Panasonic Shelves Its Portable Gaming Console

[JMcEntegart]

What with the 3DS, the Xperia Play, Sony’s upcoming NGP (aka the PSP2), and the myriad of tablets and smartphones out there, the portable gaming console market is a tank full of sharks these days...

Panasonic Shelves Its Portable Gaming Console : Read more

 

[dalauder]

That was smart to cut their losses. The mobile/mobile gaming/mobile entertainment market is changing rapidly and is a huge gamble at this point if your device can't do everything and be cheap.

 

[unlicensedhitman]

It better not be those portable gaming system where it claims, "comes with over 100 games!", but really it only has 10 games with a maxium of 10 levels each.

 

[im_caius]

Wrong title?
Panasonic didn't shelve the console.
They suspended it.
Completely different things.

 

[dco]

Hopefully they do bring one out eventually competition is always a good thing and panasonic make quality products. Not that I'm a console gamer but hey I'd love to find a product that good to would make me turn.

 

[nebun]

good decision on their part...now this is a smart company

 

[Guest]

They'd be wise to forget about this completely, in my honest opinion.

Aiming a console at MMORPG gamers is a pretty limited market. The small proportion of those gamers who'd be half bothered about playing their games on a tiny hand-held device makes for an even more limited market

 

[chrisjust98]

[citation][nom]im_caius[/nom]Wrong title?Panasonic didn't shelve the console.They suspended it.Completely different things.[/citation]

The titles right. The last time I checked, to shelve something means to put it away for a later time.

 

[belardo]

Anyone remember the Panasonic 3DO console? It crashed and burned.

 

[dark_lord69]

Probably a good idea...

 

[Guest]

@im_caius

shelved is to suspend, bin is to scrap

 

[megamanx00]

I didn't even know they had a portable system. Good thing they abandoned it. The portable space is so crowded you can't go in there half assed like they were obviously doing.

 

[Travis Beane]

A decent 3G/4G connection, QWERTY pad, completely designed for online games. Sounds like something I'd actually be interested in. Sure, the games would be limited, but that doesn't mean they won't be fun. I'm sure they'd sell quite a few even if it was just a mobile device meant to play Maple Story or Runescape...

 

[scott_madison1]

[citation][nom]alexkitch[/nom]They'd be wise to forget about this completely, in my honest opinion.Aiming a console at MMORPG gamers is a pretty limited market. The small proportion of those gamers who'd be half bothered about playing their games on a tiny hand-held device makes for an even more limited market[/citation]

I take it you have never heard of World of Warcraft? Even if you only sold one to a quarter of the population for this "one" MMORPG that would be 3 million units. I'm pretty sure I could be ok with that!

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]Belardo[/nom]Anyone remember the Panasonic 3DO console? It crashed and burned.[/citation]

i remember that they were the only console that had super street fighter 2 turbo back then. and panasonic wasn't the only company that made a 3DO console sanyo and gold star(now LG) are others that made it too

 

[mikem_90]

[citation][nom]scott_madison1[/nom]I take it you have never heard of World of Warcraft? Even if you only sold one to a quarter of the population for this "one" MMORPG that would be 3 million units. I'm pretty sure I could be ok with that![/citation]

Just because its popular does not mean that will translate into sales to Consoles. MMOs ported to consoles don't tend to do the best. Even big name ones tend to creep in a bit, and then dwindle out.

Ironically, it might be fruitless to try launching a console (portable or otherwise) version of WoW, because most people prefer working on a PC based system for controls and typing. The weight of the current user experience in the market might mean it very hard to change people over to a console version.

Just because something is popular doesn't mean you can get people to move from one type of gaming interface to another. Look what happened when they changed SOE:SWG?

 

[cookoy]

a full qwerty keyboard for gaming is a bit odd. maybe they got the hardware but no games.

 

[teknomedic]

Smart of them to do... when I first heard of this device, I just LOL'd and said... that will crash and burn... it's pointless.

 

[ProDigit10]

such a device would do well if it offered MS DOS or windows based offline game support (emulator)!

 

[mayankleoboy1]

smart business move