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The Death of Handheld gaming from console makers?

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It's sad, but the days of dedicated mobile gaming systems are slowly going behind us. Phone processing power/gpu is faster than current handhelds and once battery issues are figured out, then I don't expect handhelds to stay strong.
 
ncstateguy87 said:
It's sad, but the days of dedicated mobile gaming systems are slowly going behind us. Phone processing power/gpu is faster than current handhelds and once battery issues are figured out, then I don't expect handhelds to stay strong.
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i don't think this is true at all for kids. this is only true for adults who used to play on these things.

i see kids left and right playing with a DS/3DS. i don't see them going anywhere anytime soon.

and kids that are young playing on the DS aren't kids that need to have cell phones.
 
I don't know about hanhelds DYING outright, though a lot of the profit in it sure has been sucked out. For a long time portables were Nintendo's bread and butter. Now they're selling a system for a loss for the first time that I can remember. People are getting fatigue from Nintendo releasing another DS every year or so. Hoping a system will survive on old N64 ports selling for only $10 less then they did a decade and a half ago can only sustain you for so long.

The games will get better in time. Of that there is no question. Will it salvage the portables enough to make releasing another in the future? Eh, probably. Will it make it the cash cow it has been for Nintendo since the dawn of the 90's? Now that seems like quite a stretch. Sony isn't fairing much better I'm afraid. Now just wasn't the economy to be dropping a $300 portable gaming system and sales are slowing down now that the initial excitement has tapered off.
 
purbeast0 said:
i don't think this is true at all for kids. this is only true for adults who used to play on these things.

i see kids left and right playing with a DS/3DS. i don't see them going anywhere anytime soon.

and kids that are young playing on the DS aren't kids that need to have cell phones.
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Good point, but I don't know if there will be continue profit margins in the future with that model.
 
Don't care how powerful a smartphone is. I will choose Zelda or Radiant Historia on a real portable GAME SYSTEM over some crappy Punch the Monkey and Angry Birds games on smart phones.

Game quality on mobile phones is horrendous and gimmicky at best. There are very few if any "real" games for mobile phone platforms. And if they ARE real quality games, it's unfortunate that they are ruined by frustrating motion/touch controls or virtual buttons

The buttons on my DS don't register 1 in 4 times, lose effectiveness with rapid presses, and aren't affected by the moisture or lack thereof of my skin.
 
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portable game systems will continue to exist. You cannot put a full game like Legend of Zelda on a touchscreen device and make it playable and quality. If you did it would be $40 and when sitting next to $1 and $2 games, it won't sell.
 
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I guess I don't understand why Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony haven't taken more advantage of the mobile devices that are out there. Why not spend the money on creating a game that has a subscription service?
 
MarcZ said:
I guess I don't understand why Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony haven't taken more advantage of the mobile devices that are out there. Why not spend the money on creating a game that has a subscription service?
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Microsoft is doing that but since they're busy releasing a new phone platform, they're focusing on getting that established first. They will have an Xbox service on it. Sony has Playstation certified Android devices so you can buy and play Sony games that release but the amount of devices its available on is tiny. Nintendo won't do that any time soon. Many people have talked about it and they'd make a killing letting games like Super Mario Bros or Zelda on other platforms but they are stubborn.
 
Here's a valid point for a mobile gaming device. Why drain the battery on the device I need (my phone) for the sake of entertainment when my 3DS provides said entertainment.

Not to mention I really don't like the simple games smartphones provide.
 
Zodiark1593 said:
Here's a valid point for a mobile gaming device. Why drain the battery on the device I need (my phone) for the sake of entertainment when my 3DS provides said entertainment.

Not to mention I really don't like the simple games smartphones provide.
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This is a very valid view point. However, (a) people are lazy and don't want to carry around more than one device. Nor do they (casual gamers) think that they should need to. and (b) the casual gamer market is such that they have MUCH lower standards of what makes a 'Good' game. So while you and I might not be satisfied with some .99 mini-game like bejewelled, to keep us occupied, quite a lot of the paying population is. And unfortunately those same casual gamers make up a HUGE percentage of the market. And game developers go where the money is, not where the loyalty is. Shame that.
 
I haven't really seen any evidence that mobile sales are even from the same market as handhelds. It seems like most people who play games on their phone wouldn't have even gotten a 3ds or whatnot. Two seperate markets entirely.

I mean, the classification of games aren't the same. Games on your phone are hardly even games. For the most part.

The 3DS is selling better than the DS did.
 
Dumac said:
I haven't really seen any evidence that mobile sales are even from the same market as handhelds. It seems like most people who play games on their phone wouldn't have even gotten a 3ds or whatnot. Two seperate markets entirely.

I mean, the classification of games aren't the same. Games on your phone are hardly even games. For the most part.

The 3DS is selling better than the DS did.
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But you really have no way of knowing if sales wouldn't be even better if not for the mobile market. Or of game developers aren't adjusting their strategies based on the existence of the mobile market.

And considering what is happening in the console space, I think it is pretty clear that casual gamers are prevalent and the majority market share holder of the gamer market these days. Is it a 1 to 1 relationship? No. but clearly there is a pretty significant impact.
 
The casual gaming population has grown exponentially in just the past 10 years. While I may not be one of them myself, my wife and children certainly are. What i have noticed in my own family is that my 7 yr old is content with app games for about 30 minutes, but will stay on his 3DS for hours if I don't keep a handle on it. My wife is just the same.

I download apps of the day all the time for my family, and haven't seen an app game yet that is in the same realm as any other game platform. I can see killing 5 minutes in line at the grocery store on an app game, but not much else.

I sure hope handhelds stay around permanently, or smart phone games become much more robust. In the meantime, I guess I will be the dork toting this around. That's about as portable as my gaming will get anytime soon.
 
PC Surgeon said:
Nintendo claims the iPhone killed the handheld game console



Rest of the story in the link. The thing is people (myself included) don't want to carry an extra device for gaming if my phone serves that purpose well and cheaper by hundreds of dollars ($40-$60 games? pfft!). IMO, Nintendo should get onboard and provide their games to Android and iOS. That will continue to provide cash revenue for their consoles. Your thoughts?
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Name one game on iphone that is actually good. I'll wait, and this has to be a production level game not some indie game. Ideally you won't find anything close to 3ds or Vita levels so ofc you won't spend $40-$60 per game. That will change if activision and EA decide to make iphone games. The only killer of these handheld devices is noone really enjoys them as much as a console, the controls are always sloppy, no good 3d control, tiny screen, the list can go on and on.
 
Personally I see the hand held gaming console market as the last pure (or nearly pure) quality gaming market out there. What I mean by "pure" is that for my purchases I actually purchase a fully developed and complete game. A game where I don't have to worry about slapped on dlc that would have been either components/features left out intentinally for the purpose of dlc money grab, or terrible micro transactions, which is how I regard most console and pc games these days.

However, I can see how this market could be corrupted as well. As of this moment the only dominate player is Nintendo, and by Nintendo controling the hand held gaming market it ensures a certain level of game quality.

My current 3ds reminds me of days of my N64 when I could fearlessly buy games and not worry that I was purchasing a terrible game. Not that terrible games they didn't exist for it, but that they were far and few between.

I think that as long as quality games exsis on quality hand helds that the market will continue to exsist. However, should the makers of hand helds faulter from their current track record it could be the end for such devices.
 
I still have yet to see a game on the same level as the original Pokemon Red/Blue on a cell phone (and probably never will). I don't think there are any iOS or Android games that would really capture your attention for longer than 20 minutes. They are extremely boring and repetitive.
 
dagamer34 said:
I still have yet to see a game on the same level as the original Pokemon Red/Blue on a cell phone (and probably never will). I don't think there are any iOS or Android games that would really capture your attention for longer than 20 minutes. They are extremely boring and repetitive.
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Squaresoft has made a couple real rpg's exclusive for phones. I haven't bought one as they're kind of expensive for a cell phone game but they get great reviews.
 
oivoodsio said:
Name one game on iphone that is actually good. I'll wait, and this has to be a production level game not some indie game. Ideally you won't find anything close to 3ds or Vita levels so ofc you won't spend $40-$60 per game. That will change if activision and EA decide to make iphone games. The only killer of these handheld devices is noone really enjoys them as much as a console, the controls are always sloppy, no good 3d control, tiny screen, the list can go on and on.
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Clash of Clans

Basically take Warcraft (strategy rts) and blend with free-form tower defense (sort of) and this is the result. Very fun, very polished, very addictive.

It's freemium, which is somewhat annoying, but can be played fully without spending cash if you don't mind waiting for stuff to upgrade.

Other notable mentions: Solomon's Keep, Solomon's Boneyard, The Settlers, Bastion, Army of Darkness.
 
dagamer34 said:
I still have yet to see a game on the same level as the original Pokemon Red/Blue on a cell phone (and probably never will). I don't think there are any iOS or Android games that would really capture your attention for longer than 20 minutes. They are extremely boring and repetitive.
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Tales Of The Abyss I believe also deserves a mention. 60+ hour rpg on a handheld (nearly twice that with sidequests) was something I wanted for a long time. March will be a nice month when Monster Hunter finally hits.
 
Denithor said:
Clash of Clans

Basically take Warcraft (strategy rts) and blend with free-form tower defense (sort of) and this is the result. Very fun, very polished, very addictive.

It's freemium, which is somewhat annoying, but can be played fully without spending cash if you don't mind waiting for stuff to upgrade.

Other notable mentions: Solomon's Keep, Solomon's Boneyard, The Settlers, Bastion, Army of Darkness.
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Freemium is part of the reason it's not a AAA type game, it's just another shovelware ipad screw-you-out-of-more-money-to-play, even if it's among their better ones.

I think the ipad/iphone should be much better for gaming. Probably we'll see better titles on it eventually.

As an example of how weak gaming on it is, though, today I was bored out of my ever loving mind and there wasn't anything on the ipad I could be bothered to play at all. Virtually all the games do suck ass.
 
I'll be damnd if the ios or android games become the face of handheld gaming. I have tried playing games on my android phone but they don't have the same quality as ones on the 3DS or Vita. Then there's the touch controls. After about fifteen minutes my thumbs start getting sweaty and I'm no longer able control the game. So yeah, that would suck if dedicated gaming handhelds die out.
 
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