It Goes With Me, Like a Bad Rash

I got a rant I wanna do about the video game market, and it relates to the newly announced Nintendo DS... but it may take a little while to get where I'm going... if I even get there at all, so please, bear with me here.

Video Gaming basically can be broken down into four major chunks. Arcades, Consoles, Portables, and PCs. Let's face it, Arcades are pretty well dead too. Sure, you occasionally see a rel arcade devoted to pinball and stand up machines, but really, most companies don't bother with arcade games anymore, fewer deal with pinball, and the arcades themselves have been gobbled up by Service Stations and Movie Theaters. It saddens me to see these great hangouts die off, but it's not like I can single handedly save the entire market. If I had the resources to do so, I'm sure I'd waste it on something else, like better tasting edible underwear. Mmmm, Cajun Smoked Panties.

Consoles are a thriving market, although I still think we're gearing up for another video game crash. We have three major consoles out there, lead by the PS2, with plans by two other companies to try and get into the ring. I dunno about you, but I seriously can't see any good reason to own THREE machines, let alone five, so I doubt all these systems will last long, and serious, I could see them crashing the market, but that's just me.

Ignoring PCs, since they are their own beasts with their own set of bonuses I'll choose not to discuss, I really am gearing towards portables here. For as long as I can remember, the portable market really boiled down to one beast. The Game Boy. In it's various incarnations and breeds, the little GB has defeated EVERY SINGLE system it's ever come across, including it's own successor, the failed Virtual Boy. It's hard to figure out just what this system has that everyone else can't seem to defeat. Early on, it was just black and white, and had fairly low-rent games. Most other systems had better games, even if they were substantial bigger. But in the end, time and again, the little Boy gains another notch in its belt.

we're on the eve and an interesting era though. Sony has the upcoming PlayStation Portable, which it hopes will dominate the portable market much as PS2 does the consoles. It will be a long road to see which system comes out on top, but for certain, the GB won't die easy. In fact, if I had my prediction, if the follow up console to the GC doesn't do outstandingly, GB will be the only system Nintendo will stand behind... and I doubt the DS will fair any better than the VB.

Now, don't get me wrong. The idea of two-screens has merit, and while it seems gimmicky, sometimes Nintendo has been able to make gimmicks work. But it seems like the DS will lack something the GB has. A ton of games to stand behind. the GB has been around 15 years and has a enormous library, something the PSP won't be able to touch. Unless the DS uses GB carts, which it sounds like from official sources it won't, the DS will be limping along trying to keep up with it's big-little brother and the competition.

My call, GBA will remain the big boy, PSP will last at least as long as the Game Gear did, through probably 2 incarnations before dying (8 years minimum all told probably), and the little DS will bit the dust after one incarnation. I like the idea, but I doubt it will last.