By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - NPD: Kids pick mobile devices over PCs, consoles for gaming

Soundwave on 23 September 2015

The smartphone/tablet is just a more compelling device anyway.

It can play games, it can play movies, read comics, you can watch music videos on it, you can play games, surf the internet, check Facebook, take photos ...

Even for kids they enjoy the wider functionality.

That and a tablet can have 20-30+ games on it. As many as you want really.

Good luck getting mom and dad to buy you 20 3DS games at $40 a pop. So once you beat that Mario game on 3DS ... you have nothing else to play as a kid until your parents buy you something else, which usually means waiting for a birthday/Christmas.

Tablet? Smartphone? Just download a new game when ever you feel like it.

The old console/handheld model quite simply is like a lumbering dinosaur, the phone/tablet market even if the games aren't as high quality, they can still be entertaining, it's a much more vibrant, evolving ecosystem that always has something new to play for a price everyone likes -- free or dirt cheap. 



Around the Network
Sharpryno on 23 September 2015

yeah NPD, no big deal.

Dota 2 and League of Legends are probably top 3 all time of most active and popular multiplayer games ever made especially over the course of years the popularity continues to rise rapidly.

Though I do find it hard to believe that kids prefer to game on mobile. That is just disgusting. Maybe clash of clans and hearthstone here and there but doing that every day I just cannot believe.

You would not believe the number of little kids I run into on CS:GO. Just as bad as CoD.



Busted on 23 September 2015
Bofferbrauer said:

Not necessarly. The sales of PC hardware, which is the number that has been going down, is calculated by the total sum of $ worth. Thing is, if you bought a halfway decent processor with Sandy Bridge (i5/7 2xx0, released January 2011) or later, there has been no need to buy a new CPU yet. Especially the OEM market, which is the bulk of the PC hardware market (most companies use them for their PCs), suffered from this. This also meant that they could forego the expensive top-of-the-line models and choose cheaper ones instead. Graphics cards have also stagnated during that period due to having been limited to the 28nm process for so long. Also, APU/iGPU also mean for OEMs that they don't necessarly sell dedicated graphics cards anymore for standard office PCs, further reducing the financial value of the sales.

Long story short: If one does not need to upgrade or replace the hardware, hardware sales naturally suffer from this. The home PC market is minuscule compared to the OEM market in therms of hardware value and thus it's growth doesn't really weights into the total hardware sales statistics.

Besides, sales went actually up last year for the first time in 7 years (the start of the netbook craze was the reason back then), if not by much and not everywhere, but still up.

Thank you Brauer, I apreciate you took the time, makes a lot of sense



zuvuyeay on 23 September 2015

poor kids,

only the worthy will end up with the curtains closed sat on a PC spending a day getting an rpg character ready to go



                                                                                                                                        Above & Beyond

   

Nuvendil on 23 September 2015
Soundwave said:

I don't really see it as a big deal.

I've said it before but it's like a guy sitting in the middle of a McDonalds or Burger King complaining that there's no steak on the menu and no wine list, no waiter.

Some people just want a damn hamburger and fries.

That's what tablets/phones are tapping into. A lot of people simply don't want to play complex, depth-based games on the road. For starters most don't have the time to sit down and play for 60-90 minute sessions when away from the house.

It's just that in the past, there was no alternative choice, if you wanted to play any type of video game on the go, you had to bring your Game Boy/DS/PSP with you, and I think for a big chunk of people that's just overkill for what they want.

For once I totally agree with you :P .  the percentages are deceptive because this is very much like McDonald's and the fast food boom.  That industry is monstrously more huge than the 3 to 5 star industry.  And the percentage of restaurant revenue they eat up is very large.  However, it is because they broke ground on a new demographic and drastically expanded the market, not because they poached clientele from the gourmet food industry.  And the 3 to 5 star dining industry is still around and doing fine because the people who want that can't get it at McDonald's.  So long as there is worthwhile demand, there will be supplier.  3DS isn't selling hundreds of millions, no.  And the consoles aren't going to sell 300mil total.  But they are selling enough to qualify as a significant market and so long as that is the case they won't go anywhere.  Demand is how the market works people.



Around the Network
Pavolink on 24 September 2015
Soundwave said:

The smartphone/tablet is just a more compelling device anyway.

It can play games, it can play movies, read comics, you can watch music videos on it, you can play games, surf the internet, check Facebook, take photos ...

Even for kids they enjoy the wider functionality.

That and a tablet can have 20-30+ games on it. As many as you want really.

Good luck getting mom and dad to buy you 20 3DS games at $40 a pop. So once you beat that Mario game on 3DS ... you have nothing else to play as a kid until your parents buy you something else, which usually means waiting for a birthday/Christmas.

Tablet? Smartphone? Just download a new game when ever you feel like it.

The old console/handheld model quite simply is like a lumbering dinosaur, the phone/tablet market even if the games aren't as high quality, they can still be entertaining, it's a much more vibrant, evolving ecosystem that always has something new to play for a price everyone likes -- free or dirt cheap. 

This. Pretty much this.



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

Predictions for Nintendo NX and Mobile


Chief on 24 September 2015
Soundwave said:

The smartphone/tablet is just a more compelling device anyway.

It can play games, it can play movies, read comics, you can watch music videos on it, you can play games, surf the internet, check Facebook, take photos ...

Even for kids they enjoy the wider functionality.

That and a tablet can have 20-30+ games on it. As many as you want really.

Good luck getting mom and dad to buy you 20 3DS games at $40 a pop. So once you beat that Mario game on 3DS ... you have nothing else to play as a kid until your parents buy you something else, which usually means waiting for a birthday/Christmas.

Tablet? Smartphone? Just download a new game when ever you feel like it.

The old console/handheld model quite simply is like a lumbering dinosaur, the phone/tablet market even if the games aren't as high quality, they can still be entertaining, it's a much more vibrant, evolving ecosystem that always has something new to play for a price everyone likes -- free or dirt cheap. 

This is it, explains everything nicely and was what I thought too.



rolltide101x on 24 September 2015
Neodegenerate said:
Zoombael said:


Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?


I started gaming at 3 on the original Nintendo instead of going with the Atari.  My nephew has shown a preference for his 3DS since he was 4.  Not that uncommon to show preferences at those ages.

lol you did not start gaming at 3. You played a game at 3. HUGE difference



Neodegenerate on 24 September 2015
rolltide101x said:
Neodegenerate said:


I started gaming at 3 on the original Nintendo instead of going with the Atari.  My nephew has shown a preference for his 3DS since he was 4.  Not that uncommon to show preferences at those ages.

lol you did not start gaming at 3. You played a game at 3. HUGE difference


Semantics, semantics.  I started playing video games at 3 and haven't stopped since.



oldschoolfool on 25 September 2015

this actually makes sense to me. The newer generation of kids are growing up on everything mobile,so none of this post comes as a shock.