Mobile Games

Images courtesy of Nintendo

Nintendo's portable game console strategy tends to stay with a particular design for a long time and get as much profit as possible for it. This strategy has served them well for two decades now. But, according to AppleInsider...

Nintendo profits freefall as iPhone cuts into portable game sales

A good chunk of this steep decline is attributed to losing sales to the iPhone (and presumably iPod touch). So, what is Nintendo going to do? According to Kotaku.com...

Nintendo Announces Big Screen DSi

This big screen DSi has the somewhat unwieldy name...

Nintendo DSi LL (product page)

...where "LL" is a reference to this models larger size. You can get an idea of this size difference in the image above provided by Nintendo. Although the LL has a larger display, its pixel resolution remains the same. Is a larger screen going to turn things around for DS sales? Personally, I doubt it. Nintendo needs another genre creating hit like Nintendogs, Brain Age, or Animal Crossing to bring attention to the entire DS game console line.

Speaking of eBook readers...

From Engadget...

Barnes & Noble 'Nook' e-reader with color touchscreen out Tuesday for $259, says WSJ (update: Best Buy connection?)

...and PCMag.com...

Barnes & Noble E-Reader to Match Kindle's Price

PCMag's description of this ebook reader product, apparently named the "Nook", says it will have a color touch screen and a gray-and-white reading display. Sounds a lot like the Spring Design "Alex" ebook reader I wrote about in my previous blog entry, eh?

At $259, it is the same price as Amazon's U.S.-only Kindle 2 product. However, if the Nook has a second color touch screen, WiFi, and full web browser, I'm definitely interested. If it can run 3rd party Android apps, I'm really interested. If its 3G access is free (like the Kindle) or reasonably priced, I'm sold and will be running down to an appropriate retailer to buy one.

I guess we'll find out more in a few hours. Stay tuned...

We have a Nintendo DS and DS Lite in my household. But, we didn't pick up a DSi. I have the original Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) but didn't pick up a 3000. And, I don't plan to buy the new PSP Go. Based on this ars technica review, my plan seems like a sound one...

PSP Go review: Sony is charging you much more for much less

Here's what soured ars technica's Ben Kuchera on the PSP Go...

- Since Sony removed the UMD disc option, all games must be purhcased online just like the iPhone or iPod touch. This seems great on the surface. However, Ben notes that this eliminates discounted game pricing from retailer and was well as reselling games. Sony must be thrilled by this, of course. I wonder, though, if retailers have any incentive to sell the PSP Go, since customers buying it will never return to buy games?

- The Go's screen at 3.8 inches is smaller than the 4.3 inch screen found on older PSP models.

- The close set controls are not well suited for large hands

- The game download process must be in the foreground (can't play another game while downloading a new one)

- An interrupted game download must be restarted from the beginning

- The Go only supports the older slower 802.11b WiFi protocol.

- You can't play your old UMD based games

- 2GB of the available 16GB storage is unavailable out of the box.

- The Go has a proprietary plug port. You cannot use standard mini-USB cables that older PSPs used.

- The setup process requires system update before you can start playing games. This process was slow and problematic.

If you have a Sony PSP Go, do you agree with Ben's assessment? As for me, I'm happy playing casual games on an iPod touch or iPhone these days. I have zero incentive to buy a portable game console (or a non-portable one for that matter).

Having owned the original Sony PSP for years, briefly enjoying using it, and then not using it for years, I'm not too excited about the release of the latest UMD-less Sony PSP Go. But, if nothing else, I have to give Sony credit for launching its news portable game console with a very healthy number of games...

PSP Go Arrives, Sony Launches 100 Games (PC World)

Better yet, PC World reports that a few of the new games are the so-called "Minis" games affordably priced between $5 and $10. The "full-sized" games seem to be priced between $15 and $40 (quite common for portable game consoles).

PC World's poll asking "Planning to Pick up a PSP Go" is quite telling. Of course, PC World's audience is probably not the product's key demographic.

You can find a full list of the available PSP Go games in the official Sony Playstation.Blog...

PlayStation Store Update

YouTube video courtesy of iFixit.com

The Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) Go isn't officially available until October 1. However, the nice people over at iFixt.com have already torn it apart for your viewing pleasure...

Sony PSP Go Teardown

There weren't any surprising "reveals" discovered during the disassembly process. The PSP Go's list price is $249.99 (in black or white). You can find its product page at...

Sony PSP Go (product page)

And, CNET has a pre-release review at...

Sony PSP Go (CNET review)

My take? $249.99 is too much. The $199 iPod touch (8GB model) will not lose much (if any) market share to the PSP Go despite the Go's 16GB flash storage advantage. Sony needs to reprice it down to around $129.99 (or lower) to be competitive.

The Zune HD is getting good user ratings over at Amazon so far (4.5 out of 5 stars). The Zune HD 32GB model is in a respectable #4 position in Amazon's MP3 players bestsellers list (behind the iPod touch 32GB, iPod touch 8GB, and iPod classic 160GB). I'm still thinking of buying a Zune HD 16GB model myself in November (more on this later). So, when I saw Joe Wilcox had a review over on Betanews, I hopped over to read it...

Zune HD: The best portable media player you may never buy

In one searing section of Joe's commentary, he questions Microsoft's decision to launch the Zune HD with a pitifully small games library (7 games) and asks why Microsoft didn't port some Xbox arcade games to the Zune HD to bulk up its launch library.

This got me wondering about my own reason for wanting to buy a Zune HD in November. My favorite games on the original Xbox were Project Gotham Racer and its sequel Project Gotham Racer 2. Microsoft is, in fact, porting it to the Zune HD. But, they were apparently unable to finish it before the September 15 launch date. the Zune HD version of PGR is scheduled for a November release. In the meantime, Joe's article reminded me that I haven't seen any screen shots or demo videos of PGR ported to the Zune HD. I spent some time searching for something, anything, but only found a second of video in a Zune HD commercial uploaded to YouTube.

You can see what I found in the screenshot above. That's it. Nothing else. I'm sure there are other PGR fans that are at least curious about PGR for the Zune HD. Heck, like me, they might even consider buying a Zune HD to play PGR. But, Microsoft isn't even bothering to whet our appetities. What's the deal there???

Greystripe is one of those invisible companies most of never hear about but are just about everywhere on phones of all kinds. I didn't know about them until late last year myself when I moderated a mobile games panel that included Greystripe's VP of Strategy, Erica Chriss. This past March I moderated an app store stories panel that included Greystripe's CEO, Michael Chang. Both panel sessions provided me with a bit more education about Greystripe. They've been the engine behind many Java-based free sponsored advertising driven games on feature phones for years. More recently, they've taken this successful strategy to the iPhone market.

Their strategy and success gained the attention of Disney's Steamboat Ventures as an investor (Disney owns the ABC television network). Now, NBC/Universal is throwing in their own $2 million investment for Greystripe. That's quite a bit of attention to a firm most of us outside of that vertical have never heard of. It also tells us that at least two of the major media compaines in the U.S. are taking mobile advertising very seriously.

Those of us who eat, sleep, and breath mobile tech understand that it isn't so much of the future of mobile as it is that mobile is now. Disney/Steamboat and NBC/Universal seem get this. Let's see how far they take it from here.

From the press release:
Greystripe, the mobile brand advertising network responsible for over 250 million ad-supported mobile app and game downloads, today announced it has secured $2 million in funding from GE/NBCU's Peacock Equity Fund, capping a $7.5 million Series C funding round. The previously announced $5.5 million of this Series C round was from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Incubic Venture Capital, and Monitor Ventures. The funds will be used towards increasing Greystripe’s leadership in mobile rich media advertising formats.

When I read this over on Betanews yesterday (Aug. 3)...

Facebook and Nintendo DSi linkup launches today

...my first thought/opinion was that Nintendo made a rare misstep because the DSi customer base skews much younger than the Facebook crowd. A few minutes later it finally dawned on me that I was completely wrong and that the folks over at Nintendo are executing a brilliant marketing strategy to further extend the upper age range of the DSi line to young adults.

They have already done a great job of capturing the pre-teen market with accessible and, mostly, reasonably priced games. They've also captured the mature adult market with their Brainage games. So, all that is left is everyone in between.

This new feature, by the way, lets DSi owners upload photos taken with its camera directly to Facebook using WiFi. Previously, the photo had to be moved from the DSi to a network connected computer using an SD card.

Screenshot courtesy of EA Mobile

A post from EA Mobile in their forum...

The Sims 3 (iPhone/iPod touch) - Screenshots and Info

...provides details and screenshots (one of the four they provide is seen above) about the upcoming The Sims for iPhone. I'm more of SimCity fan myself. But, I'll guess that The Sims has, at this point, far outsold the SimCity series. Where SimCity takes a macro view of the life of an entire city, The Sims provides a micro view of individual people in a city (neighborhood).

Here are the features EA Mobile mentions in their forum thread...

- Over 10 hours of gameplay filled with hysterical antics and unexpected moments of surprise
- New beautiful 3D visuals
- Support for iPhone specific controls (touch and accelerometer)
- Explore an ever-changing neighborhood with new open world gameplay
- Enjoy smarter Sims with deeper personalities, wishes and goals
- Create your own Sim, complete with different hair styles, clothes, personalities and more
- Keep your Sims busy with 4 fun mini-games including fishing, gardening, cooking, and house repairs
- Develop complex relationships with other Sims as you fall in love, make friends or rebel against the neighborhood

UPDATE: EA Mobile responded via Twitter that they are looking at an early June release for The Sims for iPhone.

FYI: You can find me at @toddogasawara on Twitter.

What happens when you take one of the best selling toys (and in my opinion one of the best toys of all time) and one of the best selling console games? According to PC World's Matt Peckham, you get...

LEGO Rock Band for Consoles, Nintendo DS Confirmed

One of the complaints I recall reading in a comment here is that the new Nintendo DSi's lack of a Gameboy cartridge slot means that the Rock Band controller for the DS doesn't work with the DSi. If LEGO Rock Band provides a DSi compatible controller, that might help that person out with the currrent Rock Band too.