lucidique said:
Were talking about 2 times the size of a cartridge, and the alture of maybe one or two as well. Were talking really small.
It sure is a novel concept, coming from the Gba line, but look at it this way:
Was the gba ever conceived to be a multimedia device when it came out in 2000-2001? Why should it become so now? One of the many forces of the gameboy advance had been it's ability to help the survival of the 2d scrolling/ rpg games, wich is basically dying has we speak with the release of 3d portable gaming. Most people who buy Gba don't even care about any multimedia feature. This system was intended for games ,that's it.
Does it make sense to release a new model just to bundle it with a play yan, when already ALL other models run the accessory? A screen diameter so small that reading text on it will hurt the eyes? No possibility to run old games from older gameboy (Nintendo is known for backward compatibility)? The gameboy advance sp had a reason of existence, actually many (Rechargable battery,backlit screen and shape that protects the screen from scratchs). But does the Micro comes with any additional feature for gaming?
I voice my opinion negatively on this, not because i don't like Nintendo, i know they are still good and will remain so, but since the DS, it's smells rip-off for the consumers...
It's to save manufacturing costs. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony do this.
When the original Sega Genesis was created, it had a large, pricey motherboard with uneeded extras such as a headphone jack with a corresponding volume slider. The Sega Genesis 2, the square all-black unit, was created four years later, in 1993, to remedy these issues as well as create a more modern looking console. In 1998, the Sega Genesis 3 was designed and manufactured by Majesco and was no bigger than a portable CD player. To be expected, A LOT of things were cut out, like the Zilog Z80 CPU for the sound system, the "sidecar" expansion slot (No Sega CD), 32X support, and the new cheaper video CPU caused the video image to cut out severely when Hyper Sonic did his flash attack in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I've seen it firsthand and it's quite the annoyance.
Nintendo did the same with a smaller "SNES 2" when the N64 launched, because guess what, it's an older product, and they could lower the costs. By 1998, it was competing with the Genesis 3 for the same $50 price tag, and by late 1998 it was $30 in response to Sega's $30 price drop.
The Sega Master System II was also made in 1990 to make a more affordable unit, and the A/V out port and card slot were dropped.
The PSOne lacked the parallel I/O port, much in the same vein as the Genesis 3, because nothing really popular used it. VERY old model GameSharks (v.2.0 and below) used it as well as import adapters, the latter of which all console manufacturers hate to high hell.