The next gen hand held war (3DS Vs NGP)

[Party boy]

How do people see this going in terms of software support, hardware sales and attach rate? Also, feel free to predict the price of the NGP!

I suppose if there was a 3DS price cut before the NGP price was announced, that could affect it, but I imagine Nintendo themselves wouldn't be that stupid, so it'd have to be an unofficial price cut, unless sales were worse than expected. I could see the NGP being in the region of ?280-300 at least.

Personally, I think the Wii's had the best exclusives, it's just lacked most of the multi-format games, and i think the DS certainly had more quality exclusives than the PSP, and the support for the 3DS is looking pretty promising at this early stage.

It would be tempting to predict this hand held war going much the same way as the last one, though that might be a bit too simplistic. I think the 3DS advertising has been rubbish so far, and most DS owners probably think it's just another minor upgrade, though the DS is an established brand now. I imagine Nintendo will sort out the advertising in time though.

Obviously Sony are trying to make a combination of the DS and the PS3, adding a touch screen, and a 2nd screen, albeit just for touch, instead of primarily for touch, on the back. I'm not convinced there's much point in 'pinching' as opposed to just dragging, but it could be their way of getting round your fingers obscuring your view of the action.

I'm not a big fan of the Dual Shock, and the PSP had awful controls, so I have my doubts about the analogue sticks, but time will tell.

I think a lot will come down to multi-format games, whether either or both will get many ports of PS3/360 games. I think the NGP runs the danger of being too similar to the PS3 to make it worth owning both. Presumably the NGP will get mission pack style sequels to Kill Zone, Uncharte et al, rather than stright ports, but personally, the Sony exclusives don't interest me that much, with the possible exception of a new game from the makers of Ico.

My favourite PS3 exclusive was Disgaea 3, and I can't see the NGP getting a proper sequel to that (or any other NIS game).

[Psyduck]

My main doubt about the NGP is it just having poor versions of ps3/360 games, as the PSP did (with the PS2). I've a feeling they might both struggle to do particularly well though.

[rmoxon]

The PSP had loads of NIS games on it, theres no reason why the NGP wont have any Disgaea games on it.

Anyway I think the controls are one factor that really hurt the PSP, the nub was rubbish, and on top of that the machine has stacks of console style titles that really do require two sticks to play properly. There were a couple of exceptions (Resistance Retribution is a brilliant game for instance) but overall the PSP software seemed to be very limited by the system.

The thing about the DS is that it had a central gimmick that not only worked well but added to the games that were made for it, its a very special machine. Im not sure 3D gaming is ever going to effect the gameplay as much as touch screen controls ever did but at the end of the day it doesnt matter, the 3DS already has the market cornered and as long as it maintains the same quality of titles that the original DS recieved on a regular basis then it will still be popular, people might not even like the 3d, they may play all the games without it, but as long as the games are still good (and Im sure they will be) then I cant really see the NGP doing better than it any time soon.

You also have to remember that the NGP will probabaly be full of action/adventure titles and the like, and you have to consider just how many people want to play those type of games on a handheld really?

[Family Fry]

If the NGP launches around Xmas, Nintendo will have 9 months to impress me with outstanding games and a good online gaming/download service or Sony get's my cash, pretty simple.
One thing that will sway me even more is indie development, if these guys are saying DSiWare and WiiWare are a pile of crap and Nintendo are not giving them the support for 3DSWare titles, they move onto XBLA/PSN/NGP that will be it for me.

[Party boy]

The PSP had loads of NIS games on it, theres no reason why the NGP wont have any Disgaea games on it.

It just had ports though, no new NIS games as far as I'm aware?

[Party boy]

If the NGP launches around Xmas, Nintendo will have 9 months to impress me with outstanding games and a good online gaming/download service or Sony get's my cash, pretty simple.
One thing that will sway me even more is indie development, if these guys are saying DSiWare and WiiWare are a pile of crap and Nintendo are not giving them the support for 3DSWare titles, they move onto XBLA/PSN/NGP that will be it for me.

Doesn't the NGP have any convincing to do then?

[Mr Ono]

Currently, NGP sounds like something I would like to buy but not at the estimated ?400 price tag. I hate the form factor of it though. It looks like a standard PSP and I would have preferred something a bit more daring. Don't ask me what as I am not a designer.

The 3DS. I will almost certainly pick one up but I want a killer app preferrably better battery. Probably pick it up once Mariokart or Zelda comes out but not now.

[Decider-VT]

It just had ports though, no new NIS games as far as I'm aware?

Does the Prinny series count?

[Family Fry]

Na not really, at the moment for me it's like yum, yum NGP just bring it, I have even started saving for it.
A small Gravity Daze clip and Little Deviants playthrough on NGP was enough for me, Unreal 3 engine support, 5inch OLED front touch screen, back tracking, camera, dual analogs.
That pretty much covers every conceivable angle for gaming from the small scale development to the large scale development, core and casual alike.
PSN on NGP will destroy anything Nintendo decides to half bake on 3DS, no doubt it will be half baked.

[Flabio]

You're assuming that NIS will last the year. Aren't they in real money troubles at the moment?

[Neon Ignition]

It might seem like the simple POV but it's still likely true that there won't even be a war as the 3DS will dominate the PSP2 (I refuse to call it NGP). The main issue with the PSP2 is that it's trying to emulate 360/PS3 titles on a handheld when no studio will be able to justify the level of budget required to make those games so you're going to get a lot of compromised releases that either simply port existing titles over of reuse a lot of assets from the main entries. I'm going to be all over Uncharted on it but it's still clear that it's reusing stuff from UC1 which is likely going to be the rule of thumb. If the format fails to hit the ground running at full pelt then studios will naturally gravitate to the cost effective and larger user based 3DS.

I imagine Sony is more aware of this with this release and will loss lead it to try and make it more appealing in the early years. I was pants at guessing the 3DS's price but I'm going to hazard a PSP2 launch price of ?269.99. Overall it's certainly the format that I personally am more interested in over the 3DS (as great as that's been) but yeah, history repeating.

[Flabio]

I doubt whether Nintendo or Sony are actually interested in who 'wins'. As long as the platform makes you money you generally don't mind how big the sales figures are.

The PSP1 sold a lot less than the DS, for sure. Do Sony consider it a failure? I very much doubt it.

[Dogg Thang]

I don't get why it's a war. It's not Highlander. There is room for two handhelds on the market, especially when they seem to be quite different.

To be honest, I don't care who 'beats' the other. I many cases, it requires going to the masses to rack up numbers and that means casual games, non-games and fitness cack that I have no interest in. Not good for me. So, really, it's just about what each machine can offer me. The 3DS has 3D. That's the big thing. And I think it's enough to justify its existence without anything else. And I have no doubt that the 3DS is going to end up with some fantastic first-party and exclusive games. Interesting that the early games have mostly got traditional control schemes, in spite of the other features of the 3DS.

The PSP2 offers something that I absolutely want - console gaming on a handheld. It has the power and, more importantly, it has dual sticks. After the PSP, the 3DS doesn't seem a leap beyond the 3D itself. From what we've seen of the PSP2, it is a leap. And if they can get some console-quality immersive games in there, I'll be all over it.

Bottom line: I want both, they both have something to offer, and I'm well beyond the idea of a 'war'.

[nakamura]

I'm with Dogg Thang. Both consoles look to offer something excellent and most importantly, different. There are already games that interest me confirmed for both. I will invest in neither at launch though, way past paying top what for consoles with poor launch games.

[sj33]

Looking at the sales figures of the PSP, there certainly does appear to be enough room for two (very different) handhelds on the market. I mean, 68 million units shifted is pretty impressive in my book.

Whether or not the handheld market itself is under threat from the prevalence of smartphone devices is another debate.