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Handheld Gaming in 2011
The handheld gaming space is changing...
For avid gamers looking to take to playing on the road, the solution has usually been simple. Nintendo has dominated the handheld space since the debut of the Game Boy back in 1989. Since then contenders have come and gone, with few handheld systems being able to compete with the big N in this challenging space.
A view of the handheld market today is a bit convoluted. More than 20 years have passed since G-Day (Game Boy Day...god I’m getting old) and taking your games, movies, music, basically your entire digital life on the road with you is the way of the future. Sony has released the PSP, the pocket sized equivalent of their wildly successful PlayStation, and we of course are living in the post-iPhone era. Our modern handheld devices are more powerful than office-floor-spanning supercomputers were 10 years ago.
All of that nano-transistor, hyper-advanced silicon of course has stirred up the handheld gaming scene quite a bit. The Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS are the current talk of the town. The former has spent more than 5 years at the apex of the handheld market, while the latter recently debuted to stellar sales this past March. The Nintendo 3DS uses a clamshell design (similar to the DS) with 2 screens, one being a touchscreen, and the other being a true 3D display that doesn’t require stupid glasses to create the illusion of depth. I’m definitely not on the bandwagon when it comes to 3D displays, but in this context the effect is pretty effective and easy to toggle on and off with the flip of a switch. The graphics on the 3DS are the most impressive on a handheld yet, making the system a worthy successor to the DS in almost every regard. The biggest problem with the 3DS is the lackluster battery performance. You’ll get a paltry 3-5 hours out of your 3DS depending on your screen brightness and WIFI usage, and it doesn’t feature any easy way to swap batteries out to prolong the experience. That’s a bummer if you’re flying internationally or perhaps planning to game while on safari. The game lineup thus far has been really lackluster as well, but hopefully the release scene will heat up when Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes out this June.
Say you don’t care for Mario and his eclectic cohorts, or maybe you purchased a Virtual Boy and vowed to never give your hard earned money to Nintendo ever again. There are options available to you. Sony’s PSP comes in a variety of colors and flavors, and sports some great looking graphics, WIFI connectivity, and a host of software and games that you can buy in-store, or as downloads through their online PSN service. The PSP has never quite reached the level of mainstream appeal Nintendo’s handhelds have, but there’s a lot to like here. Mainly you get to play portable versions of some of Sony’s best exclusive titles like: God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Final Fantasy Dissidia, Socom Fireteam Bravo, and many more.
I own a PSP, I love it, but there is reason to give pause to buying one currently. The cryptically named: Next Generation Portable was recently shown during a top secret meeting in Tokyo. This handheld is the follow up to Sony’s PSP, and the bullet points are more than impressive. Dual analog sticks, a 5 inch OLED touchscreen, 3G for wireless games and downloads, a touch pad on the back of the unit, a front camera, a rear camera, stereo speakers, microphone, Sixaxis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), three-axis electronic compass, built-in GPS...phew. You’re probably asking the same question I was...”how the crud am I going to pay for this thing without wiping out my kid’s college fund?” Well early reports are promising and point to multiple price points for different versions of the hardware (less storage, more storage, no 3G, etc). So odds are you’ll be able to own the NGP even if you don’t have the cash to buy the sexiest model. My prediction is a scaled back NGP will run around $300.00, with the top end, 3G compatible unit priced at $400.00. With big developers like Activision promising Call of Duty mutliplayer matches over 3G with HD graphics and all the trimmings, I’m frothing at the mouth. Time to sell more of my Grandmother’s jewelry!
Of course the handheld X-factor that I haven’t discussed yet is the advent of cellphone games that don’t suck. The iPhone and the App Store have revolutionized the handheld game scene, and quite honestly Apple has created a world of hurt for Nintendo and Sony. With an iPhone, you can download and play games that are similar (occasionally direct ports) to titles that are priced 5 times as expensive for PSP and DS. They’ve changed the expectation from buyers as to how much a handheld game is worth, and sales of portable gaming handhelds have suffered as a result. When the dust settles, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. I’m not sure that an iPhone could ever fully deliver a console-level gaming experience on the go (controls being one of the main issues) so I think the market for the NGP and 3DS will exist for some time to come. But then we have the people who straddle the line. The folks who want to have everything on one device who don’t necessarily care if they’re playing Mario, Zelda, or Metal Gear while away from the couch. I unfortunately think those people are the majority, and my hope is that the minority speaks with their dollars and keeps dedicated gaming portables alive for years to come.
A view of the handheld market today is a bit convoluted. More than 20 years have passed since G-Day (Game Boy Day...god I’m getting old) and taking your games, movies, music, basically your entire digital life on the road with you is the way of the future. Sony has released the PSP, the pocket sized equivalent of their wildly successful PlayStation, and we of course are living in the post-iPhone era. Our modern handheld devices are more powerful than office-floor-spanning supercomputers were 10 years ago.
All of that nano-transistor, hyper-advanced silicon of course has stirred up the handheld gaming scene quite a bit. The Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS are the current talk of the town. The former has spent more than 5 years at the apex of the handheld market, while the latter recently debuted to stellar sales this past March. The Nintendo 3DS uses a clamshell design (similar to the DS) with 2 screens, one being a touchscreen, and the other being a true 3D display that doesn’t require stupid glasses to create the illusion of depth. I’m definitely not on the bandwagon when it comes to 3D displays, but in this context the effect is pretty effective and easy to toggle on and off with the flip of a switch. The graphics on the 3DS are the most impressive on a handheld yet, making the system a worthy successor to the DS in almost every regard. The biggest problem with the 3DS is the lackluster battery performance. You’ll get a paltry 3-5 hours out of your 3DS depending on your screen brightness and WIFI usage, and it doesn’t feature any easy way to swap batteries out to prolong the experience. That’s a bummer if you’re flying internationally or perhaps planning to game while on safari. The game lineup thus far has been really lackluster as well, but hopefully the release scene will heat up when Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes out this June.
Say you don’t care for Mario and his eclectic cohorts, or maybe you purchased a Virtual Boy and vowed to never give your hard earned money to Nintendo ever again. There are options available to you. Sony’s PSP comes in a variety of colors and flavors, and sports some great looking graphics, WIFI connectivity, and a host of software and games that you can buy in-store, or as downloads through their online PSN service. The PSP has never quite reached the level of mainstream appeal Nintendo’s handhelds have, but there’s a lot to like here. Mainly you get to play portable versions of some of Sony’s best exclusive titles like: God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Final Fantasy Dissidia, Socom Fireteam Bravo, and many more.
I own a PSP, I love it, but there is reason to give pause to buying one currently. The cryptically named: Next Generation Portable was recently shown during a top secret meeting in Tokyo. This handheld is the follow up to Sony’s PSP, and the bullet points are more than impressive. Dual analog sticks, a 5 inch OLED touchscreen, 3G for wireless games and downloads, a touch pad on the back of the unit, a front camera, a rear camera, stereo speakers, microphone, Sixaxis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), three-axis electronic compass, built-in GPS...phew. You’re probably asking the same question I was...”how the crud am I going to pay for this thing without wiping out my kid’s college fund?” Well early reports are promising and point to multiple price points for different versions of the hardware (less storage, more storage, no 3G, etc). So odds are you’ll be able to own the NGP even if you don’t have the cash to buy the sexiest model. My prediction is a scaled back NGP will run around $300.00, with the top end, 3G compatible unit priced at $400.00. With big developers like Activision promising Call of Duty mutliplayer matches over 3G with HD graphics and all the trimmings, I’m frothing at the mouth. Time to sell more of my Grandmother’s jewelry!
Of course the handheld X-factor that I haven’t discussed yet is the advent of cellphone games that don’t suck. The iPhone and the App Store have revolutionized the handheld game scene, and quite honestly Apple has created a world of hurt for Nintendo and Sony. With an iPhone, you can download and play games that are similar (occasionally direct ports) to titles that are priced 5 times as expensive for PSP and DS. They’ve changed the expectation from buyers as to how much a handheld game is worth, and sales of portable gaming handhelds have suffered as a result. When the dust settles, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. I’m not sure that an iPhone could ever fully deliver a console-level gaming experience on the go (controls being one of the main issues) so I think the market for the NGP and 3DS will exist for some time to come. But then we have the people who straddle the line. The folks who want to have everything on one device who don’t necessarily care if they’re playing Mario, Zelda, or Metal Gear while away from the couch. I unfortunately think those people are the majority, and my hope is that the minority speaks with their dollars and keeps dedicated gaming portables alive for years to come.
Some of the Handheld Contenders
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