Just a thought...

We've had home consoles generation after generation being released year after year and scattered throughout we've had the odd handheld gaming console popping up here and there.  The Gameboy and afterwards the Gameboy advance have been brilliant seller for Nintendo over the years from the 90's onwards, but not until 2 recent handheld releases; the DS and PSP, have we seen such a surge in handheld popularity.

Especially so with Nintendo's DS and DS Lite, where sales have been unprecidented.  Since it's release in November 2004, it has managed to sell 42 million units in under 2.5 years while it's competitor in the handheld market, the Sony PSP has managed to just more than half at 22 million units worldwide albeit with a more staggered release date throughout the world.

64 millions handhelds with these two units alone have been shifted.  This is a phenomenal amount for any system, handheld or home.

Now, here comes the question?

How exactly does this affect the home console market?  Well after the phenomenon that is PS2, we now have Microsofts new beast the 360, the Wii and the latest Sony incarnation in the PS3.  The 360 has done well, but the Wii has caught the eye and is starting to sell at huge levels outstripping demand, but where are these levels compared to the handhelds?  Well the DS is outselling anything else in the market by huge margins; and the PSP is selling solidly and has been for over 2 years now.  360 sales are dropping all the time and PS3 is in a worrying position.  Only the Wii seems to be popular...why...is it down to price or uniqueness or a mixture of both....or are we seeing the introduction of the casual gamer now becoming the more hardcore of players attempting to escape the reality of life?

One thing is for sure - there are more people buying handheld consoles than ever before.  People are paying more for the systems than they have had to before and the public are getting used to buying more games as well.

Are we seeing the beginning of a new age in gaming?  People are more and more interested about portability of every technology in their life.  Wireless laptops, MP3 players, portable DVD players and mobile phones with games, cameras and video recording.  Maybe the general public interested in playing games are only wanting to play games whenever and whereever they can..ie. portable gaming.

Of course there will be load of people that want to play games in the house on a big screen, but as like the mobile music generation; more and more people are getting used to enjoying their music on the go more so than sitting in the house and listening to it on their £1000 hi-fi.

Can we be seeing the reduction of home gaming and the increased awareness of portable gaming.  Could this be the next step in the gaming.

Also, don't forget, that generally speaking, portable games will be smaller, easier to make and cost less for the developers....so don't be surprised to see much more games being released on handhelds than home consoles over the years to come. 

I just want to add to this post, Hand held hardware has a distinct advantage. The advantage being that most households only buy 1 of any given home console but multiple child households can end up with multiples of each hand held.

"I just want to add to this post, Hand held hardware has a distinct advantage. The advantage being that most households only buy 1 of any given home console but multiple child households can end up with multiples of each hand held." Good point. I think that people will end up with home cfonsoles anyway, as the PSP has connectivity with the PS3 and I presume it's the same with the DS and Wii.

The Wii is outselling the DS in terms of launch aligned numbers, and is still supply constrained. http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=All&cons2=DS&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&align=1 Makes you wonder what the numbers would be if they were not supply constrained... It makes sense for portables to outsell consoles, as consoles are shared more then portables.

Portables are eating a bigger share of the gaming market, and I think the fact that the DS and PSP are low priced as compared to the PS3 and 360 will give them a distinct advantage. I could see the combined sales of the DS and PSP equally that of the combined sales of the Wii PS3 and 360, maybe even surprassing that. Right now it's an astouning 64 to 20 million advantage, better than 3 to 1 for the handhelds. The PSP has actually sold better than the big three systems combined. Yeah the handhelds had a head start that should be taken into acount, but look at April sales in the US. The DS and PSP sold 654k combined, while the Wii, 360 and PS3 sold 616k. In Japan the gap is insane between handhelds and consoles, mostly due to the DS, but the PSP is still selling better than the PS3, PS2, and 360 combined. Consoles will probably make a comeback, but it looks right now that handhelds are leading this generation.