5 reasons why this communication-cum-entertainment device will be accepted by the masses
People have been gaming on their cell-phones since ages. Many of us can remember the thrill of playing Snake on the monochrome screen Nokias, BrickBreaker on BlackBerrys or even Solitare on a stylus operated Windows Pocket PC phone. But the games on cell-phones were mostly rudimentary and no match to the satisfaction derived from a dedicated pocket gaming console like the Nintendo Game Boy series.
Nokia took the brave step in merging gaming with a cell-phone with their N-gage. Although awing as a concept, these phones didn't really fly off the shelves for many a reasons. It was kinda awkward to use as a phone with the numeric pad placed to the right side, thus restricting input to only one thumb. The first N-gage had a weird earphone placement that gave birth to the humorous "Holding a Taco to your ear" gag.
A year after the N-gage launch, Sony came up with the PSP (PlayStation Portable) whose awesome graphics, premium game titles and better playability made things even worse for the N-gage's acceptance with the pro-gaming crowd. N-gage devices ceased to exist after its second iteration (N-gage QD) in 2008, but the platform continued to reside on their other N-series phones. However, this didn't seem to work either and Nokia announced that the N-gage service will be completely shut down by the end of this year.
Other than Nokia, there have been a few attempts here and there by Sony Ericsson but again they seem amateurish in front of the PSP. Apple capitalized on this dead space by pushing gaming on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. They made fun games that were optimized for using virtual controls on a touchscreen as well as the accelerometer (and now even the gyroscope on the iPhone 4 and the 4th gen iPod Touch). With direct downloading of games from the App Store, and an affordable price on many games, Apple's platform is a hit.
Many tech gurus on the Internet had been hoping for Sony to come up with a PlayStation phone. A few months ago, we heard that Sony was actually working on one. And today, we saw images of the prototype and details of the device on Engadget. So will this convergence device finally get the attention of serious gamers with dedicated consoles like the Nintendo DS or the PSP? We think there are five things that the Japanese giant has done right with it.
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