Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 7th Jan 2013 19:01 UTC
It's the beginning of the year, so the Consumer Electronics Show is currently in full swing in the awesome city of Las Vegas. The thing is though - there's so much, pardon my Dutch, crap being announced it's hard to keep up. I have yet to see a single interesting thing to come out at CES so far, and I have little hope the next few days are going to be any better. That NVIDIA mobile gaming thing is mildly interesting, but as usual - no price, no release date. The Verge is spending loads of money on CES, so it has excellent coverage going on. Let's have a contest: if three months from now any of you can name three products announced at this year's CES (without cheating), I will force myself to use iOS for a week.
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RE[2]: Comment by lucas_maximus
by Alfman on Tue 8th Jan 2013 07:02
in reply to "RE: Comment by lucas_maximus"
Member since:2011-01-28
RE[3]: Comment by lucas_maximus
by Laurence on Tue 8th Jan 2013 09:30
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by lucas_maximus"
Member since:2007-03-26
RE[2]: Comment by lucas_maximus
by Valhalla on Tue 8th Jan 2013 10:44
in reply to "RE: Comment by lucas_maximus"
Member since:2006-01-24
IIRC the NeoGeo was huge in the east. I've never used one though, so couldn't comment on it's performance / hardware.
Not so sure that the home console version was ever huge even in the east, in the arcades the Neo Geo did very well but the system was very expensive for home users.
As for the handhelds, I think it's mainly a question of Nintendo having an iron grip on that market more than the pricing.
Back when the Gameboy ruled we had Bandai trying to aggressively compete with the Wonderswan and later the Wonderswan Color, SNK with the Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color which were as I recall, priced competitively, but to no avail.
The PSP is probably the only success story in handheld consoles that didn't come from Nintendo and it's obviously still nowhere near the DS. PSP Vita was off to a very slow start but seems to be picking up, 3DS is way ahead though.
Here are the japanese hardware sales for 2012 and the total sold (again, in Japan):
Nintendo 3DS: 5,727,763 units (total 9,762,502 units)
Nintendo DS: 286,270 units (total 32,864,129 units)
PSP: 941,992 units (total 19,179,100 units)
PS Vita: 674,365 units (total 1,077,159 units)
Wii U: 638,339 units (total 638,339 units)
Wii: 492,999 units (total 12,667,420 units)
PS3: 1,327,185 units (total 8,744,333 units)
Xbox 360: 67,273 units (total 1,588,011 units)
Of course the big problem for the dedicated handheld console is the increasing competition from smartphones/pads.
RE[3]: Comment by lucas_maximus
by zima on Sat 12th Jan 2013 21:06
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by lucas_maximus"
Member since:2005-07-06
There is perhaps another success story - really dedicated handheld tetris consoles (like this one http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brick_Game.png ). Do we count those?
Pricing definitely played a role in their uptake (basically an order of magnitude less expensive than even Gameboy) ..."unfortunately" they were cloned all over the place, came from many small manufacturers, so nobody was keeping count of the total numbers sold (of nearly identical units, really).
As far as personal anecdotes go: they were much more popular than Gameboy at least in some of the less affluent areas (Central Europe in my case - so that's still relatively prosperous, there are many less affluent places)
Edited 2013-01-12 21:08 UTC
RE[2]: Comment by lucas_maximus
by zima on Mon 14th Jan 2013 23:12
in reply to "RE: Comment by lucas_maximus"
Member since:2005-07-06
IIRC the NeoGeo was huge in the east. I've never used one though, so couldn't comment on it's performance / hardware.
"Huge" is not the proper term... home console version of NeoGeo had something better described as smallish enthusiastic following, AFAIK.
NeoGeo Pocket saw some success, relatively wide adoption in the east ...but it wasn't high powered, so the rule stands.
On the whole though, I think you're right. Most of the successful mobile platforms have been the least cutting edge (just look at how big those Java phone games were).
If I had to guess, I'd say most people aren't interested in cutting edge graphics nor sound on a mobile gaming device because it's hard to create the environment to play in (noisy train stations / being lurched about on a bus / etc).
If I had to guess, I'd say most people aren't interested in cutting edge graphics nor sound on a mobile gaming device because it's hard to create the environment to play in (noisy train stations / being lurched about on a bus / etc).
And consider that the most popular portable game of all time is probably still Tetris... not only for Gameboy and such, also on inexpensive dedicated tetris handhelds (like this http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brick_Game.png ), quite widespread in less affluent places.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/15/13 22:44 UTC
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?More Features »
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2007-03-26
IIRC the NeoGeo was huge in the east. I've never used one though, so couldn't comment on it's performance / hardware.
Also the original PSP had some success - albeit not as all encompassing as Sony visioned (eg those movie disks for the PHP were largely a flop).
On the whole though, I think you're right. Most of the successful mobile platforms have been the least cutting edge (just look at how big those Java phone games were).
If I had to guess, I'd say most people aren't interested in cutting edge graphics nor sound on a mobile gaming device because it's hard to create the environment to play in (noisy train stations / being lurched about on a bus / etc).