imagine that gamers who do seriously want a grander experience wouldn’t opt instead for the NGP or 3DS. Both of those will offer games and a control scheme comparable to home consoles and they wouldn’t be reliant on Smartphone developers.

That’s not a dig at Smartphone developers though, there are phenomenal games on the Android and Apple marketplace. But because the majority of Android phones will not have a built in controller using the touchscreen instead, the complexity of a game’s controls can only go so far before the market begins to become fragmented. I like what Sony are trying though and am very intrigued by the Xperia Play but I’d still prefer to save up for a NGP than become an early adopter with the hope that more games I want will come to my yet unproven new Smartphone. However, if you see one going cheap, let me know! (I’m so fickle with gadgets!)

Gear up on the 3DS

Along with the pretty exciting Super Mario 3D news harvested from Satoru Iwata’s GDC talk yesterday, plans to release GameGear games on the 3DS via the eShop were also announced. For those who are too frightfully young to remember, the GameGear was Sega’s answer to the GameBoy at the start of the 90s and was supported all the way up until 1997. Even though it featured a colour screen, the higher price tag, lack of key developer interest and hunger for power (taking six AA batteries) doomed the GameGear from the start. I now own one of these beasts and enjoy it as much as any other retro console of mine but rather than hunting down old copies of games, I can download them straight to the 3DS when the service goes live later this year.

What games can we expect to kick off the backlog? Andriasang posted a list and screenshots including, Sonic & Tails 2, Sonic Drift 2, The GG Shinobi, Dragon Crystal Shirani’s Maze and Columns. The last game on that list is what a lot of people will remember the GameGear for because Columns came with the system and was Sega’s very own Tetris-like game. Apart from Sonic Drift 2, which I completely forgot about until today and maybe Dragon Crystal Shirani’s Maze, I don’t know if there are a great deal of GameGear games that I hold dear to my heart and wish to play again via the 3DS. That could be because I was always a GameBoy fan and leered with jealousy at my cousins who had GameGears so never built up a fondness with the software. But for any ex-GameGear aficionado, I’m sure there are a good few games you’d like to get your hands on once again. Sega didn’t reveal any pricing structure for the games which is hardly surprising since Nintendo are still to do the same for their retro line-up.

The affordability of next generation handhelds

The bells and whistles of the PSP2, sorry, NGP, where rung and er blown today but with an OLED screen and crazy-powerful processor, Sony’s absence of a price doesn’t mean it’ll be overly expensive. European head Andrew House told Eurogamer that the NGP is going to be “affordable.” He was reluctant to give even a ballpark figure but promised something appropriate for the handheld market. However House also revealed how Sony would preferably like to make a profit on early sales over a loss: “Ideally we would want to have our hardware be profitable, in addition to our software. We’ve experienced both sides and we know which one we like to be on!” Don’t fret, ideally and actuality are two very different things.

Affordability has risen in the last couple of generations but one things for sure, if the price of the 3DS proves successful, the NGP is likely to follow suit. And the original PSP retailed for $250/£180 which is relative to the 3DS (except here in the UK) so realistically, with technology as feature packed as the NGP, a similar price could be viewed as ‘affordable’. Seeing as Japan should be getting the system this WInter, the rest of the world will probably receive it a few months later. Plenty of time to save unless of course the year is full of awesome releases… Oh crap!

Nintendo 3DS hands-on: Impressions

Today I was lucky enough to have a peak into the future of portable gaming with the Nintendo 3DS. After ascending to the 29th floor of a respectable looking office block in London, me, LorD and Xander from UFO Gamers got to play with the device which, although is still in its prototype phase, it’s very impressive. As a handheld, the 3DS felt sturdy and an appropriate weight for something that should be held roughly a foot and a half from your face. Doing so gives the optimum viewing angle for the 3D that without sounding like a fanboy, continuously wowed me. Thanks to the two cameras on front, the 3DS is able to take three dimensional photographs. I was shown a couple that had already been taken of the lovely ladies in charge of looking after the console, posed to best display the 3D. The depth was highly defined and overall picture quality looked good enough for the quick snapshots that it was designed for. I did sometimes feel as if I were looking at one of those ‘hidden picture’ posters where you have to almost cross your eyes to see the image but unlike those 90’s phenomenon, I didn’t feel uncomfortable doing so. Unless you’re a real photo buff, the 3DS could possibly replace a digital camera in some circumstances. Sure the only real place to display these pictures is on the 3DS and the resolution may not be near your double digit megapixel camera but what’s better than a quick holiday snap in full 3D without the need of glasses?

One of the best casual features of the 3DS is the deal Nintendo have sealed with a number of Hollywood studios to bring their 3D movies to the system. I watched a trailer for The Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hool from Warner Bros and other than being considerably smaller, I saw little difference from when it was viewed in the cinema. Having to hold the 3DS at such a specific angle in order to see the 3D may grate with some people if they have to do this for the length of a movie but I’ve no doubt all kinds of third party stands will be sold alongside it.

For me, the 3D was superb. You can chose to have the 3D on 100% or not at all by moving the slider up or down and I found it to show a decent 3D image even when the adjustable slider was only just above zero. Having it on full did begin to hurt my eyes a bit but pulling the slider to a half way point made the visuals perfect and painless. But I think the technology is so young that after a couple of years, developers will have really understood the 3DS and the potential eye strain will be a thing of the past. The way Nintendo have implemented 3D to the devices makes it a non-essential feature and shouldn’t be seen as a barrier for anyone worried about the strict viewing angles or necessity to gameplay. It has so many other advancements and improvements over its predecessors like greatly improved graphics, powerful processor, improved online functionality (promised by Nintendo), HD movies (granted not full HD) and an additional control input. All these together are a strong reason to buy a 3DS or upgrade from your DSi or DS Lite. What’s most exciting to me is the fact that the models LorD, Xander and I got to play with today are still just prototypes. If the 3DS is this impressive so far, imagine what the finished product will be like?

Further reading:
3DS hands-on: Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater – The Naked Sample
3DS hands-on: Resident Evil: Revelations
3DS hands-on: Pilotwings Resort
3DS hands-on: Nintendogs + Cats

3DS ready for December release?

The big man of Nintendo America, Reggie Fils-Aime, revealed to Industry Gamers that the 3DS will launch in all major markets by March 2011 with individual released dates for Japan, the Americas and UK. Still no word of price but the likelihood is that it’ll come in around £179 if previous trends are any indication. According to a ‘source’ of CVG, the 3DS will replicate the Wii’s release date format with the UK getting its delivery in early December. Stock will no doubt be limited with a preorder being the best way to secure a system. Whether or not this source can be trusted is yet to be revealed but a pre-Christmas timeframe would help sell the handheld and be the ‘must have’ toy of the season.

Another aspect of the 3DS which is yet to be finalised is its design with the model shown as E3 only being a working prototype. What we’ll eventually get will be a refined version based on feedback from the show: “Typically, at an E3, our engineers are looking for feedback,” said Fils-Aime. “You know, we have an army of Nintendo representatives out on our show floor talking to attendees, getting reactions to everything in the device: the depth slider, the buttons, the sliding pad that is, essentially, an analogue-type stick. These are things that we’re looking to get reaction to, including the overall button placement. When we get all that feedback, then we’ll finalize the design.”

Will the 3DS make it out in time for Christmas? I certainly hope so but won’t hold my breath just yet.

PSPgo Unboxing

Vodpod videos no longer available.So it’s the weekend, impulse purchases are on the up and Sony has just released the PSPgo. For me, that’s a dangerous combination. What adds to my unstoppable gaming impulse buys is the unboxing video from Giant Bomb above which, although brief, does heighten my want for the handheld. I don’t know why either – maybe it’s rather slick white casing which I only found out about the other day, or the resemblance to an iPhone. It could just be that the PSPgo’s new shape and size makes it more likely to be something I carry around justifying it’s handheld purpose. But mainly I think it’s because I’m a sucker for gadgets!