by Kat Musselwhite

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Throughout the short history of gaming, consoles have competed furiously against each other. And, it's these battles that have either made or broken every games company. It has seen the demise of Sega (remember the poor Dreamcast? May we take a few moments to mourn) as a producer of consoles, but has seen the rise of two of the industries biggest giants Sony and Nintendo. Sony, famous producers of Walkmans, mobile phones and all things technical, have became the main competitors of the industry with the ever successful Playstation, and it's successors Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, along with it's first attempt at handheld, the PSP. Nintendo, the leader of all things gaming, has grown from the humble gaming roots of the NES, and SNES to it's first hand held the Gameboy, to the current Nintendo DS. The rise of competition, has led the computing giants Microsoft onto the battlefield, with the X-Box and X-Box 360, but when it comes to handhelds, it is still Sony and Nintendo that lead the way. It's a battle between simple, unadulterated fun gaming, and awe-inspiring graphics, and multi-purpose gaming/entertainment. May the battle commence

Marketing

Since it's release, Nintendo's successor to the Gameboy, the DS, has barraged us with a huge array of marketing, involving personalities from Vernon Kay, Fearne Cotton and Zo Ball to Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters. British celebrities big and small apparently can't keep their mitts off this toy. This coupled with the dual and stylus touch screen, thrust the ingenious interactive console to a wide audience that doesn't in the slightest just mean children, but their parents too. This has been mainly encompassed in the best selling Touch! Generations games that have become popular amongst adults and children alike.

Sony's first attempt at a hand-held console, the PSP (Playstation Portable), however, has sold itself on the idea of being a mini-Playstation, the same games but in the palm of your hand. The recent adverts have given the impression of having "the whole world in your hands" with this console, and with not only your typical games available for this console, but music, films and Wi-Fi, it certainly seems like it has everything but a coffeemaker in it!

Upgrading

Since their individual launches, both consoles have upgraded to slimmer and lighter versions (DS Lite and PSP Slim & Lite). The DS Lite change was a vast improvement on the original, with a transformation of design making the console look

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