A theory


Rico

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Well I was reading actsofgord.com, great site, earlier, and I realised something about the GP32.

It doesn't stand a chance of being launched in Europe.

Game retailers make little money from the console itself. They make it from the games. People might buy one PS2 but then buy as many as 10 games from the store, each turning over a profit. The consoles are sometimes sold with little to no profit.

Theoretically, when the GP32 comes out it will be cheaper than what it is now - no import costs. Retailers won't make much money off these things, especially as the demand is likely to be on par with that of the NeoGeo Pocket Color or the Bandai Wonderswan.

There is no way Gamepark's Engrish advertising team could plug the GP32's emulation. Homebrew games, maybe. But emulation would lead to sites getting shut down, lawsuits maybe, and generally evil tactics from Nintendo for example to blackmail retailers to stop selling it.

Not only that but with a huge selection of games for free, retailers wouldn't have much to sell. They would prefer people to buy a GBA instead, with its overpriced £40 games. The PocketPC for example, is rarely sold in games shops. Not just because it's not a game console, but in general because it has little retail value for a store.

We've also covered, on top of that, the whole 'consumer' aspect. People prefer to plug games in and go. Actually this can happen with commercial games, but nothing else. People don't care if it's open-source, they wouldn't buy it for that alone, they only care about games.

OTOH, this could be a good thing. Say that it'll play Super Metroid at full speed, they might perk up. Make it easy for this to happen, it might grow in popularity. We could see a games magazine feature or two with quick start guides. People might actually buy it.

But the future is very volatile...

- Rico
 
Who knows what the future holds?

It's actually something I've been thinking about for a while... I think that it has little chance of big commercial success, but will remain an underground thing...

Well... Like I said... who knows?
 
well if gets any publicity it'll attract more people, probably about 5000-10000 into the community, the neo geo pocket did
 
actually - I don't CARE if the thing never gets released domestically, actually I think I may prefer it! ok it sucks for gamepark, they're losing out on some possible profits, I'll admit that.. but this system, the way it's designed (USB/SMC interface, the whole downloading stuff from the net paradigm) and the fact that it looks JUST like a gameboy -- it doesn't even fit into it's class! The price is great for what you get, and not too much of a bitch to set it up - but if you want commercial games, the gameboy's proven it's capable of anything the GP32 could throw out (and gameboy's got al the licensees, the name, the track record, etc). Ok, so GP32 excels in emulation/etc where it leaves gameboy in the dust. 90 percent of customers don't care about that.

If GP32 "got big" then they are setting themselves up for some legal problems on a large scale if they ever tried to play up the emu benefits of the system.. beyond that, there's really not much to offer to compete with GBA. As it stays small and "word of mouth," it is embraced and loved by it's community and we get some nice developments and apps to play with as the time goes one. Maybe it's a precursor of what's to come, truly ahead of it's time- all this talk of n-gage and "helix" and similar do-everything systems that cost 3 times as much, which are just the next step (bigger companies trying to get a piece of the potable gaming pie), we get to enjoy now what will become more mainstream in some years from now.

It is too bad that the GP32 has kind of a doomed fate, but I never would have thought it'd get this far. Don't mourn it just yet, it's got a lot of exciting times ahead -- and even if EVERYTHING stopped tomorrow with GP32 development, we'd all still have more fun, playable games than we'd know what to do with.

Thanks to the homebrew/emu authors for giving us apps and Gamepark for giving us the hardware (and of course, this scene for being supportive, thoughtful and friendly)
 
Rico is right, major retailors would have little to no use for the GP32. The only places able to make a go with the unit will be smaller internet based companies like Gbax.com.

The fact is that most gamers dont want to piss around with free loaders and emulators and usb cables and transfering files. The masses want plug and play and that just isnt going to be the GP32. I am glad there are websites like this one other wise I would be lost as a GP32 owner.
 
Not to mention, I think the gp32 is "too hard" to use for the average consumer. Since it looks so much like a GBA you're going to have kids getting them for their birthday, and later that day will be trying to buy stuff online from Korea and get it working ... don't see it happening.
 
Easiest way would be to sell 'game packs'. You buy your GP32. You buy a game pack SMC with say 5 games on it and room for saves (a 32 meg could hold 5 games easy, and save some cash in the process).

You buy commercial games, the whole messing around part is ignored.

Anyone who is pc-savvy can go online, download the free launcher, and get some games.
 
LOL!

Ya know, after reading the GameFAQs GBA board on occasion, I could just imagine those same kids trying to use GP32... It'd be SCARY! =P

Seriously, it's just not designed to be a mainstream game system. Many people would never get past setting it up, and imagine those poor 7 year olds who just wanna catch some Pokemon and mom/dad went and gave them a GP32 instead of GBA. Hehehe... "Mommy, how do I fit my Pokemon Bluish Purple Extra Plus cartridge inside this thing?! I wanna catch 'em all!!!"
 
how complicated would it be to just include the freelauncher on a cd =\

and the games are on the smcs so what are you talking about :rolleyes:


other than that the it would be playable for the main crowds(13+)
 
Market it toward the linux and free BSD and PC user crowd however and it'd be a smash hit (cybiko my arse, people would snap it up)
 
seth posted on May 12 2003 said:
and the games are on the smcs so what are you talking about :rolleyes:
Erm... that's the point. They'd want to stick their Pokemon carts in the SMC slot. Get it?
 
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To be honest if the Gp32 gets an official UK European launch great, it would be good to get more people interested, especially indie dev'ers, commercial companies and the like.

If not heck if people want a unit just buy one from GBAX.com or wherever, makes no difference, they're still worth the money at the current import price.

If Gamepark go bust tomorrow, (I hope not, they deserve better even if there QA leaves lots to be desired and their lack of non-Korean support is shocking) I'd still be glad I bought mine and there is enough out there to keep me happy for a long time, and each and every day more and more EMU's, homebrew games etc etc come out

So would a collapse of the proposed move into Europe / UK change anything, not for me, except perhaps a few less dev'ers getting the bug.

just my opinion mind

MrT
 
I see alot of kids buying PDA's just because they're not like gameboy. Alot of kids are fed up with having it so simple, and also I could see alot of stores selling colorful smc cards or even smcs with movies on them.
 
Yeah, I agree.

Honestly, I've been researching the heck outta that new Tapwave Helix, and it's looking really good to me. Depending on several variables, it could be my next game system. It's just as open to development as any Palm, which is pretty open right? So it'd have big commercial games AND emus. :)

Point is - the GP32 is probably gonna be a temporary hobby for me (this MY opinion only, don't get offended!) and I'll probably move to something more powerful when all the fancy new devices come out in the coming year. Then my GP32 will just be a very cool and somewhat rare addition to my decent collection of handheld game systems. Until then, I'll have fun with it, and be amazed at what people manage to make it do.

No regrets about my GP32 at all, but I don't expect it to ever become a mainstream success. Oh well.
 
What I'm more worried about is, the craftmanship on these things isn't exactly the best. We've seen posts of poorly installed lights, off-center joysticks, bad CPUs (at least two overheating ones), the swapped sound channels, and more. So what happens if in a year when these things start breaking and GamePark takes a nose dive?
 
Nutzo posted on May 12 2003 said:
seth posted on May 12 2003 said:
and the games are on the smcs so what are you talking about :rolleyes:
Erm... that's the point. They'd want to stick their Pokemon carts in the SMC slot. Get it?
well who wouldnt know its not a gp32.Get it?
 
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