| kowenicki said: Why are people being aggressive to this idea? threatened? I'm no lover of Apple, but I have found myself playing a few games on my wife's iphone and my daughters ipod touch recently. It is only going to get bigger.... Surely in the long term convergence will mean the death of handhelds as we know them. It will be a phone/mp3/mp4/gaming device all in one. won't it? |
I personally believe very strongly in this scenario.
Although Rol and other Nintendo fans don't want to, and believe it won't happen, I don't see it being unavoidable. As mobile phones add more gaming features to them, they will continue to take over the gaming market.
As stated, the iPhone has garnered about $500m in gaming revenue in 2009, compared to the DS at ~$2.2 billion. Thing is, the iPhone had about the same increase in terms of revenue - about $400m vs. the year prior, so that is a very good comparison on revenue.
Android is getting bigger, as it jumped 50% in revenue in Jan-Feb, and is looking to have an even better March....Still very small compared to the iPhone, it will become a big force in 2-3 years.
I've been saying it for almost a year now, and I will continue to say it:
Handheld, dedicated gaming systems will die off. If the Nintendo 3DS rumors are true, it will be Nintendo's last dedicated gaming handheld.
We've seen the DS become more phone-like with the DSi's ability to download games, do some web stuff, and have a camera on it. It has tried to take on some of the things that make phones popular. Eventually, it will look too much like a phone, and Nintendo will make the switch and make a phone-capable DS and go that route - probably by putting a Nintendo market on the Android market, or create their own OS.
Either way, it will happen. There are too many factors against keeping physical media for handhelds. And as Famousringo said, the iPod is nearly dead, as Apple has converged the ideas from the iPod into the iPod touch which is a call-disabled iPhone. It retains all the web and gaming capabilities of the iPhone, with the audio/video abilities of the iPods. It is happening in the media field, why not the entertainment field?
Until then, I'll keep enjoying the fact my Android has more classic gaming titles on it than VC and the DS combined.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
