Gametrac/gizmondo

[Charge]

I did not say it was going to do better than the PSP i said it COULD be a good rival. The PSX and Saturn were rivals but the PSX outsold the Saturn by something like 2-1.

The PSP is Sonys atempt to lure the stupid Playstation owning Sheep into buying another shoddy device and charging way over the odds for it. The £250-£300 pricetag along will be enough to stop most of Sonys target audience of 13-20 year olds as most of them do not have that kind of income and i can't see the parents forking out for that until Christmas.

The PSP and Gizmondo both look cheap and i would go as far to say tacky. They are both trying to do the same things and as far as i can see the important parts of the specs are not very diffrent.

The Playstation brand is enough to sell the unit but at the right price. The PSX and PS2 only started to sell once they had been drasticly reduced. £250-£300 for a handheld is atleast £100 too expensive IMO and with the right marketing and games the Gizmondo could capitalise on that.

I still believe that there is no way the gizmondo can compete with the psp. Even though the psp has a high price tag people will buy it because they know playstation always finds a way to get astonishing games.

Can you explain why playstations are a shoddy device?

Their specs may be the same but are the games, cause in the end, thats all that matters right?

Arent they making a gta game for the psp? My point exactly.

Have you not heard about the blue screen of death and the lawsuit against Sony with regards to the PSX and PS2?


A lot of PSX and PS2 consoles have RUMORED to be faulty on purpose so after a year they start to develop disc read errors and the owner has to but another console.

I am quite sure the lawsuit is still ongoing and they have been filed in Europe and the USA.

Also i have got a Sony Mini disc and a Sony portable Cd player and within 1 month of getting them both screwed up. I was able to get the CD repaired but the mini disc had to be replaced then i got the same fault and was told by Sony it had been a faulty batch and the new one was from another batch. All was fine then two days after the year waranty ran out it developed the fault again and was left with a £200 mini disc player/recorder that i could not use.

I went out and bought an Awia one for £100 and not only was it a nicer design but its now been working for almost three years without any problems.

Sony products cost a little bit extra when compared to other brands yet the quality is far worse. I would go out of my way to avoid buying another Sony product if i could.






Back to the topic


I do not think its the Sony name that sell the devices but the third party games that they are slowly losing. If you take away the GTA, Tekken, Smackdowns then what is the Playstation brand left with?

Some below par rubbish both Microsoft and Nintendo can survive without third party support but its vital to Sonys sucess.

I thought Sony lost money on every console sold, or at least they used to, and they make their money on games sold. Why would they deliberately want to loose more by making their consoles break?

oh, back on topic, I think the VIA EVE will be better than the Gametrac - I got an email from Gametrack after I asked if there could be a homebrew scene like on the GP32. They said :

No, right now there wont be home development kits
available. We are not GP32 and are looking at a completely
different business model. We are looking at the
possibility of adding a home developer community, where we
overlook the quality, and where we use one of our
middleware partners as support. But nothing is decided
yet. I can only refer you to the homepage as that's the
place where information about this will be available first.

However, the EVE will have a massive (PC) homebrew scene with great emus as soon as it is launched.

 

[Dozer]

For those that say the ps2's only + point is the brand name and a few big names in games. I have a ps2 with 10 games, and want looooads more and the titles I choose are excellent. I was going to sell my ps2 and get an xbox, or maybe a gamecube seeing as they're so cheap now but I can't just because I don't want to lose the amazing games I do have. Ratchet and clank, jak and daxter, ICO, the eye toy, wipeout and final fantasy games just don't come out on other consoles. And games like Need for speed underground are just better on the ps2 rather than the box because they have better controlls.

I'd still love a gamecube and an xbox for the games that they have, but the ps2 has an excellent library as well.

(PS, smackdown sucks.)

 

[finty]

Yeah smackdown does suck! Plus now you can copy your games to a HDD in the ps2, so thats a plus.

The Gizmondo screen is far too small for my likeing, the next handheld I'll be getting after gp32 is most probably a psp if a homebrew scene developes around it.

 

[watoto]

i think the psp will definitvely develop a homebrew scene.i was just wandering,do u load stuff from the memory stick?because u can't write to the mediadisc,right?

and about the sony thing,i bought a ps2 when it first came out here in europe and it's never been faulty,nor has my minidisc bought ages ago,nor my sony stereo etc.

that said,i have been wondering too about the nintendo phenomenon thing.how some people are so willing to regard everything it does as super innovative,and not commercial at all.sony and microsoft,ohh,there are the bad guys.they are out to make money!not nintendo,noo.they innovate the market with games like mario tennis and mario golf,or pokemon pinball.they are also known to remake or port the odd nes/snes game on the gameboy.but it's all for the god of the industry,you know it.
thinking about it,it's like people supporting the indie music scene,where the majors are the devil and you stick to your small group that does it for the love of music and not money.nintendo,like sega before it,are now the small indie publisher that does it for the love of videogames and innovation,except they're not innovating much these days.mind you,i love some of the nintendo games,but i like them as games.if they were on ps2,i'd play them on ps2 or whatever.
sticking to the small crowd is a basic way to say i'm different,i'm not like them!just another way to assert your difference from the crowd of major/sony/whatever people.it's pretty evident.like the gp32/zodiac thing,people will find these contrasts anywere,becuase they need to.
you want to know what's innovativ enad great for games?online play.nintendo totally reject it.pretty innovative and interesting is the eyetoy.oh wait,sony has that right?and it's been doing pretty well i hear.the truth is,sony can afford making the odd bad games,or non commercial,intersting games like ico because it sells a lot without despising having bad games that sell on its console.
nintendo don't beleive in that,they won't have gta on gamecube because you shoot people,it's bad!so games sell poorly,exclusive deals are broken and there you have it.anyway,it will be interesting to see hot the psp and ds go.

 

[mattmagoo]

Off course smackdown sucks, No Mercy is the pinnacle of the WWF games, since then it's gone savagely donwhill

@ Watato, I believe the reason I like Nintendo is because they have stuck by what they believe in, they have never sold out and made vilent games to shift more units

Killer 7 is set to be one of the most violent games around, but they are allowing Capcom to release it because it's a good game not coz it will shift loads of units, which is why they won't release GTA, coz they feel they can make better games (and I agree, GTA is possibly the most overhyped game I have ever had the privelidge of playing, no-one ever does the mission, they just run around mindlessly killing people, thats does not a good game make!!)

@ Charge, Nintendo lose money on each machine they sell because they cost a lot of money and they seel em for cheap, SONY on the other hand use shoddy parts (fans etc.) and sell them for more, so i think they do make a profit, plus it boosts sales records. If SONY exchange an old PS2 for a new one coz it is broken they count it as 2 sales, even if the customer has only paid for 1 PS2

 

[Rico]

Lies! Smackdown is awesome. The sequels gradually sucked, but I found it easier to control and a lot more fun than Attitude or any of the other PlayStation games. If you want the real pinnacle, it's Wrestlemania '96

Nintendo have an image to protect... you are an idiot if you think they won't sell out. They're a corporation, and their purpose is to make money. If they could make tons of money selling violent games they would. However, parents and most Nintendo fans see them as a company that would not stoop to such levels, and releases family-friendly, quality games. Killer 7 isn't being released by Nintendo, so that's OK, and for the most part Nintendo will allow any violent game to be released as long as it matches their standards.

I don't think GTA is their type of game, for example. Sony can get away with releasing something like that but Nintendo would be vilified for it.

 

[watoto]

they have stuck by what they believe in, they have never sold out and made vilent games to shift more units

Killer 7 is set to be one of the most violent games around, but they are allowing Capcom to release it because it's a good game not coz it will shift loads of units

there you have it,the nintendo phenomenon!call the experts!

 

[Rico]

Nintendo lose money on each machine they sell because they cost a lot of money and they seel em for cheap, SONY on the other hand use shoddy parts (fans etc.) and sell them for more, so i think they do make a profit, plus it boosts sales records. If SONY exchange an old PS2 for a new one coz it is broken they count it as 2 sales, even if the customer has only paid for 1 PS2

Nintendo sell for cheap because that's the only way they're going to sell anything. Especially in comparison with their other consoles, the Gamecube tanked. I believe even the Xbox it outselling it now.

Sony lost money on PS2s and although most PlayStations were notoriously shoddy and kept failing, we have had no such problems with the 3 PS2s in our house (my brothers have them; I'm no fanboy and prefer PC). Sony started making a profit when their Emotion Engine plants were built, as this lowered the cost of making them significantly.

Also I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to record sales of products the customer hasn't bought, by law. They're a public company and while they might bend the accounts a little I think the current value of something like 8 million PS2s sold is no overestimate.

 

[Charge]

Nintendo sell for cheap because that's the only way they're going to sell anything. Especially in comparison with their other consoles, the Gamecube tanked. I believe even the Xbox it outselling it now.

last I heard, the X-box has now started outselling the PS2...

(not in toal units but on a month to month basis)

 

[finty]

In where? Hicksville?

The ps2 FAR out sells the xbox evrywhere in Ireland and most of europe.

 

[Memnoch]

last I heard, the X-box has now started outselling the PS2...

(not in toal units but on a month to month basis)

Yeah I heard that as well. I guess every man and his dog already own a PS2 now then.

 

[spray]

I got an email from Gametrack after I asked if there could be a homebrew scene like on the GP32. They said :

No, right now there wont be home development kits
available. We are not GP32 and are looking at a completely
different business model. We are looking at the
possibility of adding a home developer community, where we
overlook the quality, and where we use one of our
middleware partners as support. But nothing is decided
yet. I can only refer you to the homepage as that's the
place where information about this will be available first.

hmm, at least you got an email back form them!

a few months back i sent a nice detailed one, even suggesting devs they could talk to about porting emus!

i think they've lost a huge audience by excluding homebrewers.

I mean just consider the sought of people who are discussing it, i've seen it mentioned on a number of "geeky" websites but nowhere vaguely commercial, go out on the street and ask a number of kids about the psp the DS and the gizmodo, see which one is best known.

this thing is gonna bomb

R.I.P. gizmondo

 

[Mark]

Different Buisness Model to GP32?

So they actually want to sell Gizmondo's....Odd.

 

[Deep Thought]

What a strange Idea...

 

[kotd]

they have stuck by what they believe in, they have never sold out and made vilent games to shift more units

Killer 7 is set to be one of the most violent games around, but they are allowing Capcom to release it because it's a good game not coz it will shift loads of units

there you have it,the nintendo phenomenon!call the experts!

And if you believe that your even more full of ####. Nintendo does NOT repeat NOT give a crap about YOU. And thats BS nintendo release crappy ports like crazy the GBA was woefully bad. I think it had the worst games on a handheld in a while. Never sell out my ass. Mortal kombat sold like shit on the SNES because it had the blood taken out so Nintendo like any money grubbing company released MK2 with blood so don't give me BS that nintendo doesn't release games to shift many units. Oh right they care about you and what you want lol

 

[Huxley]

Different Buisness Model to GP32?

So they actually want to sell Gizmondo's....Odd.

I can't see an virtually unknown handheld like the Gizmondo (especially what THAT name) lasting more than a year in the same market as the PSP, GBA and DS. And no matter what Gametrac say, if it's in the same game shops, it's in the same market.

They'll sell less units if they don't support the homebrew market...I seriously doubt the GP32 would have shifted as many units as it has done if it were not for people wanting to play emulators and homebrew software. In fact, Gamepark probably wouldn't be around today if it weren't for their decision to support homebrew developers.

 

[spray]

In fact, Gamepark probably wouldn't be around today if it weren't for their decision to support homebrew developers.

They simply wouldn't be around today were it not for the dev community.

Would you have bought a handheld that had about 12 games, a few in engrish, and the capaility to watch movies?

i don't think any of us would have got the gp on the strength of tomak, pinball dreams, little wizard and a few other games!

 

[Squidge]

I feel it's exactly the same with the Zodiac. It's a good PDA, but people are buying it at the moment because of homebrew development (eg. LJZ), and not because there's commercial games like Doom2 available.

In fact, I think Tapwave support there console better than Gamepark does - they provide you with a full SDK, emulator, simulator, web & email support, and don't mind sending you some freebies through the post, regardless of where in the world you are (still need to thank them for sending me a proper debug cable).

It is more difficult to develope for if you are not prepared to buy CodeWarrior (GCC can be a total bitch a times, unlike on the GP32).

The GP32 is still the easiest console to develope for however, and one reason why I'll be keeping mine - it's perfect for testing code out and debugging; I'm not the only one to develope for the Zodiac, but debug on the GP32

 

[generalnmx]

Moved to Off-Topic Discussion.

Oh and these gadgets would be more interesting if I haven't maxed out my gadget budget until 2011

 

[Rico]

last I heard, the X-box has now started outselling the PS2...

(not in toal units but on a month to month basis)

Yeah I heard that as well. I guess every man and his dog already own a PS2 now then.

Yep, and the PS2 is the most expensive. It wouldn't surprise me, which is why Sony are getting to PSP out to keep them heavily profitable until PS3's release. GTA:SA will probably boost PS2 sales back up, though.