Nintendo could soon make an unusual entrance into the portable MP3 category.
The company is planning to deliver its Game Boy Micro this fall in both the US and Europe, which will now reportedly be available with an MP3 player attachment. That will allow gamers to port music files directly to their devices, mirroring capabilities already present in the industry-leading Sony PlayStation Portable, or PSP. Details are currently light, though it appears that the Nintendo music capabilities will come in the form of an attachment, and not a built-in application. The news first trickled out of gaming site Jeux-France.
For Nintendo, the move would help to satisfy user demands for MP3 playback, a great addition to any on-screen action. But like Sony, the real focus for Nintendo remains in gaming, making any combination music player mostly an afterthought. In the case of the PSP, users definitely make use of on-deck music playback capabilities, but the all-in-one, Swiss Army Knife approach offers serious setbacks. That has driven more dedicated music fans to the iPod, which delivers dedicated audio playback and control, and far greater storage capacities.