Next gen consoles at E3
Another May, another E3. This year’s very important because the Big Three (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) have released their specs on their new gaming consoles. Without getting into the techical details, I’m most impressed with Sony and Microsoft. You have to give Microsoft a lot of credit for beating the pants off of Nintendo in the console gaming market so fast.
I bought a Nintendo Gamecube when it was first released. It’s a cute, light machine. The games on it were great, and it supported progressive scan TVs. Oddly enough, it only had analog audio and no online options. It wasn’t until later that a broadband adapter was released for only one game.
Put bluntly, Nintendo has to get their head out of their ass. They rely too much on Mario, Zelda, and Metroid for their market share, and neglect all the other things that sell consoles – games. How many games do you see for Playstation 2 and Xbox? Lots. How many for the Gamecube? Not nearly as many. Consumers want the most for their money, and they’re not getting it with the Gamecube. If Nintendo’s not careful, they’re going to go the way of Sega and the Dreamcast.
This leads me to another Nintendo blunder – their new Gameboy Advance. It’s essentially a mini GBA SP and looks awful. Rumors were flying that Nintendo was going to release their “PSP Killer” at E3. Well, that didn’t happen. Sony released the PSP a few months ago and it beat the pants off of the Nintendo DS. The PSP has online play, analog control, very good stereo speakers, wifi (both ad-hoc and over the internet), a memory stick, USB support, music, movies, and pictures. The DS has…two screens. Oh, it has local wifi also. That’s it. So again, Nintendo comes out with an inferior piece of hardware.
I like Nintendo, but I see this trend where they’re not helping themselves. If they don’t do something soon, their new console, the Revolution, won’t be able to save them.
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