As for competition against the Switch, I'd say bring it on. But the competition are at quite a few major disadvantages, beyond the usual OS snafus:
Timing. The Switch already has massive momentum, and it doesn't look like it'll be stopping any time soon. Developers couldn't/can't ignore it forever, so right now they're starting to take notice and start seeing what they can do to support it.
Advertising. Until now, I have never heard of the GPD Win. Nintendo has a lot more resources to advertise their products, and their current marketing campaign is extremely good.
Games. Nintendo games have wide appeal, and they're a main driving force to buy the hardware. This is the most important factor and one can change at the drop of a hat though, so this is very unpredictable.
The controls. The Joy-Cons are really great for what they are, offering instant 2-player multiplayer for certain games and complement a variety of form factors while being really comfortable. The GPD Win, on the other hand, looks even more cramped than a 3DS. Granted I haven't tried it for myself, but I can't see myself liking the layout.
Price. What you get from a $300 Switch is really really good. To beat that, you need to pay up more, which is going to drive down interest.
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@Ralizah
I... don't disagree. Switch does indeed have a lot more going for it. That was never in question. The fact you can easily dock it and play on the TV or set up tabletop mode and remove actual controllers with motion... yeah, Switch has a ton more going for it. The fact it's only $299... you're simply not going to find better bang for your buck when it comes to a portable gaming device.
I never claimed the GPD Win 2 had more going for it. I said Switch has met it's match in terms of power. Of course there are more powerful tablets, but tablets aren't gaming devices. This is specifically designed as a gaming handheld. That's why people were so excited for Switch- not because we haven't seen more powerful mobile devices but because it was the most powerful gaming device. And now, GPD Win 2 will soon be the most powerful gaming device, or at least on par. But it will also have the advantage of being PC-based running on Windows 10, which can be over clocked, storage expanded, STEAM library compatible, etc. Seeing DOOM run on a handheld in full 720p on medium difficulty with actual low settings as opposed to sub-low settings... that's impressive.
Oh, GPD Win won't be competing with Switch. It would need a $300 price point to even begin to compete. And even then the mass-market appeal of instantly transitioning from TV to handheld to tabletop, with detachable motion controllers... would be lost on GPD Win 2.
This is just a device for the enthusiasts. The original GPD Win was never more than a niche product. My brother owns one and he loves it but it wasn't quite powerful enough to run Dolphin, and it would struggle for most seventh gen games. There were a few that it could run with ultra low settings, just barely scraping by with a manageable frame rate (original Dark Souls, Fallout New Vegas, etc) most of its appeal were in the less demanding games (Tales of Symphonia HD, Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest, etc). Most owners of the system wanted to see the next iteration powerful enough to run AAA games. And that's what they're focusing on here. They know their customers are the enthusiasts, and would rather pay more to have a very capable handheld. They tried the $300 price point with the first device but it never caught on. So they have wisely chosen to disregard the mass-market price point in favor of the enthusiast price. Because that's what people really want. You hear it all the time- "I would gladly pay $600 if they would just make a handheld that was more powerful". And those are the people this is targeting. People such as myself, Who are willing to pay more for a premium product. Similar to the Xbox One X. Only this will be even more niche than that, not just because it's $100 more but because it doesn't have the massive Microsoft advertising campaign behind it.
@JaxonH I think you need to remember the GPD Win is more of a pirtable PC than it is a dedicated gaming device. The main draw is gaming sure, but like a PC it does everything else too.
Imagine a Blackberry that could do gaming. Pretty much that. Its nice...but you have far better options if you want a portable PC, portable gaming, or a PC for gaming.
I think aiming for that niche market is best for them. I just question how big that market is.
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@YummyHappyPills
It is PC-based but, make no mistake. Nobody is buying one of these things to do anything else other than game. It's a gaming handheld through and through- that's its one purpose, that's what it's being designed as, and that's what people will buy it for. It's only PC-based because it has to be- it's the only open platform there is to make a portable gaming handheld.
It's not trying to replace a PC for gaming. But it is a fantastic option for portable gaming. There is no better portable PC though. You have laptops, but they are not nearly as portable. It's why people buy 3DS and Switch and not gaming laptops. As far as true portable gaming is concerned, there is only 3DS, Vita and Switch. Switch representing the first platform to offer true console experiences on a handheld device. But now we have another option. It's as portable as any other clamshell handheld, but offers the incredible range of PC games. So people who are looking for a proper console experience on a handheld... Switch is the only option right now, really. And while it is getting a ton of great games, many of which are exclusive, there are far more games available on PC... if only they were able to be played portably. But now, with GPD Win 2, many (most) can be. It's like taking the entire 7th generation library and putting it on a handheld, and even then tossing in some 8th generation games that can run too.
It's not like a BlackBerry that can do gaming, because a BlackBerry is designed for other purposes, whereas this is not. This is exactly like a 3DS, the only difference is the Windows operating system it's running on, which is out of necessity, not because this is a multipurpose device. This is a single purpose device that just happens to have all the functionality a PC has because it had to be built as one. But this was never designed for anything other than gaming. It's why there are buttons built into it and automatically maps the mouse to the analog. You simply have no other choice than to go with a PC build, otherwise there will be no games on it, and then what's the point.
They did make multiple variations of the original GPD Win, one being focused on gaming and the other that was focused on being a multipurpose device.
@JaxonH If you're going to use it for gaming though...you've got better options even then.
The price point will dissuade most console gamers and most portable gamers alone. So you lose that market.
It's got exclusively PC games, which is fine. But at it's price, for what it plays, it's a bit of an issue because by design this thing fits the same niche as the ill-fated Steam Machine, a way to play PC games away from your PC.
Problem is...why would you do that with apps like Rainway, Nvidia GeForce Now, plugging your PC into a TV, exists. Why would a PC gamer want one? To play PC games on the go? Slight downside with that too.
Where's the keyboard? Trackpad for a mouse? It's inferior to a laptop in that yes it may be powerful, but it loses many of the things that makes a lot of PC games work. Some games, be they RTS or Simulation, are nightmares on a controller. You can't really have a device tout itself as portable PC gaming when a lot of the big PC games that would draw people in are near unplayable.
People said the Switch was a jack of all trades master of none. It plays Nintendo games and ports of PS4/Xbox and PC games, decently well, for $300, with a full set of controls AND can go on your TV. Jack of all trades master of none indeed.
This thing plays SOME PC games, unoptimised for the experience I might add, pretty well, most likely better than Switch, but limits your controls which then limits some games entirely, because take say an FPS. Now youre playing against keyboard and mouse players with an analog stick emulating the mouse inputs and let me tell you now that is a nightmare. Plus you will only have access to PC games and emulators, and for what? $600 for a portable experience like that? I don't see much of the crowd jumping into it, sorry.
It's simply a case of "Who is this for?" and who it IS for, are people who want to play emulators and a smaller range of PC games at lower settings than their PC, in a portable format without all the amenities of the experience, and are happy paying $600 for it.
I feel it is teetering very heavily on the "This is almost too much trouble for what it gives you" line.
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Now Streaming: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
After playing through the Project Octopath demo, it's gone from a no purchase to a definite purchase but whether at launch or not will depend on its release date. Very good demo (I started with the warrior) though some of the mechanics like boost mode could've been explained better, I found out about the higher boost levels only by accident.
@YummyHappyPills
Whether you have better options is completely subjective. To the people buying this device, they probably view this as the best option.
Why would you do that when there's streaming apps? The same reason you would buy a Switch despite the fact PS4 streams to Vita. Streaming sucks and it is not a viable alternative.
You keep asking why would somebody want it. It's not just about "playing PC games on the go", it's about playing video games on the go. Whether or not they are PC games is completely irrelevant. What do you mean where is the mouse or trackpad? Nobody wants a mouse or trackpad on a handheld gaming device. People want a clamshell with analog sticks and buttons. Most PC games now are compatible with a controller. It's no different than buying a game on the PS4. Native controller support, and even if there's not, GPD Win auto maps the mouse to analog. So you can literally play any PC game as a handheld game.
It's not about touting itself as "portable PC gaming". It's about touting itself as "portable gaming". Whether or not the games run on PC is completely irrelevant. It's video games. People want to play video games on handhelds. You can't segment every single gamer out there into a nice little compartmentalized box and slap a label on it. Oh well either you're a "PC gamer" and you want mouse and keyboard and the absolute latest and greatest games. Or oh you're a "console gamer" and you want tv play. There is a lot of gray area in between and a lot of just straight up gamers who want to play video games on the go, and are willing to pay for it if it means getting a premium experience.
Yes this thing plays some PC games. Just as Switch plays some of the games available in the industry. Just as certain PC's play some games. But it's not about the games can't play, it's about what it can play. And the games the original could play was a list thousands of games long. This one will be 10,000.
The entire Xbox 360 library that came to PC will be playable on this. The entire PS3 library that came to PC will be playable as well. The entire Wii library. GameCube library (and make no mistake, that's been the dream of many gamers for years). PS2 library. Even some current gen games. DOOM runs at full 720p at nearly 50fps. Fallout 4 will be running just as well as consoles once they figure out the best configurations. You're getting a experience of Skyrim just as good as Switch. There are countless games that this thing will run. You keep saying some like it's just a basket of a dozen games but we are talking entire generations of libraries that will run on this. There will be more games that will run on this thing out of the box then the switch will ever see in its entire life span. The promise of a portable PS3/360 is here.
If you're asking who it's for, it's for the same people who bought the last one. And probably more people this time, because the last one wasn't that impressive. It was just on the verge of having enough power... it needed just a little more oomph. And this one brings the oomph and then some. And yes it is most definitely for people who want to play emulators, but this time Dolphin. That's been the dream for years. GameCube and Wii on handheld has been the dream. And yes it runs PC games at lower settings just as any portable device will run at a lower setting than PC would. Every single Switch game in existence runs at lower settings than a PC would run it at. That is the nature of portable gaming. If you're trying to get the highest settings you're not going to be playing portably. But a hundred million handheld gamers out there care about gaming on the go. And they aren't comparing their handhelds to their PCs. They're comparing their handhelds to their previous handhelds and this thing blows their previous handhelds out of the water. Maybe only a select few of them are willing to pay for such a premium device, but that's fine. At least the option is there for those that want it.
The price is steep though, and that will ensure it stays niche. But this is, by far, the most powerful handheld gaming device ever created... as it should be. For $600, I would expect nothing less. But let's not pretend there isn't a market out there for premium handheld gaming. People don't want to stream, and Switch doesn't offer much in the way of 3rd party games. So there really has been no other viable alternative to play all these other games... until now. Think about all the games out there: Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 on the go. Dragon Age, Mirrors Edge, SSX, Burnout Paradise, Rayman Origins and Legends, Xcom, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Skyrim, maybe you want to play Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Portal, Portal 2 and Half Life 2, Forza Horizon 2, Fable games, Divinity Original Sin, Divinity Original Sin 2, Torment Tides of Numenera, Diablo 3, Darksiders 1 and 2, countless Assassins Creed and Call of Duty games, Wolfenstein The New Order (maybe even Wolfenstein 2?), Dishonored, Bioshock games, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, GTAV, The Witcher 2, DMC4, Metal Gear Solid V (the first could almost run it), Bayonetta, Beyond Good & Evil HD, Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Symphonia HD, Cuphead, etc etc etc.
That's making no mention of having an HD handheld GameCube and HD handheld Wii. Xenoblade Chronicles, Metroid Prime 1, 2 and 3, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, F-Zero GX, Zelda Windwaker and Twilight Princess, Pikmin and Pikmin 2, Super Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Mario Kart Double Dash, Smash Bros Melee, Kirby AirRide, Waverace Blue Storm and 1080 Avalanche, Baten Kaitos Origins and Baten Kaitos EWatLO, Skies of Arcadia, Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes, The Last Story, Pandoras Tower, Mario a Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Paper Mario, Mario Kart Wii, Smash Bros Brawl, DKC Returns, Sin & Punishment 2, Metroid Other M, Resident Evil 4, Muramasa, Okami, etc etc etc
And even all that is just the tippity top of the iceberg. There are so many games out there ripe for the picking it's ridiculous. Even if it's just a handheld GameCube + Wii + Xbox 360 + PS3 + small range of select current gen titles... that's an incredibly appealing proposition for those who are willing to pay the price. And really, it's no different than Xbox One X. People said the same thing you are saying now- "Who's it for? People who want high-end gaming will just play on PC. People who want consoles don't want to pay that much." Etc etc. But we see from its sales, there are people who want a high-end console. Just like there are people who want a high-end handheld. It's never going to be a mass appeal product- we're talking about a premium, $600-700 gaming handheld after all. But I foresee this being much more popular than the first one. The price will drop after a while. And once it hits that $500 mark, I think that's the sweet spot that'll start turning heads. Especially once it's been put through enough tests to compile a list of which games are compatible to run properly.
@FragRed I'd say it's inevitable Golf will be one of the games that will have online play included as part of the subscription.Really curious how they're going to do this.1st party NES games that could have online added aren't exactly plentiful. There are the sports games, most of which have aged terribly, Dr Mario and Balloon Fight which have already been announced, Excite Bike, Ice Climbers and Urban Champion and a handful of others at most. Even f they were to only include one game with added online play each month as part of the subscription, they'll be out of games in just over a year. This subscription is surely going to be an ongoing thing, at least for the next 3 or 4 years of the Switch's life anyway. No doubt there will be some 3rd party games like Bubble Bobble and Contra as part of it as well but there has to be more to this than what we think.
Super Mario Bros 3 is also apparently one of the games with added online, that didn't have 2 player co-op though so to me that's a big clue that this Classic Game Collection is going to be more than just a simple ROM dump with basic online functions. They were criticised already for only having 1 NES game and 1 SNES game with added online each month. That was then scrapped and as it says in their website just now, it'll just include NES games. After the criticism, surely they're not going to then come back with just 1 NES game instead. That'll then be a worse deal than what we were getting before haha.
Yes it's compatible. It has a button on the front to switch modes between normal and the analogs working as the mouse. You could, in theory, look up a mouse and alternate keyboard if you so desired. But I don't know why you would. This thing is basically a premium 3DS, and designed to be played like any other clamshell handheld. I guess if you really wanted to though, it's always an option.
Some people might prefer to carry a full laptop that is more powerful, but some people like the pocket portability of a handheld device. At least now we finally have a viable option to choose from. Options are good. And it's not like this thing is going to affect Switch in any way. People who have enough money to buy this thing likely have enough money to buy multiple consoles.
@OorWullie I should point out that the games were said to have "online play", which isn't necessarily the same thing as online multiplayer. In most cases the online play will be leaderboards or daily challenges or something like that.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Sounds about right. Wasn't there an Iwata Asks on the Wii U that showed a Gamepad prototype that was a piece of cardboard with Wiimotes attached to the sides?
Yeah, those aren't typically games I would try to play on a handheld system. I'd stick with games that have controller support from being on consoles. There's so many games that can be played well with a controller and were designed for a controller, or at the very least work well with the mouse mapped to the controller (Dragon Age, for example) that I would save those types of games for when I was actually home playing on a PC. Just because the handheld is running Windows, I wouldn't take that to mean you should try to play those types of games on it. Just from my experience with my brother, he really treats it as a traditional handheld. Console-ported games only, preferably with native controller support, although as I mentioned, there are some older games without native controller support that can be mapped and do work well enough.
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