Does Sony's New Handheld Have a Chance in Hell?

Ever since their first handheld, the Gameboy, Nintendo has owned the handheld market. Rivals have come and gone; Sega’s Gamegear, Atari’s Linx, SNK’s NeoGeo Pocket, etc. To be fair, Nintendo has made some mistakes in this arena, like the Virtualboy, and yes, Sony has had a little bit of success (especially in Japan) with their PSP, but that does not change the fact that Nintendo’s DS has sold more units than any other videogaming platform ever.

Onto the next generation...

Nintendo has generated a whole lot of hype for its next-gen handheld, the 3DS.Japan has sold all of its shipped units to date, nearly half a million in a just a few of days, and pre-orders in the West suggest the same will happen here.

Sony’s next-gen handheld, the NGP (Next Generation Portable) is a technical marvel, packing a wide touch screen, dual analogs, nearly PS3 quality graphics, and 3G support. But is Sony waging an impossible war? The popularity of the DS brand is well established and Nintendo is launching their next-gen handheld right now, promising to create a vast install-base months ahead of Sony’s.

In this David and Goliath situation, Sony is banking on being able to knock down a giant with a sling. As if PS Move wasn’t copy-cat enough, Sony continues to mimic Nintendo’s hardware ideas by introducing touch sensitivity with the NGP, but the 3DS remains a step ahead with its no-glasses 3D graphics.

Is this a train wreck in slow motion? It is a truly exciting time to be a gamer, no matter who you’re rooting for.