Gaming has taken an interesting turn lately due to the rise of smartphones and tablets.  For the sake of argument, I'm going to refer to this movement as Apple.  Yes, I know Android is out there, and many of you are more than welcome to believe that Android is better or what not, I really don't care.  In my opinion, the driving force behind this movement has been Apple with it's iPhones and iPads.  Anyway, the rise of there platforms has generated a whole lot of money for smaller developers who can make very inexpensive titles, and make a lot of money from inexpensive downloads.  The truth is that because of this, Apple has done a lot of damage to Nintendo's 20 year domination of the handheld market.  Is this true?  Is this going to really effect the quality of the games that will come out for handheld platforms in the future?

The answer is yes to the first question.  However, this isn't yes in the way that you're thinking.  Core gamers are still going to purchase the 3DS, and support the platform.  There are two groups that have always have had no choice in the market that now do, and those people will now find their addictions in a much more user friendly and overall cheaper platform in which to get their gaming habits.  These demographics are the elderly, and young girls.  These groups, in the past, were relegated to the Game Boy and DS platforms due to cost and portability.  That's why when you go back and look at the libraries of these games you'll see a lot of Barbie and Crossword Puzzle/Card games.  This is also a major reason why that in the past that Nintendo handhelds were always so damn hard to find at Christmas time.  People would go in to stores in order to get little Suzie or grandma a video game console to meet their personal needs, and Nintendo always had that to offer.  Now Apple has come in and put their name in the hat with a console that might start out a little more pricey, but the games for it are much cheaper than it's competitor.  We aren't talking a $10 difference like DS to PSP, we're talking a $30 plus difference.  That is hard to argue against.  

So the second question, will it effect the quality of the games we get?  No.  Guys, people are always gonna buy Pokemon and Mario.  There's always going to be a market for it.  Also, I don't care how cheap the games on apples iTunes are, you're never going to be able to match up for the overall quality of a well made handheld game on a handheld platform.  The PSP God of War titles are better than 99% of the games on iTunes, hands down.  So they really deserve to be more expensive.  No, the quality of the games will not go down at all.  There will still be Mario, Pokemon and Monster Hunter.  The only games that will be effected will be these more casual games, like the crossword puzzle games and Imagine Baby Daddy titles.  There will be far fewer of these, because the target audience for these titles will be shifting away from proper handheld consoles into the "do it all" iPhones and iPads.  

Honestly, I don't mind this migration.  I don't mind gaming being mainstream, but if you look at this "casual" movement we've seen this generation, you'll see a huge difference in quality.  Developers and publishers were getting away with putting far less effort into making the games good, which is why you'll see a lot Gingerbread Man and Margo's Word Brain crap rather than titles that took time and effort to make good.  This doesn't mean we're going to stop seeing the handheld triple A gold that we are used to seeing.  No one is coming for your Pokemons kids, you can still show them to people.  

Snake...Snake? Snaaaaaake?!

One of my favorite game franchises of all time is Metal Gear.  Remember that story I told during my Castlevania retrospective about going to the video store?  That was also my first dip into the Metal Gear franchise.  While Castlevania was a short game that was harder than hell due to the programmers turning the game's difficulty up to near unfair levels, Metal Gear was a extremely long game, that was just as challenged due to the immense story and inventory of items that had to be collected in order to complete.  However, I found myself very taken this game because it was completely original to me.  I had never seen anything like it.  While most games were about run and gun platforming, Metal Gear was a game that really wanted to you to not kill anyone if you didn't have to.  

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now.  Fans of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, I will not debate with you which series is better or worse.  That's all opinion based, and the funny thing about opinions is we all got 'em, and getting someone else to change their opinion is nearly impossible.  I grew up on Metal Gear, so I'll stick my flag into that mountain top.  If you want a down right fact though; there would be no Splinter Cell if it wasn't for Metal Gear.  I understand that some of the later games in the Metal Gear franchise have gotten a little preachy, sure.   Doesn't mean I don't love them though.

In 1987, a guy named Hideo Kojima developed a Metal Gear for the MSX2 console in Japan.  It was ported to the NES by a completely different development staff, though, and saw major alterations from the original game.  For instance, the Metal Gear itself, the walking tank, technically never makes an appearance in the NES port.  While you blow it up in the MSX2 version with plastic explosives, in the NES port you blow up the control computer with plastic explosives.  Yeah, lame.  However, the whole thing started with Kojima wanting to do a game where the player was put in situations where he shouldn't kill the bad guys, as opposed to other games from that time period, like Konami's Contra or SNK's Ikari Warriors (by the way trivia buffs, Ikari is actual "fury" in Japanese, so fans of Evangelion's main character, Shinji Ikari..now you know what Ikari means).

Kojima was influences by Hollywood.  Box Art for the original game looks like Reese from Terminator, doesn't it?

You played as Solid Snake (taken from the movie "Escape from LA"'s main character, Snake Plissken) and your mission was to sneak into the base Outer Heaven to rescue your friend Grey Fox and destroy the walking tank, Metal Gear (what's with the Japanese and mechs anyway?).  The American NES port had a lot of problems, to say the least.  I won't get into them all, but the localization remains one of the laziest translations I've ever seen.  The famous lines "I FEEL ASLEEP!" and "UH OH!   THE TRUCK HAVE STARTED TO MOVE" both come from Metal Gear.  The game was extremely long though, like Legend of Zelda long.  You also had a massive inventory of weapons and items that had to be all used in some innovative ways in order to get through the game.  By the end of the game, Snake discovers that the leader of the terrorists of Outer Heaven is actually Big Boss, the commander who you've been in constant radio contact with since the beginning of the game.  

The sequel was a bit of a cluster.  Konami had a western developer working on the supposed sequel, Snake's Revenge.  Kojima was not involved with this game, and it was fairly obvious to fans of the series that it wasn't anywhere nearly as good as the original game.  Snake's Revenge was never released in Japan.  Instead, Kojima released Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the same year, 1990, in Japan for the MSX2.  Europe, since they had  the MSX2 platform, also saw the game.  North America, however, did not, and since there was no NES port of Metal Gear 2, we would have to wait until Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (which is also the first time we got to play the original cut of Metal Gear as well, natch).  

After the discontinuation of the MSX2 and NES, Metal Gear disappeared in the 16-bit era.  Konami would revisit several of their classic franchises from the NES, such as Contra and Castlevania, but they didn't touch Metal Gear.  Kojima continued making games, however.  In fact, he did a very classic Sega CD title called Snatcher, which remains one of the holy grails of that rather disappointing platform.  The funny thing was I don't really remember asking myself, "Damn, where is Metal Gear?!"  I always loved the original, and during the Super Nintendo's time, I remember looking at the 16 bit versions of my favorite titles from the NES and being wowed.  Metal Gear remained one of the old franchises that was not reborn on a 16 bit console.

Everything changed with Sony's Playstation, though.  It was announced that Kojima was working on a new Metal Gear for the PSX, and there was an immediate sound of everyone my age shitting their collective pants.  Memories of the original game came rushing back, and we all where beside ourselves waiting with what could be done with the 32-bit Playstation, and CD ROM technology.  Now during this time period, we had a lot of hype going into games.  I already mentioned the hype that went into Final Fantasy VII.  Metal Gear Solid was the big hyped up game after Final Fantasy VII's release.  I've seen a lot of hype go into a lot of games boys and girls.  Final Fantasy VII, Halo 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2; just to name a few.  That being said, I've only played one game to this point that had a shit ton of massive hype behind it that actually lived up to it's hype, and that's Metal Gear Solid.  Released in 1998, Metal Gear Solid broke the mold on the stealth genre, again.  Players once again took up the mantle of, the now fully voiced, Solid Snake (voiced by Hollywood scribe David Hayter, who incidentally wrote X-Men, X-Men 2, The Scorpion King, and Watchmen).  Snake has to rescue the DARPA chief from his former unit FoxHound, from a military installation in Alaska.  Snake quickly finds out that the installation was actually producing a new model of the Metal Gear, Rex.  The storyline and characters were very complex and engaging.  It also had one of the first "breaking of the 4th wall" fights in gaming history (I think it was first, but I hate to be so absolute about it), with Snake's battle with Psycho Mantis.  Mantis could actually read your memory card and would make comments about your Konami save files on it.  Mantis was impossible to defeat while using the first controller port, because Mantis could read your movements from the port (as demonstrated by reading your memory card).  Instead, you had to pull out the controller from port 1 and switch to port 2.  Mantis couldn't read the port, and was able to be defeated.  There was also a part where Snake being tortured, and the player must wail on the "X" button like a fat kid in a doughnut factory.  Revolver Ocelot warns you prior to the torture that he would be able to tell if you were using a turbo fire controller, which were really popular at that time.  Metal Gear Solid would also see a port released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2004, labeled "Twin Snakes".  (This port was done by Canadian developer Silicon Knights, who would go onto develop Eternal Darkness on the GameCube, and, unfortunately, Too Human, on the X-Box 360)

In the year 2000, Sony was prepping the Playstation 2 for launch.  They needed some really big games to help push the console into the living room of gamers everywhere.  The game that wowed everyone?  Metal Gear Solid 2.  Since we all had Metal Gear Solid on our minds, seeing the upgraded graphics for the PS2 immediately generated buzz surrounding the platform.  After the initial demo (which was packaged in with another Hideo Kojima production, Zone of the Enders), Kojima ended up granting no new information about his upcoming Metal Gear title, and would leave us hanging until 2001.  Subtitled, Sons of Liberty, gamers everywhere were excited to see exactly what Kojima could do next for the franchise.  What we got, though, wasn't what we expected.  At all.  The demo put players, once again, in the role of Solid Snake, and walked us through the start of the game.  What we did not know is that once the game got past the part where the demo ended, we were no longer in control of Solid Snake.  (I remember my initial reaction was like, "What the hell?  Did I get the right game?)  Instead, players were put in the role of the young Raiden, a government operative who is released in plant called "The Big Shell" in order to free a group of hostages (including the President of the United States) from a group of terrorists.  Along the way, Raiden meets with a very curious and familiar looking Navy SEAL named Iroquois Plissken (remember what I said about Escape from LA?).  All in all this game was really good, but towards the end became a massive fourth wall gag or something.  I think Kojima was trying to screw with the minds of players so much, that the game actually required multiple play throughs of ending areas just to figure out what the hell was going on.  Luckily, the enigmatic endgame and ending did not stop the game from becoming a massive success both in sales and in the eyes of fans around the world.  Since the ending was what it was, though, Metal Gear fans fully expected a new installment.  Kojima, as we would come to find out, has an interesting sense of humor...

After the completion, Hideo Kojima claimed that MGS2 would be his bow-out of the series.   He wanted to move onto other types of video games.  However, in November of 2004,  he would release the next game in the series, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.  What would we come come to find out, though, was that the game wasn't as sequel to MGS2.  Instead it was a prequel to the entire series!  MGS3 ended up taking place in 1964, during the Cold War.  Instead of Solid Snake, players took control of Naked Snake.  As the game went on, we would come to find out that this was actually the story of how Big Boss actually became Big Boss.  While the game did a lot of foreshadowing and put some of the questions about the story at rest, it also was a different Metal Gear completely.  While the other games relied on James Bond style gadgets, MGS3 was a step back in technology.  Things we had gotten accustomed to as being normal in Metal Gear were ripped from us.  Instead, players were in more control of more simplistic aspects of Snake's survival; like camouflage and curing specific woulds he would get.  Some liked this, some did not.  Overall it was received with a lot of positive press.  Kojima, would once again proclaim that MGS3 was his final game.

There were some handheld versions of Metal Gear.  These games do each have a part in the Metal Gear timeline, but the brilliant thing is that you don't have to play them in order to get the storyline of the console titles.  These games include Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (Game Boy Color), Metal Gear Acid and Acid 2 (PSP), Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops and Portable Ops Plus (PSP) and finally Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (PSP).  It should be noted that the Portable Ops and Peace Walker games are actually prequels to the first Metal Gear, but taking place after Metal Gear Solid 3.  These are all great games (although the Acid series is rather odd), but again, not required play for progression in the main story.

As we with his proclamation that both MGS2 and MGS3 would each be his final Metal Gear games, Hideo Kojima apparently forgot that when he started work on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  MGS4 would be a landmark title for a few reasons.  First and foremost, it would finally tie up all the plot holes and unanswered questions we had from the previous titles.  Secondly, it was one of the first "next gen" titles that wowed everyone who saw it.  This was a PS3 exclusive title, and Sony really hitched their wagon to the game.  Which brings me to my final point, is that it really was the last of the huge budget 3rd party exclusives.  Sure, there have been games Gears of War, that partner in the 1st party to keep it exclusive, and smaller 3rd party exlcusives like the Witcher.  However, there just really aren't that many massive 3rd party console exclusives anymore. That could always change, and if you want to argue over certain titles being "massive" or not, but I'll flat out tell you that there's not a lot of games out there that are bigger than a Metal Gear title.  The game came out to rave review scores, and was widely received by a very eager fan base.  Once again, Kojima said MGS4 would be his last.

However, now we're waiting to see what is next.  Kojima would go onto to oversee the reboot of Castlevania last year, but he is also overseeing the next Metal Gear, Revengance.  This next game will be multiplatform, and star the cybernetic ninja, Raiden (who has gotten much more popular from MGS2, fans initially hated his debut, but now like him much more from his MGS4 rebirth).  This game is not being completely developed by Kojima's house though. This is probably due to the fact that the game is not a stealth game.  Instead it's going to be fast paced action game.  Development is being handled by Platinum Games, a house of former Clover Studios (Viewtiful Joe, Okami) guys, responsible for games in his generation like Vanquish and Bayonetta.  Don't know about any of you guys, but I'm anxiously awaiting it.  

Japan hates X-Box

Land of the Rising Sun..and anime..and vending machines where you can buy used girls panties...

We never got this until the DS remake.

Japan is the great equalizer when it comes to the console race.  When I was younger, Japan dominated the console market, both with games and consoles.  In fact, NES owners probably don't realize this, but well 3 out of every 4 games or so was developed in Japan.  That being said, we didn't get anywhere near the amount of games that Japan got.  This was especially prevalent in the 16-bit era where companies like Enix and Squaresoft were releasing Triple A stuff in Japan, but we wouldn't get them here.  This was increasingly frustrating to North American gamers, who grew up enjoying Japanese games, only to find out that they were missing some really big titles from their favorite series.  

So like I discussed in the 3D0 post, after the 16-bit era,  we had several companies jumping in the pool attempting to compete with Nintendo and Sega.  Both were Japanese companies, and it was often wondered what the reception would be if a western company developed a console, how would it be adopted?  Well, the really funny thing is that the company that actually ended up compete with the two Japanese companies was, *drum roll* another Japanese company (Sony).  However, in the generation following, an American company would jump into the pool because Sega, I guess had prune fingers, and was climbing out.

It was printed on the system.

The Sega Dreamcast was first to market in that generation, but saw the absolute slaughter it was about to endure from the upcoming Playstation 2 release.  However, the Dreamcast was an important gateway for another reason.  It  was compatable with the Windows based operating system.  That's right, Bill Gates actually did interviews promoting the Dreamcast because it used a version of Windows CE.  This was a big step, because it was widely believed that Microsoft could not produce a stable enough OS for a console, and the Dreamcast proved those reports to be wrong.  Of course, Sega pulled the plug on the Dreamcast pretty fast, and Microsoft was left with two things. a.) proof they could produce a stable console OS and b.) a very rosy relationship with Sega.  

So in 2001, Microsoft decided to enter the console race with the X-Box.  They came in at a good time in North America, because Sony's relationship with developers and publishers are starting to deteriorate, and Nintendo was marching to the beat of their own drum, and didn't seem to have much of a direction.  Furthermore, it opened the door  for PC developers to make their content for consoles as well.  So western developers and gamers a like celebrated the fact that they would have their own console, and make Japan wait for our games, just like they had made us wait for theirs for years.  

However, what Microsoft was not prepared for, was how the Japanese would completely ignore the console.  While it sold very well in North America, and decently in Europe, the Japanese only managed to have a penetration of about 2 million units.  Fast forward to the X-Box 360, and that console has been out longer than the X-Box was, and it's not even at the 2 million mark yet.  Considering how Japan seems to love technology, one has to wonder exactly why the Japanese have ignored the unit.  There are two real reasons as to why this is, in my opinion.

First and foremost, and this should surprise no one, the Japanese kinda like buying Japanese.  They support their country's goods.  Every one of us has at least one buddy who only buys American made cars, right?  He refuses to buy an import.  Well, Japan does it too.  There's nothing wrong with it, everyone wants to take pride in the goods their country produces (although, all units are actually made in China now..but I'm talking more about the home country of the console).  

From Japan, look there's Capcom's logo.

The second reason is probably going to rub a few people the wrong way, but I believe it's really the truth.  Sony and Microsoft have two different ways of marketing their games to the mass market.  Both 1st party development houses, and both produce some of the best product on their units (I always say when you're choosing a system, you should look at the exclusive titles on each console..since most games come out for both).  During the time of the Playstation 2, however, Sony marketed their console as more of an open unit.  They had a plethora of different games.  Sony also realized the difference between the North American and Japanese markets.  Proof, you want?  Let's look at God of War.  Here in the States, God of War is a massive release.  The next God of War will have seen a year of hype before it finally launches here in the Spring of 2013.  Sony actually makes this game, it's a 1st party game.  In Japan though, Sony doesn't automatically publish it. God of War Trilogy, for instance, was published by Capcom.  Microsoft's X-Box, both in North America and Japan, were about one thing, Halo.  Microsoft put all their eggs in the Halo basket.  Here in North America, it worked.  We like shooting games here.  In Japan, however, that country is more about role playing games and the like.  When viewing Halo, the Japanese didn't see the point, and then turned around and ignored the console.

This was also shown by the Japanese developers and publishers.  While Sega backed the console with some really good content, like Panzer Dragoon Orta, other Japanese iconic games, like Metal Gear Solid, made appearances on the X-Box in the west, but never were released in their home country (Konami claimed they "wouldn't be worth the discs they were printed on.")  Early on, some Japanese companies did attempt supporting the console, and as the system gained steam in the west, we did see publishers do the triple release of the same game.  However, most Japanese publishers supported the PS2 and Gamecube instead.

I purposefully didn't mention Tecmo's Team Ninja above, so I could get to it now, because they are a different animal.  Tecmo's Dead or Alive is probably more well known for..ahem..other reasons (winkwinknudgenuge) than what it should be know for.  When 3D fighters were more based off of combos and special moves, Dead or Alive was the first fighter I remember having reversals.  That's right, you could block an attack and turn it into an attack of your own.  The fighting system was deep, and it's quite unfortunate that the series is more well known for it's risque' females than it's contributions to the genre.  At that time, Team Ninja was headed by Tomonobu Itagaki, and he's the greatest game developer to ever walk the Earth.  If you don't believe me, just ask him, he'll be the first to tell you how awesome he is.  (That's sarcasm)  Itagaki had attempted Dead or Alive on both Sega and Sony consoles, only to be overshadowed by games he felt were inferior (Sega's Virtua Fighter, and Namco's Tekken series).  Tired of not being a "featured" game, he was one of the first to back Microsoft's X-Box by producing Dead or Alive 3 as a launch title.  He would go onto release several titles for the unit, including the reboot of Ninja Gaiden.  Personally, I don't blame Itagaki, because to be honest Dead or Alive is superior to most 3D fighters out there (including the two I menioned), but on the flip side of the coin, if you're really series about being a contender, spend a little less time with your breast physics engine.  I do find the "T" rating to be hilarious though, considering how sexualized these games have become.

Overall, I think the big thing came down to Sony managed to amass a huge library of titles for the PS2, and stood back, letting the gamers choose what they wanted.  The Japanese could have anything they wanted or needed on the PS2.  Well, outside of Mario and Zelda, which were on the far cheaper Gamecube (plus one system).  All Microsoft had and marketed to the Japanese audience was Halo, and that's just not the kind of game that's going to move consoles there.  With the 360, Microsoft has taken great steps in order to attempt to rope in the Japanese gamer, and the developers and publishers have taken them far more seriously this time around (which could be chalked up to Sony's arrogance, or Microsoft's business acumen..take your pick).  They managed to get Square Enix on board, making Final Fantasy XIII the first number to go multiplatform (at launch, not counting remakes), and also managed to sign Hironobu Sakaguchi to produce two top notch Japanese role playing games exclusively for X-Box (the under appreciated Blue Dragon, and the very epic Lost Odyssey).   These days, Japan's handheld market is much more lucrative than it's home console market though, so we have to factor that in as a possible reason. 

If I were running Microsoft, I would have purchased Sega years ago.  After the Dreamcast fell out, and Sega became a 3rd party publisher, they were on sale for pretty much anyone to buy.  Given the library of back titles and overall name recognition, I don't see why Billy Gates just didn't open his wallet and buy Sega.  You already had a rosy relationship with them.  Instead of calling your console the Microsoft X-Box, you call it the Sega X-Box (powered by Micorosoft).  From there you have a huge library of IPs that will appeal around the world, the Sega name will keep the Japanese loyalty, and guess what?  You can still freaking release Halo.  Seriously, think how much more appealing the 360 would be to the Japanese (or anyone) if X-Box Live were the only place you could download and play Sega Genesis games?  Hindsight is 20/20..but I made this point a long time ago, and I still think it would have been a huge move into the console market for Microsoft, and profitable. 

Panasonic 3D0, one and done

In my Sega Saturn post, I mentioned something about the Panasonic 3D0.  Given how gaming has ballooned into the machine it has, it doesn't surprise me that not a lot of people remember the system.  It was only around for a short amount of time, and like the Phillips CDi (which actually had promise with Nintendo backing it), Panasonic's only attempt at entering the gaming market.  It came out towards the end of the 16 bit era, but due to several reasons, it never took off.

First, a name.  Trip Hawkins.  Many of you have no idea who I'm talking about, but Trip Hawkins is one of the most influential men in the history of gaming.  Why?  He's the founder of Electronic Arts.  He's a brilliant man who probably craps more about this industry than I will ever know (and I like to think I'm pretty wise about it..).  In 1991, Hawkins left EA to sign on with the 3Do company, and through Panasonic release the 3D0 console.  If you're wondering, Hawkins currently is not doing anything.  He created a handheld gaming company called Digital Chocolate, and stepped down from the CEO chair in May of 2012.

The 3D0 was not the first CD based system.  Hell, it wasn't even the 2nd.  (Sega CD and Phillips CDi were both available in 1991, the 3D0 wasn't available until 1993)  However, the console, for it's time, had a lot of powerful next gen stuff under the hood.  CDs were still relatively new to us though, so the cost of the unit, along with the idea of needing memory in order to save, was really new.  These days, memory is nothing, but back before the CD systems, most games that could not be completed in one sitting were either given a password system or a battery memory inside the cart.  (For more information about passwords, please visit the Angry Video Game Nerd's website)  The thing that stuck out to me from the very start was how clean the full motion video was.  I had a Sega CD at the time, and the FMV on that system wasn't only pixelated like crazy, it was also contained in a small box on your screen (although animated scenes usually were larger).  The 3DO was much cleaner, and had far less load time than it's competitors. 

Neo Geo

We need to remember the time period as well.  Towards the end of the 16-bit era, there were several companies that were jumping in the pool, attempting to wrestle away market share from Nintendo and Sega (who were roughly 50/50).  Panasonic wasn't alone as we also saw consoles from Phillips, SNK, Atari, and eventually Sony (and we know how that turned out).  Nintendo had fallen out with several 3rd party publishers, and Sega..well...I've covered the Saturn debacle.  So, all in all, it was a good time to jump into the pool.  However, it's a small pool, and there wasn't room for everyone.  The most intriguing thing that these consoles had was each had a really big strength or partnership, with the exception of Sony (who won).  Phillips had a partnership with Nintendo, SNK was the only way to play arcade perfect games at home (that was a big deal back then), Atari meant gaming in the early 80's and Panasonic had a strong partnership with Electronic Arts.  

 

 

Akuma, only on 3D0

Look kids, it's Mark Hamill!

The Panasonic 3D0 had a massive price tag.  $699.99 at launch.  Back in 1993, this was a huge price.  However, the 3D0 did have some really big strengths.  The partnership with EA meant they had a full library of the best ports of all the EA titles, such a Madden NFL Football.  It also had a collection of EA games that were direct ports from the PC.  One game I still love to this day, and I played it first on the 3D0 was Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.  This game was nearly as good as it's PC counterpart, complete with controller support from the console.  This was one of the first times in my memory that openly put a PC port of a game on a console that could very well be considered on par with the original (we had seen it on other consoles, but the PC port was always better than the consoles).  The 3D0 also had, for the longest time, the only console port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.   I think I've stated it before, but a lot of people don't remember that the character Gex was originally the console mascot for the 3Do.  It also was the birthplace of the Legacy of Kain series.  (Both Gex and Legacy of Kain are now the property of Square Enix, which they got in their purchase of Eidos, I believe)

However, while the 3D0 did have a collection of really good games, it had a larger number of crappy games.  As I stated above, the CD format was still new at the time, and with all the room they could put on a CD, we would see game companies making full motion video games.  These games would come on 2 to 4 discs usually, with the story being played out in video cut scenes.  Wing Commander III, for example, was one.  If you took out all the FMV, Wing Commander could have been on one CD.  However, there were lots of them out there that did not live up to those standards, in fact most were pretty piss poor.  The, now infamous, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, was among these games.  Plus it had a selection of softcore porn video titles.  I don't want to get much into those because I do try to keep this clean, but let's just say when you walked into a game store with 3D0 titles, they would usually have just as much porn as they did actual games.  

The system died, officially, in 1996.  However, the Christmas of 95 is what destroyed them for good when Sony, figuratively, took 'em behind the woodshed and tanned that hide.  Panasonic actually did drop their price to a much more affordable $199.99, but by that time, Sony's Playstation had amassed such a huge amount of publishers, that they had no choice but to drop support for the system.  They went on to become a third party for Sony, Sega and Nintendo, creating the once popular Army Men series.  They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2003, unloading their profitable IPs and closing their doors for good.  

All in all, the 3D0 was probably a better console than some of the newbies back during that time period, such as Phillips and Atari, but they made the mistake of pricing themselves out of the marketplace from day 1, and just did not have the line up needed in order to compete with the likes of Nintendo or Sony.  The CD technology was just too new, and many gamers did not understand how the whole memory thing worked at the time.  Furthermore, the game console targeted only one audience, males 18-34, and never evolved to include a more broad base (most console companies start with males 18-34, but blossom out into other demographics as the console ages in order to find new audiences).  Personally, I think they saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out while they still could make money off of their first party games on other consoles.  That's just my opinion, though.

Sony is wasting the Vita's potential

I remember in January 0f 2011 when Sony first pulled the curtain back on the Playstation Vita.  This was about two months before the North American launch of the Nintendo 3DS, which was about as highly anticipated as a console can get.  I remember going, "Wow, look at that.  They really have figured it out." Now don't get the wrong, I love the original PSP platform (I'd say console..but there are 4 of them.  I'm probably one of the only real supporters for the unit out there.  Hell, I've got like 100 game and 50 movies for it.  That being said, and it did make money for Sony, but compared to the Nintendo DS, it looked pretty weak.  

Let's call a spade a spade, as well.  While I love the PSP, Sony completely crapped the bed on how to market the bloody thing.  I think they tried to do way too much way too soon.  Then they would cast the console off for up to 6 months at a time without putting a single ad out there trying to move the console.  Don't get me wrong, I could go on for days about the games that are available too, and how much better the console is than the DS technologically.  When you get down to the gutcheck though, the console was poorly managed and I think they went into the fight with Nintendo knowing they were going to lose huge, and were content with building the brand for the next fist fight.

Which would be now.  I've covered the 3DS here, so I won't get too much more into that.  Let's just say that the initial launch of the 3DS failed to meet anyone's expectations.  While Sony crapped the bed with the PSP, Nintendo crapped the bed with the 3DS.  So I remember when they announced the Vita, and the price of $249.99, my initial thought was "Wow, they are going right after Nintendo."  I think Sony smelled the blood in the water from Nintendo's initial 3DS weakness.  I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Sony had learned from their previous console, and was ready to take it to Nintendo and make a serious attempt to take some market share away from the Big N.  

However, we all know Nintendo bounced back big time over the holidays with a release of Mario Kart and Mario 3D Land less than a month apart in their releases.  (Something I thought Nintendo would never do)  I covered this in more detail a few weeks ago, so check that out if you want to know more.   Then, Sony managed to actually do a worse job of marketing the Vita for launch than they did the PSP.  I know, I know hard to believe, but hear me out here.

First of all, there were no ads.  Yes, believe it or not, Sony did next to no marketing for the launch of the system.  In fact, Taco Bell did a contest giving away chances to win Vitas with the purchase of a meal box or something, did more marketing for the Vita than Sony did.  I kid you not.  I find this particularly interesting because the launch of the console was on February 22nd.  If there was only some sort of event that had tens of millions of people watching at the same time.  You know, maybe something where some people watch the commercials more than the event itself?  Like the freaking Super Bowl?!  Seriously Sony, what in bell hell were you thinking?

The next thing is that Sony (and let's be fair, their third party publishers) kinda blew their wad at the launch.  Wikipedia says there were 25 games at launch, but I don't think that's accurate since I know Reality Fighters and Michael Jackson: The Experience weren't a launch game (and thank God).  Traditionally, you'll see a modest amount of games a console's launch, only to see 3-4 games a month sprinkled in the first 3 to 6 months in order to keep people coming to the stores.  (Think about it, if you sell a million units, and a month later a triple A game comes out, you stand a good chance at moving 500,000 units)  The Vita launched everything they had, and then had very little come out since.  There's been some  good stuff, don't get me wrong, but outside of the initial launch, there hasn't been much else out there.

Then we come to E3.  Oh Sony.  You know the funny thing is, for the past several years, I think you've had the strongest E3 press conferences.  This year, once again, I think you guys had the strongest showing.  Unfortunately, though, you guys kinda forgot you had the Vita out there.  We had a lot of "hey, we're working on something for the Vita," but when it came down to putting the Vita on the front of everyone's mind, there was only one major game announcement.  Don't get me wrong, Assassin's Creed is going to be one hell of a game, but the fact is that there should have been a lot more announcements.  I really don't get it. 

I don't think that the Vita is going to fail.  The hardware is so good, and once Monster Hunter is released on the puppy, you'll see them flying off Japanese shelves.  The sad thing is that Sony has already started making the same mistakes for the Vita as they did with the PSP, and the thing isn't even a year old yet.  If you're somehow, someway, expecting the people at retail to suggest your console to customers than  the 3DS, you're going to be in for a serious rude awakening.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the hardware.  I love the idea (although not the price) of crossover gameplay from the PS3.  I love PSN Network ID working between the PS3 and the Vita.  They really are ahead of Nintendo in this area  They've done a lot of wonderful things with this technology.  Marketing it for a mass audience, however, is not one of them.