130°

The rise of the handheld console

Back in 2003 Sony's Ken Kutaragi, "the father of the Play Station", made a bold prediction.

Announcing Sony's plans to enter the portable gaming market, he claimed the PlayStation Portable (PSP) would become "the Walkman for the 21st Century".

At that time conventional wisdom dictated that any attempt to break into the handheld market, dominated for so long by Nintendo, was doomed to failure.

To suggest that Sony's console would not only make an impact on the market, but also match the success of the 1980s cultural icon that was the Walkman seemed to argue a self-confidence bordering on arrogance.

After all, Sony shipped more than 50m Walkman units in the first ten years of production, reaching a total of 150m units produced by 1995.

The name Walkman has even joined that select group of brands like Hoover and Xerox whose name defines the product.

So four years down the line has the PSP lived up to "Papa" Kutaragi's prediction? Has it succeeded in breaking Nintendo's apparently unshakeable hold on the market?

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news.bbc.co.uk
wolfgang6293d ago

Interesting reading Outlaw.

MikeGdaGod6293d ago

i really can't wait for the connectivity with psp and ps3. where i work i have access to wifi and a lot of time on my hands so this is a function that i could get a lot of use from.

Torch6293d ago

I'm a huge fan of the PSP. I just hope that Sony can deliver on it's promise and make interactivity as smooth as they hype it up to be.

I tried synching my PSP and PS3 early on just for fun...and it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, as the PSP couldn't even keep up with streaming an MP3. Unless they fix the glitch (I've read of other accounts as well), how the heck do they expect to smoothly push streaming video across wifi AND the internet?

My fingers remain crossed.

MikeGdaGod6293d ago

i connected the two together and played a whole movie with no problems and was very impressed. i just hope they hurry up and do the anywhere wifi thing and it works as good as it did at my house.

Covenant6293d ago

I think Sony needs to redesign the system (two thumbsticks, built-in memory), make more quality games, and dump UMD movies and go to a downloadable format. For a first-generation effort, the PSP isn't bad, and has made a dent in what has been Nintendo's territory. (One can't help but wonder, however, if DS doesn't stand for "Dominates Sony." Jeez. That thing's on fire). My .02 worth.

ReconHope6293d ago

i can't beleive i did'nt know sony made the walkman.

ReconHope6293d ago

band-aid was what bandage was called i dins't know that it was a brand-name is that funny or am i just stupid?

Torch6293d ago

...It just means that I must be old.

270°

Why Is No One Making AAA Horror Games Anymore?

Saif from eXputer inquires, "Despite the everlasting popularity of the genre, why hasn't there been a good AAA horror game in a while now?"

Jin_Sakai1d 21h ago

Because the gaming industry is obsessed with live service games.

Rynxie1d 7h ago

Because he touches himself at night to characters like lady Dimitrescu.

Crows901d 4h ago

You're the one still thinking about her

Rynxie1d 4h ago

@crow

Did I give away your secret? It's okay, if you sit on your hand and numb it, you can pretend it's her playing with your little stick.

MaximusPrime_1d 20h ago

Good for me, I have no interests in horror games

-Foxtrot1d 11h ago

Even when they do it's first person trying to copy Outlast, Five Nights, P.T etc

I think the Dead Space / RE2 / RE4 Remake and the Evil Within 2 showed you can have a good story based, third person survival horror game.

jeromeface1d 8h ago

remakes is another good reason

thesoftware7301d 7h ago

Calisto Protocol was also fun with fantastic presentation.

FinalFantasyFanatic1d ago

I feel like we haven't had much in the way of horror games for years, I think it became rare after the PS2/PS3 gen. Maybe i'll pick up that Crow Country that recently came out, that looks good.

Venoxn4g22h ago

Crow Country needs some more love.. and more exposure

Redemption-641d 9h ago

Because outside of a fee games, most don't sell that well

Crows901d 4h ago

So in other words...AAA publishers don't have creativity or passion for games.

CrimsonWing691d 9h ago

Didn’t we have Dead Space Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake last year?

thorstein1d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

Among others

And isn't Dying Light 2 a horror game?

Scissorman1d 9h ago

And Alan Wake 2 and Alone in the Dark.

on_line_forever16h ago

I like Alone in the dark but it's not AAA game

richardmmorales1d ago

We also had The Quarry and The Dark Pictures The Devil In Me.

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150°

N64: Recompiled — Creating Native PC Ports Is A Godsend For Game Preservation

"In a time when companies don't care about preserving games, I have high respect for the creators of projects like N64: Recompiled." - Hanzala from eXputer.

gold_drake3d ago

it is, i might be finally able to play Snowboard kids 1 full screen ha.

purple1012d ago

il beat you to the ski-lift,

framerate on snowboard kids was shocking, do you remember./?

talking of shocking framerate and kart racers style games,
Sony had a gem on ps3, with 'Modnation Racers' but again, framerate was so terrible, still fun though, indeed, when is drifting sideways not fun, the answer is never. we have not seen enough of that game, technically some people made race tracks/games in dreams and little big planet etc, but its just not the same,!!! grrrrr

morning rant over.

here, relive some ,memories. https://www.youtube.com/wat...

itBourne2d ago

The load time on ModNation where also excruciatingly long... But man oh man I wish that game took off more, so much fun! Could turn off garbage rubber banding, I had karts with 100's of stickers to design some crazy cool stuff, custom tracks. Fantastic undeappreciated game

gold_drake2d ago

SK1 had a fairly good framerate. sk2 maybe not so much ha

Redgrave2d ago

Some food for thought:

Would you donate your physical copy of a really rare/expensive cartridge (Conkers's BFD, Bomberman 64 Second Attack, Ogre Battle 64, the two Castlevania titles, etc) to those managing this project for the greater good of getting them preserved online for all to experience at some point?

UltimateOwnage2d ago

As long as it meant they never took money from Patreon and invited a DMCA takedown / lawsuit by Nintendo to take it all away. After seeing the whole debacle with Yuzu I now question how long any of these teams can maintain game preservation efforts through emulator development, or otherwise.

franwex2d ago

I mean. They may borrow them…

Profchaos2d ago

Is it realistically needed though I would not personally give anyone my old carts for games that are already persevered and easily available online

Inverno2d ago

The snippet of ray tracing at the end of the og trailer was low-key amazing. I found out thanks to Nerrel who also made a texture pack for MM, and i can't wait to see how much more great this game will be in the near future. With model swaps, ray tracing, retextures, and a more quicker process than decompilation, it's gonna bring new life to N64 games.

Profchaos2d ago

There might need to be a bit of clarification recompilation is not the same as decompilation.

This is basically a container to excite the rom within but allows for all sorts of beat additions and tricks like new lighting effects such as ray tracing to be added.

But decompilation would ultimately be king as it allows for a widespread porting capabilities and uses the assets from games to build a native install for PC or whatever the target system is e.g Mario 64 for PC or sonic mania for psvita / wii

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