Friday Roundtable: Is Traditional Handheld Gaming Doomed ...

Posted by Declan Burrowes on Friday, February 24, 2012 ? 5 Comments?

Is It Time We Replaced the Batteries?

Can the direct descendants of the Game Boy survive in this new decade? It?s a valid question: since the rise of the iPhone and its competitors, smartphone gaming has grown from strength to strength, and at a remarkable pace. Once the exclusive item of the technophilic gearhead, today the smartphone is approaching ubiquity. With a few slides and flicks, ?we can call our friends, send emails, check the weather, take pictures, manage our back accounts, listen to music, watch films and even play games, all on a single pocket-sized mobile device. Who in their right mind, then, would bother to fork out another two hundred notes for a dedicated gaming platform that only does one or a few of these things?

How long can Mario and friends prop up the handheld sub-industry? As smartphones increasingly integrate into gaming culture with thousands of cheap, good-quality games in tow, will gamers look away from the 3DS and Vita to their mobiles instead?

In this week?s Friday Roundtable, read the fine words of Apple/Microsoft correspondent Tom Rippon; Sony correspondent Rexly Penaflorida II; Editor-in-Chief and Nintendo expert Martin Watts; and Sony/Microsoft correspondent Sebastian Force. As always, we welcome your comments and discussions in the appropriate section below.?

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Is this the future of the handheld market?

Tom:

As somebody who plays iOS games at an almost religious level, I think that ?classic? handheld consoles, for lack of a better term, will only die out or become less valuable if people consciously let them.

Sure, you could argue that by buying iPhones and downloading games like Infinity Blade, you?re putting the 3DS out of business, but that?s just not realistic. iOS devices, Android phones, and everything in between, are not attempts at monopolising the games industry. Far from it. We discussed in a past Friday Roundtable whether we thought Apple are putting other games companies in danger and the consensus was that?they?re not, because people don?t want them to, and Nintendo and Sony fans are continuing to invest in their products instead of ditching them for sole dedication to mobile gaming.

Need I remind you of the Nintendo DS?s exceptional sales??Despite doing undeniably well throughout its lifespan, in all its incarnations, it still hasn?t run Sony?s handheld consoles out of business, and with good reason. Handheld gaming will continue to be a diverse platform, with every company bringing something new to the table. It will change slowly, maybe quickly in some sections, and its popularity may rise and fall as other ways to play enter and perhaps leave the market. But Sony, Nintendo, and even Microsoft (perhaps in the future), will always have the opportunity to create successful and popular handheld gaming platforms, as long as they don?t fear competition too much.

Can both the traditional handheld and the gaming-enabled smartphone coexist?

Rexly:

I agree with Tom, but I?m going to try explain it in a different way. While I don?t call myself an avid iOS gamer, there are about twelve or thirteen games on my iPhone, most of which I only play when I?m either a) bored of playing my console games or b) somewhere where I am unable to play console titles. Now if I had a Vita or a 3DS, I would be playing games on those instead of playing on my phone. I?m not hating on mobile games at all. I just have more fun playing games on a device that specifically handles games more than playing on my phone that holds a lot of other functions other than gaming.

I don?t see the mobile platform monopolizing the portable gaming industry any time soon. If anything, it just expands the already immense market of games-on-the-go. Like Tom said, Sony and Nintendo (and maybe even Microsoft) can still have a firm stake in the ground for portable gaming. As long as I still see people waiting in line with their 3DS, Vitas or iPhones, I believe that portable gaming will continue to thrive for a long time.

Martin:

Much like Rexly said, I can see there being a market for dedicated handheld systems for some time to come ? there?s no denying that Nintendo has its fans, and that the PSP is currently a very viable system in Japan.

What this comes down to for me is affordability. Many times, I?ve heard the analogy ?I?d rather pay ?35 for one great game than have 40+ low-quality games?. This just doesn?t add up. Firstly, not all iOS games are marked up at the ?0.69/$0.99 price point (Final Fantasy III will currently set you back ?11.99 for iPad in the UK). While I agree that there is a ton of low quality clones on the App store, many of the ?premium? games are as good as, if not better than, their dedicated handheld system equivalents. Games like Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, ShadowGun and Infinity Blade really set the standard, and from a price point of view, they?re much greater value for money than most 3DS/Vita games. To get my point across, would you rather pay ?35 for Rayman 3DS (a port of Rayman 2) or pay around the ?15 mark for Infinity Blade II, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation and 9mm?

Of course, the install base for Apple devices is far higher than that of either the 3DS or Vita, so it?s easy to see why App developers can opt for such a low price point.

The App Store has no doubt made gaming more accessible to a wider demographic, and yes, I imagine it is mostly used for casual gaming, but there?s no denying the increasing strength of hardcore gaming on these devices. Gameloft rolling in money is a prime example of that.

Nevertheless, I see this as growing with the market, not taking away from it.

Infinity Blade is an example of a premium-quality mobile game.

Sebastian:

I feel I have put myself in a unique position. I recently gave up my iPhone for an Android phone (because I needed the space allowed by Android) and the area that I?ve missed most is the games. I have a 3DS, and as much as I am currently infatuated with?Super Mario 3D Land,?I just miss the diversity of iPhone games. The aforementioned?Infinity Blade?was extremely addictive, and compared to handhelds, very cheap for what it was offering. There are thousands of fantastic iPhone games, ranging from the simple to very deep and engaging ones. To dismiss the iPhone market is like dismissing Steam from PC gaming.

One thing that really, really bothers me about handhelds is game companies? pricing structure. Had the 3DS released for the lower price point at launch (and with more launch titles), it would have been embraced more by gamers, and Nintendo wouldn?t have had to experience the fiasco that was the ?Ambassador?s Club.?

But Sony is where things are taken to a ridiculous level: A customer came up to me at my workplace and asked for a Vita memory card. I had the extreme displeasure of informing him that it really didn?t make sense to buy a 4 GB card because he would run out of space extremely quickly. Eventually, he walked out with a 32 GB memory card for $100. Making people pay for a $100 proprietary memory card when SD storage is cheap and widely available is absurdly evil. Personally, I refuse to buy a Vita until the memory prices come down, because I think it is ridiculous and unnecessary to have to spend that kind of money. They managed to pull this on consumers with the PSP ? I didn?t stand for it then, and I?m not standing for it now.

The Vita: would we be foolish to call it Sony's last exclusively video-game focused handheld device?

But more importantly than that, this isn?t something that Apple tries to pull. Their devices are slightly more expensive, yes, but they aren?t tricking people by telling them that the device is cheaper, only to force their customers to use proprietary hardware for exorbitant amounts of money. Additionally, while Apple is known for their bizarre rules about what is allowed on the App store, it usually only revolves around things of a sexual nature. Beyond that, it?s really left up to the developers what they want to make. From a developer?s standpoint, this has to be immensely liberating. From a consumer?s standpoint, that means they have access to a lot of relatively cheap, fantastic games. Everyone is happy. It really is an entirely different arena to the 3DS and Vita market.

While I?ve made my choice with my Android phone and my 3DS, it?s still easy to see why iPhone users are happy with their handheld console of choice.

Tom:

Seb has taken the words right out of my mouth. I couldn?t agree more about Nintendo?s 3DS launch blunder. The fact that they didn?t have a lot of launch titles, as well as their subsequent price drop in an attempt to gain favour with their fans, looks to me like they realised they screwed up and were kind of scared by that.

Is the iPad a viable, long-term gaming platform, or is it the expensive plaything of a very lucky few?

But at the same time, it?s always been that way. I remember buying the original DS when it first came out, and the only game I wanted to buy with it was The Legend of Zelda. I was really surprised by the lack of launch titles for the original system, but over time, I?ve come to accept that all consoles run that way.

That?s why Apple has the edge with their handheld gaming. They have so many developers, and so few restrictions, that there is no chance that somebody will buy an iPhone and find that there aren?t any games that appeal to them ? I spent an extra ?50 on games after shelling out ?500 for my iPad. It?s crazy, but at the same time, it felt good to get so many titles in one burst. There?s little to get bored of, and that?s why iOS devices are triumphing in the handheld market of late. But as I?ve said, there?s still room for Nintendo and Sony. They all provide such varied experiences for players, and with such a wide range of exclusives on each system, all can thrive in the same market.

Rexly:

Tom raises a great point about games on the App Store. The fact that anyone can find a game that appeals to them because of the huge diversity of titles is a fantastic thing for the industry and gamers; the best part is that some of these games are actually free. I think my running total for purchased games on my iPhone is about $50, but that is a small amount compared to the number of free games that I own and play.

Like I said before, Nintendo and Sony can still thrive in this market, and Tom mentioned exclusives for each brand, which I completely forgot about. These titles are sure to attract fans. However, I do think peripherals are a big issue and a problematic sticking point for traditional handhelds. Seb mentioned the pricing of the Vita memory, and that?s pretty serious.?The prices are ridiculous and if things don?t change, Sony might have to rethink their sales strategy if they want to compete with a new generation of smartphones in the long-term.

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Share Your Thoughts:?We?ve shared our thoughts and now it?s your turn. Is traditional handheld gaming doomed? Will the huge uptake of smartphones and the runaway success of the App Store and its counterparts be the killing blow to Sony and Nintendo?s duopolised market?

Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2012/02/24/friday-roundtable-is-traditional-handheld-gaming-doomed/

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