More details on Playstation3? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Peter]

I think any Sony console prerelease info should be taken with this:

 

[BrianB]

How could the GBA 3rd party market be hurting?

Basically, the games don't sell anywhere near enough to cover the costs. The only games that sell huge numbers are either from Nintendo or based on a BIG licence. Your average "boutique" title or original property sells next to nothing. The cost per unit to Nintendo combined with the gamble for sales means publishers are loathe to start original titles for the platform. A couple of big independent GBA developers have already gone bust in the last few months - Crawfish for example.

Companies generally just cannot make money out of the GBA unless they're called Nintendo. A developer I know in the UK looked at doing a GBA version of their insanely selling PC series. It just wasn't worth it - it would be popular, but it couldn't sell enough to cover the costs.

The GBA:SP won't change that - it's not the hardware that's at fault, it's the publishing model from Nintendo. Their costs to publishers are just too damn high for the size of the market.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Since SNES was I think, 4MHZ and the Genesis was around 7, based on 16-bit processors, I see no reason why the GBA's far faster chip couldn't handle it. (and does!)

 

[David Broome]

So how long before Microsoft goes after the handheld market? Say what you will about their monopolistic practices, but I enjoy their products immensley. I'm tired of having cramped hands from Nintendo's "for kids" products. And having to mod their unit in order to play it in anything but direct light (afterburner).

I'd love to see an XboxMobile or whatever they choose to call it...

 

[LDfan]

This would be a big change for Sony if they goto a PowerPC cpu. I think they have always used MIPs CPUs in both the PSX and PS2. That is why they have such a lower clock speed compared to other CPUs on the market.

Jeff

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Ah, I got it...so that's why these games are ~$30.

i dont mind paying $30 for a decent game, whatever the size of the media. by comparison, i feel much better about the $28 i paid for metroid fusion than i did about the $50 for metroid prime. ive almost beat fusion, barely played prime. of course this is just personal preference, but my point is, a good game is a good game, and worth the money you pay for it. although i dont know if i would pay more than $35 for a good gba game, due to the length of the game, limitations of the gba.

CJ

 

[EdR]

i dont mind paying $30 for a decent game, whatever the size of the media. by comparison, i feel much better about the $28 i paid for metroid fusion than i did about the $50 for metroid prime. ive almost beat fusion, barely played prime. of course this is just personal preference, but my point is, a good game is a good game, and worth the money you pay for it. although i dont know if i would pay more than $35 for a good gba game, due to the length of the game, limitations of the gba.

I basically agree with what you're saying. But look at it from the other side; I suspect that Prime's development costs were vastly greater than Fusion's, I'd guess 3x or more (this is speculation on my part). And yet Fusion is 60% the cost of Prime. Something about that equation seems amiss.

 

[Allen_Appel]

I found this quote in an article about something else, but I wondered if anyone had heard anything similar:

With Sony’s recent talk about the PS3, and how they plan to let all companies (even Microsoft and Nintendo) release games for the system, it just becomes more apparent that titles will be available for every platform at ever-increasing rates.

 

[Kelley_B]

i have a good feeling that it will just be more of the same from Sony.

 

[Greg_TSL]

I was at the E3 for Sony's "unveiling" of the PS2 I think it was 1997 or 1998.
The machine didnt really exist at the time, but they were running a "similar" bunch of hardware and showing demos that showcased what we could expect from the final product. I think it was several beefy networked PC's given the huge box where the "PS2" resided.
What they showed on the screen was breathtaking, the numbers were astounding.
Has there been a game yet that has displayed anything close to what was on the screen at that E3?
Nope....sorta like Xbox's dancing robot demo. My Xbox chokes on anything close to a high polygon count.
Any speculation on the performance of the PS3 will most likely be tempered by the actual performance of the PS3 when you get it in your living room....dont get too excited.

 

[Kelley_B]

again more of the same out of the Sony camp for PS3.