[url=]Xboy? Nope, Says Microsoft, Handheld Gaming Sucks!
At one time Microsoft was working on a handheld gaming device codenamed Xboy. They not only have apparently ditched it, but they are soured on the idea of handheld gaming completely, according to Microsoft VP Peter Moore (formerly of Sega), in a Game Industry.biz article:
Moore said that Microsoft has no intentions of following Sony and Nokia into the handheld gaming business, commenting that “we’re not in that business and there are no plans to be in that business right now.”
Maybe Moore, who saw Sega get knocked around by Nintendo and Sony, is a bit of a sore loser?
In fact, Microsoft is not only not planning to enter the portable business, but is hugely dismissive of the whole sector, with Moore describing handheld gaming as “a very solitary, time-killing activity.”
“It’s not something you share,” he explained. “We believe that the future is the social element of gaming, and that’s going to be done through a console, not through a handheld gaming device”.
Because, you know, the idea of holding something in your hand and using it to connect to and communicate with other people is just too weird!
Yes I think it’s quite the contrary. With bluetooth and Wifi handhelds are going to be very connected even easier then regular consoles since you don’t have to lug the big systems + TVs for LAN style play.
I think MS is taking a more wait and see what happens with Sony approach.
Microsoft tends to dismiss certain trends too early, as one only has to look at how they never thought the public would become interested in direct access to the Internet that wasn’t behind an AOL/Prodigy like structure.
However, at the same time, I do have to say that for most of us handheld gaming is and will most likely remain a solitary experience. The most popular use of the GBA by adults, for example, is as a commute-based formed of entertainment. Be it a bus, train or airplane, you’re in a situation where you’re unlikely to meet up and play against strangers through a local wireless network. Once these devices can connect up to a wider network, such as through cellular phone service where you can play the handheld equivalent of online games, then that may change.
As for the idea that we’ll see people getting together with these handhelds instead of LAN parties, I doubt that will happen as often as one might think. For me, at least, getting together with friends involves a juggling of multiple schedules that means any groups of larger than two gamers tend to happen more on a planned monthly basis than a quick impromptu get-together, in which case I’m more than willing to bring the equipment necessary to play more complicated games than a handheld would provide since I’m already going to the trouble of planned event.
Really, while there will certainly be plenty of people who will make use of local wireless network on handhelds, I don’t think it will be quite the common form of gameplay on portable systems as some would think, with obvious exceptions being school aged kids, college kids or other specialized situations where you have the a larger number of the same people in the same places quite often.
How many people with GBAs actually own link cables, or have played in a linked game? I don’t play linked games, and none of my friends with GBAs do either. Not often anyway.
Doesn’t have to be a planned event for connecting with friends. Lets say you’ve got a PSP and so do I and we head out to watch a movie. Why not just play a few rounds of SocomPSP while we wait in the theater for the movie to start. Perhaps others there will be playing as well if the game is popular enough.
The DS in fact can supposedly have multiplayer games with only one single cartridge.
If (some might say ‘when’) handheld gaming actually does become more mainstream among the older crowd then we’ll see lots more opportunities to link up and play together. The fact that its wireless makes it all the easier.
What if I have a PSP and my friend has a DS, which is equally likely to happen. Or I have a GBA and you have a DS? Or …
Honestly, while you can come up with a hundred scenarios in which a group of friends could make use of the technology, most of us won’t have common situations in which everyone happens to have the same technology as well as happened to bring it to all events.
God knows, if I was at a movie with a group of friends, and only a few of us had the same game system and pulled it out while the others chatted, waiting for the movie, we’d pretty much be made fun of for the rest of the night for being anti-social dorks.
I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, just that it’s going to be far more uncommon than people suggest by making the wireless capabilities of these systems the primier feature they point out about them rather than the games they play.
The connectivity part of handheld gaming may never be huge, but I don’t understand why Microsoft is being so dismissive of traditional gaming. Does Microsoft think I want Halo 2 for online play? That’s not a big deal for me – I want the single player campaign. What about a Sonic game – I want to play that online?
Peter Moore was just being a troll, basically. The console company execs are behaving like little bitches these days, sniping at each other. It’s funny.
I have mixed feelings about saying this, but I sorta think MS is closer to the truth than not on this one. Sure, there will be the odd time when someone might play a couple games of Dragoon Squad Street Fighter Alpha Tekken Bushido Zero Black with their buddy while waiting for a movie to start or during halftime at a football game or on the commute to work, but that dynamic isn’t going to create excitement within the gaming demographic or generate the revenue levels MS is used to.
That is, when you think of getting together with your mates to throw down, you just naturally think of doing it over a LAN or around a tv with pizza and beer and you get excited; when you think about handheld multiplay, there’s no similar Pavlovian response - the gaming in that situation is just a short diversion. The excitement you would feel in that case would have more to do with Scooby-Doo 3 starting soon or the second half coming up or whatever.
When it comes to gaming get-togethers, handhelds aren’t going to compete with consoles, much less PC’s. They may be a bit of a cash cow for kids (and a welcome trip comanion for their parents), but I don’t see it being a serious market to enter for a company who is focusing on multiplay.
"A high-level Microsoft executive made it clear recently that his company has no plans to release a portable gaming device. Instead, Microsoft will encourage game developers to create titles for handhelds and smartphones running Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile To make this easier, the company is going to build a new group of gaming APIs into the next version of Windows Mobile."
They are adding a lot more gaming support to WM platforms soon. Hopefully this will kick the manufacturers into possibley making some decent dpads for gaming. (playstation games are a bitch on a dell axim)
