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Andrespetmonkey on 07 March 2012
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superchunk said:
Andrespetmonkey said:

Maybe in 5 years VITA will be dying, but for the next 3 years at least, there is no better altenative for non-casual handheld gaming. (apart from maybe the other handheld that was released recently but that's down to preference).

Right. But will the system be dedicated and optimized for gaming? Will most games be core games? Will most games take advantage of the hardware? Will we see regular releases of big budget AAA games? Will all phone manufacturers AND developers support this hypothetical bluetooth controller? (Apple, one of the biggest players, certainly won't) No, no, no, no and no.

Today Google announced that by next year they will have a solid, seamless, and integrated gaming platform within their market for Android, Google TV, and Chrome. (all really being combined as same thing right now with Android 4)

Apple already has done that with iTunes and continues to progress with pushing its products as gaming platforms.

Over the last year 3rd parties have increased their support of iOS and to a lesser extent Android by a huge margin. Most AAA games have ports already for mobile and with far more powerful hardware here now and coming, expect these ports to be more and more like, if not identical, to their dedicated gaming cousins.

That only really leaves controls. Its already happening. OnLive provides dedicated console gaming with proper controls right now to iOS and Android with virtual controls or a bluetooth dedicated controller. Do you really think Apple and Google are so inept that they can't write SDK with this in mind? Hell, I know for a fact it already exists in Android since 2.3.

Also, why do you think MS never made a portable console? What do you think all the integration of Windows8 with Live is for?

I agree with you that handhelds are going out, I just don't think anything other than dedicated handhelds will be the best option for portable gaming for the next 3 years. I don't think IOS/Android and related software will be able to produce the same amount of AAA core games that we will see on VITA or 3DS for a few years. I don't think we'll be getting better control schemes become standard on these devices for quite a few years. I don't think streaming, like onlive will be the standard for quite some time.

"Most AAA games have ports for mobile", now that's simply not true, and most of the franchises that we see on mobile devices aren't anywhere near as good as their console versions. Even GTAIII, a complete port, isn't as good as it was on a console a decade ago. And also, you are ignoring the fact the their dedicated gaming cousins will also be updating their hardware soon, with the next xbox and playstation, so it'll again be another half decade for mobile games to reach that standard. Anyway, this is a tangent, let's stick to VITA.

Like I said, dedicated handhelds are the best option for core portable gaming we have right now. Until Phones/tablets see regular big-budget AAA releases, have improved controls, have more core games and have games regularly look graphically impressive by devs taking advantage of the hardware, dedicated handhelds will remain the best option. I think it'll remain this way for the next few years. Obviously you disagree, but I don't see this discussion going anywhere further, so I'm gonna go to bed and I guess we'll find out who was right in a couple years :)



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