Gizmondo

[JonRB]

What do people know / think of it?

Direct rival to PSP?
Prime candidate to be bought out by Microsoft and rebadged as XBOX Portable?
Worrying idea, having both cell phone and GPS functionality and capable of broadcasting your location to other users (for interactive gaming) and possibly the government too?

If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about then see www.gizmondo.com or look on The Register

[Pierscoe1]

JonRB said:

Direct rival to PSP?

PMSL
HaHaHaHa


haven't heard anything so funny in ages!

ROFL

[JonRB]

Ok, bearing in mind that I haven't actually got round to reviewing the specs of either device in detail, I was making the assumption that they are both capable of playing games, both have a reasonable CPU and both have a dedicated GPU.

[Pierscoe1]

for a start..

>>TFT screen ~ 240 x 320 pixels
>>Speaker
>>SD flash card reader
>>Bluetooth class 2 for multiplayer gaming

PSP has 480px screen, and it's the best screen I've ever seen.. increadibly bright and crisp.
note "speaker"... not speakers... PSP has Dolby5.1 support
No disc-drive !?!?!? and relying solely on SD cards...
Bluetooth for gaming!?!? bluetooth is slow and unreliable to say the least!

9 of the 25 lines in the spec on their site are mobile-phone specific.. which tells you pretty much what it's main purpose is! it's another n-gage.. and look how good that was!

not to mention the "hottest games" section.. two known titles, and one never-heard-of GTA rip-off...
up against a line-up of Wipeout, RidgeRacer, GranTurismo, WRC, GTA.. to name but a few that will be available on PSP!!

and then there's the name!

so no.. don't really think it's much competition for the PSP..

edited to ad: there's even a section on their website titled "My Giz" !?!?!? I mean come on... you've got to be kidding, right?
and because I can't type for

>> Edited by Pierscoe1 on Thursday 3rd February 22:26

[JonRB]

Ok, fair enough. Would it help if I removed "Direct rival to PSP?" from my original question and then asked it again?

[Pierscoe1]

tehe.. sorry, don't mean to sound pissy..

the Jizmondo has been the brunt of many a joke at work since it was first announced.. we never actually thought it would make it to production.. but there you go..

as for the microsoft thing, I don't think it has enough grunt for the kind of applications they'd want to run, to compete with the PSP (nearly PS2 sort of power).. and apparently microsoft are putting all their efforts into "the living-room space" in attempt to wrestle the whole area (consoles/HDTV/IDTV/DVD/HDD-recorders etc etc) from sony's grasp.

the GPS stuff is interesting.. and could provide some useful applications I think.. but I'm not sure they'd be any more than gimmicks at this stage.. or at least until they're widely supported.. in which case there would have to be more than one unit with those kind of features.....

[JonRB]

I've heard that they're already working on Gizmondo 2 which will have Wi-Fi and be more business-oriented. Perhaps they will find their niche there?

I thought the provision of phone, mp3, movies, games, bluetooth, GPS, GPRS, etc. was quite interesting.

You should remember that until a few days ago I hadn't even heard of Gizmondo. That'll teach me to forget to look at The Register regularly.

[JonRB]

I had a play with both a Gizmondo and a PSP the other day.

PSP is very nice, but quite heavy, I thought. I can see what you mean about the differences in gaming capability, but I'm coming to the conclusion that they're actually pitched at different markets.

As a developer, Gizmondo interests me. A WinCE device using virtually no proprietary stuff should make it very easy to develop for.

The business-oriented Gizmondo (Bizmondo as many people are calling it, but I hear it will actually be called Altio) looks very interesting. All the features of Gizmondo plus a proper keyboard and proper 802.11 Wi-Fi. Should wipe out Blackberry for a start and I hear the Investment Banks are interested in it as a portable trading console.

[off_again]

JonRB said:

I hear the Investment Banks are interested in it as a portable trading console.

Unless its backed up with a complete audit and transactional tracking system which is approved by the relevant financial authorities you can forget it. It would be illegal, but then again so is using email for trading (a la Blackberry)... but thats not necessarily stopped a trader!

Anyway, about the Gizmondo - nice idea and would love to see it succeed. The problem is cost and games. Even a Nintendo DS has a launch price of £99 so a Gizmondo at £200+ before memory card is looking poor value for money. In fact since the PSP is supposed to launch for £150-£200 and it comes with a whole lot more.... its a hard one for Gizmondo to win. Already looking like the Tapwave device is doomed, and mobile phone gaming like the N-gage is looking limited too....

Its going to be a fight between Nintendo and Sony - both have the technology, retail outlets and price point to make them succeed. They also have access to the games and developers which no-one else seems to have. The DS launched with 10+ games with another 160 in development - its a different scale.... and even worse for the PSP....

Quite like the thought of playing a game on the train into London....

[JonRB]

off_again said:

Unless its backed up with a complete audit and transactional tracking system which is approved by the relevant financial authorities you can forget it.

It is. It uses Altio-Live which has already been taken on by HSBC onto the desktop. Gizmondo and Altio are sister companies, being both owned by Tiger Telematics, so no problems with licensing or support.

To be honest, I have no idea if Gizmondo is going to succeed against PSP and DS, but I think Bizmondo is going to be huge.

Time will tell, of course.