Nintendo’s portable momentum

[wraggster]

Nintendo is having quite the fourth quarter, thanks to the DS and its solid lineup of both first- and third-party games. Though no recent US figures have been released, DS sales are tearing up the Japanese and European charts. But how long can this portable momentum last?

On Monday, the company will launch their new wi-fi Internet service, free of charge, to gamers around the world. With the service comes the much anticipated Mario Kart DS which will be a big factor in determining if Nintendo’s positive year-end results can turn into next year’s profits. If the PSP doesn’t get some must-have games quickly, Nintendo may cement its dominance in the current generation of handhelds.

Will Mario Kart DS can keep the company’s portable momentum alive?

[Hevyduty]

Hey, wasn't the PSP supposed to single-handedly kill Nintendo? Were there actually any newbs and tards that believed that $#@!?

[F9zDark]

Had Sony worried more about unlocking the PSP full potential rather than locking it up from homebrew it may have fared better in this quarter.

It also doesn't help that the latest and greatest games require updates...

[King DS]

by the looks of things the only possible thing they can offer to attemp to beat MKDS is GTA thingy coz thats what some people look to sony for. oh well :-D

[souLLy]

the psp is the biggest contender nintendo have ever faced since sega's game gear when it comes to domination of the handheld market, and if anything it looks like nintendo will only be further extending thier domination of the market with the sheer quality of software being released, as well as free wifi availability.

For me i think the reason why gameswise the psp is failing, is that developers and sony are pushing games that are merely ps2/ps1 games done handheld. It's a different market and you tailor your games accordingly- hence why you don't see rpgs in arcades... it doesn't work.

[Christuserloeser]

Good point.

[scrabbus]

very good point sully, and I think I can safely say that the DS has been the biggest surprise for me in the last 5 years. You know how its been, loads of hype, and then some more hype, you get the psp and erm...well what can I say about it?? Nothing really, probably the most underwhelmed ive been since the Amiga cd32, lol. well not really but you get the point. I have a PS2 so why would I buy a stripped down more expensive version??? I was in New York on holiday last week and what surprised me is the number of second hand psp's for sale in the games shops there, some real scratch screen jobs for $90, yes you read it right. A wonderful sight though was how many people I actually saw walking around the city playing DS's!!!