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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Handheld consoles may soon go extinct

I love my 3DS XL and my Vita (my Vita has actually been my most played console this summer), so it saddens me that the entire handheld industry is on the verge of death. 

The projected combined sales by handhelds by 2017 (an approximate guess for the end of this handheld generation) is around 100 million, absolutely abyssmal compared to the 210-230 million the original DS and PSP managed to sell combined. 

What worries me the most is more and more major developers are moving their franchises to mobile. Square Enix has for years been shifting their games to mobile, with major franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest getting ports to mobile, along with some other exclusve games. How long until Bravely Default becomes a mobile game as well? Capcom recently ported Monster Hunter 2nd G to iOS, a major blow for the 3DS (especially if Capcom releases future Monster Hunter games there as well). Developers like Rockstar seem to have abandoned handhelds entirely to focus on mobile. 

Now, while there are a good amount of developers out supporting the 3DS, a lot are probably going to abandon it for mobile, as the amount of mobile players is simply staggering and the revenue potential is much greater on mobile. 

Nintendo will almost certainly release a 3DS sequel, the likelihood of seeing a Vita successor is probably much more slim. Whether or not the 3DS successor takes off depends on how many developers remain after this generation, as I fear that most will transition to mobile exclusively. 

I hope it is not the case, but it looks like we may only have one more generation after this one to enjoy dedicated handheld consoles. 



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As long as Nintendo still has Pokemon, handhelds will never go extinct.



shrink, it will certanly.
be extinct, never.
while nintendo keeps not doing games to phones, dedicated handhelds will exist.
sony with ps now, seems to keeping alive in handheld.

in worst case, they can merge handheld and home consoles in a single machine after a few generations.



A move will be made to unify the console/handheld markets before handhelds go extinct...

So handhelds wont go extinct but they wont stay in their current form much longer

PS: 100mil is pretty damn good...



3DS+Vita combined is about the same as GBA up until this point, were handhelds on the verge of extinction in 2003?



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What I am thinking is that handheld (Cause most likely, Nintendo will be left after this for dedicated gaming handheld) will just get a new name which will probably be called something like PED (Portable Entertainment Device) which is basically like a smart-phone without the phone features, kinda like an itouch. Nintendo will be the only one doing this and hopefully, they will sign a thing with google and get android apps on there

Oh and before you people get your anal sticks, I am thinking Sony will go mobile after this with exclusive software/games. I just don't see Nintendo going into mobile with their next handheld at all cause no one knows they exist in the phone world and it will be too much of an uphill battle but maybe the one after but even then, unless QoL means Quality of teLecommunications and Nintendo forgot how to spell in English

Also, tablets aren't the way to go either imo, Apple are the majority share and the Nexus Tablets as well as the Galaxy Tab are up next but they don't sell dat well but they have a yearly itteration. Also not to metion that putting them in your pocket is a pain (since you can't really) and its not always so easy to carry



                  

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Yep, then home consoles. You're only choices for gaming will then be: PC, Phone, or Tablet.



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sundin13 said:
A move will be made to unify the console/handheld markets before handhelds go extinct...

So handhelds wont go extinct but they wont stay in their current form much longer

PS: 100mil is pretty damn good...

Still less than half of what it was last gen, though. And those numbers may be halved again next generation due to developers jumping to mobile as their primary system. 



                                                                                                               You're Gonna Carry That Weight.

Xbox One - PS4 - Wii U - PC

Yeah, sad times are coming. And I'm thinking home consoles won't last more than a couple gens after 8th.



Well they're still doing fairly well in Japan. Not extraordinary, like last generation, but still pretty good. But yeah with the surge of mobile and tablet gaming, handhelds are going to have a hard time competing unless they learn to adapt and evolve.