Remember the days of Pokemon on the Game Boy? What about a few years earlier, when you played that Tetris handheld or Connect Four in the car while your parents drove\u00a0to grandma’s house?<\/p>\n
Handheld consoles are how gamers got their fix when their PC or consoles where out of reach, but in today’s world of smartphones, tablets, and relentless connectivity, (dedicated) handheld consoles are slowly dying.<\/p>\n
Not only are game ports of an increasingly decent quality landing up on mobile phone and tablet platforms, but game developers like Sony and Microsoft are also punting “companion apps” which let you take your game with you wherever you go.<\/p>\n
Is the age of the dedicated handheld at an end? The signs of the apocalypse may yet be nigh.<\/p>\n
Right off the bat, let’s have a look at sales figures.<\/p>\n
In the last quarter, Nintendo sold about 810,000 Nintendo 3DS consoles, bringing its total to 44.1 million units shipped since launch (1.84% higher from the last quarter). That’s not bad – certainly not a death knell, but also not magestic growth.<\/p>\n
Sony’s PS Vita has also been quite successful in moving units, though not as successfully as it had hoped. The Sony handheld moved 7 million units in its first year, and Sony hoped to sell at least 5 million in the next – but only managed 4.1 million (for a total of 11.1 million).<\/p>\n
Its forecast for this year? A rather big cut back to 3.5 million.<\/p>\n
So the world’s biggest and best handheld console maker is showing teeny-tiny growth – and its closest competitor is cutting back its forecasts.<\/p>\n
Smartphone and tablet sales, however, are on an upward path.<\/p>\n
If we take a look at upcoming titles for the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita, we can also see that developers aren’t exactly queuing to get games onto the two platforms.<\/p>\n
Although there are some highlights there (Pokemon?), it’s not exactly a mind-blowing line up.<\/p>\n