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Forums - Gaming - Why don't Western developers get handhelds?

AgentZorn on 21 March 2014
Fusioncode said:
They seemed to have lost interest in handhelds this gen. Userbase is much larger on mobile.


Exactly. Why put effort when you can nickle and dime people with a half baked game.



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noname2200 on 21 March 2014
AstroGamer said:
It's the same reason we hardly have a mid-tier market

I'm inclined to think this is the correct answer. Although it's worth noting that in prior generations western developers also gravitated more towards home consoles than handhelds: the trend has been becoming more extreme, but it's not entirely new.



jlmurph2 on 21 March 2014

West = home consoles
East = handheld consoles



pokymon90 on 21 March 2014

Because the West is obese and don't travel as much. Handhelds are used when traveling, and fat people sit on their couches to play.



Egann on 22 March 2014
TheLegendaryWolf said:
They prefer mobile app games, PC games, and home console games.


This. So many times this. SMARTPHONES WILL BE OUR SALVATION, never mind that the brick version of the Gameboy is probably a more fulfilling gaming device.



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Mr Puggsly on 22 March 2014
pokymon90 said:
Because the West is obese and don't travel as much. Handhelds are used when traveling, and fat people sit on their couches to play.

Nope, people in the west travel plenty.

Perhaps you're ignoring westerners can game on other mobile devices?



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Clyde32 on 22 March 2014
VanceIX said:
NiKKoM said:
Its more that publishers don't see anything in it cause we had like: Uncharted, Luigi Mansion 2, Wipeout,alien infestation, tons of lego games as perfectly fine handheld games by Western developers

To be fair, a lot of those were developed by first-party studios of Japanese companies, even if they were developed by a western team (with the exception of maybe the lego games and alien infestation)


To be fair, the only first party game on there was uncharted.



PullusPardus on 22 March 2014

Because westerners take fads seriously, which means stuff like flappy bird gets super popular "whatever gets you laid" mentality as there is always more focus on cool than substance, hence why people can't stop buying PS4s even though there was nothing to play on it.



VanceIX on 22 March 2014
Clyde32 said:
VanceIX said:
NiKKoM said:
Its more that publishers don't see anything in it cause we had like: Uncharted, Luigi Mansion 2, Wipeout,alien infestation, tons of lego games as perfectly fine handheld games by Western developers

To be fair, a lot of those were developed by first-party studios of Japanese companies, even if they were developed by a western team (with the exception of maybe the lego games and alien infestation)


To be fair, the only first party game on there was uncharted.

Really? Cause Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool was the developer for Wipeout, and while Next Level Games is technically independent, they have announced that they will be working exclusively with Nintendo.



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greenmedic88 on 22 March 2014

Because Western portable/mobile game developers are concentrating on the larger market of Android and iOS.

They get it; they're just not concentrating their efforts on the smaller market of the Nintendo 3DS. And the PSV is clearly a very small niche entertainment device based upon sales.