Consoles vs. handhelds vs. smartphones. Are smartphones a big threat?

I didn't see another thread about this in the video games forum, so I thought I'd start my own.

I keep seeing these doom and gloom predictions about how video game consoles are becoming obsoleted by a new generation that prefers smartphone games and simple on-the-go gaming. I personally detest smartphone games, their lack of sticks and buttons for direct control, and their lack of depth, much less their lack of production values. I'm generalizing of course, and I know there are games that are exceptions to the rule, but by and large, that is the rule.

But I read recently that, much to my surprise, the Nintendo 3 DS sold 30 million units since release (in the same timeframe, the original DS also sold 30 million units, but it had a staggered worldwide release, so arguably the original sold better). The Wii U, much as I want it to succeed, sold about 3 million thus far, and only 57,000 in January. It sold better than the X360 and PS 3 during the same timeframe, but the X360 was plagued by production troubles (so they were short on units to sell, thus not meeting demand), and the PS 3 had an unreasonable price. This therefore means the Wii U was doing badly by comparison.

However, the economy as a whole is doing bad. But that still doesn't explain the apparent shift away from console/handheld experiences. Would games on consoles and handhelds sell better if people had more money to spare on them?

What do you guys think? Do you think console gaming is going away, do you think it could survive in a new form? Are the troubles now due to companies simply making huge missteps, or a lack of compelling games? The economy?

Smart phones are fucking stupid.

First off, no fucking buttons. You got to deal with this shitty layout on the screen that plays horribly and most if not all games require a play-to-pay scenario. (not that any of them are actually worth money, I'll get into that later)

Also, sales are dependent on free downloads. That is what gets reported and they're stretching the truth. The 3DS (not a big seller) got way more money than Zynga as a company as whole. The mobile bubble is bursting.

Another thing to put into consideration is that most of these games usually don't have much substance. It might be good for the casual crowd, but for everybody else; they aren't interested. There's also no big gaming IP other than Angry Birds which admittedly is a pretty big IP, but the other big games are games like Temple Run and Words with Friends; not very marketable nor something you'd spend more than a few minutes with before getting bored. The games themselves are also very limited in power.

So yeah, there's my rant. Piece it apart or whatever, but I hate mobile gaming and have minimal respect for it.

I agree. Somehow, Square Enix is doing well on smartphones with 10$ games, but they're kind of the deviation from the norm. Most smartphone games are priced for less than 5$ and it shows. Yes, they're good little time wasters, but because of that, the average person is going to buy Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, maybe one or two others, and then they're just going to keep them and not get any more.

Being entirely dependent on micro-transactions is also not that great, because each individual transaction normally isn't very much. If the number of transactions goes down, or too many people are content with just waiting, the company can't afford to keep going on the game.

edited 21st Feb '13 9:02:52 AM by Zendervai

Every time, I've seen a mobile game played, it's never for more than five minutes. And you don't tell me that doesn't mean anything.

Oh, this reminds me of that idiotic justification for micro-transactions in Dead Space 3. Basically, the designer said something along the lines of: "So the people who play survival horror now are 19-20 and they've only really played games on their phones where micro-transactions are the norm, so we put them in because people would be used to them."

The people who play Angry Birds, Farmville and Fruit Ninja aren't going to look at a console game called Dead Space 3 and say, "that's going to be my first console game". Also, microtransactions aren't that old. I've been gaming for 10 years, I'm 21, and micro-transactions, as a widespread thing, are pretty new.

Overall, what I think is that smartphone games aren't threatening the mainstream gaming community because it's two different demographics basically.

But you know it is effecting? Company decisions. The idiotic justification for Dead Space 3 is just one of the ways.

In time, yes they will become a massive threat to the big game companies. Most folks in the past bought the Nintendo Gameboys because they were simple, portable entertainment, and had large libraries of games suited for those in a waiting room, bored, or whatever have you. But now smartphones and tablets can fufill that very same purpose and more, meaning that a large amount of customers no longer have a reason to get a $250+ piece of gadgetry that's only good for videogames and nothing else.

Sure, they might not be specifically designed for gaming, may lack any decent button layout, and don't have a collection of games designed by the more established companies out there, but do you honestly think the majority of the public is going to care? And no, the hardcore fanbase is NOT enough to keep them afloat.

edited 21st Feb '13 9:11:31 AM by SgtRicko

Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the truck up! Are the makers of Dead Space really running on 1980s business logic like when people were trying to hate on the NES?

edited 21st Feb '13 9:11:49 AM by MajorTom

See, the other thing is that now devices are starting to mold together in one big jumble. The Wii U is a tv that can browse the internet and play games! Some T Vs have internet built into them now! Phones are no longer phones but a yucky mess of a gaming console, a computer, a phone, a fax machine, and a camera.

It's no longer the console wars. It's the race to see who can make the ultimate device first.

Generally if you consider that smartphones don't specifically target the core gamer demographics...not really (well it can go the way Ricko described, but really though, it should only affect handhelds, I doubt the affect on consoles really)...it's Facebook that need to watch out for smartphone threat...and I think they're already feeling it...

edited 21st Feb '13 10:16:11 AM by onyhow

Facebook can go suck a dick.

A couple things. Video gaming used to pretty much exclusively be "hardcore" gaming, in that if you wanted to play video games, you bought a gaming system, and the games were advertised specifically to gamers. Ads for game systems used to focus on exclusive games for the system, or features of the system. This market was built off the hardcore, as they're the ones who spend the most money by continually buying games that cost a lot.

There are many experiences that a smartphone simply cannot provide, providing an opportunity for consoles and handhelds to say "You can only do this on our device". The fact that the 3DS has managed to sell 30 million units worldwide is actually impressive to me even if it does represent a decline from the original DS. It shows the demand is still there.

Also, industries change. Once upon a time, my parents' and grandparents' time, movie theaters were where you had to go to see the equivalent of a weekly series back then. Serials, as they were called, were shows that you watched a new episode of every week, and people went to the theaters to see them. When TV was invented, the masses could get entertainment daily, and without having to pay for it. Movie theaters still exist today, but are reserved for special occasions: that is, theater-released movies.

Video game consoles may be the "movies" of the industry, though cheaper downloadable titles can still provide experiences that smartphones can't provide. Smartphones are more like the TV of the industry. Just like TV ate into the profits of theaters and shifted how things worked, smartphones may be doing the same. And who knows - this could well be a bubble that will at one point burst once everyone who wants a smartphone has one.

Finally, bear in mind that most people aren't "gamers" any more than most people are "filmgoers". I rarely go to the theaters to watch movies, and rarely rent them either, but I know people who go to the theaters so much that it's not a big event, more like a biweekly thing. Likewise, most people don't care about video games as much as "gamers" do, but may purchase a game system for that small handful of games they heard are really good.

edited 21st Feb '13 11:00:59 AM by BonsaiForest

Before we get to the point of just bashing smartphones, I'd like to point out that there are actually quite a few excellent smartphone games out there. CAVE, for example, has been porting their games to iOS and Android (and translating their previous Japan-only games into English!), and in my opinion they blow the rest of the entire iOS App Store out of the water. But they also cost $5~$14 each ^note the upper bound becomes $21 if you count the $7 for the two Boss Rush DLC modes in Mushihimesama Futari Black Label, and they're the exception rather than the norm.

It's simply yet another case of Sturgeon's Law. It applies to console and handheld games as well, except smartphones are a digital distribution medium. This means there are no shelf space limits, and thus the 90% that's crud can still be found next to the good ones well after their release, whereas crappy console and handheld games end up in bargain bins.

That said, I think smartphones currently go after a mostly disjoint market from most console and handheld games, mostly due to the disparity in the way you hold and control a smartphone versus a console controller versus a handheld. I think we're going to see divergent evolution in game design from here on out.

edited 21st Feb '13 3:34:41 PM by PoochyEXE

Companies are trying to also make console-style games for smartphones, but having to put my fingers on the screen itself to touch onscreen controls, while blocking part of my view of the screen, is unsatisfying. I think they'll only stop making console-style smartphone games is such games stop selling. But I really want to see a good-selling smartphone with console controls and a decent-sized screen for games. Apple is unlikely to do that, and from what I hear, the few companies that tried didn't do well. But if Apple did it, it'll definitely catch on.

I don't have a smartphone. Disclosing that from the start so there is no dubiety. I do, however, game on mobile devices. Most of that on the old, battered, rebuilt at least once Nintendo DS but I also use my Life Drive and my various Windows Mobile PDA's, and I don't really have a problem spending time playing on them.

I bought pcs and equipment for them instead of getting a smartphone, but I probably will get one second-hand when I have saved up a bit of cash, and I just hope that I enjoy gaming on them without too much bother once I have.

The threat is that mobile gaming is taking a chunk out of the casual gaming market both on PC and consoles (XBLA, PSN, etc.) Nintendo is hit the hardest because its digital titles tend to be of the same puzzle / casual / strategy mold, as well as its handheld casual market (ie. Brain Age).

Mainly, the mobile gaming makes billions of dollars that Nintendo and Sony are desperate for since Japanese development is having serious cash flow problems.

What do you think the future will be for console-style games? Console and non-mobile handheld games?

One fear I have is that the industry will be split into "blockbusters" (Call of Duty, Super Mario, Madden NFL) that are known popular safe properties, and the "low end" - mobile, with nothing much (i.e. $20-40 games) in between.

If the Wii U is a failure over the long term, it may kill Ninty as a hardware company. Remember, no one really thought SEGA would die as a hardware manufacturer until the Dreamcast died on its bottom.

Except Sega basically went all-in on the Dreamcast. Nintendo still has the 3DS to fall back on if the Wii U flops.

Yeah, that is true. But I don't personally know anyone in RL who owns one, my local second hand shops always have plenty for sale and there are a lot of folks who can't use the 3D because of crippling headaches. Me included, and I am definitely not alone. Take away the 3D and you have a less capable Nintendo DS. My old one still has native support for Gameboy Advance games.

So, for me, the 3DS isn't much of a crutch for a hardware company built around home systems, ever since the Famicom. It is just a handheld games system, and a really expensive one as well.

The 3DS is not a "less capable" DS with the 3D turned off, considering it's roughly Gamecube around its power, whereas the original DS was N64-level with its power. Also, it sold 30 million units worldwide since release, which is similar to original DS sales (although the DS was released in different territories at different times, making the 3DS arguably less successful).

^ Well that and they're selling at a loss...

Also, Sorastitch sounds LIKE Thorn here...

@Bonsai Forest: Really? Consider that there's big surges in indie games, and other such? (or maybe you're mentioning console only?)

edited 21st Feb '13 7:51:19 PM by onyhow

Not much in the $20-40 range? Take a good look through Steam and you'll find plenty in that range.

^ Maybe if you're only talking about console (I'm not sure though)...but definitely not Steam or other PC platforms...hell, I heard some devs said that $30 is the new PC standard price...

edited 21st Feb '13 9:08:25 PM by onyhow

OK, head's up. This thread has all kinds of potential for being a really great discussion about the issues gamers face because of the ever changing technology OR it can devolve into a archetypal bitch fest. You have zero guesses about the direction that will entail instant lockdown.

Got it?