Nintendo may exit handhelds in 10 years due to disruption

[famousringo]

pedrron said:

famousringo said:

pedrron said:

One, 1, juan, uno. One .99 game selling 50M is gonna topple Nintendo selling 100M over only 5 games at lets say an average price of $25? I fail to see your logic. Also, weed should only give you a 1-2 hr buzz tops (really its less).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#Nintendo_DS

Why the fixation on price? Being cheaper than the incumbent is part of what disruption is all about. Plenty of dead incumbents spent their last hours counting up fat revenues.

While 50 million people are playing Angry Birds, they can't be playing New Super Mario Bros. at the same time. Get it? Smartphones don't need to sell a single $25 game to completely eclipse handheld console gaming.

I'll admit price isn't everything. However, I still see games on smarthphones as filler. I play games on my blackberry when waiting for something. Games sell (in my opinion) for two big reasons. Fun and immersion. Yes there are games on smartphones that are def fun and or immersive but mostly are quick fixes while the real experience is on handhelds.

Smarthphones do many things that make it worthwile but the majority of owners have it for one thing and one thing only: placing and receiving calls.

Sure there might be 50M users playing angry birds while at work, shopping, etc but how many go home and pick it over a much richer experience on the DS/PSP/XBOX/WII/PS3?

Your first paragraph falls into the trap of subjectivity. Don't assume that the whole market will share your values. Nintendo doesn't much need to fear losing the clientele who hang around sites like this, they need to fear losing everybody else.

Your second paragraph is obviously wrong. If phone calls were the one and only thing people want out of a phone, they would stick with a much cheaper feature phone. Smartphones are bought because they offer a lot more in the way of communication, information, and entertainment than a simple cell phone. That's why the smartphone market doubled in the past year, devouring the feature phone market despite being much more expensive to buy and operate.

Your third paragraph pretty much admits that smartphones are a better mobile gaming solution than handheld consoles. Why else would the DS and PSP be waiting at home with the Xbox, Wii and PS3? Is that the future of handhelds; something to play at home when the TV is already in use?

I agree that handheld consoles currently offer a richer experience than pocket computers. But this raises some important questions like:

How important, really, is that richness in the context of mobile gaming?

How much money (and pocket space) is that richness really worth to most customers looking to kill some time?

How much richer can the pocket computer gaming experience get?