lets see, i played the crap out of street fighter 4 on iphone, would i trade that up for the 3d edition? HELL YES, sure i even pay 4 times the cost. onli reason why ppl has it on iphone is coz its the onli portable one out thier at the time.

Take in the "experience" one offers for example, iphone games and the 3ds games

street fighter 4 on iphone for example, other than the phone function (which is a huge factor)

on 3ds u get 3d (no glasses which should be a huge factor as well), fully rendered characters, smooth 60 frames per second (30 with 3d on of coz), the figure collection thing, online matches, cutscenes, full voice acting, intro fights etc.

now would that warrent a 4 times cost amount of the iphone version?

The experience u get with each will be different, on one hand most games on iphone consist of "who gets the highest score" on 3ds and ngp it WILL be more that just scores.

And dont deny that most games on iphone consist of high scores, coz they are

Saying the Iphone is far behind in graphics is just laughable...Have you seen infinity blade? looks like a HD game!

On top of that, when im going some where, i dont wanna carry an extra device around just so i can play marginally better games on it, i want one device and one device only. This is why the iphone wins.

I'll disagree with this by citing the Neo Geo, which was clearly built as an enthusiast device and priced waaaay out of the range of most consumers (and this was in 1990s dollars), but managed to live happily until about 1996 or so, and SNK intended it to be a niche device

Gaming could survive well enough as a stagnant enthusiast market, so long as the gaming companies were willing to play within the rules of such markets (i.e. a focus on profit)

In a lot of ways the current environment surrounding the iPhone and other mobile computer platforms reminds me a lot of the internet in the late 1990s. Websites which were far less impressive than vgchartz were being promoted as being worth hundreds of millions of dollars in spite of having no coherent business model because the "internetz-moneyz" were eventually going to start coming in; and countless analysts were making ridiculous predictions about how rapidly it was going to grow and the impact that was going to have on our lives. It isn’t that they were predicting massive changes as much as the changes they were predicting.

When you combine all ios devices (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) with the Android devices, other smart-phones and tablets there are far more of these portable computer products than there are handheld systems today; and yet the games market is tiny in comparison, and couldn't support a fraction of the games for handheld systems at the budget of these games.

Certainly, the market is in its infancy today and will likely grow into being far more significant in the future; but this growth will likely occur in ways that are dependent on existing market conditions. This will likely trap them in a chicken and egg scenario where certain games cannot be developed until it is demonstrated that the platform can support them, and the platform cannot demonstrate that it supports these games until there is a significant number being developed.

It's extremely short sighted to think that the current market for portable games is going to exist primarily off the current (actually, last generation) business model that was built on the same dedicated hardware and $20-40 retail game structure.

It's really the $40 retail games that I see the average consumer having the greatest issue with as the vast majority of portable gamers don't play for hours at a time or even hours every day. Typically, sessions are probably well under 30 minutes and in most instances a typical game being purchased isn't going to be seeing hours and hours of cumulative play.

So the question is for those who aren't dedicated portable gamers, are they really going to see the value in a $40 retail game?

I'm not even a typical consumer as I buy pretty much every platform that comes out, but I'm not a heavy portable gamer and frankly, I have a hard time justifying paying even $30 for a new game on a portable that I know I'm not going to be hunched over playing for hours, especially when there are a ton of entertaining XBLA, PSN, Wii Ware type games for a fraction of the cost on the iPhone, that by no coincidence, I'm always have on my person.

As for the whole graphical debate; there really isn't any. There are already games on the iPhone 4 that look better than any portable game ever released, bar none. And while I believe the NGP will really raise the bar in that area, unlike dedicated portables, phones get major hardware updates on a 1-2 year cycle as opposed to a 5 year plus cycle.

For the record, I'm having fun with the 3DS. But I'm not buying any $40 games for it. And I won't be buying any $40 games for it until someone releases a game that I'm pretty sure I'll play for more than a few hours. As it stands, there are already a few games on iOS that I know for a fact I've spent more time playing than the typical PSP/DS games I've bought over the years.

And this isn't because I have some sort of strange obsession with smartphone gaming; that's just the way it is. I can literally count the number of new release PSP and DS games I've bought over the past year on one hand.

I have to say personally as a consumer who most definitely buys more games than typical, when it comes to portable games, unless it's a major release, I won't pay more than $20 for a retail portable game these days because of iOS.

I see no reason why NGP or 3DS games can't be downloaded and priced like PSN/Wii Ware games and offer the same play value.

Unless a portable game has close to a two year production pipeline and significant resources clearly went into the development, I can't justify paying $30-40 for something I'm only going to be playing sporadically anyway. Not with the selection of games in the AppStore.

And a sub $10 DD game does not equal a throwaway/shovelware title either.

It's not necessarily the platform or even the hardware at issue here; it's the primary method of distribution and the pricing.

It will. I don't think really for the reasons that you bring up. The games serve consumers faster and more efficiently than dedicated handhelds can. They may have hit upon a tier of gamer unbeknowst to nintendo with titles like cut the rope, angry birds, tiny wings, press to fart etc. Epic with UE to iOs and the development of better control schemes over time are helping them better serve the higher tiers of the market.   

This diversity will only continue.  Not only is anyone with a CS degree or just a good idea starting to create unique applications but even professionals videogame industry players are as well.  This funnels time  and money away from the development on the dedicated handhelds in many of the larger publishers who are more likely to be developers of a dedicated handheld game.  EA, Gameloft, Epic to name a few on the Western side. SE, Capcom, Sega on the japanese side. Companies are complaing that retail isn't the whole pie of gaming and now NPD will start having download estimates. iphone/ipad gets a section on metacritic. Read the signs. 

Because of the smartphone race we will see uber cheap dumphones that are smart enough to run appstore games in only a few years.  They are taking away  time and deveolopment resources and there are less barriers to entry.  I know many people say kids don't have phones but they do have MP3 players, Tablets and the assortment of other devices that probably can and will be using these popular mobile OSs.

Nintendo can talk all they want about low app prices devaluing games but that doesn't make it so.  . People in general don't value games that highly.  They see an entertained bus ride for $1 as way better than $20-40. Even if not most are certainly sufficiently satisfied.   Thier next system better be pretty damn novel cause I don't even see DS level fires in 3DS. Though DS only even began to outsell the PSP after some a couple of crazy big hits so who knows but I just don't see it in Nintendo anymore.

If a phone gets good games, why on earth would someone want a handheld console to carry around?

For baby sitting Kids. Im told there is a huge market for this killer App...   Apparently 20 years ago only kids played video games. imagine that!

And now people are having more kids and are buying them baby sitting toys.     The core of this hole industry where kids beffor. Ya I know isent that like totaly imposible?

Now a days dont ask me why, the core is considered 25 year olds with no futur(like myself).    So  Nintendo keeps making Kid friendly  Handheld and consule's . That's totaly brillient no one could have seen this coming?

Who is going to be buying a 7 year old Kid a Iphone for there birthday?  

Im so sick of this Iphone BS guys. What is it that you guys can't understand? Holly ballz of flaming crap turd!!!

(sorry been watching to much angry Nintendo nurd again)

Every studio is trying to sell games to  20 years old now a day!!!!   we have the PC the X-box the PS3 the Iphone.  And where all totaly shocked Nintendo is making tone's of money doing what it always been doing?  And then we turn arround and say stupid kid consuls?   YA? remember 10-15 years ago when you use to play vid games 24-7?

We left the Main thing that always sold millions of video games since the begining of man kind Wide open to one company and where all still scratching are head like WTF happened?

Plz Just tell me how Apple will channel this insainly huge untaped market Nintendo has just discovered?

 Im telling you the's babyboomers in charge of Sony MS  Apple  and the USA should let a new generation take over.  They are in, way over there head.  

Step down and let us have our turn. Cause you guys are Epic Fail!!! 

 Sorry for droping a giant turd on this thread guys.  I had a bad day. Stupid Babyboomers

I see this as a problem because the every generation of consoles last at least 5 years, with the current gens, its probably even longer. On the other hand, smartphones are continuously being improved on as we speak in terms of hardware capabilities.

So in a few years from now, I can see smartphones that do glasses free 3D with more powerful hardware than the 3DS. I will buy the 3DS, because I consider myself a hardcore gamer and want to play Nintendo's franchises, but I don't think the casual audience would care much.