Microsoft execs comment on PlayStation Portable !

[wraggster]

Senior executives from Microsoft's Xbox division have commented on Sony's plans for the PlayStation Portable, with Peter Moore dismissing the console's launch as being similar to a company trying to challenge the Windows operating system.[br][br]Nintendo's dominance of the handheld market makes Sony's launch "like developing your own little operating system and saying, 'Well, I'm going to challenge Windows'," Moore told questioners at a Halo 2 Backstage Pass event in Seattle late last week, according to a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.[br][br]Chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach was less dismissive of the system, but he argued that the launch was largely irrelevant to the Xbox business. "I think, in general, it's different than our [console] business," he told the audience.[br][br]"We've yet to see anybody make a meaningful connection between having a console and having a handheld," he continued, although he did acknowledge that Nintendo had attempted to do so with the GameCube and GBA link-up. [br][br]However, Bach did suggest that the launch of PSP might actually have an upside for Microsoft, by dividing Sony's attention and making them lose focus on the main home console race. "If Sony is distracted by way of a war with Nintendo, that's fine with us," he concluded.[br][br]While Nintendo has largely failed to leverage its huge Game Boy Advance installed base in the home console race, despite continuing to promote the link-up features of many key titles, Sony is thought to be hopeful that the PSP will help to drive consumers to the PlayStation brand in future.[br][br]The PlayStation 3 is expected to feature wireless LAN functionality which will allow it to communicate with nearby PSP units, and may potentially be used to transfer media such as music, movies and pictures as well as for game functions - although whether consumers will respond positive to such functionality remains to be seen.[br][br]Moore's comments, meanwhile, are liable to raise eyebrows in many quarters - not least since it comes from a company which itself challenged a hugely dominant market leader when it launched the Xbox against Sony's PlayStation 2.

[alseides]

Sony may be competing directly with Nintendo, but what is up with being distracted and losing focus from the console race? (Not that there is much of a "race" now anyways. thats over) Getting distracted and giving Microsoft an advantage is a bunch of crap talk. Although PSP is a different ballgame compared to Microsoft's plans, I see no "upside" (or downside for that matter) for MS. Sony will cover more area in the videogame world, and getting "distracted" is not on Sony's agenda.

[WHurricane16]

[quote author=alseides link=board=PSP;num=1099933767;start=0#1 date=11/10/04 at 14:18:35]Sony may be competing directly with Nintendo, but what is up with being distracted and losing focus from the console race? [/quote]

What he meant was that Sony is wasting valuable resources (time, money, and manpower) on a portable system when they should be worried about their next generation machine (PS3 or whatever). *

This is the same sort of argument I made when Sony about worrying about making the PS2 backwards compatible with the PS1 years ago. *The result? *Look at those jaggies.

[Mental2k]

its gonna be hellit hard to beat the DS. Ninty is more favoured amoung hardcore gamers, who are gonna be the adult market for a handheld, Also if they have GB in the name somewhere, well, its gonna be hard to overthrow a name thats been a handheld giant (i'm aware of the irony of that sentence) for sooooo long

[alseides]

Storminator16:

Backward compatibility is a very good feature of the PS2, and I see no real jaggy problem. The hardware is a bit older, so grpahics are not as good as the competition. Sony created the PS2 with what they originally planned at the time. All came out pretty well, I think. As a matter of fact they weren't distracted and that is why the PS2 is such a success.

[DanPotter]

Yeah, look at all those jaggies! ...on 50 million TV sets

(or whatever the stats are... you get my point...)

[Alexvrb]

All I think he meant by that was that instead of wasting manpower worrying about integrating hardware and software to allow people to play most PS1 games (since PS1 was already so widespread), they could have spent that effort putting together a better GPU. I don't know that it should really matter with a corp of that size and power, but that's how I read his comment.

Now, as for the PS3, their plans for backwards compatibility seem even better to me. They're not adding in any extra hardware, and there's no guarantee it will be perfect, because they're going to emulate the older platform. But you can improve it as you go along, with no need to be concerned about getting it perfect at launch.

[Cap'n 1time]

graphics dont make games good, they make them look good. and backwards compadability is always a plus. but why the hell did sony make a a new model of the ps1 and name it... uh... psone? sure they have the money, but that always seemed like a waste to me. they should have concentrated more on making their nextgen console more sturdy and uh.... less flamable ;D then worry about remaking an older system.

[DanPotter]

Yeah, my whole point was just that the PS2 wasn't quite as good as it could have been, but it was good enough. As for Sony, they certainly accomplished their goals (complete domination of the console market), so I'm sure they're quite happy with it. We could argue all day about the compatibility, but I think it helped out a *lot* because:

1) A lot of people who didn't have PS1s decided to go ahead and try a PS2 since they'd get both libraries of games in one shot

2) People who had PS1s and a lot of games felt good about trading up to a PS2 knowing they wouldn't need to have a console farm like some of us

At least that has been my experience from talking with people.

[Cap'n 1time]

[quote author=Dan Potter link=board=PSP;num=1099933767;start=0#8 date=11/27/04 at 14:32:00]
2) People who had PS1s and a lot of games felt good about trading up to a PS2 knowing they wouldn't need to have a console farm like some of us

[/quote]

I AM PROUD OF MY CONSOLE FARM! >

your right though,