Nintendo's portable momentum

If anything, Mario Kart DS alone may be enough of an incentive to cement the Nintendo DS as a prime contender in the handheld market, and that assessment isn't even taking Animal Crossing DS into account. Online play is paramount for increasing replay value to infinity, and expect Nintendo to take advantage of this fact by announcing ever more first-party games that will feature online multiplayer. And with wireless capabilities supposedly under the Revolution's hood, Nintendo could finally capitalize on the much-lauded handheld-console connectivity that they tried (and presumably failed) to implement during this generation.

I will be playing Mario Kart next week. Anyone care to race?

I'll race ya.

Oh hell yea. With SOCOM last week and Mario Kart and Tony Hawk online this week, its been a great month for portable games. I hope friday I get the 360 (or at least forst shipment) and Ill have one of the best months ever.

from this distance those graphics look erally good but that's probably just my high res monitor. Anyway hooray Mario kart then AC then MPH Looks like a killer line up for my DS now all we need is SSB DS and Mario Party DS and I'll probably die from over excitement.

I feel strange for some reason.

DS is stomping down on PSP with MK:DS and AM.

However PSP is really fighting back with games like SSX: On Tour and GTA:LCS and SOCOM and Burnout.

Regardless of which handheld wins, I think its fair to say that Sony came out a winner (even if they lose). They were really the first handheld to take a big bite out of Nintendo.

Honestly, I don't Nintendo was expecting Nintendogs, Advanced Wars and Brain Training and all the other "big" ones so far to be able to win against the PSP. These games were pretty small side projects or ports, yet became system-sellers for many gamers. Nintendogs was especially a surprise for them. No one ever predicted that it would sell so many systems.

Now we're starting to see the surge of "real" efforts--the games that Nintendo poured a lot of energy into and the ones that they always knew would be the main attractions on the DS. Metroid Prime, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, New Super Mario Bros. Rumors of Zelda, F-Zero, and Starfox online. A huge (and free) wi-fi network for developers to play with.

Wth such a headstart already over the PSP, the DS is turning into Big Ken's ultimate nightmare.

I'm curious as to how fast DS users will adopt Wi-Fi. According to IGN, Xbox Live reached the 2 million user mark this past July.

If Nintendo can get anywhere near this number relatively soon, it could help Nintendo erase their negative image of refusing to adopt online play earlier. While at the same time making Microsoft look a bit silly for claiming Live was a huge success.

Then again, maybe not. We'll just have to see how these video game politics play out.

Another thing is that Sony made a huge mistake with designing a console that is so similiar to the PS2, because it has to compete for developer attention.

If you're a developer, and you have a certain chunk of cash to develop a console-caliber title, which system are you going to choose. The PS2 with its huge install base, or the PSP? You have to make your money back, afterall.

I've been playing Mario Kart all this weekend on the Nintendo Wireless service. (I have connections to Nintendo of America.) There's already been a lot of use, probably by other Nintendo employees and their family and friends. (Maybe a few computer store people online as well.)

It's really intense, but casual fun. Although it lacks chat, I think it's probably better that way, especially for kids. Mostly Internet chat is full of people harassing each other.

I wish they had more wireless options, though. Like the balloon combat and more of the interesting levels, especially the new 3D levels. It'd also be nice to be able to exchange friend keys, but I think if there's a third-party website set up for people to register their friend key plus their nick name, that'd facilitate bringing together more of the serious players.

I'd like to see 8 player wireless mode as well.

The wireless is super-easy to set up. I played in a cafe in Seattle with no trouble, it takes about a minute to set up.

I really like how easy it is to set-up wireless and I think the barrier to use is going to be low enough that the DS wireless games will be fairly successful.

What might be good for McDonalds to do would be to provide free Nintendo DS use when kids eat there. I think providing loner machines (by exchanging Mom's driver's license) would be a good way to intice kids to both eat there and buy Nintendo games.

i think the DS will have a high percentage of users on the wifi connection for a few reasons

#1 wireless routers are becoming more popular
#2 it takes a lot of trouble to put your console near an internet connection or buy an expensive wireless adapter (xbox wireless adapters are still > $100 last i checked)
#3 nintendo is offering 3 ways of connecting (mcdonalds, router, or wifi adapter)
#4 userbase may be based on people who only have played ONCE. with xbox live, people who are unsubscribed aren't counted, but since wifi connection is free, if someone decides to try it out on a random day at a mcdonalds, they get that gamertag type thing and probably never lose it.
#5 nintendo is starting the wifi connection with 2 AAA killer apps - animal crossing and mario kart, and activision has tony hawk, which is AA on the DS, and then next year nintendo's bringing out metriod hunters, which i'm guessing will turn out AAA considering it's a really well done FPS with online matches on a handheld (i think that'd be a first for ANY handheld)
#6 a lot of the people who own a DS right now, this early, are more hardcore gamers willing to find out about the wifi connection and play online games

i think it will be easy for nintendo to get higher percentages of players playing on wifi connection than xbox live, but it will take a while to beat 2 million. i could be wrong, though, nintendo really wanted to hit that 90% mark they've been talking about, they might just push for it.

xbox had a lot of subscribers because it was a good console online service that was centralized. PS2 couldn't advertise the PSOnline or something because each company did online themselves.

nintendo has the best of both worlds - they have a centralized and advertised service, and it's a free service that requires no real effort to sign up for. plus, i think the wifi connection will have a much better connection with less lag and bug/hacks/cheats/problems than PS online

i would think that if you wanted to get into portable gaming, it would be better to just license technology to nintendo. seriously, no handheld manufacterer has made money on handhelds besides nintendo. mostly because of nintendo. it'd be cheaper and more profitable to come up with some crazy awesome handheld technology

#6, Take a bite out of Nintendo? Your jokeing right? The PSP hasn't done any damage to Nintendo. IF the PSP has done any thing to Nintendo is very very very very small. I would really like to see a chart that shows the 'GameBoy sales vs GameGear sales' vs 'GBA/DS sales vs PSP sales' and see how they compair, I really wouldn't be surprized to see that this battle is pretty much just the same as the GameBoy vs GameGear battle.

Im a ninty fan, but competition on the handheld market is not bad. Sony needs to pull some real high quality games on there. For me as gamer there are only 2 interesting titles on the psp (lumines & gta:lcs), but thats still not enough to get me to buy a psp. (For me, DS has 8 really interesting ones)

Anyway more quality stuff sony. Nintendo just had a giant spree but its not ending. Im still very much looking forward to stuff like children of mana, mario&luigi rpg 2, metroid prime, FF 3~6. Also theres talk of a 2d metroid, golden sun 3, and it would not surprise me if were going to see more installments of advance wars and castlevania in the future.

Anyway in short, DS lineup keeps rocking, PSP still only has a handful of upcoming good games, only 2 i can think of are loco roco and FF7 crisis core. Fix it sony.

I'm just curious as to how PSP will spend its first holiday season (stateside). How many will move then? I'd imagine the DS would still be a big hit this year due to its cheapness and super games coming out soon and the pimpage of a Wi-Fi service that's really simple and accessible to sooooooooooooo many. I think it can only get better from here.

...I wonder if Ken Kuratagi ever expected his PSP to be associated with the Game Gear?

Yeah, the real impact of the PSP won't be known till 2007. Right now it's a bunch of hype and numbers.

It was the same with the Game Gear. We'll all know if the PSP won in 2007.

Japan is pretty much victory already for the DS, games like Brain Training and Nintendogs just steamrolled the PSP there. Throwing Mario Kart and AC into that will definitely boost American sales, and so will Hunters (which won't have much of an effect on Japan, they don't like FPSes or even Metroid.)

We have two xboxes in my house, 1 modded, 1 regular. The regular one is 'used' for xbox live, which we have about 8 months left of a 12 month subscription. The 'live' xbox hasn't been turned on in about 3 months... I tried it, and got a bunch of idiots yelling in my ear.

I play Battlefield 2 only on the PC pretty much daily, and i don't seem to have that problem on that game.

Anyway, I'm absolutely hanging for Mario Kart online. It's cheap, it's going to be a great lot of fun, and i don't have to put up with people swearing at each other!

As things are now, I don't get the PSP... the only reason for me to buy it would be to watch movies(ripped of course) and play emulated games. The thing is, for the price of a tricked out PSP, I can get a decent(albeit older) laptop to do those things. As for actual PSP games, I haven't seen anything that is must-buy... certainly nothing to justify the pricetag.

I'm quite happy with my DS, especially with all the cool games about to come out and the online stuff. The price is right and I'm not constantly having to clean my DS or worry about dropping it. I'll wait for a PSP re-design, some quality games and a price drop before I buy one.

DS owners: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! is the best game ever. That is all.

The Mario Kart franchise has to be one of my favorites. It's so balanced and easy to get into. A few weeks ago, I brought Mario Kart: Double Dash!! to a friend's house for the night. There were 4 guys there, and we played it the whole night. I remember we played this one track about 70 times in a row, it was just pure fun.

Nintendo has always kept their "easy to get into" feel with a lot of their games. The Legend of Zelda series has got to be one of the best series ever, in my opinion. Mario Party has always been there for a party with friends, and now that Mario Party 7 can support up to 8 players, thinks get interesting, as well as gimmicky.

At first, the Nintendo DS looked odd to me. Even though I was going to get it regardless, I have to admit that I had my doubts. However, after being addicted to Wario Ware: Touched! (and getting my parents to play it, which was a huge accomplishment =P), playing Nintendogs everyday and with Mario Kart DS coming out, I can say that I invested a very smart 150 bones on this system.

That's just me.
~P~

On the subject of DS and PSP sales, does anyone have a really good link to a site that posts weekly/monthly/annual hardware sales numbers for Japan AND the US? Finding japanese numbers is easy but I can never find good US numbers.

Thanks!

I sell a ton of DS systems to parents buying for little girls. No kidding! Nintendogs has solidified the DS as the girls' system of choice! This XMas, a lot of under-14-year-old girls are getting a DS and Nintendogs!

the ds is going to be interesting this christmas. i think alot of dads are going to buy two of them with two copies of mario kart (one for for the kid and one for himself... maybe pass it off as a gift for is daughter or something and get a pink one.) however it works out, dads going to see the psp vs. the ds and then look at the price. he could get two dss and two copies of mario kart for about the price of a psp and a game. and then there are the games. dad might think grand theft auto is cool.. but not for his kid. then again, the ds has mario kart! dad remembers mario kart from college.. maybe even highschool (depends how old he is i guess) and the kids have been talking about the nintndogs crap and they loved pokemon

nintendo may actually have its a pretty killer holiday season, despite the utter disappointment and disgust of twilight princess's delay and a five-year old console.
there's a mario party 7 bundle that has a GCN, the game, and two controllers for $99. thats still less than a basic ps2 or xbox. then, you've got a DS for $129, or $150 combined with Mario Kart or Nintendogs. there's the improved $79 GBASP or $99 awesomely tiny micro.
and personally, there's about 20 games across the three consoles that are going on my xmas list.
as for the PSP, its still not worth the money. i can't help but be amazed at the industrial design and gorgeous screen, but the only thing i want for it is burnout, which is on at least four other systems (including DS).
i can't believe nintendo is winning this war. sony totally fumbled with the PSP.

so who will i be seeing at mcronald's in chicago tomorrow?

SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty CIty Stories
Burnout Legends

All are good PSP games, and more are to join.


Sure those are good games, but can't you play those games at home? What does the PSP offer that you can't do already at home? Nothing. I think the PSP look way cooler, other than that it has nothing to offer me, that I can't already do better and louder at home. DS offers me a unqiue experience that I need a DS for. The PSP will never be ever to capture the feeling that you are doing something you have never done before.

Momentum is a good word for it. Two weeks ago I would never have thought I would buy a DS, but I just did two days ago, and love it. Main reason for buying is the online Kart play. Let's start those engines!

Agrees with #21. OSU!
Seriously, anyone with a DS absolutely MUST get their hands on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. It really is the greatest game on the DS so far. I just need to beat Ready Steady Go on Cheerleaders difficulty and I'll have beaten the game!! *sigh...so fast...*
Anyway, more on topic, I can't wait to get MKDS. I got a PSP a short while back in Japan (only 165 USD for the core version), but to this day I have not bought a single PSP game. I just use it for ROMs and movies. Though, I am looking forward to Every Extend Extra...

"Yeah, the real impact of the PSP won't be known till 2007. Right now it's a bunch of hype and numbers.

"It was the same with the Game Gear. We'll all know if the PSP won in 2007."

There is NO winning or losing here. The race has no end. It ends only for those handheld manufacturers who pull out, and trust me when I say that Nintendo is pulling out at no point in the next decade, at least. Are you saying that Sony is?

As far as numbers today go, Nintendo is ahead by a comfortable margin worldwide, and while I don't expect that to change within the next two years, that doesn't mean Nintendo is winning. Not unless Sony throws in the towel and pulls support for their handheld... and I just don't see that happening. The Game Gear wasn't a loser until Sega pulled support, no matter how meager its numbers were.

My point is, there are no losers in a never ending race. And I doubt either of these two companies are humble enough to lay it down and hand it over.

I was at Toys R Us the other night, hanging out in the video games section for awhile and I noticed something very interesting.

They were completely sold out of PSP's. I know because three people came in (during the short time I was there) and were asking for a PSP, only to be told there were none in stock.

On the other hand, there were PLENTY of DS's and GBA's on display but no one was asking for those systems. Go figure.

This is twice now recently that I've seen this happen. In high-volume store locations as well. Poughkeepsie and Middletown, New York.

The DS has been rolling out some great games for months now (Yoshi TnG, Kirby Canvas Curse, Meteos, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Ouendan... Even Electroplankton, although not really a game per se, is a lot of fun to mess around with, especially if you've got good speakers to plug your DS into.) I'll definitely be grabbing Mario Kart DS tomorrow, and I'm giving some thought to picking up a second one at some point... If someone ever figures out how to get Meteos online, I just may have to figure out how to get a DS surgically implanted.

And yes, Ouendan absolutely rocks. Can't read a word of it, but it's some hilarious stuff nonetheless.

The question is not: what will Nintendo do to keep their momentum? It is: what will Sony do to take it away? If GTA doesn't do it, I see nothing this holiday season that can.

Mark B, you should have told them to go to Wal-Mart. Mine has like 20 on display. Not so many DSs.

Jordee McGarry,

You know how some folks have laptops as desktop replacements? Well in a similar fashion - my PSP is my console (I don't like cluttering up the living room or other rooms with all that junk nor does anyone I know enjoy sharing the idiot box aka TV with video games). I also have a DS and the prior nintendo handhelds, which I might add are collecting dust since I bought the PSP.

All in all I prefer handheld gaming and the PSP is my system of choice. With the PSP I can play HD games anywhere I want plus a whole lot of other stuff such as surf the net.

Cheers!

You know, I really think the momentum of the DS will carry through for a very long time. Not only does it have great momentum for a portable, but for any system, actually.

Posted Nov 13, 2005, 11:08 PM ET by Jordee McGarry

"...What does the PSP offer that you can't do already at home? Nothing. I think the PSP look way cooler, other than that it has nothing to offer me, that I can't already do better and louder at home. DS offers me a unqiue experience that I need a DS for. The PSP will never be ever to capture the feeling that you are doing something you have never done before."

Obviously, you've never played a PSP.

I agree with you Matthew. Nintendo can Mario on into the Sunset and then some. I doubt I'll buy this version of MarioKart though. The whole Mario thing to me is way tired - can no longer stomach those jolly plumbers and their dancing stars and goofy mushrooms all too lucky charmish - cute, but seen it done it, and more than enough over the years.

What breaks my shallow heart is that the PSP is such a beautiful machine. Why oh why does it have to suck so badly? It's like that really pretty girl that has an annoying laugh and a terrible personality (and then steals money from your wallet).

Oh, well, it's going to be me and "Clunky" for the next few months, Karting, Priming, Animal Crossing and Mario stomping' to work every day.

Brains has kicked Beauty's ass, it seems.

"...SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty CIty Stories
Burnout Legends

All are good PSP games, and more are to join.


Sure those are good games, but can't you play those games at home? What does the PSP offer that you can't do already at home?..."

Yeah, you can play them at home, but you're not gonna drag out the PS2 to starbucks or on a plane, or a road trip to play them, are you? We're talking about portables here.

PSP just got a bunch of great games recently, I've been playing SOCOM FTB online at least 5-6 hrs a day for the last week since launch.
To all those that will whine that its a port or a re-hash, isn't Mario Kart?

Hey zerocorpse,
Thanks for the tip!

"Nintendogs has solidified the DS as the girls' system of choice!"

I used to love my GBA SP, but it seemed like people always looked at me funny when I played it in public so I saved up my money to get a PSP hoping it was a "cooler" system and that now girls wouldn't think I was a loser playing it outside. Well, guess what? It didnt work. Girls still looked at me like I was a loser even though I had that sweet PSP in my grip.
Based on what zerocorpse just posted, maybe if I get a DS I might meet a girl who thinks gaming is fun too. If the DS opens gaming to girls maybe someday playing video games will actually HELP you meet a girl instead of the opposite! The PSP games were ok, but for the money it sure didn't make me any cooler with the girls. Heres one young guy selling his PSP and going to get a DS!

Thanks zerocorpse!

Wth such a headstart already over the PSP, the DS is turning into Big Ken's ultimate nightmare.

---

Reggie Mentioned Nintendo's sold 8M DS's worldwide.. yeah I'd say that's domninance..

Scary thought for Sony #2783:

Somewhere in Redmond, Nintendo is working on the real successor to GBA...

"To all those that will whine that its a port or a re-hash, isn't Mario Kart?"

Nope. Its not a port because its not moved from another systems. I wouldn't even call it a rehash with 16 all new tracks and online for the first time. In fact all the reviewers seem to love it and many claim its the best mario kart yet. I haven't seen any PSP reviews that claim the PSP version of games are better than the original, have you?

That's a rather negative spin, don't you think? The author is playing it up like the Nintendo DS is in immediate danger of being crushed under the foot of the "mighty" PSP, when sales figures have illustrated that the DS is outselling its competitor.

Great games are coming out left and right for the DS, while on the PSP, you've got a few standout launch titles, Burnout Legends, and Rockstar's Great White Hope. If a Grand Theft Auto game couldn't turn the tables against the Nintendo DS, the system is in no danger of being overtaken by the PSP.

I'm hoping that the tone of this article was driven by sensationalism rather than outright bias, but either way, it's incredibly tacky. Tsk tsk, submitter.

JR

"You know how some folks have laptops as desktop replacements?"

I never really saw it from that point of view, that makes more sense. I also agree that taking you PS2 to starbucks is not a great Idea. Can we also agree that the DS does things for games that cannot be achived without it's unique features. Allbiate it could do a Kart racing game that looks
way better.

Hey and lets not kid ourselves DS players there are alot of crap games on DS.

"To all those that will whine that its a port or a re-hash, isn't Mario Kart?"

Mario Kart is more of a sequel, there's new elements to it. Retro tracks (16) that are "re-hashed" from previous games, but there are 16 new tracks added.

If you've played MK before it's not like its something completely new, but really the way the game plays there's no reason to change it. It's just pure fun. Plus the online play opens up the game to new levels. If you didn't like it before you're not going to like it now. Fortunately I love it, even if I'm not the greatest player.

Im a very lazy person, so I really enjoy being able to just pick up my psp and start playing SW:BF2 and burnout, I do have a ps2 with re4, socom3, shadow of the collosus, soul calibur3 all those games I like a lot, but since I have to stand up to turn the ps2 on, maybe on my day off, but not when I just get back from work, oh and not to mention that I dont even have to sit on my desktop to read my email, or read joystiq:d.

Now where do you guys get all that information that GTA didnt do anything to the psp sales? do you guys forgot that GTA just came out on europe, and that theres no sales charts for the US, seriuslly I havent seen a single US chart, I work at walmart next to the electronics deparment so I see what is being sold the most and thats not the psp or the ds, its the GBA, now the PSP sells more units than the DS.

Ive been lately comparing the PSP to the xbox, offers you more power, but not to much inovation, and even like that the xbox sold more than the gamecube and well the gamecube is still alive, so the PSP no matter how much its outselled by the GBA its going to still being there, now if there wasnt many PSPs on the USA, why the ALL the movie studios would support it?

For 1, Zelda is NOT the same story every generation, in fact they have done a damn good job changing things

#1 Save the Princess
#2 didnt really get into
#3 Going through light and dark world, trying to save the triforce and not just the princess
#4 didnt have GB to play :/
#5 Saving ALL of hyrule
#6 didnt even HAVE zelda
#7 i missed out on
#8 Link is a werewolf

They arent the SAME story over and over again...

The mario games were always simple, but they were fun, the benefit of simple, plus if you look at it they arent just rehashed and it ISNT only Nintendo working on them

Mario DDR mix? Konami
Mario basketball and RPG? Square-Enix (Squaresoft)
Mario Party? Hudson

Other companies want to cash in on Mario.

The PSP doesnt suck, as much as it is the inferior device, companies that dont put gaming first lose out on the gaming side of thing, and the touch screen in a PDA did not work the way the DS screen works, in fact the PDA touch screen if I recall was a small portion of the screen that didnt display, but its been a few years since I used.

CaMBoB (#20):

When it comes to Things I Never Expected to Hear In a DS/PSP Debate, "I'll wait for a PSP re-design" has got to be at the top of the list.

First things first. Everyone is so giddy about DS WiFi and how it will beat the PSP alone. Dont get me wrong, I love the DS equally as much as the PSP. But the thing that no one is mentioning is this : PSP HAS ALWAYS HAD WiFi! Nintendo made a big statement. "A new thing that has never been seen before! You can now play games with people across the globe!" Yeah fuck you nintendo, we have always been able to do that since the fucking dreamcast came out.

Can different region carts play against each other? I want to know if I should spring for it here in Japan or wait a few months when I go back to Canada.