Handheld consoles may soon go extinct

[DarkTemplar]

Soundwave said:

DarkTemplar said:
It is easy to blame smartphones and tablets but the truth is that both Nintendo and Sony made a lot of mistakes this gen with their handhelds.

For instance:

What is the point of porting N64 games for the 3ds when you can port Wii games (that appeal to much more people) to it?

Every successful Sony console had plenty of third party exclusives, so where are GTA, Monster Hunter and all other games that shaped PSP's soul?

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In order to continue on the handheld maker Nintendo needs to focus on the right games (not n64 and GC games, btw) and also keep their hardware simple and minimalist (3D and many other 3DS features are pointless).

In order to continue on the handheld maker Sony needs to "convince" (with money) third parties to develop more exclusive content to their consoles and also stop making unnecessarily powerful hardware so the cost of development does not increase.

Both the 3DS and Vita are fine, they are both superior to the DS and PSP and probably the two best handhelds ever made from a hardware POV. And if you don't like the 3D, it takes less than 2 seconds to turn it off or you can buy a freaking 2DS, so I don't buy that arguement. 

The erosion of the traditional handheld market is entirely because of smartphones, "hardcore" gamers have a hard time seeing it because they live off in their own world, they don't speak for the average household and they are out of touch with kids today who are growing up with iOS/Android as their first game experiences. 

I have to disagree.

3D is not fine at all, it increases the hardware cost, the development cost and keep children away of the console. The release of the 2DS is essentially Nintendo recognizing its own mistake because they knew they were losing a lot potential sales. There are many other unnecessary features on the 3DS hardware that are hurting its sales like, for instance, the analog stick that only makes the interface of the games more complex.

 

3DS and Vita are "fine" from a hardcore gamer perspective, but hardcore gamers are the vocal minority barely relevant in the current game market. Both are expensive, games are also more expensive, batteries are crap and software support is not even close to the DS/PSP level.

 

The iOS/Android game Angry Birds was released on 2009, that same year the DS sold more than 27.5 million unities. There is space both on the market and if Nintendo had kept the DS philosophy in the current generation I am sure their handheld would have sold a lot more than the 3DS.

 

If children are currently growing playing Angry Birds and Candy crush instead of Mario and Kirby is it Nintendo’s fault. Nintendo had that market but failed to provide compelling software to them , hence people had to move to something else. Notice that the transition DS-3DS was horrible killing the momentum they had.

Nintendo's mistakes are clear and we cannot deny them.