Are dedicated handheld video game consoles a thing of the past?

Are dedicated handheld video game consoles a thing of the past?

Doesn't seem too likely we'll get a non-nintendo portable video game machine that doesn't make phone calls any time soon.

Are dedicated handheld video game consoles a thing of the past?
Definitively not IF they are capable of running stuff like emulators and web/file browsers, among the major features
Otherwise i agree with you, the idea of carrying a device that does only games is very outdated by now.

As long as Japan loves portable gaming, not that likely.

But I can see Sony dropping from that race.

Yes.

Yes.

They love phone and tablet games WAY more.

Conclusion: you're all fucked.

With the Nintendo Switch, I think the days of handheld-only game machine are over.

I personally still love them but with nintendo's reveal of the switch, Sony probably dropping out of the race and more people using phones tablets I can safely say they are basically dead after sun/moon comes out.

I would not mind if phone/tablet games weren't fucking shit flooded with microtransactions but sadly that seems to be future for portable gaming.

Mobile gaming has taken over. The way they are now, phones are emulation machines on steroids. With better actual support from game companies, there would be no reasonable competition.
And this is, of course, a secondary function to it being a communication, information, and multimedia device.

PSP Neo with microSD when?

Smartphones happened, people are carrying 700 euro flagship phones. Even kids have phones. I also see a decline in laptops when I look around at my commute.
The Gameboy days will never return.

Posted from my phone ha the irony it cuts.

I have no idea how people see smartphones as a viable alternative to laptops.
Those fucking OSs are so goddamn restrictive, even more so than jewsoft, and not to mention how hard it is to do productive work on those things.

Yeah handhelds will become a small niché, profitable but don't expect more than 50 million sales. Something like the Vita: lots of Japanese support. Lots of weeb games- cross ports from the PS4.

Are there any Western developed games coming out on the Vita/3DS these days?

...

It's simple. We exile the normalfags until all that remains are neckbeards who understand the purpose of specialized tools instead of just have everything be a swiss army knife

Indieshit, but that's about it.

That's the secret to personal computing – only a tiny fraction of a small percent of the population actually uses computers to do real work, to create or make things.

The vast majority only uses computers to consume, whether that's media, communication or simple utility. To that end, you really only need a screen and rudimentary interface, which smartphones accomplish more readily than a full-size keyboard machine.

Yes user I am a European with a mobile phone. There are hundreds of millions of us. 500 million? IDK.

Fuck, I hope not. Portables are comfy as shit, and tends to avoid most of the AAA cancer since the weaker hardware limits production value and smaller audiences limits profit potential. Devs are, to a degree, much more free to experiment and try new things - or focus on gameplay over spectacle.

Also, because the "portable" experience is limited by time available when on the go, and battery life, the games themselves tend to be shorter and more concise - meaning they're less likely to be over-developed "experiences", and more something you can just jump into for a few minutes to complete a level or play a few rounds.

If it has some decent games, I'll be happy with it.

But then, I can't really see myself ever plugging it into the base. I'll just get a cheap WiiU in a few months for it's handful of exclusives, toss CFW on it, load it up with emulators, and leave that plugged into the TV - while using the Switch exclusively as a portable console. They just need some 3rd party to come along and re-do those godawful controller attachments.

I hope not. Handhelds and consoles have always offered two different types of games, each with their own pros and cons. It's hard to describe, but you know what I mean. Sometimes I feel like playing a console type of game and sometimes I want to play a handheld type of game. If you merge them, you lose both and gain nothing.

Western games were never big part of handheld gaming. Hopefully they will never will.

Handhelds aren't becoming niche because of lack of western games something they didn't have to begin with. Also put your shitty western games up your ass.

Now you understand Holla Forums's lament.
year of the Linux desktop never ever

My implication is that you are trash that doesn't belong here. Get the message now?

Handheld titles are just a way to excuse making non-AAA budget games.

and?

That is it. It gives people an excuse to get away from this.

10 years ago I had this discussion with one of my engineering professors about smartphones vs. dedicated computing.
his position was that smartphones are the future for normal people and mine was monolithic desktops with lots of horsepower are better.

he talked about the app centeric world, and how you have to look at it from other people's perspective.
from a personal user perspective smartphones are easier and cheaper. they don't need to have desktops/laptops or landline phone/internet connections.
they just need a smartphone with a data plan to pay bills in the "bank app", order things from "shop app", read news from "news app", read emails from "email app", etc.
from an office worker's perspective, if all they do is email and MS Office then a tablet with a detachable keyboard will do.
they don't access to onboard storage for file manipulation when there's cloud based storage or cloud office suites.
and if they are heavy duty users; CAD, media, programming; with simple workflows they could use them as thin clients.
all of the above are possible because of streamlined workflows. you create a chain of apps, each does one thing well, to make use easier.

all the while i was focused on on the gigahertz, gigabytes, bandwidth, etc. because i wanted to hoard chinese cartoons.
but having entered the workforce i see his position was more predictive that mine. they only things that keeps me tethered is my workflow.
if all i did was java i could get away with a tablet, assuming there are tablet IDEs with remote compiler options that i like to use.
but i do embedded/network programming so i have to keep multiple files and terminal open for development, debugging.
not to mention the hardware that i have to connect to my dev machine through serial, i2c, gpib, or whatever else.

I remember slacktivision having a brief dalliance with the Vita at the beginning with that call of duty game. And then there's EA with their sports games, oh and Jewbisoft. These days they tend not to bother though.

Oh because I'm European and have a phone? Anyway I'll pile your opinion on all the other opinions IDGAF about.

No they're becoming niche because kids don't grow up with handhelds anymore.

Contrary to Holla Forums's narrative Sony did support the Vita in the beginning. An expensive powerful handheld is just not what the Western market is looking for.

It also was killed because of it's stupid memory card gimmick

because the $78 32gb memory cards are totally supporting,
or the severe lack of wester games outside of release titles

Not after the Vita flopped. Nintendo is probably all you'll be getting non-phone portable game deviced from anytime soon.

Handheld Western games don't really exist, but Sony did try with Uncharted.

Nintendo Switch will out Jew the Vita so I'm excited to see how hard it'll flop. Will people pay 300 dollars for Pokémon for an ugly tablet?

You're full of shit, anyone who was there at the Vita's beginning could tell you Sony barely tried, especially at the beginning. The Vita's 'big" first year games like Resistance, Call of Duty and Assassins Creed were literal garbage, even considering how shitty those franchises are in good entries. I remember in the months before Gravity Rush, there was a meme in /vg/ where every thread someone would post "that feel when no gr". At the Vita's first holiday people were legitimately exited for crap like Ragnarok Odyssey. The Vita's game library sucked until about 2 or 3 years in. Even then it sure as hell isn't Sony's games that fill the Vita's best games. Sony also turbo-jewed their customers with $100 32GB memory cards.

Despite all that, I like what the Vita has become. But it certainly wasn't Sony that wanted the Vita to become a weeb machine.

It's funny how Sony made all the same mistakes with the PSP, except there was no Monster Hunter to save the Vita. I sometimes wonder how much bigger the Vita would have gotten in Japan if Capcom hadn't been so desperate to reuse PSP assets in all future MH games.

The best part is, Sony fucked their customers so hard trying to prevent piracy, only for the Vita to get cracked wide-open. Monster Hunter would have been great on Vita, I could never get into Monster Hunter on 3DS because its way to hard to control due to the lack of the second analog stick.

The ridiculous anti-piracy measures succeeded as long as they needed to. With the PSP, the west never bought a single game because of how fast it was cracked, but despite the fact that they could pirate whatever they wanted, the Japanese still supported the system by buying the games worth paying for. Sony bought themselves a few years for the Vita to try to gain traction in the west, but after the lack of dudebro games prevented that, there was no reason to pretend the Vita wouldn't be a system that caters to Japan anymore. The only reason the Vita isn't entering a PSP style golden age of games right now is probably because devs know it's Sony's last handheld, and there's no telling when Sony will pull the plug on support for it.

In the west they pretty much have pulled support. You can't actually buy a new PS Vita in NA anymore

I can only half blame Sony for that. From day one, retailers never stocked anything more than three or four shitty Vita games and maybe one system. I had to order my Vita online because no retailers in my area stocked any Vitas just six months after release, and I live in a big city. There was no reason for them not to carry it at that time, and nobody was doing it. As bad as Sony fucked up the marketing, the retailers also sabotaged Sony by never stocking the system or any decent games.

Every month i keep trying to get into it and i just hate the way the camera controlls
especially using counter stance against anything that dashes

nice trips
I wouldn't say we are fucked because you can easily find more stuff to play on phone than on any single console.

Only problem are controls but I believe Nintendo will popularize some kind of compact controllers for tablet/phones. They are already here, now they will be even more popular.


It is hard to not blame Sony for having bad lineup of games for their console. Vita has a lot of good games but 80% of it will only attract weebs, and other 20% are ports.
They could stack up all games but it wouldn't help it because people wouldn't buy it anyway.

Has anyone actually done this? It seems like it would be a bitch to use.

Xperia Play 2 NEVER EVER

It's untapped, but I think there's still a market out there for a decent dedicated handheld game system which is pretty much exclusively an emulation machine. I've turned a lot of people I know on to the PSP with the CFW and emulators. People that wouldn't normally play handhelds, and who's phones are more than capable of doing the same thing. It just feels better on a dedicated game console.. and the PSP is still small, light, and convenient enough to carry around for quick access to nostalgia while you're taking a poop.

It would just have to be far more integrated and user-friendly, with a slick UI, no real options aside from save & load state and maybe some display tweaks to avoid scaring idiots off, and perhaps an iTunes (do people still use that) like store-front to get games from.

I think it could work, if only because most mobile users have no clue what an emulator is or does… so there's plenty of room in the market for a machine to come along dedicated to playing those games you played as a kid.