Nintendo & Sony Looking to Add 3G To Handhelds?

[DoctorFinger]

While all three major platform holders seem content to hold off on the next round of the Console War, the conflict may be heating up in the handheld realm.

Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo has announced that they've entered talks with both Sony and Nintendo to add 3G wireless capability to their next gen handheld devices.

"Videogame makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication," NTT DoCoMo President Ryuji Yamada said in an interview Wednesday. "We are discussing this with various players."

Nintendo is launching their 3DS sometime in the next 8 months, but Sony has not announced plans for a PSP successor. Privately both companies are apparently grappling with what tech to include in their next handhelds. Do they want their device to be a game machine with fancy communication functions, or are they angling for a piece of the smart phone market alongside Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform?

Sources - Wall Street Journal; VG247.

[rein]

I would love to have a portable game system utilize 3G like the Kindle does. Anything else is probably going to severly limit the system.

[Widgetcraft]

Personally, I hope it doesn't happen, if only because I don't have 3G coverage in my area. Like... at all. I would have to drive for a few hours to get to a place that does.

[Iron Past]

I don't... see the point? Whatever, more options is never a bad thing, I suppose, unless it jacks up the price (which it will). How does 3G work on something besides a phone, anyway? You have get service through someone, right?

[Thanasimos]

Jack the price up, and then you need a plan. The beauty of portable gaming is that it is self-contained; with this addition that would no longer be the case.

[JayVe]

Something like the Kindle would make sense, especially when paired with a 'push' type approach where notifications are automatically downloaded to the device. I doubt any real form of real-time online play will be heavily supported in the near future. iPhones have some games that do it, but an iPhone costs you three thousand dollars over the life of the phone. A Nintendo handheld is < $200 and a PSP 3G will be under $300.

[CptTripps]

I think it would be cool, but the price of the plan would kill me. For people with no 3g coverage paying for the unused hardware would suxor bigtime. Maybe if it was a small adapter addon and any game that worked over wifi/system link would work on 3g as well.

[MagGnome]

They need to make sure the 3DS doesn't end up costing $600 like the iPhone did/sort of still does.

[Dukefrukem]

as longs as it's not AT&T.. this is amazing news

[Mike Kelehan]

I think they'd go with a Kindle approach, where it would be entirely subsidized and you wouldn't pay for the service, or even the antenna, really. You'd still have to use Wi-fi for online play, but this could be used to expand their DLC market to pretty much everyone, and make sure that everyone is running the latest firmware.

You know what they could even do? They could make it so DLC had a cost for Wi-fi users and a slightly higher cost for 3G users to offset the network charges. A game might be $10 for download over Wi-fi and $10.50 for download over 3G. That way, nearly everyone could get the DLC, but you and I wouldn't have to pay for everyone else's 3G option.

Originally Posted by MagGnome

They need to make sure the 3DS doesn't end up costing $600 like the iPhone did/sort of still does.

While I'm sure Nintendo doesn't want to sell any portable hardware for over $200... the DSi XL is $190, and the 3DS is looking mighty impressive. I can see a $250 launch.

[Yeti2005]

If this happens it will probably be free like the Kindle (Sony could also say PSN+ users get it for "free"). I suspect the main reason for this is to fight piracy and allow users to download apps or games on a whim.

[Gorvi]

That'd be interesting to say the least. I'd almost prefer just to be able to tether it to my phone to download when I'm away from WiFi like you can with the PSP Go. It depends on what the business model is, I have no clue what the expense would be to have this built in. I guess they could always have a model with and a model without, with the option of a non-obtrusive accessory to add it later on to models that don't have it built in. Of course that's all best case scenario kinda stuff.

[Iron Past]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

I guess they could always have a model with and a model without, with the option of a non-obtrusive accessory to add it later on to models that don't have it built in. Of course that's all best case scenario kinda stuff.

That would work great, actually. I can see Sony doing that, but not Nintendo.

[JayVe]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

That'd be interesting to say the least. I'd almost prefer just to be able to tether it to my phone to download when I'm away from WiFi like you can with the PSP Go.

Most modern phones can turn your 3G or 4G signal into a WiFi hotspot. I have a Palm Pre on Sprint and create my own WiFi hot spot all the time that I can use for my laptop and DSi.

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by JayVe

Most modern phones can turn your 3G or 4G signal into a WiFi hotspot. I have a Palm Pre on Sprint and create my own WiFi hot spot all the time that I can use for my laptop and DSi.

Interesting, I did not realize that. How much battery life does that suck out as opposed to Bluetooth?

[boratika]

Well, it would come in handy in stopping people from avoiding firmware updates, if you get what I mean...

[Deimos]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

Interesting, I did not realize that. How much battery life does that suck out as opposed to Bluetooth?

Oh it eats battery power so fast! My brother has one of the new Evo 4g phones on Sprint. Pulling down data over 4g is power hungry enough, then add in running the wifi equipment and it starts draining even faster. It's great to use in a pinch if you need to download a presentation for your computer or something but I wouldn't recommend it for playing games. That's why I do most of my tethering over USB cable.

I agree with some other people in this thread. I have a kindle with 3g. I don't "pay" for it in the sense that I have a subscription plan. I pay for it every time I download a book though. The price of that data is built into the book price. It is a good model for Amazon though, there have been plenty of times I hear about a good book and whip out my Kindle right away to download a sample, read some reviews and sometimes purchase the book. Without that ability to instantly look into it I probably wouldn't buy about half of the things I have. I think Nintendo or Sony would be smart to include a similar level of 3g service.

I do think there is one problem though, ebooks and games are not the same sizes. Ebooks are quite small. Often much less than a megabyte. A game on the other hand will be much larger. Will Nintendo or Sony be willing to foot the bill for larger 3g downloads?

[JayVe]

I usually plug my phone into my laptop, creating a hotspot wherever I am working. Laptop plugs into the wall at the coffee shop or airport. Everything stays charged, and I'm creating my own WiFi bubble. I've got a little USB-DSi charging cable too, in case the gaming gets low on power.

[Satertek]

Would love a PSP phone with reworked touchscreen XMB.

But purely for gaming I don't see how it's much of a benefit. Maybe for downloading games, but that's infrequent enough that I've never really felt a need to outside a WiFi zone. And latency would be way too high for multiplayer.

It's probably cheap enough in Japan to add purely for PSN/DSiWare, but I can't see it happening anywhere else unless it's a full-fledged phone.