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Soundwave on 01 November 2014
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padib said:
Soundwave said:

I don't think the smartphone is going anywhere, neither is gaming on smartphones. The PC was always a really difficult platform for gaming. I grew up with a PC in the 90s, and installing a game and sometimes getting it to run properly could be a nightmare, I think PC gaming never took off among the casual masses for that reason. 

But beyond that, the PC is kinda firmly stuck in the bedroom/den/work room ... the smartphone can go anywhere and is far more convienant in that sense. 

Angry Birds will fizzle out sure ... but then it will be replaced by some other new smartphone craze whether it's Candy Crush or whatever. That's part of the appeal of iOS/Android is there's constantly new games to try so that makes their ecosystem feel so vibrant and alive ... even if the game sucks ... so what, it's not like you paid $40 for it. 

It is like a cancer to handheld gaming IMO, every year we've seen the number of portables decline. This year will be less than last year. Next year will probably be even worse. 

Maybe.

Then again if true, they should have eaten up DS, Wii, PS3, 360, U, 3DS, PS4 and X1 sales.

Well smartphone gaming really only starting to pick up steam around 2009 or so, the App Store wasn't even open until a few years after the iPhone came out. Angry Birds is the first bonafied smartphone blockbuster and that launched in December 2009. 

Naturally portable handheld have taken the brunt of the damage and the casual audience of the Wii has been gobbled up first by smartphones. 

Unfortunately these are two areas that happen to impact Nintendo most directly, but Sony obviously took a huge hit too as their handheld business has basically been all but wiped out (good luck convincing a teenager/adult to carry a Vita in addition to a smartphone). 

PS4/X1 are probably the least impacted, as they serve the furthest market away from smartphone games, but I think even there we will see a general decline in dedicated home console sales this gen too. PS4 is not going to match the PS2 and X1 is going to be well below the X360, so that section of the market isn't growing either. It just hasn't taken the same hit.