Gamepark=finished.


Mark

Boris Johnson: Cuddly Conservative
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They are well and truly done. Since the DS and PSP have been anounced, and are likely to be released all over the world in the next 12 months, why are GamePark even bothering to go ahead with the Europe launch?

What the GP32 really is is a 3 year old (correct me if I'm wrong) handheld; I'm sorry but it just can't compete. The market is dominated by the GameBoy and people won't change their handhelds unless they can really outmatch them. The GP32's commercial games looks like crap compared to the new spangly PSP and DS games; why would people want one now? Okay, there may be some hardcore supporters and it may become an underground success, but isn't it already? Won't these people have one anyway?

I can't see GamePark making any money from the Europe launch at all. The best way of marketing it would be, in my opinion, to make the units as cheaply as possible. That means no BLU, no FLU or no nothing. Okay, less units may overclock but it would proberbly be worth it. Then sell the units WITH a 64MB card and the USB cable.

DO NOT sell boxed commercial games; the console should be sold as a one off investment. You buy the handheld then you never pay anything ever again, which would be a sound investment for those short of cash.

This cut down GamePark sale would be a better launch surely? Buy creating these commercial games they are trying to attract the wrong audiance. I believe that if a GP32 Europe launch goes ahead, that really will be the end of the company, which would be a crying shame. However, I suspect quite a few people would pay a one off amount of around £75.

What do you think?
 
hm just show me a ds/psp that emulates anything and we can talk about it.
oh and only if it dont nead a flashlinke/modchip
 
Vimacs posted on May 13 2004 at 04:28 PM said:
hm just show me a ds/psp that emulates anything and we can talk about it.
oh and only if it dont nead a flashlinke/modchip
People believe what they are told to by clever marketing. And marketing the fact the fact that the GP32's best feature is the ROMs it can play is wise, is it?

People will see Tomak and think "That looks nice."
People will see GT4 and Mario 64x4 and say "F**k".
 
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I think Gamepark seem to be doing too little too late. Yes, there are newer more powerful machines on the way, but that was always going to happen. They may have been better off to get european and US launches over a year ago.

But then, the GP scene still seems to be doing very well, there's a load of software available, and a lot of positive development still going on. I can't imagine the PSP or the Nintendo DS getting anything like that sort of scene for quite a while yet, if at all. The GP soon won't be (maybe already isn't) the most powerful machine on the market, but processor speed isn't its only strength.

When a viable alternative to the GP32 appears, I'll be interested in it. But I'm judging it as an handheld emulation platform, and I don't think there's anything close to it yet.
 
Vimacs posted on May 13 2004 at 04:32 PM said:
its an completly other target group, it wont affect the gp32 much.
What do you mean? People buy a GamePark to play roms and homebrew. They can't market the roms idea, so that leaves homebrew.
 
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Yes, I agree, as much as I love my GP32, the Euro launch is never going to work. Nobody will buy it without knowing about the emulation part of it, and they can't advertise that. I agree that marketing it on its own with no commercial games would be a good idea, it would make it seem more like a PDA- so people would go on the net and look up what it can do, thus finding the emulators.
 
Not only that but the biggest bragging rights of the gp32 were mp3, video and the large screen. What are we left with now. Plus the fact that those who really wanted to get a handheld for emulators etc probably already have a gp32. It doesnt look good for gp32. But hey its still a good time for gp32 owners right now, if doesnt really matter if gamepark shut up shop, they've barely supported the gp32 anyway.
 
i bought my gp 32 for one thing and that was emulation its agreat bit of kit and wots to say the next gen hand held are going to take off they ll be 200 quid or more and 30 to 40 quid a game
 
It doesn't really matter if Gamepark go bust, we already have a brilliant community and enough software to last us forever, so I wouldn't really mind. It just makes us more special :lol:
 
what the hell was the point of this, gamepark=finished so what, i got mine, im happy. gamepark enjoys making bad business desitions, so what? i don't see you setting up a company doing something really original and getting some success.

so stop moaning and get playing.
 
Phil posted on May 13 2004 at 05:05 PM said:
what the hell was the point of this, gamepark=finished so what, i got mine, im happy. gamepark enjoys making bad business desitions, so what? i don't see you setting up a company doing something really original and getting some success.

so stop moaning and get playing.
What is your problem? I make a valid point, and an idea that MIGHT help them sell more. I'd rather more people get the chance to own the console and enjoy it rather than us being the 'elite' who own it. You own the console and now you don't care if they go bust? That's pretty selfish. What if you had not brought it before they went bust, how would you feel?

If you don't want to hear any opinions or points, then why must you come to a forum?
 
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This was eventually bound to happen. More machines are on the way, and hopefully a new gamepark. There's only so much you can do with gp32 before you run out of things to do. But through it all, i've still been playing gamepark for the longest damn time. Just because I can play Mario64 or GTA3 on a handheld doesn't mean i'm gonna want to. I'd rather stick to the classics, such as great SNES or Gensis games, as well as the ability to play movies. :)
 
DO NOT sell boxed commercial games; the console should be sold as a one off investment. You buy the handheld then you never pay anything ever again, which would be a sound investment for those short of cash.

And where would these magicial free games come from? You think any third party developer is going to start making some nice quality games, for an obscure handheld, for free?

GamePark cant very well say "Buy this and never pay for games, as long as you or someone else makes them!" Marketing the homebrew as the only available option, is not a valid choice, (kinda using us to make gamepark money), not to mention its kind of a cheap, lame, excuse for not making commercial games. And GamePark really doesnt have control over weather or not commercial software is created for the GamePark or not. Any developer can choose to commercialize their games/software.

As for making it cheeper, most console manufacturers LOSE money on all units sold. The only way GamePark can stay in bussiness is to keep that price so they can make that tiny profit. Now if they take your idea and toss the whole "Commercial Games" idea, they would have to increase the price of the unit to make any kind of profit.

Remove the FLU? They would lose 90% of potential customers. I would never have purchased a GP32 if it didnt have a light.

Less units overclock? There just went your primary homebrew market for the GP32 (highend emulators).


However, I do agree that they are commiting suicide with the euro launch. They managed to survive because they are a small company, with a small audiance, that doesnt really invade on any other handhelds territory. Now that they are going with the euro launch, expanding their territory, they leave themselves wide open to attack. And once the Zodiac prices go down (because they will, eventually), there wont be much incentive to get a GamePark over whatever other handhelds are available.

But as someone said, we have one, the community is good, what does it matter?
 
Akuma no Houkon posted on May 13 2004 at 05:27 PM said:
DO NOT sell boxed commercial games; the console should be sold as a one off investment. You buy the handheld then you never pay anything ever again, which would be a sound investment for those short of cash.

And where would these magicial free games come from? You think any third party developer is going to start making some nice quality games, for an obscure handheld, for free?

GamePark cant very well say "Buy this and never pay for games, as long as you or someone else makes them!" Marketing the homebrew as the only available option, is not a valid choice.

As for making it cheeper, most console manufacturers LOSE money on all units sold. The only way GamePark can stay in bussiness is to keep that price so they can make that tiny profit. Now if they take your idea and toss the whole "Commercial Games" idea, they would have to increase the price of the unit to make any kind of profit.

Remove the FLU? They would lose 90% of potential customers. I would never have purchased a GP32 if it didnt have a light.

Less units overclock? There just went your primary homebrew market for the GP32 (highend emulators).


However, I do agree that they are commiting suicide with the euro launch. They managed to survive because they are a small company, with a small audiance, that doesnt really invade on any other handhelds territory. Now that they are going with the euro launch, expanding their territory, they leave themselves wide open to attack. And once the Zodiac prices go down (because they will, eventually), there wont be much incentive to get a GamePark over whatever other handhelds are available.

But as someone said, we have one, the community is good, what does it matter?
What do you mean where would they come from? They are already here: Homebrew Software! No commercial game is of the quality of the stuff we have here.


Okay, companies lose money on the units they make. But can GamePark be making it back on the commercial games? The answer is no.
 
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Mark posted on May 13 2004 at 10:39 AM said:
What do you mean where would they come from? They are already here: Homebrew Software! No commercial game is of the quality of the stuff we have here.


Okay, companies lose money on the units they make. But can GamePark be making it back on the commercial games? The answer is no.
They cant very well market us. Thats like using us to make themselves money. Not to mention they can make no gaurentee that there will EVER be ANY games released. So unless they lie out their teeth, they cant make a decent marketing campaign.

]As long as you or someone else makes games for the gamepark, (we cannot make any promises that this will continue, or for how long, or even if they will be quality releases, or complete), then you wont have to pay for games for the gamepark32 ever.

Doesnt sound like a very good advertising slogan to me.

You cant market someone elses work just because its on your platform. You can add info about how great the current homebrew scene is, but thats the exentent of it.

I agree that they will die if they keep up what they are doing, and that better support for the homebrew scene, will be the only thing that keeps them alive, hell the homebrew scene is the only thing KEEPING them alive right now, but from a marketing standpoint its not something you can market.
 
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But they could say:

"Play free games, watch movies and listen to MP3's on the go!" Which does sound like a good slogan.

Surely when a developer makes a freeware title (such as yourself) then using your game to promote the console would not be a problem? Plus again, we have the fact that the software is already here. Lots of it.
 
Mark posted on May 13 2004 at 10:59 AM said:
But they could say:

"Play free games at watch movies and listen to MP3's on the go!" Which does sound like a good slogan.

Surely when a developer makes a freeware title (such as yourself) then using your game to promote the console would not be a problem? Plus again, we have the fact that the software is already here. Lots of it.
Play free games? Once again, Whos free games? They cannot legally, or morally, market our free games and software. That breaks many laws. They can have extra blurbs about addition incentives like "Play hundreds of homebrewn games and apps". And possibly have screenshots of a couple that have certain licences, But thats the extent of it. Laws aside, is morally wrong. For one company to make money, off of the hardwork of someone else.
They would have to be very very carefull in their marketing to not break any laws, and they wouldnt have much of a marketing campaing (much less than they do now), they wouldnt be able to market our free games, so that would leave them with no games to market.

Also if they toss the commercial games, they will have to make that known to every consumer before purchase. That there is no official or commercial software support for this product. You think something like that would sell? For $200+? It doesnt sell very well now!

Not to mention they cannot give any promises that there will be future homebrew games.

Basically what they would be doing, is using our free software to make them money. Thats morally wrong. (and in some cases, legally wrong as well), atleast with the commercial software available, they show that they are atleast putting effort towards making their own money.


All that aside, they wouldnt last a week. I doubt they are making enough money on hardware sales (if any at all) to be a profitable bussiness. Their only hope is commercial games and licence fees, etc... To do this, they have to get a larger audiance, so developers will see a good userbase for their games, one that will give them a good return on their investment. For gamepark, its a catch 22. If they do the euro launch, it will probably be the end of them, but they wont survive long without the euro launch.
 
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These bloody topics are beginning to get on my nerves tbh, GP32 is a niche console that only has a release in korea (so far), sure therres a Europea release soonish but thhat doesn't even encompass the whole of europe. The psp and ds will have NO impact on the sales of gp32's because there markets are entirely diffferent. The only console that is in the same league is the Zodiac. As has been pointed out time and time again the gp32 is a hackers console really, the ds and psp are aimed MUCH more squarely at the commercial market, and, as such, will have limited appeal to the hacking/homebrew scene. Yeah it'll be cool to see what they can do, but can you really see a homebrew game that could take advantage of the power of the PSP? nope, no-one would have the time, sure emulators could be made for it, but hey WE already have those. All this gp32 vs. Zodiac vs. DS vs. PSP crap is annoying.

p.s. DS all the way :p
 
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