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Forums - Gaming - Why do specs matter for home consoles but not handhelds?

Arius Dion on 03 December 2013
superhippy420 said:
I still think people are overreacting at these launch numbers. If you look at the last 4 years, almost all of the games on 360 and PS3 did great in the 1st week and then no one cared and they got cheap fast. Even Halo 4 is only $15 bucks now and it has only been out for 1 year. I'm not saying the new consoles won't keep selling but I would'nt be shocked if the initial massive burst was followed by a big plop, after all the Shooter/FIFA fans get their console. The Wii U had a really good launch too and once the games stopped coming out and everyone who wanted one, got one, the sales went in the toilet.


Oh how interesting this place will be if the new consoles are extremely front loaded. And as quiet as its kept, this is a real possibilty.



Bet between Slimbeast and Arius Dion about Wii sales 2009:


If the Wii sells less than 20 million in 2009 (as defined by VGC sales between week ending 3d Jan 2009 to week ending 4th Jan 2010) Slimebeast wins and get to control Arius Dion's sig for 1 month.

If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

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biglittlesps on 03 December 2013
Mnementh said:
The Wii and the PS2 were also underpowered compared to the competition. So specs are as irrelevant for home console as for handhelds. What matters is: is it a good overall proposition. And in that specs may have a place as a factor, but not as a major one.



Those days are gone, because now PC, Mobile and Tablets are having hardware that is quite capable of close to console quality grahics(not still but in a year or two it will). So, its not releavant to compare the old consoles to current as the technology and harware innovations have been changed a lot. Specs are not needed for great games to be produced but its needed for helping the developers to get the things done quickly, so they spend more time on making game with more content and details instead of making the game to run on the hardwar very well. Wii U lost the part of giving enough speciciations to developers which can ease their development time and money. So, 3rd party choose PS4,PC and xbone which helps them to develop games more quickly and also making the development costs very less due to similar architecture.



GAMING is not about spending hours to pass/waste our time just for fun,

its a Feeling/Experience about a VIRTUAL WORLD we can never be in real, and realizing some of our dreams (also creating new ones).

So, Feel Emotions, Experience Adventure/Action, Challenge Game, Solve puzzles and Have fun.

PlayStation is about all-round "New experiences" using new IP's to provide great diversity for everyone.

Xbox is always about Online and Shooting.

Nintendo is always about Fun games and milking IP's.

Augen on 03 December 2013
Shadow1980 said:
Actually, specs have never been all that important for home consoles, either. The most powerful system has never been the best selling system. The Master System, Neo Geo, N64, Xbox, and PS3 were the most powerful systems of their respective generations but weren't sales leaders. The NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, and Wii were, despite being weaker than their aforementioned counterparts. Clearly, being technologically superior doesn't guarantee much. That's not to say tech is completely irrelevant. Formats have a big effect: Nintendo's refusal to switch to CDs for the N64 cost them a lot of third-party support and the GameCube using a proprietary miniDVD format (which had one-third the space of a regular DVD) didn't win them anybody back. With the Wii, the fact that it was weaker than the PS3 & 360 kept third parties from developing any of their big franchises for the system. However, Nintendo showed that they didn't necessarily need third parties this time, as their new but risky strategy — make a weak but affordable system that offers new ways to play games — paid off and gamers flocked to the Wii in droves. They tried the same strategy again with the Wii U, but without sufficient first-party software to drive sales, the system dropped off a cliff after the start of 2013 despite having a very solid launch. Nintendo's loss is Sony and MS's gain, and the PS4 and XBO will soak up all of Nintendo's lost market share. The PS4 is set to be the market leader this time due largely to the brand's strength globally, whereas the XBO will do most of its business in America, and it may struggle to best the PS4 even on its home turf.

So, the PS4 will likely be the first time the most powerful system was also the best selling system, but it won't have obtained that spot solely on the merits of its tech specs. It will have won for the same reasons every other sales leader won its generation: price, marketing, games, regional trends, and other more tangible things. Few gamers care about specs, and are mostly just for bragging rights. The average game buying consumer just looks for what to them provides the best value for their money. The Wii U has the price advantage, but it has been lacking the games that people buy Nintendo systems to play, plus marketing was almost nonexistent up until a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile, the PS4 and XBO offer very similar experiences, but the PS4 costs $100 less, not to mention that Europe is PlayStation Country and Japan couldn't give less of a damn about Xbox.

 

Very well said.

There is a value in graphics as I don't think even if you made a system $20 day one system people would settle for an N64 level graphics anymore.  You have to find the sweet spot with power and price.  I think Sony failed with the PS3 over shooting the mark and did much much better with the PS4.  The X1 is an odd one because th einclusion of a significant peripheral (Kinect) does bring something new to valuation and grpahics equation.



STRYKIE on 03 December 2013
Mnementh said:
The Wii and the PS2 were also underpowered compared to the competition. So specs are as irrelevant for home console as for handhelds. What matters is: is it a good overall proposition. And in that specs may have a place as a factor, but not as a major one.


Terrible comparison. The Wii didn't exactly have anything on the scale of GT3, MGS2, GTA3 etc. for it's time. Granted, being European, I suppose I have a little bit of a biased view since we didn't get the original Xbox until 2002, but the difference is, the PS2 was still the most powerful system on the market by a substantial margin with the headstart it had. 



Bet with Einsam_Delphin: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=172355&page=11

LiquorandGunFun on 03 December 2013

Depends on the gamers taste. Not everyone goes with the majority.



 

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Soundwave on 03 December 2013

Specs don't matter as much on handhelds because people play handheld games in shorter bursts, it's a smaller screen (thus more cartoony games seem to work better -- even on iOS look at Angry Birds and Plants Vs. Zombies), and people already get their fill of higher end graphics on their home console.

The other reason is handheld gaming is more driven by the kids market, a lot of adults simply don't bother to play handheld games. Kids are more forgiving of lower end graphics. 

It's like when you eat at McDonalds/Wendys/Burger King or whatever, you don't expect the same experience as when you eat a full service restaurant with a waiter and apetizers/main course/wine/alcohol/desert, etc. etc.

They're both different experiences for different situations.



RazorDragon on 03 December 2013

Both handhelds produce sub-par graphics nowhere near last-gen consoles and the graphical difference between the two isn't that big outside of output resolution. Why should anyone care about that?



sales2099 on 03 December 2013

 its just that graphics don't matter as much when you are on the bus or riding in a car.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

fps_d0minat0r on 03 December 2013

they do matter, its just that some people play games that dont need them so they think it doesnt matter, like platformers, but for 3d games it really matters.

just look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXKnhAFnwXw

I know the improvements will keep getting smaller and smaller over time, but we are still far from the point where we can say it doesnt matter, even more so for the handheld systems.

I guess if everyone saw GTAV running at 5 frames per second on vita and 3ds then they would agree specs matter. just because the game isnt on vita or 3ds, it doesnt mean the issue isnt there.

I bet even if they do make a vita version one day, they will sacrifice gameplay elements such as traffic density, reduced animations, nerfed physics, pretty much no lighting effects, and ofcourse a crappy draw distance which will probably be the first thing to get cut.

the fact that handhelds are missing out on a shit load of games should be a clear enough message that maybe they are not technically possible on handhelds without nerfing them to the point where no-one wants to play them?



NeoRatt on 03 December 2013
Arius Dion said:
NeoRatt said:
Consoles and handhelds are not about specs...

They are about innovations people want and are willing to pay for...

Sometimes, to get these innovations you need new devices with a minimum set of specifications...


Bolded Agree 110%..But I thought people bought a gaming console for...games? Innovation is a loaded word, much like creativity (imo). Just make the right games and people buy the box.

The op is funny in that it tries to guide the convo as if the premise is acceptable. It isn't. Specs never mattered and they never will.

If people bought consoles solely for games Nintendo would be on top of this generation because they have the most exclusives and highest rated exclusives...

And MS would be in second because they have more launch exclusives then sony and they are better rated...

And Sony would be last because their exclusives are just not there at launch. (I know Sony fanboys...  They are coming...)

In the beginning consoles were about games only.  Then, Sony took the console to the next step with the inclusion of a DVD player on PS2.  MS stepped everything up a notch with XBL on XBox.   Wii stepped it up with motion controls.  PS3 stepped it up with blu-ray.  MS stepped it up again with Kinect.  And we are waiting to see what will take everything to the next level this generation.  So far, the most promising new features are Kinect 2.0, cloud gaming, and game streaming.  But time will tell.