We’ve heard of Game Park’s XGP handheld games machines in the past before but have always been a little dubious of the ability of a small Korean upstart to seriously challenge Nintendo and Sony in the portable gaming arena. That changed slightly today.
We were able to drag Game Park President & CEO Hyoung-Gun Jeon away from his crowded booth on the show floor for a personal demo of the new range of XGP machines a couple of hours ago.
The lineup starts with the $300 big brother XGP (3D graphics, 128MB, 4in screen, Wi-Fi), passes through the $150 XGP mini (3D, 96MB, 2.2in, no wireless) and hits bottom with the $75 XGP Kids (2D, 2.2in, no wireless). All three play MP4 movies, MP3 audio and function as e-books, while the top-end model throws in network gaming and IM functions, as well as optional Linux or Win CE as the OS instead of the standard GPOS. SD card slots run the range of machines.
We were told to expect the kids model in July, the mini in September and the XGP in November, but were a little surprised to see the top-end model out of action today as it’s still a prototype. Still, the others performed well, especially on an MP4 of a clip from the Matrix. Gaming was pretty standard for for such small-screen devices but we’re assured 3D titles on the XGP (when it works) are impressive.
Leaving aside the fickleness of the market when it comes to plumping for a gaming platform, we do hope Game Park can make a little piece of the market its own one day.
