The boss of one of the leading smartphone publishers, Ngmoco, has put the boot in on traditional gaming handhelds, and specifically the PSP platform.
"I think PSP is done and the new [NGP] is dead on arrival. It's really difficult to compete with an app store that has hundreds of thousands of applications and a wide range of options where the average price paid is around $1.20 and there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of free applications that are really high quality. So I just don't think Sony's going to be able to compete with that."
Young also dismissed suggestions that NGP will offer a PS3-like experience.
"It's not a PS3 quality experience... And in terms of getting broad adoption, having great processing power is not necessarily a prerequisite for great adoption in the marketplace.
"You need a range of things and what I think the iPod Touch and iPhone have been able to do is offer people swiss army knife type functionality for a device that plays games really well. It's not like it's crap at playing games - it's pretty good at playing games and it can do a whole bunch of other things as well."
Of Nintendo, Young said he thinks the company will likely remain competitive in the handheld space.
"My personal opinion is that the 3D piece of the puzzle is kind of gimmicky. But Nintendo has great franchises and there are tens of millions of people who want to participate in those franchises, so that always helps... But the real question is the degree to which there's a third-party community."
Ngmoco was acquired by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA for $400 million (£252.6m) last October.
Comments
28 comments so far...
El Mag on 2 Mar '11 said:
Somebody's s**t in his Cornflakes then eh. He sounds like my granddad, next he'll tell people to get off his lawn and chase them with his sticks.
dubplate240 on 2 Mar '11 said:
Well Mr Young has convinced me. There was I thinking I needed one of the new amazing handhelds coming out this year. A dedicated gaming machine with either 3D or the (potential) power of the PS3. But all I really needed was something that was 'pretty good' at playing games, I suppose I should be happy with that ay? Neil Young = idiot.
PandyBear on 2 Mar '11 said:
I'd rather play Uncharted on the NGP over some half-arsed shovelware App. Touch Pets? REALLY?
As for the "Psp is dead" Well done, your a clever lad aint ya. Isnt this why Sony are releasing the psp2/ngp? I'm pretty sure Neil would drop all development for iphone4 once the iphone 5 is released. So, Pot calling kettle black
buffig on 2 Mar '11 said:
Sony arent competing with his s**tty £1.00 games. There is a market for people who want engrossing high quality games. Sure, mobiles have moved the goal posts but we're just gonna end up with 2 distinct markets for mobile gaming. I for one prefer to see the screen im playing on instead of lookin at my stupid podgy fingers obscuring a woefully inadequate touchscreen.
trzarector on 2 Mar '11 said:
I think he's gone over the top with Dead on Arival quote....the machine will sell. Like someone else mentioned the time invested in these type of games gives a totally different feel to the majority of the £1.50 App games for phones.
On the surface it would seem like £1.50 vs £35 games but people still love these handheld experiences.
Everything has its place ...so ssshhhhhhhhhuuuuuuya mout!
photoboy on 2 Mar '11 said:
It's a pity Young wasn't more diplomatic about what he said, as he could well be right. I'm sure the hardcore gaming crowd will be interested in buying NGPs, but compared to the vast smartphone userbase out there, it will be a relatively tiny market.
The real question is if Sony can sell enough NGPs to gamers that developers feel they can make their money back creating games with 360/PS3-level graphics, which cost a fortune to produce. I would expect developers to take the cheap option and just port the 360/PS3 version of their game to the NGP rather than risking unique games for the platform.
mkwuk on 2 Mar '11 said:
Wow, did he just compare multi-million-dollar AA projects to £1 i-phone games coded by a guy called Bruce on his lunch break?
Talk about gross ignorance. That's like saying AVATAR is competing with laughing babies on YouTube.
boskersrevenge on 2 Mar '11 said:
Dammit, I was really looking forwards to getting one as well but now that this guy I have never heard of says it's going to flop, I'd better not.
Thanks Mr. Guy, you've saved me from making a costly mistake.
buffig on 2 Mar '11 said:
Can somebody clarify this for me? I thought NGP used playstation suite which will allow compatible devices to play android games aswell as older playstation titles. Surely this means that if I buy an NGP then if I so wish, I can play angry birds for free or buy any one of thousands of £1 games. But also I can play the blockbuster titles. To do this will cost me what? £250? as opposed to a £500 iphone...Am i correct in thinking this or have I missed something along the way?
colourfulthief on 2 Mar '11 said:
keeps me searching for a heart of goooooold!
haha neil young
dookiephonic on 2 Mar '11 said:
I would have been far happier with laughing babies at the cinema then the 9-quid-a-ticket tripe that is Avatar which I saw instead.
only_777 on 2 Mar '11 said:
I think that Sony didn't let his little studio have a PSP2 dev kit and now he is crying about it.
I mean come on, the PSP maybe dead in europe, last legs in America but it's still doing very well in Japan. What ever it's status in each country might be, it's still sold over 66 million units so to outright dismis the PSP2 is just foolish.
Plus who says Sony can't compete with Apple? I'm sure people said that about Android when that first came about and they sure did well. Plus it's not like the PS Store is going to be empty when it first opens it's doors on the PSP2. It's already packed with tons of games.
Every point that this guy made is rubbish.
fps_d0minat0r on 2 Mar '11 said:
well the recession is coming to an end and people wont have to settle for shovelware.....they WILL pay for quality games.
and anyways the best gaming 'apps' for smartphones will be ported with much better graphics and frame rate to the NGP and put on the PSN store.
i see gaming on smartphone nothing more than a testing zone where only the best move on to NGP and 3DS.
their priced low for a reason.....they suck that people wont pay more for them.
just because people dont mind forking out a few dollars for a game their not sure about, it doesnt make it good....they do it because they dont have much to lose anyway.
rbt2 on 2 Mar '11 said:
Uncharted on NGP/Zelda on 3DS or Angry Birds?
It's a tough one alright.....if you're a moron.
Balladeer on 2 Mar '11 said:
jtthegame on 2 Mar '11 said:
NGP is not dead because of smart phones as sega said they handhelds and smartphones can live side by side how ever the NGP is dead because of the 3ds. i play my hand held gaming consoles as little as i play my i pod touch i mainly play my 360 and ps 3 so i did not intend to get another hand held console and with the NGP i could earierly stick to that plan however the 3ds Has something i want in the form of its exclusive resident evil game
RandyChimp on 2 Mar '11 said:
I had to smirk when he started bigging up the app store. Loser, never even heard of him, why the hell would I care what he has to say?
only_777 on 2 Mar '11 said:
You really think that? Well ok, I guess you must have a good reason behind that thinking.
I'm pretty sure that can't be your reason you think the PSP2 is dead already. You should share it with us.
KippDynamite on 2 Mar '11 said:
I am pretty sure that you are correct and I was thinking the same thing as I read this bloke's comments. His biggest point is essentially void.
Also, Hideo Kojima thinks it will work, same with Cliffy B and many, many other established developers. Virtually all reviews I've read from journalists say that the thing IS pretty amazing and interesting.
only_777 on 2 Mar '11 said:
Erm, not quite right.
The PS Suite is a store that Sony are creating that will run on Android devices and PSP2. Think of it like the PS Store app for android devices.
Sony own the store and control what content the store holds. This is not to be confused with the Android app store.
So if you have an Android device, you'll have access to the PS Suite and the Android App store. The PSP2 will have the PS Suite only.
But because the PS Suite will be competing with the Android store, expect lots of apps that do the same sort of thing as what you would find in the Android store.
almanac2015 on 2 Mar '11 said:
True gamers no doubt will prefer the proper handheld devides IMO. It's what I prefer, that's for damn sure.
monkeydude40 on 2 Mar '11 said:
I dont spose I could borrow your time machine could I mate?
I`ll just ummmm nip to next week, have a quick look at the winning lottery numbers and I shall be back in a jif...
idiot...
kimoak on 2 Mar '11 said:
What a complete and utter load of b*****ks! The NGP with do just fine. It sounds like a brilliant machine. You cannot compare apps made on phones played by casual gamers to people like us who game in a completely different way. They are like different genre's in music and movies.
tbomb on 2 Mar '11 said:
Yes, swiss army knives are fantastic, but I'm not going to use mine to deal with something substantial like cutting down a tree
Malmo on 3 Mar '11 said:
i grant you that iphones, ipods and ipads, as well as other smartphones are providing some pretty go gaming experiences, and they are convenient in that they are there on your phone, but i still prefer gaming on my ds and psp, and will prefer the NGP and 3DS whichever i may get, they are so much more capable as game machines, not least because of the physical controls, touch screen only is pants. And tbh, theres a handful of remotely interesting games on smartphones, the rest is utter crap, essentially the modern version of silly little java games.
Handheld consoles are far from dead.
boskersrevenge on 3 Mar '11 said:
Can people remind me again why people are even arsed about this?
Domin666 on 3 Mar '11 said:
LOL i dont own an apple product because i dont want or need one,but the NGP is a release day purchase for me.Had many hours fun with the psp and it's big brother with 2 sticks is just going to be great.
ps apple are like cod same s**te diffrent year get real product saturation is bad WE NEED FRESH GAMES MOVIES ECT NOT NEW HARDWARE EVERY YEAR.
Balladeer on 3 Mar '11 said:
Don't complain, Bosker - it's about the only time everyone on here sees eye to eye.