How Is The iPhone Different From The DS & PSP?

[wraggster]

Easy. It's a phone. But hey, like I said, that's easy. For a more complicated answer, why don't we see what VP of iPod and iPhone product marketing Greg Joswiak has to say.

In a departure from some of the company's more boisterous, were-gonna-git-you-DS claims, Joswiak tells Edge that the DS and PSP are from the past. And the iPhone? You guessed it. It's from the future.


I think if you look at devices like the DS and the PSP, in a lot of ways, they’ve defined the past in handheld gaming, and I look at a product like the iPhone with the App Store, and I think it has the opportunity to redefine the future, from everything to how you acquire games – not to mention updating apps.

How do you update a cartridge? You can’t. But you can update the games here via the App Store and that’s an automatic process. Not to mention not having to carry around a bucketful of cartridges. You can store as many games as you have space for. Everything about the iPhone suggests where the future’s headed, and I think a lot of the other guys are trying to scramble for what they do in response.

He may be right! After all, the PSP is quietly moving to a digital distribution model for many of its games.

Then again, people don't appear to be holding off on purchasing a DS because of the back-breaking labour involved in carrying "a bucketful of cartridges" around.

http://kotaku.com/5130899/how-is-the...om-the-ds--psp

[leinad]

Well, with the DSi there also will be a way of downloading new things... Even if not for full games, but small applications, I think thats also what you would get on the AppleStore~

But the updating thing is right x< If there is a bug in a hard-cardridge it is there forever.
IMO thats also the reason why there is no big online game for the DS: It is not possible to maintaince it, because the games are written on the card without any way of patching or adding things...

[gutbub]

Oh wow, since when has the ability to update a game been one of the reasons to buy it? It doesn't make sense to me. Actually, I see the ability to be updated as a con. Many companies now release games that are just full of bugs, why? Because they figure they can sell the craptastic game now, and think about fixing it later. Whatever happened to QA testing?

[robman84]

Digital distribution is definitely the future.

My view as an owner of DS and iPod touch:

Ipod: Lovely screen, wonderful touch sensitivity, accelerometer is ace, appstore is truly the model of how to do DD right. BUT, no buttons, few games come close to the quality (or cost...) of DS games and the fact you have to use your fingers rather than a stylus wrecks accuracy. Some of the best ipod games are ruined by the fact that your finger is in the way of what you are doing!

DS: Two screens (some good innovation coming from that), much better games, stylus, fairly cheap to buy (but not the games). BUT cartridges suck. I bought Jam sessions and it could so easily be miles better with a few simple updates, but that'll never happen. Whereas "Guitar" on the ipod gets updated with new features etc. So that's the one I use.

On balance, I do hope that "no buttons, all touch" is NOT the future. Best of both please, Mr(s) Nintendo/Sony/Apple.

[carlitx]

Why do people feel the need to compare a CELL PHONE to god damned gaming devices? It's a phone. you can get internet everywhere, you can txt you can do a $#@! load more then a PSP or a DS. Do not argue that fact. But the DS and PSP are mainly intended for GAMING! Not a ****ing over priced flashy phone.

[ethd]

How do you update a cartridge? You can't.

That's rich. I have no doubt it can be done. If you can write to an SD card, there's no way future flash-based storage media can't update. They can't update now because of a few limitations placed by the media developers, probably to prevent flashing. But it's not like it couldn't be done, and it's not like downloading crap is a thing of the future.
Oh, and:

Not to mention not having to carry around a bucketful of cartridges.

Yes, because we all have 74,000 favorite games that can never leave our side.
I love how he thinks that we need downloads because carrying around cartridges is an inconvenience. GBA paks are small. DS cards are tiny. The physically biggest medium we have is the UMD and even that's not enough to complain about.
Don't get me wrong, I think the iPod Touch/iPhone are great machines. But I don't think they'll define the future in gaming. I think it will go down in history as the smart-device that changed smart-devices. Not the game console that became the future.

[Epic Pie]

I believe its called an R4. lol

[policrat]

Why do people feel the need to compare a CELL PHONE to god damned gaming devices? It's a phone. you can get internet everywhere, you can txt you can do a $#@! load more then a PSP or a DS. Do not argue that fact. But the DS and PSP are mainly intended for GAMING! Not a ****ing over priced flashy phone.

I tend to feel that way about mobile phones (I don't even own one; I'm happy with copper lines), but there's no denying that everything is falling into place around them, certainly so far as communications go. Games will be no different. This is obviously the guy's point, and stuff like the DS/PSP will have an uphill battle, at least some point in the future.

I think they used to call it convergence. Your real beef should be about who has overarching control of the thing, and dictating the terms of its use.

[isoptera4]

iPhone games crash all the time and there are no buttons so all controls are based on tilt and crappy sub-par touching controls. Some of the games are okay but the instability of the iphone is a bit too much.