Forbes: Portable gaming consoles are dying...

[Aurabolt]

Yes, I am biased against Sony despite the fact that I purchased a PSP 2000 and then a PSP Go. Yeah, I am biased against Sony despite the fact that I owned two PS1's and two PS2's. Next time, don't assume before you post things you don't know.[COLOR="red"]

...What are you talking about?

I said you were biased toward Nintendo yes but I never said you were bashing Sony. It never ceases to amaze me people like to quote an entire post I make just to comment on one sentence like it was the only thing I said >.>;

[Ausr]

Aw, the mobile phone gaming market. The same 1000 games, just with different skins on them.

[natureca]

There is a decent amount of developers doing hardcore FPS games for the smartphone market, and if that bluetooth controller for your smartphone takes off I'd see more people looking towards that.

[Bigbazz]

I always go Nintendo with portable, the side scrolling mario games are great (new super mario bro's on the DS for example) and the Pokemon games give a really good RPG experience with plenty of playtime and depth, they are top quality games. It has been a long time since I bought a portable console but the chances are If I did it would be Nintendo. I own a PS3 and only ever bought 1 game for it that really interested me (Gran Turismo 5). It just so happens the other games I want are available on the PC, Sony titles have not really grabbed me to get my interest in their new portable.

I still think it will do well though, but I also still think it will do worse than Nintendos cheaper (but with great games) option.

[Caiada]

Aw, the mobile phone gaming market. The same 1000 games, just with different skins on them.

You mean, just like console and PC gaming in their respective infancies?

[Yohassakura]

Recently I've heard 3 things:
PC Gaming is dying
Console Gaming is dying
Portable / handheld Gaming is dying

None of these are true.

I'd guess that people are waiting for better games to come out for the PSV, so they can grab it at a slightly lower price (perhaps a package deal or just a slight price cut) and actually get to use it.

From this list: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/...p-and-details/

I know that I'd definitely be waiting until more / better games are released before purchasing. You'd also want to spend a couple of $ on some accessories too so, it's going to at least set you back $250 for the wifi version, $50~ a couple of accessories (not including the memory cards) & $50-100 for 2-3 games.

[Gorilla Eyes]

I really love the idea of portable gaming, but I don't like having such a small screen.

[Sayier]

Fortunately Nintendo is willing to take less financial gain or even a loss in order to sell their products because they have a long standing history of quality and 3rd party developer support.

Sorry I made it this far and just broke out laughing. I don't mean to be a hater, I loved my N64, GBA, and Gamecube, but really you think given the last 7-8 years that they still have decent quality and 3rd party support? First, I would say the 5+ re-releases of the DS show some money grubbing right there ("hey lets put out a new handheld that is only minorly different from the previous ones and charge them $200 for it"). For my Wii I have Wii Sports, LoZ:TP, and SSBB and honestly after that there are only another dozen or so games that I would consider playable let alone good. I get that they are aiming for a different demographic now then what they were targeting with their earlier consoles but I mean really, they essentially fully turned their back on the typical gamer. Finally, good luck with the third party support when all your consoles have these random gimmicks (touch controls, motion controls, pretty much derpy controllers since the SNES, 3D) that just makes it so much harder for 3rd party developers to really work with the platform. Why make something for the Wii for instance when you likely won't be able to port it over to any other system when you could make a game for the Xbox, PS3, and PC and only have to make minor changes to the controls.

[SwissyChief]

I used to swear only by my PSP when it came out. That was the last Portable gaming console I ever got. After that my laptop took care of everything I needed on the go. I got an iPad 2 recently and now I'm hooked to this device. It does pretty much everything except play WoW! I think the future of portable gaming is in tablets and cellphones. I really don't see Nintendo or Sony making too many more portable consoles after this generation.

I predict one more Nintendo portable and the Vita being Sony's last. I'm not trolling... It's just my opinion/prediction based on the current state of things.

[Shinryu]

Obviously whoever wrote that article failed to research the fact the PSP family has never been that successful and the Vita (in addition to being overpriced like all PSP consoles before it) had even more dumb restrictions on it, such as needing to buy yet another new form of proprietary memory just to use it...that's the sorta nickel and dimeing that turns off people.

I do think portable gaming consoles aren't dying per say, but they are transitioning into a new market; whereas now we think of it as stuff like the DS, it isn't that much longer till it becomes all about casual, mass market stuff. Like the iPhone/Pod Touch: those to me are the new market, and are overtaking Nintendo. Pretty much any smartphone these days qualifies as well, people want convenience these days of multitasking devices, not dedicated systems like the DS with their retarded friendcodes and restrictions on what files you can even play for something like music or videos. Besides, the portable gaming market has largely been a one-sided affair for most of its history anyways, you have the main powerhouse ones like your Gameboys put out by Nintendo, filtered by the cheap diode crap you see like with cheap Tiger electronic toys and tamagotchi/virtual pets and attempts by rivals to score a share that ultimately die off, like the Sega GameGear and Sony PSP.

For what it's worth, I do own a DSi and PSP2000 as well; they almost never get turned on these days considering I can just lug around my iPod Touch for cheap thrills on short trips instead of having to lug a somewhat bulky system around. Sure, if I'm taking a longass road trip or flight they'll come along and get used, but it's just very inconvenient for anything shorter nowdays, unlike the past where cellphones just did calls and you needed to take something else along if you wanted to be entertained. Nintendo is also not going to die off and stop making consoles and become solely a publisher either, at least not for the forseeable future; if they're still the only traditional player in the handheld market and they actually put forth tech effort into their future home consoles instead of wrongly assuming everyone will settle for less graphical capability, they'll avoid being solely a publisher for a long time. And even if they go the way of the publisher one day, they're gonna become one of the richest damn publishers out there with their massive library of first party hits.

[Alcomo]

Ill never understand this BS. Not everyone wants or cares about highly overpriced smartphones or tablets. Even if we did why would we go out and blow $600-700 for one just for gaming when we could get better quality games, better graphics, better controls and better experiences with a handheld gaming device that is a quarter of the cost? I don't see Apple adding dual sticks, action buttons or shoulder buttons to their devices anytime soon and touch gaming is just a boring gimmick. If I wanted to play the bland boring array of Java style games I would boot up my computer, simple as that.

These tablets and smartphones have had zero effect on the handheld gaming market and it is very apparent in the sales of the 3DS. It is on track to being the best selling video game system ever created.

Obviously whoever wrote that article failed to research the fact the PSP family has never been that successful and the Vita (in addition to being overpriced like all PSP consoles before it) had even more dumb restrictions on it, such as needing to buy yet another new form of proprietary memory just to use it...that's the sorta nickel and dimeing that turns off people.

Why do you people seem to think that the PSP wasn't successful. Its sold over 80 million units worldwide and is still selling strong. If 80 million is unsuccessful then I take it nearly every console previous to is were also unsuccessful? Also the 'overpriced' comment made me laugh. Its more powerful then most smartphones yet costs less then half the price.... Its really starting to sound like your just out to bash something without any actual facts lol. And if it hadn't been for the numerous idiots pirating games on the PSP then we wouldn't have a new form of memory, if you want to blame anyone blame those tools, not the company trying to protect itself. Also $20 for this new memory is nothing. Everyone has $20 to throw around.

[Ausr]

You mean, just like console and PC gaming in their respective infancies?

I'd love to see where you find a carbon copy of a game made endless times on the same platform, I really would.

5$ says he gives me Final Fantasy.

[Caiada]

I'd love to see where you find a carbon copy of a game made endless times on the same platform, I really would.

5$ says he gives me Final Fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong#Impact_and_legacy

They were ridiculously common in the early days of the Atari. The NES (and the SNES to a lesser extent) were filled with legions of crappy platformer ripoffs.

When a market's unproven, what do people do? Steal other people's ideas to break even.

[Ferocity]

What I'd also add, smartphones have horrible compatibility what concerns gaming. Of course all models will be able to launch most "popular" games, which I wouldn't even call games per se, but anything else less or more interesting has a lot of compatibility issues. With tons of models and several smartphone companies, with new models coming out monthly, it is irrational to buy/use them as gaming platforms, they were never meant to be as such as well.

On other hand, DS, PSP, etc. - you don't choose game according to list of: what this month's model of same DS can launch. For game developers this fact also makes it more convenient to produce games not for smartphones at marginal prices before "next month's model" will make them unplayable, but rather for more stable gaming systems.

Portable gaming consoles will only be in some danger of "dying" when there will be monopoly on smartphones and consistence in their hardware/software changes.

[Gaexion Ramza Beoulve]

Portable consoles dying? Maybe they can share a coffin with wow since they are both dying and also are very low on income.

I heard printed media and mainstream magazines are dying...

[Jon]

I've never really understood the appeal of portable gaming consoles.

If I'm not at home, I have better things to do than game. I'd rather read a good book if I'm traveling, or whatever.

And if I'm at home and I want to play... why'd I want to use a handheld console?

[Auralian]

Portable Gaming systems and PC are both dying. They are being replaced by SmartPhones, Tablets and all in one entertainment Consoles. The Tech is just around the corner and just like the Eight Track player, BetaMax, Cassette and CD's time is replacing them with small more mobile and versatile technology. I would expect everything to be cloud based in no time where you do not actually own a physical copy.

[Jit]

Portable Gaming systems and PC are both dying. They are being replaced by SmartPhones, Tablets and all in one entertainment Consoles. The Tech is just around the corner and just like the Eight Track player, BetaMax, Cassette and CD's time is replacing them with small more mobile and versatile technology. I would expect everything to be cloud based in no time where you do not actually own a physical copy.

I don't want to live in a world where pc and portable Gaming systems are replace by a bunch of dime a dozen copies of flash games.

[TWBrien]

Cellphone technology is advancing so fast that it wont even be worth to have a portable gaming system anymore. New Iphones and Galaxy phones can play games that are PS2/near PS2 graphics quality, in 3-4 years they'll be just as good as a current xbox 360's.



This ^^^

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony and Nintendo are already building/getting the blueprints together for a all-in-one cellphone/gaming handheld that will be efficient.

Sony's already tried this. The Xperia Play was released last year and by all accounts bombed horrendously. Android phone with slide out crosspad and PS buttons that could emulate PS1 level graphics. Good idea but as with all handhelds Sony screwed up again with really lackluster support in the ol' ROM dept. /shrug

[Auralian]

Who said it will be Flash 0.o You still thinking along the lines of old tech, look into the history of gaming and how the programming languages though out the years have changed as hardware developed. Do you think your going to have flash crap when mobiles are all running 4+ cores? X86 is reaching the end, there is much more to look forward to.