Sony announced GBA rival, Nintendo shares down by 10%!

[Subway]

Nintendo Shares Sink on Sony Handheld Game Threat
2 hours, 30 minutes ago Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Nintendo (news - web sites) Co plummeted almost 10 percent on Wednesday morning after rival Sony Corp (news - web sites) said it would launch a portable gaming device, challenging Nintendo's dominance in the handheld game market.

Sony announced on Tuesday that it would roll out a new handheld PlayStation gaming machine featuring a color screen, computing power equal to the original best-selling PlayStation and a new high-capacity optical disc created specially for it.

"This could be a big worry," said Takeshi Tajima, analyst at BNP Paribas.

Tajima said Nintendo may become vulnerable to a price war if it loses its status as the leading provider in the handheld game market.

"That may depress Nintendo's earnings," he said.

Makoto Suzuki, senior fund manager at Chuo Mitsui Asset Management, echoed Tajima's view.

"While Nintendo still holds the competitive edge in the market for portable games, it is safe to assume that this move by Sony will cut into Nintendo's profits down the road," he said.

"For Sony, it adds a new product to its line-up. I think this will turn out to be a good move for them," Suzuki added.

Nintendo's shares ended the morning session at 8,690 yen, down 9.85 percent, while Sony stock was up 3.08 percent.

NEW WAR

Nintendo's portable Game Boy has dominated the handheld market since the 1980s, with the latest Game Boy Advance SP released in March.

But Nintendo has been losing ground in the game console market to Sony's blockbuster PlayStation 2 (news - web sites), which has shipped 51.2 million units globally since its debut in March 2000.

Nintendo's console Game Cube, launched in September 2001, has shipped 9.4 million worldwide.

Still, Deutsche Securities senior analyst Takashi Oya said Sony could face a tough fight as the handheld market is dominated by younger users, who are fervent followers of Nintendo's popular game series such as "Pokemon" and "Mario."

"Even if Sony can offer high-tech gadgets, they have to be able to introduce good content to draw these young users," he said.

Sony said it would unveil the handheld device at the end of next year, but pricing and other details have not been announced.

ING Securities analyst Richard Chu said he expected the device to be priced at $150 to $200, adding it would benefit a number of Sony divisions as well as the firm's games arm.

"They're going to try to source as much as they can from Sony -- liquid crystal displays and so forth -- so it's definitely going to be positive for the Sony parent company," he said.

Bye, bye Nintendo?

PSX quality games on a handheld, sounds cool! And the optical disc will have similar impact like the CD-ROM of the original PSX, I'm sure. It's just so much easyer and cheaper for game developers.

A portable with a screen with nearly 4 times as many pixels as the GBA. A sound system to rival the PS2 or GameCube, USB support ...

And 1.8 gig discs!

Fredi

[WannaBe_80z]

just so sad we can't play with them until like another year or two. I hope they make games for youngers kids since that is who usually bugs thier parents into getting them but this advanced i hope they make more mature games as well.

[Olly K]

Sounds really cool, but to me it doesn't really matter who has the most advanced consoles, I'll always prefer Nintendo because of their games. simple as that!

[Subway]

The 1.8 GB disc:







It will be a revolution! Most GBA games are 4MB (A few are 8 or 16), that's about 450 times more!

And the power of the CPU is between the PSX and PS2 with real polygon and NURBS support!

With a screen res of 480x272 and 3D, the image quality will be not even to compare with GBA games and with 1.8GB you can play CG sequences with CD quality music!

I don't think Nintendo has planned the GBA2 to come even near to this specs.

The whole specs:

UMD or Universal Media Device. This storage media is 60mm, about half the size of the traditional CD and has a capacity of 1.8GB. That's right GB. Expect massively complex, detailed gaming (for your handheld anyway). 2.4 inches.
* ATRAC encoding support (Sony's proprietary sound format used in their minidiscs). This could mean it will be a multi-media device. (MP3 Player)
* Graphics specs are also impressive: NURB technology for rendering with full 3D polygons. (Better then the original PSX)
* The unit's widescreen LCD screen (480x272, that's the coveted 16:9 ratio we all love) will be backlit.
* The unit's sound processing will feature full 3D sound, PCM, and will be "fully reconfigurable."
* MIPS 32-bit processor.
* Also, a secure ROM cartridge for anti-piracy efforts.
* Super-one-chip solution for graphics, sound, etc.
* Memory stick will be used for game saves. Also, for GPS functionality.
* Rechargeable battery.
* CPU: 90 nanometers with a clock speed TBD.
* USB 2.0 connection for talking to your PC, cellphone, even your PS2.
* Embedded RAM.
* Supports additional video codecs (other than MPEG 4.)

Fredi

[CVO Chris]

I remember when the game gear came out with it's full colour screen and much more powerful than than original game boy. It was soo great to see your game gear turn off after the batteries were sucked dry powering the colour screen and extra CPU power while your friend played away for ages on his GB.

I still prefer the simple games like Tetris. I hope Nintendo kill Sony in the hand held market

[Olly K]

Originally posted by Subway

I'm guessing that's a pictutre of it behind that guy. I have only one question, where's the screen?

[CVO Chris]

Originally posted by Olly K
where's the screen?

That's the disc not the actaul console lol

[Olly K]

Originally posted by CVO Chris
I hope Nintendo kill Sony in the hand held market

Oh yeah!

[Subway]

Originally posted by Olly K
I'm guessing that's a pictutre of it behind that guy. I have only one question, where's the screen?

HEhe, NO! That's just the UMD disc where the games are stored. A picture of the handheld is not available. (No wonder, it's a Q4 2004 release machine)

Fredi

[Olly K]

Originally posted by CVO Chris
That's the disc not the actaul console lol

lol, oops, I'm goping back to 'the idiot thread' now

well then where's the actualy console? prrftt, they can't boast about it and not even show it!

[Subway]

Originally posted by CVO Chris
I hope Nintendo kill Sony in the hand held market

Nintendo will soon be a 2nd party developer of Sony.

Fredi

[Subway]

Originally posted by Olly K
prrftt, they can't boast about it and not even show it!

They can. Better then MS showing a silver X-Box in the form of a real X.

Fredi

[CVO Chris]

*waits for Sony to crash and burn*

[Subway]

Originally posted by CVO Chris
*waits for Sony to crash and burn*

I hope you will not just sit in a corner till then.

Fredi

[PAlexC]

It's not going to sell squat if they don't have Super Puzzle Fighter for it. That's the reason I bought a GBA SP. Been in many a drunken brawl over that game...

[CNO]

Originally posted by Subway
PSX quality games on a handheld, sounds cool!

The GBA already delivers PSX-quality power. Now. Not two years from now.

It's silly to think that Nitendo has nothing in the works to rival this system. Not to mention a big enough market share and profits to undercut any price that this system comes in at.

Nokia N-gage and a s***ton of other portable consoles were supposed to be "Gameboy killers", but right now the system is outselling even the X-box in certain areas.

[aversion]

I wonder if they could add pocket pc functions, a phones, wireless network connection and an MP3 player to it.

that would be nice.

[CNO]

*note 2: How many people do you know own a PSOne, which was also marketed by Sony as a "portable device"?

[PAlexC]

Originally posted by aversion
I wonder if they could add pocket pc functions, a phones, wireless network connection and an MP3 player to it.

that would be nice.

All the iPod needs is a color screen.

[gerbick]

could be a good thing... but they'll need games from third parties that will make the difference... but it's almost crazy to go against Nintendo on this... 100 million sold total since the Gameboy was introduced.

but who knows... I'll be watching this one.

lsounds cool.