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

Probably turns up on the 8th page of a Google search for smartphones and the spammers find it and show up.

Anyway, smartphones were a decent threat until a combination of oversaturation (looking at you, Angry Birds), the Freemium model, and app QA shittier than even Steam just let things get out of hand and killed off any chance of it ever being taken seriously. Pokemon Go and Mario Run were the closest things we had to smartphone gaming making a comeback.

As for handhelds, the 3DS is all that's left, and it's going away. Consoles have won. I think Nintendo has the right idea of having a portable console, but up until recently, that tech was just out of reach. Now it exists, so there's no longer any reason for a true handheld system anymore. Only a matter of time before former handheld games start getting ported.

I wouldn't be too sure about that

Mobile games comprises of literally more than half of the global gaming revenue right now, and isn't showing signs of stopping.

That said, the report also mentions that console and PC revenues are also growing, so it's less of mobile gaming eating into their fanbases, and more of it growing alongside them.

Which makes sense in a way, since it covers the "People who wants to game but are too busy to invest in a console or gaming PC" and "As a gamer in the workforce, I can't exactly bring my game console to work without being side-eyed by my boss and team members" markets.

Edited by Servbot on Oct 29th 2018 at 8:09:28 AM

Rytex: Home and handheld consoles were never in competition; they are different products aimed at different niches. Home consoles are for big-ticket megagames, and handhelds are for gaming on the go. Even if the Switch achieves true convergence, it's rather pricey; I'd say there is still room for dedicated handheld consoles as budget and entry-level devices, especially for children for whom dropping over €300 on a machine that takes over the TV is overkill.

I do agree that smartphone games had a bright future before microtransactions took over.

Servbot: Again, different niches. Smartphone games are for killing time while waiting for the bus. Handheld games work better when you're actually on the bus.

It would be interesting to see if Nintendo sticks with the portable console angle for future entries, especially as technology improves and cramming more power into a smaller package only gets easier. For now, the handheld market is completely dominated by Nintendo, especially after the PS Vita was a flop, and it remains to be seen if it will last with a Switch-like successor or if it will die with the Switch.

Smartphones were never a threat, and probably won't be for another few generations of technological improvement. In the end, they cater to entirely different markets. Nobody who is into 80 hour open world RPGs is going to turn to smartphones for that, and spending a few hundred dollars on a console and games seems wasteful if all you want is something to occupy your time for short intervals. Sure, the casual gamer market has been captivated by smartphones, but they were never a big share of the games market anyway.