Feature: 'Question of the Week Responses: A Third Portable'

In one of today's main features, Gamasutra has the results of last week's Question of the Week which asked our professional audience: “What hardware capabilities and software would be needed for a third company to create a competitive rival to the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, and which companies might be capable of doing so? Should they try?” In the following excerpt, William Nadel of Heavy Iron Studios gives his thoughts on the matter: Well, I think that there are two companies who would be able to handle marketing and developing a competitive rival to the current handheld systems. The first is obvious... Microsoft. I know they backed Gizmondo to some degree, but that thing really wasn't nearly up to competition standards. If the big "M" released an online handheld system, with two analog sticks, USB, digital audio and video outputs, and its own little corner of Xbox Live complete with ranking and matchmaking for every game, I don't think the PSP or DS could hold a candle to it. The handheld would have to be at least as crisp as the PSP, but it wouldn't necessarily have to be graphically that much better. Although with the technologies available at this point, they might easily be able to come up with more power than the PSP. It would have to include all of the functionality of the PSP and then some... The rest of his thoughts and that of other game industry professionals are available in the full Gamasutra feature. (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).