If Microsoft created a handheld...

[mrstickball]

The Anarchyz said:

mrstickball said:
Its called the Zune HD.

No company needs to make a handheld gaming device. In 10 years, we will no longer have dedicated handhelds as we know them, they will be integrated more and more into cell phones.

Look at the iPhone install base for proof - we always argue the DS and PSP sale wars, all the while iPhone and Android install bases are outpacing dedicated handhelds. So it really doesn't behoove MS to make a DS-competitor when they merely need to beef up the ZuneHD and Windows Mobile marketplace.

There's a thing the DS and the PSP have that the Zune HD, the Droid and the iPhone don't have: controllers...

DS made popular the concept of handheld games with touchscreen, but they keep the regular controls, so the software companies can use one or both, the result: A whole variety of games, and look at the platform, selling a million on Black Friday in their 5th year... The name says it all: "Developer's System" (and Dual-Screen, both are the official terms)...

PSP can have only games controlled traditionaly, and the rest can only have touchscreen games (unless they use multitouch to simulate traditional), so they're covering only one part of the market...

So suddenly games require dedicated controllers to work? Didn't the Wii prove that you could change the input device significantly and still sell games, especially to a new audience? Why do you need a controller to play a game? I mean, my phone doesn't have a controller, but I have no problems playing Chrono Trigger on it.

Don't we argue blue ocean all the time here? Why would it be any surprise that someone quickly one-ups what Nintendo did with the creation of the handheld market? The iPhone/iPod family has sold as fast if not faster than the DS has (60m install base today), and Android is beginning to lap the PSP (1.5 million units sold in November, give or take, 6m units sold in year one and will see 30 million+ next year).

I understand that controllers are good, but the fact is that each generation has poised new control concepts, and many of them have led to new emergences in playability (joysticks, rumble packs, touch screens, montion sensing, ect). Also, for a phone, it would be easy to merely port over a virtual controller - as stated, they've already done that with every emulator on Android (again, I can play Earthbound flawlessly with no keyboard - its even easier with a keyboard).

Its important to think outside the box here. Nintendo did it with the DS and Wii - is it any wonder that someone else can think outside the box and make a great gaming device that no one saw coming?