The Jungle: New Handheld On The Way?
Can Panasonic manage a new handheld – or?
by : XboxOZ360
©2010 Grant Smythe
Well it seems Panasonic want to get into the handheld gaming act, and could be producing an online unit that will amongst other things, allow great MMO activity through its new website, Jungle.com.
While it has yet to be ‘officially’ announced, the pics and video of “The Jungle” could mean yet another handheld is heading our way, but can the market take it, or want it, and better still, could Panasonic pull it off, especially after their past blunder with the 3DO many years ago.
Sure, times have changed, but to produce a handheld that has both a decent keyboard, touch-screen and online gaming would require a significant amount of investment, and that means a higher than normal retail price.
Unless of course it was simply designed as a means to and end, in getting the company established, knowing it will take a hit on the hardware, which is usually the case in the industry.
CrunchGear seems to have been given some data on the device, and have been following it closely. At first it was thought it could be powered by the Android OS, but that has been refuted, and the OS is as yet undetermined.
While I do not see it making it big in the West, if it ever does or did reach here, I do see a huge potential market in the East in places like Korea, Singapore, China, where MMO and online gaming is not only second nature, but a major sporting past time with huge events across each country.
Panasonic are suppossidly about to launch the online gaming business which is called ‘Panasonic Cloud Entertainment’ which could account for the introduction of The jungle, check out the official website for some details, but it’s a bit scant at the moment.
It’s rife with hacking and piracy, and the platform could well offer the Eastern gamers something a little bit different.
Especially in light of the fact that Apple still refuse to allow Anime and such like to be developed and sold via the iTunes store for the iPad and iPhone. Which would just open the market for the East with regards to a platform that they could embrace without the need to deal with iTunes strict censorship rules.
Apple could well be cutting off their collective nose to spite their face (as they say), and perhaps Panasonic can see this, and are aiming at that market, not the West. We will know soon, as there are rumours that it could be officially announced today . . . time will tell.
What do you think . . (and please, be civil and offer decent exchange and check our TOU/COC terms before letting out any expletives lol)
©2010 Grant Smythe
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Filed under: Xbox 360 Tagged: | Android, Apple, CrunchGear, Easter, Handheld, Handheld game console, iPhone, iTunes, Jungle, Massively multiplayer online game, Online game
