DS: best selling "system" ever?

[dark penguin]

Everyone owned a GBA or two, looks like this generation will be very similar. As far as this think-tank is concerned, now portables are being seen as real competitors to actual full-fledged consoles.

How accurate do you think this is? I know my PSP always got way more playtime than my ps2, but that's just me.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/820/820693p1.html

 

[subbie]

As far as this think-tank is concerned, now portables are being seen as real competitors to actual full-fledged consoles.

Eh? It's been that way for a long time now.

Sadly in the future, I think it will be more profitable to do handheld games then consoles. All that needs to pick up is game sales on handhelds (they've heavly improved on the DS over the GBA but it's not enough).

 

[Mushiki]

As far as this think-tank is concerned, now portables are being seen as real competitors to actual full-fledged consoles.

Doubtful.

Portable games are always developed with much much lower budgets and "standards" than Console games.

 

[BIG]

Doubtful.

Portable games are always developed with much much lower budgets and "standards" than Console games.

kinda like those 'straight to dvd' movie releases...lol

 

[dark penguin]

Doubtful.

Portable games are always developed with much much lower budgets and "standards" than Console games.

Well, smaller staffs for sure, but I wouldn't completely agree with the "standards" part. I had posted about devs like Alpha Dream, Intelligent Systems and Camelot recently...they are 2nd party companies but always seem to put a lot of work and effort into their handheld games.

 

[dark penguin]

Eh? It's been that way for a long time now.

Sadly in the future, I think it will be more profitable to do handheld games then consoles. All that needs to pick up is game sales on handhelds (they've heavly improved on the DS over the GBA but it's not enough).

I think I remember you posting that you've worked in the handheld industry before?
Don't remember if it was a developer or whatnot.

I personally prefer handhelds over consoles myself, simply because I can always find a way to play a handheld, but after having kids, getting time for consoles is way harder.

I'm not going to leave a ps3 or 360 sitting in the family room after what my 2 yr old tried to do to my dreamcast...

 

[Average Joe]

I've played my DS more than any other console or other portable this past year.

I don't care about this sales stuff, but I do know that I love this little handheld.

 

[dark penguin]

I've played my DS more than any other console or other portable this past year.

I don't care about this sales stuff, but I do know that I love this little handheld.

For me, it's a toss up between GBA and DS...I play my arcade stuff and my PC Engine, but otherwise it's usually all handheld.

Are you looking forward to Zelda as well? It'll be out very soon. My DS will probably see a lot more playtime than anything else as soon as I get that game.

 

[Mushiki]

Well, smaller staffs for sure, but I wouldn't completely agree with the "standards" part. I had posted about devs like Alpha Dream, Intelligent Systems and Camelot recently...they are 2nd party companies but always seem to put a lot of work and effort into their handheld games.

Several companies put a lot of effort, but this isn't about effort, it's about production values and budgets.

Handhelds are great for small dev teams, because they don't need to spend 20 Million USD to make a good selling game -- this also helps dev teams to be able to innovate with their product, since chances are, it won't be expensive to produce, and potential losses won't be high.

And the whole "standards" thing -- I personally don't believe games like "Dino Master" would ever make it to production if someone wanted it to be a Console game.

 

[dark penguin]

Several companies put a lot of effort, but this isn't about effort, it's about production values and budgets.

Handhelds are great for small dev teams, because they don't need to spend 20 Million USD to make a good selling game -- this also helps dev teams to be able to innovate with their product, since chances are, it won't be expensive to produce, and potential losses won't be high.

And the whole "standards" thing -- I personally don't believe games like "Dino Master" would ever make it to production if someone wanted it to be a Console game.

Agreed on most points there, but games like Advance Wars DS etc display a high level of standards in my opinion. Of course, the flip side of the coin is handhelds tend to be the ultimate shovelling pit for licensed shitware. The GBA definitely did not go out in a blaze of glory if you look at the licensed shit to good games ratio that dragged it under in its last few months.

edit: also, Wipeout Pure comes to mind as a handheld effort that outshone a lot of console games from around its launch window for the amount of polish and production value for what the devs would have had to work with budget-wise.
I was really impressed by that title.

 

[Mushiki]

Agreed on most points there, but games like Advance Wars DS etc display a high level of standards in my opinion. Of course, the flip side of the coin is handhelds tend to be the ultimate shovelling pit for licensed shitware. The GBA definitely did not go out in a blaze of glory if you look at the licensed shit to good games ratio that dragged it under in its last few months.

edit: also, Wipeout Pure comes to mind as a handheld effort that outshone a lot of console games from around its launch window for the amount of polish and production value for what the devs would have had to work with budget-wise.
I was really impressed by that title.

There are many handheld games that are amazing, and probably would have never existed if they weren't planned initially for the handheld market.

LocoRoco, Lumines, Gyakuten Saiban, Trauma Center, Cooking Mama... and the list goes on.

 

[subbie]

I think I remember you posting that you've worked in the handheld industry before?
Don't remember if it was a developer or whatnot.

I personally prefer handhelds over consoles myself, simply because I can always find a way to play a handheld, but after having kids, getting time for consoles is way harder.

I'm not going to leave a ps3 or 360 sitting in the family room after what my 2 yr old tried to do to my dreamcast...

Yup yup. I've done a number of GBA, crapy ps1 and 2 ds games. Sadly my last published game was hannah montana DS. I was originaly working on a PSP Game due out this year but it was canned and now i'm doing a Wii game.

Young kids are the death of consoles. My nephews loved playing games but they broke my n64 (it had a penny shaking around in it) as well scrached up my ngpc.

 

[subbie]

Several companies put a lot of effort, but this isn't about effort, it's about production values and budgets.

Handhelds are great for small dev teams, because they don't need to spend 20 Million USD to make a good selling game -- this also helps dev teams to be able to innovate with their product, since chances are, it won't be expensive to produce, and potential losses won't be high.

And the whole "standards" thing -- I personally don't believe games like "Dino Master" would ever make it to production if someone wanted it to be a Console game.

Not always but heavly in the gba market, since the teams were smaller and less stricted alot of games had a high amount of programmer and art ideas pushed into the game. Hell every gba game I did I put in alot of input into how the project should turn out.

As well some times publishers let game designers run a little wild on the games. Take TMNT GBA for example (most recent one), I knew the designer and since it was a lower scale game he had so much freadom to create what he wanted and as a result the GBA game was the best of the ubi tmnt games done.

 

[dark penguin]

Not always but heavly in the gba market, since the teams were smaller and less stricted alot of games had a high amount of programmer and art ideas pushed into the game. Hell every gba game I did I put in alot of input into how the project should turn out.

As well some times publishers let game designers run a little wild on the games. Take TMNT GBA for example (most recent one), I knew the designer and since it was a lower scale game he had so much freadom to create what he wanted and as a result the GBA game was the best of the ubi tmnt games done.

It's good to get some input from someone that has worked in the industry. And as for that TMNT game, I want to try it...I've heard it holds up well as a 2D beat 'em up.

 

[oceanfrr]

ye all all depends on what they wanna make but DS is good.