jarrod said:
Why bring up Virtual Boy at all, it's over a decade old?
Well, I got banned last time for calling DS the next Virtual Boy (thanks Mike Works!), so let's see if I can avoid a banning this time.
The reason that comparison can (and should) be made is that VB was a "new way to play" according to Nintendo--just like DS! Nintendo swears up and down that DS isn't "the next GameBoy" and that it and the PSP have "different demographic targets." This, in my opinion, is
BULLSHIT. Nintendo has NEVER EVER rushed to release a new handheld device (I'm of the belief that there was absolutely no design work done on DS at the time of SCEA's groundbreaking and completely unexpected announcement at E3 2003), and now, all of sudden when Sony announced that they're throwing the full weight of the PlayStation brand (an
extremely powerful consumer brand, higher even than Nintendo at it's height around SMB3, in my opinion) Nintendo scrambles to release something that, for all intents and purposes, in my opinion, looks like a half-assed effort to get 3D gfx on a handheld in time to compete with PSP so that GBA (and it's
ridiculously overpriced games--$30 for a portable 8-16bit quality game on a handheld when PSP games will go for $40-50 and be in the range of Dreamcast-early PS2 quality?) won't get completely slaughtered and Nintendo won't lose its
extremely valuable portable monopoly (this is what is keeping Nintendo alive, in case you armchair financial analysts haven't been keeping score) to PSP's inevitable dominance in the space?
Nintendo is scared. Their bread-and-butter is under attack. They've already been marginalized in the console business. They don't want a competitor's new product to outshine them. This is just like the Virtual Boy scenario. Nintendo knew "Ultra 64" (and don't get me started on that debacle) was taking longer than expected, and this new "PlayStation" was gaining ground and mindshare, so to distract their loyal consumers (this was me at that point, who was still staunchly pro-Nintendo) they released Virtual Boy. The result? $25 clearance sales on Virtual Boy within a year or so. Will the same happen with DS? Time will tell.