| MikeRox said: The difference in handheld output from the introduction of the iPhone to 2013 is pretty staggering though. |
It is. But since their handheld output was pretty much limited to shovelware and ports (mostly lazy ones), it's not that much of a loss. While those things are a good indicator of the health of a platform, I don't think their absence exactly undermines the handheld proposition. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense for EA to include dedicated handhelds in their plans given their portfolio of games.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out in the coming years. Right now handheld games occupy an uncomfortable middle ground. But what happens as the mobile software market gets more and more crowded? Especially if, as Square is trying to do with Mevius Final Fantasy, mobile games increasingly resemble console games and become ever more expensive to develop? What's the appeal for publishers if they have to offer more and more polished games to ridiculously price sensitive consumers? Do traditional handhelds where people are used to paying ~$40 for a game become a safer bet?
