Rico
Certified Guru
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
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
