Why Did Gamepark Choose Europe?

[pocket]

Pinball Fantaisies is finished. But the sales of the first one were so poor, that I don't know if it will be released... maybe for the european launch ?

Not releasing this finished game would be a shame for Game Park !

 

[raven]

The language is not really a problem, most games released in Europe are not translated at all because most Europeans understand english (I actually hate it when games/movies are translated, they never seem to get it right).

One reason not to launch it in the USA would be the risk of being sued to death. GamePark is not doing anything illegal but big game-companies (Nintendo?) could simply take them to court (because of the emulation issue) and keep going until legal costs would finish GamePark (that's how Sony killed Bleem and it was a cheap way to get rid of them). The legal system in most European countries is different (mostly cheaper ), offering more protection for small companies and individuals.

 

[Surronded]

In Europe we are more like the Japanese, than in the US. In Europe, Xbox is not selling "well" (it's not the number one). We like more the Asians style consoles (Sony, Nintendo,Sega,...).

 

[Efompor]

Efompor you do know Sony fixes PS2's with your kind of problem for free right? My system was a launch system and I didnt have problems untill last year when I started gettigin DRE's on the blue cd based games. I called up the customer service went through a diganostic with them and when it didnt fix the problem they gave me a repair code to have it fixed free.

Unless your system is modded give them a call, the only thing you;re paying is shipping to the repair place.

meh my warrenty is void, I opened it up ages ago to swab it with the rubbing alcohol. Made it work like a charm, too. It just stopped working again after a while. Now I have to do it every few months. I'm too lazy to send it in now anyway, or to talk with them about it and exchange emails. I never buy games for it anymore anyway...

 

[Deep Thought]

One reason not to launch it in the USA would be the risk of being sued to death. GamePark is not doing anything illegal but big game-companies (Nintendo?) could simply take them to court (because of the emulation issue) and keep going until legal costs would finish GamePark (that's how Sony killed Bleem and it was a cheap way to get rid of them). The legal system in most European countries is different (mostly cheaper ), offering more protection for small companies and individuals.

Gamepark cannot be sued anymore than Microsoft can for copyright infringment as far as emulation goes. If Sony Microsoft Nintendo or anyone else even tried it would thrown out of court very quickly.

 

[pip]

Gamepark cannot be sued anymore than Microsoft can for copyright infringment as far as emulation goes. If Sony Microsoft Nintendo or anyone else even tried it would thrown out of court very quickly.

If they start a business in the US they can be sued for any reason, of course they will not be convicted but that matters little to a very large company like Nintendo. Gamepark still has to pay the lawyer fees etc. This becomes very expensive if Nintendo keeps sueing. That is the way of US, giving almost unlimited powers to a large cooperation.

In Sweden for instance Gamepark would not have to worry about this, since here the loser pays the court cost (and sueing is not at all as valid here to begin with).

 

[raven]

Exactly, you don't have to win, just keep dragging the smaller company back to court over and over until they are out of money or sick of the whole situation and give up. Sony didn't win any cases against Bleem either but they had enough money to go to court forever, the Bleem people didn't and had to give up because they couldn't pay the legal fees anymore.

 

[Efompor]

wtf can they possibly sue them for, being open source? Do they even evaluate cases to see if there is any actual reasoning behind them before they let them go to court? Are you saying that Nintendo could sue gamepark for "not liking them" until gamepark goes out of business? Agh thats so fucking stupid :angry:

BTW i'm in America

 

[Deep Thought]

In the U.S the loser pays the court fees too. You can also(and almost definetly will be) fined heavily for unnecessary suits.

 

[NssOne]

Yeah, in some states, if a lawsuit is deemed frivilous (meaningless, just plain stupid and worthless), the plaintiff could be charged the amount they were suing for and then some. I just got a question, if all you guys are worried about companies that sell consoles in the US being sued by other game companies, then why hasn't Sega been reemed by Nintendo for making the DC easy enough to make a SNES/NES emulator on it. It's a good thing that Nintendo would never be stupid enough to go after M$ for something like that.

The reason the GP32 just wouldn't do that well in North America is that the GP32 just doesn't have a history of being commercially successful. I doubt GamePark is financially comfortable from the sales of the GP32. And GamePark unfortunately just doesn't have the resources to start an advertising campaign for the GP32 in the US. And unfortunately, Nintendo will always rule the handheld market, unless they somehow go out of business or decide to no longer make handhelds. Our poor little GP32 doesn't stand a chance in that market.

 

[raven]

I know the loser pays the court fees, but first you need to win and get your fees back. Lawsuits like this can go on for years and can bankrupt a company before a court ever reaches a decision. (you should see how many insurrance-companies force people into 'agreements' simply by stretching lawsuits for as long as possible).

You can't compare a PC (Nintendo going after M$) to a handheld like the GP32 in this case. A PC can perform a huge number of tasks, playing games is just one of them (and running emu's is just one way to play games). You also can't compare it to the DC: people had to do a lot of extra work before the DC could run emu's, it's not an open system and it was obviously sold because of the games.

A handheld like the GP32 however is made for one real purpose: portable gaming (okay you can play movies and mp3's but nobody would buy a GP32 just for that, there are better machines for that purpose) and the GP32 is completely open making it ideal for emulation. Another thing that doesn't help GamePark is the small amount of games released for the system.

Most people on these forums have a GP32 because of the emulation. If a company (like Nintendo) could convince a court that it is likely (likely is enough to start) that the GP32 is not sold because of it's own software (because there hardly is any) but that it's selling/succesfull only because it is pirating software you could have enough reason for a lawsuit.

Now I am not saying Nintendo would sue (but there is a reason a lot of people would not want to see Gameboy Advance emulation on the GP32) or that they would get their lawsuit if they would, but if there is any country in the world where they would have the biggest chance of trying this, and be succesfull, it would be the USA (especially now with courtrooms going nuts over the DMCA)

 

[Deep Thought]

Hmm, all good points. Although they still seem rather a stretch. Even with that though, why not Japan then?

 

[kotd]

Hm not many australians

 

[RockOut]

I believe that if Gamepark does some cheap newspaper advertising campaigns and says that the GP32 is 6 times as powerful as the GBA and makes the computer drivers very easy to set up, they could do reasonably well in the US. But, on the other hand, it could turn out like the Apple Mackintosh computers, which got smashed by Microsoft and now hold less than 10% of the computer market today. But I bet that only happened to them because they cost a lot more than PCs and usually are not as powerful when compared by MHZ to $.

 

[ThndrShk2k]

I believe that if Gamepark does some cheap newspaper advertising campaigns and says that the GP32 is 6 times as powerful as the GBA and makes the computer drivers very easy to set up, they could do reasonably well in the US. But, on the other hand, it could turn out like the Apple Mackintosh computers, which got smashed by Microsoft and now hold less than 10% of the computer market today. But I bet that only happened to them because they cost a lot more than PCs and usually are not as powerful when compared by MHZ to $.

Yeah, what pisses me off is that compaire Macintosh MHZ to Windows machin MHZ

the mac system does not need that much, the G5, i think is around 1 ghz or more, runs as fast, or faster than most windows chips! which is good because the Macintoshes support for video and graphics programs are faster and easier to do than on a PC. Photoshop loads fastest on G5 than any other system

Macs and PCs are actually on equal, if not, mac leading in quality

Now the popularity and stuff is different. Most windows users stay windows users, and spread to friends, plus most stuff is for windows, so peple goto windows, but if macintosh got half the market in programs, they would be about as popular as each other, with linux in there too

 

[NssOne]

You can't compare a PC (Nintendo going after M$) to a handheld like the GP32 in this case. A PC can perform a huge number of tasks, playing games is just one of them (and running emu's is just one way to play games). You also can't compare it to the DC: people had to do a lot of extra work before the DC could run emu's, it's not an open system and it was obviously sold because of the games.

I wasn't talking about M$ and Windows. I was talking about M$ and the XBox. That's why I said game consoles and not devices. If they wanted to go after the PC market for developing emulators, they'd have to go mainly after IBM and Apple for having developed those system in which apps can be developed for them that can emulate game systems. As mentioned before, the XBox has quite a few emulators developed for it.

EDIT: Where did people get the idea that DC isn't an open system? Maybe it's not easy to develop for programming wise, but it sure was easy enough to put whatever developed programs on a CD and slap it in the DC. That's one of the things that was most noted when the DC came out: the fact that it could read CD-R's and that it ran WindowsCE.

 

[raven]

I wasn't talking about M$ and Windows. I was talking about M$ and the XBox.

That comparison is actually even sillier (when talking about open/closed), if one company tried to make sure nobody could mess with their system it's M$. Not for noble reasons, and of course they were not succesfull but they tried.

Anyway, everything in this thread is pure speculation, but it's just fun to think about. Not a single standpoint (mine included) -so far- gives a satisfying answer:
- Advertising costs in the USA? Guess what, in Europe advertising costs money too.
- Nintendo controlling the handheld market already? Same in Europe.
- Launching expensive in the USA? Not if you find a partner (like they did in Europe) and let them take care of that part.

The poll does show that most GP32 owners are Europeans so that would be a good reason to try Europe first and GamePark probably did some research but we will never really know until they actually give us the reason.

 

[pocket]

I wasn't talking about M$ and Windows. I was talking about M$ and the XBox.

The poll does show that most GP32 owners are Europeans so that would be a good reason to try Europe first and GamePark probably did some research but we will never really know until they actually give us the reason.

The GP32 community is the biggest reason, they have people to help them here.
Moreover, they did a marketing research two years ago, comparing the GP32 to the NGPC sales... But they are far to have the good NGPC games

 

[argon0]

One problem GamePark may face is the GameTrac (SP?) a British Device running WinCE, with GPS built in. Its not launched yet, but Beta models have been made - runs at 400Mhz - only down side is small size of screen... If that gets released first in UK then they may have a problem...

 

[Alpha2]

Anyway, everything in this thread is pure speculation, but it's just fun to think about. Not a single standpoint (mine included) -so far- gives a satisfying answer:
- Advertising costs in the USA? Guess what, in Europe advertising costs money too.
- Nintendo controlling the handheld market already? Same in Europe.
- Launching expensive in the USA? Not if you find a partner (like they did in Europe) and let them take care of that part.

- Advertising costs more because The US has some of the most disposable income per person in the world (second only to japan if I recall) and as such there are a lot more things aiming for your dollar, you have to have a hardcore ad campign because it's not just trying to sell you product and get it recognized you also have to beat out a hundred dozen products in a single commercial break... basically, We're a lot more shallow.

- Nintendo controls the handheld market EVERYwhere. But I think there's more room on the market for it in Europe than the US or Japan where everyone is almost mind controlled into thinking there can be no other handheld. It'd take a lot more work to sell it here than in Europe.

- There's no American corporation that would dare touch this product, atleast none the size of Virgin, and since they're european it seems logical they'd choose to bring it to THAT market before even concidering a US launch.