Gizmondo bringing Smart Adds to the US
posted September 6th 2005 11:40AM
The Gizmondo may have edged out
the N-Gage as the portable game
console everyone loves to hate on, but that isn't stopping Tiger Telematics from pushing ahead with their oft-delayed
plans to introduce the new console here in the States. They claim that they're still on track to get this thing in
stores by October (they're planning a major $30 million marketing campaign that will include an "emphasis on
endorsements by rap stars" - nice, no one's ever done that!), but the big news is that they're definitely going to be
importing their Smart Adds program to the States. It's
only available in the UK right now, but basically the program lets you shave a little bit off the price of a new
Gizmondo if you're willing to deal with three 30 seconds commercials per day which are delivered wirelessly over the
console's GPRS connection (they swear that they won't interrupt gameplay with any ads). Actually, it's more than a
little bit: they're charging $400 for the ad-free version and $229 for the Smart Adds version, but even so, why
wouldn't you just drop an extra Jackson and get an ad-free PSP? Or save yourself a hundred bucks and get an ad-free
DS?
[Thanks, Da Greasy Guide]
DS for teh win
"just drop an extra Jackson and get an ad-free PSP?" Costs more, no GPS, no camera, no bluetooth, no GPRS, no SMS/MMS, no built in rumble, no 400MHz Arm9 Processor.
Same for the DS
:)
Hey 2. Do you actually have faith in this half baked product?
If you do i hope you buy one, you'll look real cute with that piece of crap on your dashboard as a gps system, especially when a commercial pops up when you should be making a turn and you barrell through a school yard killing all types of children and teachers.
This thing will sucks and fade into obscurity, maybe a small community of supporters will screw with it but its got no shot at commercial sucess of any sort. We all remember Tiger's awsome Game.com, or not...
Jimmy, did Gizmondo kill your parents or something? I don't think this thing will do well, but I don't hold a grudge against anyone distributing or playing it.
Why not pop stars?
look at the history of portables, it just doesn't have a shot. Its the n-gage model, jack of all trades but great at none. Its difficult for companies other than nintendo,sony and possibly microsoft to release a gaming device sucessfully, thats just how it is, developer and consumer support are hard to gather for a company like tiger that is relatively untested. Sure there is always a chance of breakign through for other companies, but it aint gonna happen with this thing.
Furthermore have you seen the games getting alot of buzz or press attention? No. Sure its got titles from ubisoft coming but alot of the stuff is developed internally, and that isn't a great sign.
Also no.6 you really are a dumbass, ooh you called me a fanboy... yea I love psp, i cant get enough of it!!! Actually i think the game selection sucks on it and i dont have any interest in buying one, you got me bad.
Also ripping american kids for buying certain brand name stuff. Yea, that hit me hard, too bad i'm not a kid, nor am I an american.
So in short, your are wrong, Stupid.
Jimmy,
You know that the adds wont interrupt anything you're doing, right? And I hope you know that the Game.com isnt from the same company.
Guess you didnt - so much for a little search on google, dumbass.
And yes, I have bought one of these, and am nothing short of impressed with it. It's an amazing piece of kit, and there's nothing you can say against that, unless you've actually had a hands-on with one..? Didnt think so..
And even if you did, there's a new firmware update that came out a few days ago that just makes this awesome machine even more awesomer - Improved OS, faster GPS, and no crashes whatsoever. Just in case you were gonna say that you read some 2 year old review that said it crashes, coz not anymore. :)
I still want to try it out - AND.. I would own this before I wold own a DS. Out of the box it has more functionality - for me personally.
I just sold my PSP.. if there is a piece of entertainment hardware out there that dosnt have a connection to the a network (I dont mean WiFi) then eventually I think its limited. I like the GPRS in this, so what the hell... Ill hold it, try it play with it, and then probably put it back down anyway! :)
Jimmy is right.
This is going to fail in record time.
You don't need to be a Sony Fanboy or a Nintendo fanboy to see that
this has NO chance of making a dent in the US.
If it had come to market a year ago with the right games and pricetag it would have had a decent shot at it, but now, NO WAY.
Good for you!
I've had the opportunity to play with the Giz for a week, it was loads of fun and easy to use. My 8 year old loved it and my 35 year old sister played with it for days, quite a diverse audience. It won't compete with Sony, but if it gets a small part of the market it will be a huge success. When the GPS game Colors comes out this month we will see an application not on any other console.
rap star endorsement i guess 50 cents will be at the front off the queue.
For all the naysayers, now that "handheld" means "convergence device" instead of "Game Boy", this thing might have a chance.
I'd be interested to see if there's an ability to "upgrade"-- say Junior gets one for Christmas and saves change and pocket lint until he has $170. Will Gizmondo Inc charge him a fee and swap his for an adless one, or will he have to go to Gamestop and trade it in for peanuts?
Considering TomTom sells their standalone GPS device (TomTom 300) for $699, this thing may have a shot. Hopefully they will take lessons learned from the failure of the PalmZodiac and it's bad decisions on developers and the forced graphical DRM.
Not interrupt you?
How do ads not iterrupt you? Sure, maybe it won't interrupt you in a specific game, but unless the ads play while you aren't around it's interrupting you from something, even if it just makes you wait an extra 30 seconds before playing a game, or before shutting itself off.
And the anti-American rhetoric really makes the poster easy to ignore, as it points him out as both bigoted and ignorant.
The reason most people in the US think this will fail are the following:
1) Very hefty price tag.
2) Very little demand for a new portable (most people interested in such a product just recently purchased one)
3) Very little awareness regarding the product.
4) Very little third party support, relative to the other systems.
All of this points towards failure. Sure, it could survive, but no one on this side cares about it. Not because it's from a no-name, Sega and Nintendo were no-names 20 years ago, but because it's coming out into an extremely crowded marketplace with little support and where people have, within the last year, put a lot of money into.
And the anti-American rhetoric really makes the poster easy to ignore, as it points him out as both bigoted and ignorant.
The reason most people in the US think this will fail are the following:
1) Very hefty price tag.
2) Very little demand for a new portable (most people interested in such a product just recently purchased one)
3) Very little awareness regarding the product.
4) Very little third party support, relative to the other systems.
All of this points towards failure. Sure, it could survive, but no one on this side cares about it. Not because it's from a no-name, Sega and Nintendo were no-names 20 years ago, but because it's coming out into an extremely crowded marketplace with little support and where people have, within the last year, put a lot of money into.
I wonder how they are going to show the ads. They aren´t really specefic by saying they won´t be intrusive. We´ll just have to wait and see bu the future for this doesn´t look great IMO.
better to be interupted one a day for 30 seconds then for 20-80 seconds any time something on the psp loads... i know, i had one before i returned it.
Yes, it is going to fail. In america, people are addictied to the same old sh1t from differnt huge third parties all the time. Tiger just dosent have the reputaion to make a mark in the crowded protable market.
The only systems that survive in the US are systems with big third party support. Look at the N64 and the Dreamcast. They both were failures next to their predicsors because they did not have the same third party games like their competiors (COUGH SONY). In the US, it doesent really matter how good a game is, as long as you surve it on a golden plate, it will sell. Look at Psychonauts (ncie spelling). The game was critcly aclamied and acoording to gamerankings.com, has a AVG. of 90%. EA's Goleden Eye: Rouge Agent had a 63%. Which game sold more? Goldent Eye. Why? Becasue the US buys games for licences, flashy graphics, and anything that has "EA" on the cover.