Loose Threads: Next-gen handhelds

When Gunpei Yokoi sat down at his work bench armed only with a soldering iron and a fiercely imaginative disposition, nobody could have imagined that he was about to invent the Game Boy.

When he stood back, mopped his brow and admired his creation along with his colleagues, criticism was understandably thin on the ground. After all, this was a time when games machines were about as refined and compact as a combo fridge freezer and, by comparison, this little portable grey box was tantamount to witchcraft.

The creators of the DS and the PSP didn't have it so easy. The 21st century gamer is a very different animal to the wide eyed child of the Game Boy generation. Show us new hardware and we'll invariably whine about something: "But it doesn't have an MP3 player," or "Why can't I make wi-fi calls with it?" or, worse still, "These PS2/N64 quality games aren't good enough."

We're all a bunch of petulant malcontents and who can blame us � we've all been raised in a bigger-better-faster-more culture that doesn't foster such noble characteristics as stoical contentment and gratitude.

The Burning Issue: What makes a next-gen handheld?

So in a grotesque celebration our capricious nature, last week on Loose Threads we posed the question: What do you want from the next generation of handheld consoles? It seems everyone has an opinion on this.

First into the fold was Pocket Gamer chieftain, chris_pg:

"I'm a massive fan of the DS and would like to see this updated with a decent hard-drive to allow for music and video playback, a camera (preferably a flip-one so you could take external pics but also have your face in-game Eyetoy-style), some accelerometer/motion sensing stuff and something like GPS. Not so bothered about the TV-out to be honest (wireless media streaming is surely the future) but phone functionality would be nice."

Then Bigbear piped up with:

"Hmmm, not so sure about this game machine that's a phone that's an mp3 player myself. Look at the PSP, that was supposed to be media player and console and doesn't really seem to have succeeded on either front. I agree that the DS Lite is definitely on the right lines and having motion sensing is definitely a good shout, really love the idea of games where you tilt to control. How about force-feedback too, that really adds to some games and presumably rumble-packs are pretty cheap."

And so we came back around to the old 'Is the PSP a jack of all trades master of none?' debate. The fantastically coiffured SetsFireToPoshHammer cleverly sidestepped the issue:

"I have to say I am not sold on tilt control for handhelds, I mean I know portables are mostly played at home but it just seems like a slightly unnatural thing for a handheld to have."

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It's a hard argument to deny. Tilt controls, though proven with home consoles, may yet end up being little more than a fad in the handheld space. But picking up the previous thread, forum regular, Splat, set the discussion back on course:

"I'm not sure you're right BigBear. I've seen plenty of people using their PSP as an MP3 player, as indeed I did before I got a 'proper' one. The interesting issue for Nintendo, Sony, etc, designers will be that they will be able to easily/cheaply manufacture a device with PlayStation 2-class graphics, GPS, TV-Out, motion-sensor, camera, wifi plus other protocols, all inbuilt. What's important is how such a device is marketed. DS worked better because it didn't have a lot of tech in it � basically it did one thing well. That's always the balance for console designers."

So, essentially, what we all want is a new and improved DS with some sort of storage option, a camera and maybe phone functionality. Those are our demands, Nintendo. Now get to it � we have spoken.

Elsewhere on the forum...

Elsewhere on the forum, Duane has been desperate for help with finding the limited edition Spider-Man 3 PSP bundle:

"Does anyone know whether this new bundle is available anywhere, or when and where it might become available? It is a red & black PSP slim + Spider-Man 3 game + Spider-Man 3 UMD Movie."

We certainly haven't seen it anywhere yet (and Sony has yet to give us further details) so if any of you have, please let Duane know by posting about it here.

Sticking with the PSP, it was the subject of debate once again in the Sony opens PSP Store on PC thread, with MrCeri wondering:

"Does anyone know what the deal is regarding DRM? Will the downloaded games be playable only on one PSP, and if so, what happens should I trash my existing machine and buy a new one?"

Ninmachine was the man with the answer:

"You have to 'activate' your PSP in the store before you can download stuff to it. You can also 'deactivate' it (e.g. if you want to sell your console). All the bought stuff can be downloaded to up to five (activated) PSPs or PS3s. It can only be downloaded directly to the attached console. I think the download will be wrapped in some kind of DRM on the fly and it's just working with the license key on the activated console. I have purchased Beats as well (and like it) and downed it to my second PSP console as well � with no additional costs at all."

So... what about this PSP download service?

Which brings us neatly around to next week's topic. Now that the PSP can access downloadable titles, including PSone emulation games, via a PC without the need for a PS3, what do we want to see from the service? As always, more details can be read over on the forum.

That's it for now, for more passionate discourse on the burning issues surrounding pocket gaming in next week's Loose Threads, just click 'Track It!'.