All I Wanted Was A Diet Slice And Some Pita Chips

Mobile Gaming v. Handheld Gaming

In case you aren’t aware, the 3DS didn’t sell well on its debut and after two days in Japan, the PSV isn’t doing as well either. The situation prompted this opinion article by someone who clearly plays Angry Birds on his iPhone all day and sticks his nose up at other video games in general.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/terokuittinen/2011/12/20/does-ps-vita-mark-the-end-of-portable-game-consoles/

I honestly find it retarded that people are talking about how great mobile games and how the handhelds are in trouble. Those cheap games on the phone are usually just replayable puzzle games without any real depth to the game itself. Think Angry Birds. Angry Birds is supposedly the antithesis to handheld gaming. Frankly, people these days are into communicating through Facebook and texting. What helps them access that? Mobile phones. Everyone can own a cell phone. They are relatively cheap and considered a necessity as opposed to a handheld gaming device. With cheap games being fun and have basic replayability (I never get tired of Tetris myself…) it’s obvious that they sell better. 

But does selling more mean it’s better? In some cases yes, in most others, no. Think Nickelback. They have fairly good album sales numbers, does that mean they are a fairly good band? Yes. Hell no. The Nintendo Wii has sold millions of units and at this very point in time they are all off or have Skyward Sword in their drive. 

Granted, Nintendo made the stupid mistake of releasing a new platform with hardly any decent software to compliment it. They actually fell victim to their own gimmicky business strategy and thought the 3D would sell itself. It didn’t. 

What did Sony do? Oh, they only released NEW (yeah, not remade Nintendo. new.) titles for some of their biggest heavy hitter franchises like Uncharted, Disgaea, Marvel v. Capcom, etc. and racked up a grand total of just round 20 RELEASE TITLES. 

YES SONY, THAT IS HOW YOU SELL YOUR PLATFORM. But again, let’s revisit the reality of the issue at hand. The world economy isn’t going well. Not as bad as the news reporters would have you believe, but still not flourishing. With cell phones becoming a NEED more than a WANT and handheld gaming devices being the opposite, it makes sense that this is a thing. It doesn’t mean handheld gaming is dead, it’s only just learning to walk on its own two feet. With the technological advances and the video game industry growing ever larger, it only makes sense that the handheld gaming market grows with the 3DS and PSV (Playstation Vita, if you’ve yet to catch on.). 

Think of it this way, remember those titles on the original Game Boy? Game Boy Color? For the most part they weren’t great, some were truly gems though. The Game Boy Advance was held down by shovelware and still did well. Why should handheld gaming be “alive and well” back in those days when you can have the same games that last as long, have the same replayability (especially with mobile multiplayer becoming a legitimate thing now), look as nice and shiny as current gen consoles, AND save you money on the system/games as well as be with you wherever you go in this day and age?

I think people are just looking at this shortsighted.

Besides, Angry Birds is just a reformatted flash game.