Trouble on the Horizon for Portable Gaming

Unsurprisingly I’m seeing a lot of press at the moment for Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS, huge volume shipments, absurd queues for stores in Japan, you know, the usual. Even the Nintendo bosses are firing volleys about the golden-age of gaming development being over, people don’t want complex tech, and new gamers need to be attracted.

Big whoop.

There is trouble ahead for both Sony and Nintendo. They know it full well. It comes in the form of many issues from games signings to converting people to new tech. But here lies the problem, the new tech.

Here’s what you don’t know, or what I’m going to predict:

Both Sony and Nintendo are going to have trouble with their portable gaming solutions.

Looking at what these two had at E3 in May 2004 makes this look highly likely. Both were using smoke-and-mirror demos of their kit and thinking no one would notice. Err, guys we did.

In the Nintendo world they have a machine that’s:

1. Larger than a GBA SP. Okay – it’s not huge, but it isn’t pocketable either.
2. Games that aren’t a quantum leap different from a GBAs.
3. A serious screen problem.
4. Suspicious WiFi wireless claims.

Okay – the dual screen idea is interesting, but don’t you feel Nintendo went, “oh crap Sony are gonna get the jump, quick add a screen and make it touch sensitive!!”?

Back in the day, Psion introduced one of the first heavily used touch screens in its Series 5 PDA. Although that unit was revolutionary Series 5 machines started being returned in their droves. The touch screen was self-destructing and literally lifting from the screen itself. The problem stemmed from how people used the pen on the screen and ultimately they were scribing through the touch-film completely.

Well, thankfully we’ve moved on from this over the years and PDAs don’t exist without touch screens. But what of the DS? Well at E3 I predicted that by day 3 the DS screens would also self destruct. I was wrong. They self destructed on the first day and people were banned doing certain things to them after that.

So why did my prediction come true based on what I’ve just said? Well game-play takes a lot out of a computer and manically wiggling a pen over a small area is no better to a computer than those first Series 5 users. Things wear out, and this is why Nintendo have removed the pen-option from the DS unit. E3 proved that quite well.

Nintendo now suggest that you use a digit, or origami your finger into the DS strap; all quite mad methods for precision control of a touch-screen. Soon, stylus and writing based software will be released for the DS too.

The clock is ticking on DS screen melt down.

Games kill screens. It’s just the nature of what they are. Once you integrate touch control and people start using pens (on their own initiative or otherwise) the horror stories will start rolling in.

Having said this, Nintendo in the past have been excellent designers of kid-safe kit. The battery springs in the GBA are an inspiration. No kid could ever kill those metal terminals. They’re also fantastically resistant to shock too.

But there’s more. The WiFi support is looking suspicious. WiFi logos require 802.11 certification (proof that your equipment will work with all the other wireless kits out there). It must adhere to all sorts of rules but critically it must allow equipment to interoperate. Nintendo and Sony are very shy on this issue. I will thrash out the issues on this subject later, but for now, just note things don’t smell quite right.

On the Sony side things don’t fare much better. We have a technically impressive machine, which is a defining moment in portable gaming, but it comes at a cost, the PSP has:

1. Serious power issues
2. Dubious wireless support

I would say Sony’s problems are on a par with Nintendo’s. Both manufacturers can argue performance, graphics and size however they want. Nintendo will for example always be cheaper and have a better game catalogue due to its GBA compatibility. Don’t consider Nintendo to be an under dog in any sense of the word.

However, while Nintendo’s nemesis is its touch screen, Sony’s is its power consumption.

(And both have that wireless WiFi issue lurking in the background).

Sony has a real dilemma:

performance equals power.

How do you promote the most powerful graphically challenged games ever seen on a portable device, yet not have a power issue? Answer, you can’t.

Power management isn’t a “someone else” problem. Sony has to impose restrictions on games designers not to overload the unit. Yet game design inherently takes the most amount of available power. If you want to awe a consumer market you need it by the bucket load. Hell, the power equation is normally a battle with heat, in the portable world it’s also a battle of battery-life. You can’t restrict the games design, yet you must restrict them otherwise the concept of portable becomes a joke.

The bottom-line is that I wouldn’t go near a first generation DS or PSP with a barge pole. Early-adopters are going to be victims for refinement of these products. I truly wish it wasn’t the case, but when you’re defining a new era of gaming this is unavoidable. Time scales, and the testing base just don’t allow you to do the research you need in these areas.

[EotM]

I’mafeelin: debatable
I’malistento: my wife cook