It’s a very interesting trend, it seems like companies are convinced that this form factor is the future, that consumers will choose something with a portable option over something stationary.
Like when the steam deck and switch came out, they both did well, I think the switch did well mainly on the grounds that it was the Nintendo device for that console generation generation. But they’ve hardly taken over the market.
I think the console industry kind of just wrote off the mobile market because they were late to the party, despite it being immensely profitable and a huge market segment. It seems now they’re becoming interested in it again, and I wonder if it’s due to there being an unmet demand, people who want to play games outside of their living room, but who are turned off by the state of games on mobile.
Like, the mobile games market is just a swamp, and people who want a more meaningful experience than a time waster puzzle game, or a cash grab gatcha game, are kind of left out in the cold. Maybe this is the legacy games companies seeing an opportunity, all it would take to smash that opportunity is for the mobile phone games market to start being… not awful.
I think people just go for the cheaper option which coincides with being a mobile form factor. If Sony thinks they can be more expensive than the switch they are mistaken.
It’s a very interesting trend, it seems like companies are convinced that this form factor is the future, that consumers will choose something with a portable option over something stationary.
I at least like the idea that a console can act as both. I just can’t get behind this form factor of “handheld” consoles that are so large. Like, yeah, I can hold it in my hands. But a steam deck, or even a switch aren’t exactly easy to carry around.
Not in the way that my old DS or GBA could. Hell, there’s a reason I do most of my handheld gaming on a Miyoo Mini Plus. The idea of taking a full console experience with me, on the go, was a neat idea when I was 10. But those kinds of games just don’t lend themselves to riding the bus, or sitting in the doctors office waiting room.
Something like the steam deck or the original switch were probably on the upper end of meaningfully “portable” in that sense, and even they can’t really compete with smartphones on that front. But with the currently available chips/batteries/screens, you cannot really get much smaller without starting to limit the games that can be played on them.
There is a whole other conversation to be had about game optimization and the push in large parts of the games industry towards more power intensive games. If the PC/console games space had an incentive to better optimize for lightweight devices, that could change. Especially if something shifted on the smartphone storefront market that created more demand for better less exploitative games there.
you cannot really get much smaller without starting to limit the games that can be played on them
Games should probably be shorter, with worse graphics, if I’m being honest ¯_(ツ)_/¯
the problem with the mobile game market is that it is aggressively opposed to any kind of premium experience. Time and again, the market has proven that they are not willing to pay very much upfront for a premium gaming experience. Games that try to charge a “premium” price like $10 or $20 tend to suffer for the choice to charge that much. You’ve seen attempts to address this problem (like Apple Arcade), and they’ve seen moderate success, but it doesn’t seem to be changing the overall shape of the market. App stores are still full of free-to-play slop because that is what gets the most downloads and plays and positive reviews.
I find a big impetus to mobile games (on phones) is the interface. Touch screens absolutely SUCK for most games. Holding a rectangle is uncomfortable.
Its interesting to me that playstation isn’t new to the mobile market.
They’ve had the accessories for the psOne to add a battery and monitor, the psp, and the psvita. They are one of the companies I’d be interested in another mobile platform.
How much of it is that no one is willing to pay 20 or 30 dollars for a mobile game, and how much is it that anyone willing to pay is unable to find them, or has just given up on the segment entirely.
Of course the mobile store fronts have no incentive to increase the visibility, because a free to play game is liable to make them significantly more money in the long term due to their cut of each micro transaction.
PC game and console storefronts are full of free to play slop, but they’re not the first thing people are shown, even when they are popular. They make an active effort to highlight quality games, and thus users willing to pay for them can actually find them.
There is a lot to be said of the atrocious design of mobile application storefronts.
Steam mostly prioritizes what makes them money, and free to play games don’t on PC
But, they do for mobiles, because mobile app storefronts force micro transactions to go the through them and they take a significant cut on each one. The 30% apple tax for example.
So they have a huge incentive to put F2P slop front and center which other storefronts on other devices don’t. In the context of steam, they do make money on the micro transitions of games that valve owns, but they make more money selling everyone else’s games over all, so they still have a reasons to show those.
It’s not so much saying that other storefronts are angles who love their customer, but more that their incentive structures are aligned differently.
If there were significant shake up in the mobile storefront market, or in terms of how they can make money, there might be a shift in they type of content they push.
There really aren’t that many premium experiences on mobile that are worth a damn imo. They’re usually just ports of games from other platforms that control terribly on a touch screen. For me to be willing to pay for a mobile game it has to be a good game and a good fit for the platform. Apart from Balatro not much comes to mind.
I would really like to see a company go back and make unique handhelds. Handhelds have become portable consoles, which is cool, but I miss the unique games that were built around limitations or unique hardware like the DS and 3ds.
Also I would really like a handheld that doesn’t hurt when you hold it for extended periods of time.
Playdate definitely takes advantage of its limitations
Ohh man i want a playdate! They’re kind of expensive, but they seem so cool.
What exactly are they looking to be able to achieve, though? How are they expecting to make a powerful handheld machine which improves on the PS5 AND the Steamdeck?
About time. The PSP and Vita were beautiful devices that gave a great playing experience. Sony obviously knew how to make a good portable, and throwing that away was a big mistake.
Vita was a little too ahead of it’s time - trying to use psn without consistent network traffic was awful.
You shouldn’t need to reconnect just to see if you have messages. Hopefully they don’t require propriety memory or abandon the unit months after release either
Imo the biggest failure of the vita was the egregiously priced proprietary memory cards. Outrageously expensive for very little space. Made the value proposition compared to the post price drop 3ds (which used micro SDS) a no brainer unfortunately
Honestly the biggest failure IMO, was because like usual, they didnt actually support it after release. I’ve fallen for this one too many times with Sony, but no more. Whenever Sony releases something other than their mainstream products, they immediately stop developing for it and basically rely on a bunch of third parties. Who usually give up shortly thereafter when they notice the dwindling support.
My vita is collecting dust with my PSVR, my PS proprietary headphones, and all the other useless shit Sony has released over the years.
Eh. I’d argue they were actually pretty supportive of the first psvr and the PSP. Psvr 2 and vita though? Totally agree
They didn’t support either VR’s. Most of the titles for PSVR were third party, there was very little AAA support after the first few months around it’s release. Two years later it was dust and echos, just like PSVR2 (Blood & Truth arguably an exception, but I also believe it was still released within that two year window).
Idk I mean SIE published 46ish? games on psvr 1. That’s a pretty decent amount for niche unproven tech
I recently dug up my vita and installed CFW out of boredom. With the built-in PSP and PSX emulation, decent retroarch support and a fair few source ports, it’s quite a respectable retro handheld these days. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend sourcing one over say, an anbernic unit, but if you already have it, it’s a fairly easy jailbreak and worth the effort IMO.
Is this gonna be another huge handheld?
Interesting that the article doesn’t mention the Steamdeck and the explosion of portable PC gaming devices as well. The Switch opened the market, but the Steamdeck expanded it and showed there was room for competition.
That’s because that market is still niche. It’s “exploding” relative to the population of PC gamers, but outside of that circle, people still find the Switch more appealing than any of those options. Certainly there are people out there for whom the Steam Deck is obviously better than the Switch, but those people are a niche within a niche. Small fries compared to the Switch audience that Sony is eyeing.
Yeah, isn’t the Switch very close to becoming the highest selling console of all-time or something?
PC handhelds are booming, but the Switch is on a completely different level.
Switch 2 was the fastest selling console of all time in the US and has sold roughly 75% more than s1 at this point in its life
Revival of the PSP, fucking finally?
But instead of exclusive titles it’s all ugly ports, basically like 90% of the Switch library.
At this point in time, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
So, another Vita?
Too little, too late, probably. I love my Vita and my PSPs though, so I might be interested. If it’s affordable.
Not exactly. “Nintendo-Switch-style” means it would be part of the PS6 stack, like any game that releases on console PS6 would also have to work on handheld PS6. And docking=the device runs in a higher power mode.
Yeaaaaa, I’ll believe it when I see it. That sounds incredibly unlikely.
Yeah I don’t blame ya. Sony has dropped the ball on a lot of side hustles in the past. PSVR2 is just the most recent one.
Exactly. Nintendo is sort of known for crazy overcommitment. They really commit to the bit, wherever the wackiness takes them. Two screens? All in. Funky controller for 3 handed people? Ship it. Nunchucks? Say no more.
Moving their entire line to a single portable device was probably one of their safer bets.
Sony though, everything is very much a slight twiddle of the prior version, and as you say, the side hustles all end up in the bin - sometimes with very little notice.
…so a portable PlayStation. docking isn’t really anything different from just plugging it in.
stupid articles just using company names to generate clicks. literally nothing to do with tendo
Handhelds that you can optionally plug into a TV to use the TV screen for and have higher specs in that mode aren’t exactly the norm.
