E3, the LA games show, is on the nearly upon us and it’s a reflection on the level of competition within the games industry these days that lots of news is coming out prior to the show. Yesterday we covered the pre-show news of EyeToy:Chat and today Reuters is covering the upcoming battle between Sony and Nintendo with their new handhelds.
To those who have been following the gaming market, the arrival of the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS are not news. What will be news is the exact specification and capabilities of them, as most discussion on the subject has been conjecture.
What is known is that the PSP will be more than a games machine, it will also play music and films. The DS will have two screens – DS stands for Dual Screen.
Nintendo has tempted furious discussion in how the DS will be operated, with some who may know more added to this. “This will not be a machine where you push the ‘A’ button or ‘B’ button and move the direction pad, but a completely different way to interact with the device,” said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of “Famitsu” game magazine publisher EnterBrain.
Nintendo has been very strong in the past in getting their gaming platforms working together. The portable GameBoy Advance (GBA) can connect to the GameCube games console, and in fact games such as Animal Crossing let the game characters pass between the two to ‘live’ between them. As we’ve previously covered, Sony is planning to mirror this with the PSP, PS2 and PSX connecting.
Before either the PSP or DS are released, Nokia will be releasing its new version of N-Gage, the QD. We will be testing and reviewing it at the end of May.
Reuters – Sony, Nintendo Aim to Wow Gamers with New Handhelds