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Author Topic: Have any next plan?  (Read 2318 times)

kimsuhanmoo (OP)

  • Posts: 8
Have any next plan?
« on: October 21, 2016, 10:06:04 am »
I like the performance and the classical gaming environment.

It is the best among the Linux units.

But the design is a little bit sad.

I want to return to Nintendo micro design again.

Or I think the game boy design is good too.

Because many dingoo fans are adults, not kids.

They want memories for classic games.


PS - Why not sell it at AliExpress?
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Aeter

  • Posts: 328
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2016, 10:32:30 am »
Is there a point to your rant?
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kimsuhanmoo (OP)

  • Posts: 8
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2016, 11:30:53 am »
Yes, I belong to a classical game club.

The club has about 20,000 people, and many users have gcw or gp-pi.

We have hobbies in dingoo serise, gp2x, gp32, android console, etc ..

They want is a classical device that reminds of nostalgia.

Children do not show much interest in the classical games in the 2D graphic.
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Aeter

  • Posts: 328
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2016, 01:02:38 pm »
Quote from: kimsuhanmoo on October 21, 2016, 11:30:53 am
Yes, I belong to a classical game club.

The club has about 20,000 people, and many users have gcw or gp-pi.

We have hobbies in dingoo serise, gp2x, gp32, android console, etc ..

They want is a classical device that reminds of nostalgia.

Children do not show much interest in the classical games in the 2D graphic.

I think there aren't that many with a GCW as there aren't that many out there and your club consists of roughly 20000 people.
But the GCW is the best retro gaming device for me at this moment.
Only thing that's a pity is the built quality.
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Surkow

  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 681
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2016, 02:20:41 pm »
The real issue is that production only starts with sufficient orders. So the real reason the device is scarce is due low interest from retailers - not due to disinterest from end-users. Selling on AliExpress won't guarantee any numbers sold.

A new design would probably be just as expensive as the whole Kickstarter campaign.
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Ryvan

  • Posts: 55
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2016, 07:09:04 pm »
The problem, that I see, is that having a retailer that isn't a relatively small business or, like ThinkGeek, bought out by some other party that refuses to sell emulation platforms would be helpful. Presumably some retailers are big enough that they might order 1000+ units in advance and take a chance on actual demand. At ~$150 It's also a little bit expensive as the market goes in my opinion. It was then and it probably still is.

If there is no lack of interest from end-users then why is there no apparent production? There's a chicken and egg situation if a retailer won't order any units without a guaranteed sale and therefore creates no listing and the interested party can't order because it's not possible to make an order.

Only one of the official sellers even has a page/listing (https://www.dragonbox.de/en/84-gcw-zero) and the rest either  have no page (GWW) or their online stores are in limbo (Ithic, Extreme Hardware).

P.S.

A few good, exclusive games for it would make a better case. It's true that a major part of the audience is interested in emulators, but the device is probably a hard sell otherwise and I'd bet on cheaper emulation/replica platforms.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2016, 07:11:32 pm by Ryvan »
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Aeter

  • Posts: 328
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2016, 12:45:40 pm »
Quote from: Ryvan on October 21, 2016, 07:09:04 pm
The problem, that I see, is that having a retailer that isn't a relatively small business or, like ThinkGeek, bought out by some other party that refuses to sell emulation platforms would be helpful. Presumably some retailers are big enough that they might order 1000+ units in advance and take a chance on actual demand. At ~$150 It's also a little bit expensive as the market goes in my opinion. It was then and it probably still is.

If there is no lack of interest from end-users then why is there no apparent production? There's a chicken and egg situation if a retailer won't order any units without a guaranteed sale and therefore creates no listing and the interested party can't order because it's not possible to make an order.

Only one of the official sellers even has a page/listing (https://www.dragonbox.de/en/84-gcw-zero) and the rest either  have no page (GWW) or their online stores are in limbo (Ithic, Extreme Hardware).

P.S.

A few good, exclusive games for it would make a better case. It's true that a major part of the audience is interested in emulators, but the device is probably a hard sell otherwise and I'd bet on cheaper emulation/replica platforms.
I think it's a lack of marketing the product and showing potential resellers that this device is in high demand.
If you don't market the product properly their will never be a high demand, simply because too few people know about the device. So if you market the device properly and show your potential retailers the potential the device has and show them your device is in high demand and will definitely sell, they will order a lot more, allowing you to produce more.

Basically the lack of creating demand through marketing (except for the KickStarter event), the late delivery of a lot of KS units also negatively affects the device's popularity, decreasing demand even further, as well as retailers getting disappointed with orders not being delivered or delivered late, while they invested money.

In short: No demand, means no sellable product, ergo no one willing to sell your device.

That's the gist of it. Of course their are a lot of fine details in between, but I think the marketing plan for the device was very poorly designed resulting in low demand and therefore lack of retailers willing to sell.
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Ryvan

  • Posts: 55
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2016, 07:05:52 pm »
Personally I though the marketing was fine, if a little low key. The real problem imho is that it's viewed both by it's creators and primary audience as being chiefly an emulation device. Seeing the Zero only as a platform for emulation software that emulates older platforms misses out on it's ability to deliver a less locked down, more flexible gaming device in the same sort of market as Nintendo's products.

In terms of straight specifications it probably has some potential to even be a 3DS competitor especially in the market of indie games, given that it's fairly similar but missing some expensive, hot-ticket features like dual screens, actual 3D displays, camera, etc. Nintendo's primary advantages are product quality, game catalogue, and brand recognition. The 3DS hardware itself isn't really anything special it's how they make use of it.
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jimclarson

  • Posts: 145
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2016, 06:48:18 am »
i treasure my gcw zero special edition, it carries with it memories from a special time in my life. only two complaints are build quality and the lack of a firmware that fully supports all the hardware functions, but other than that i love the size and form factor of it all. what would be nice is if they came out with a revised version where the hardware is the same in order to maintain software compatibility, but maybe have a case thats easy to disasemble [two molded halves held together with screws construction] and have the same retro build quality as an news controller or an original gameboy or gamegear [btw the gamegear's d-pad is surpriseingly confortable and functional if you've ever used one]. i think people in the retro scene would definately pay the extra money for something with case construction that attempts to emulate oldskool gameing hardware. the ingenic 1 ghz proscessor pleases me because it can do proper emulation speed up to psone from what i understand [im not much of a n64 and later gamer], so just to have a upgrade in terms of case construction, button functionality and such would be nice, not sure if the board would need a new layout design to go with the new case, i just dont particularly want or need a new proscessor because that would mean all the software would need to be ported over as well as developing new firmware. but i do think at some point a revision like gcw0.1 could happen with higher quality construction, but essentialy keeping the same form factor [hopefully as good quality as the nes controller].
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Aeter

  • Posts: 328
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2016, 09:11:47 am »
Quote from: Ryvan on October 24, 2016, 07:05:52 pm
Personally I though the marketing was fine, if a little low key. The real problem imho is that it's viewed both by it's creators and primary audience as being chiefly an emulation device. Seeing the Zero only as a platform for emulation software that emulates older platforms misses out on it's ability to deliver a less locked down, more flexible gaming device in the same sort of market as Nintendo's products.

In terms of straight specifications it probably has some potential to even be a 3DS competitor especially in the market of indie games, given that it's fairly similar but missing some expensive, hot-ticket features like dual screens, actual 3D displays, camera, etc. Nintendo's primary advantages are product quality, game catalogue, and brand recognition. The 3DS hardware itself isn't really anything special it's how they make use of it.
For the indie market to be reached you need marketing. You also say Brand Recognition, again marketing. Basically you subliminally saying that marketing is the ACTUAL problem. I think reinventing the 3DS is a big no-no and not very feasible. The 3DS was/isn't that successful in my opinion, the DS that was a successful and innovative device with it's dual/touch screen, the 3DS is the same just with 3D added (cameras where introduced with DSi already). I bought the DS when it came out because I just loved the innovations they'd made and I was always a sucker for Nintendo handhelds. Most games I've played were DS games.

Any way, getting sidetracked here. I think if there is money for a new batch of GCW0s, than they should put all the focus on marketing the device. If they're smart they'll ask the community to help as well and ask (current) vendors to promote it to the fullest. Ask review websites to cover the device, spam social media with it, give people some discount or such for sharing and so on. This would blow new life into the device by building a larger user base, which means more demand, more sales, more interest from other devs.
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kimsuhanmoo (OP)

  • Posts: 8
Re: Have any next plan?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2016, 11:42:20 am »
This is a small market of the nonmainstream.

The comparison with Nintendo is not appropriate.

Marketing is not such an important issue.

What matters is design and performance and price, like the GPD XD.

In my opinion, The GCW-ZERO performance is good.

Screen resolution optimized for classic gaming, such as good gaming performance, etc.

Let's hope the design will improve to appeal to more classical game users.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 11:48:20 am by kimsuhanmoo »
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