What? EA has been into casual development since forever, they never were 100% hardcore. The Sims? Sports? Hello? Not to mention any one company focusing on whatever it is they think they will benefit the most from doesn't exclude big picture coexistence. And when did this become a casual vs core thing as opposed to handhelds vs smartphones, tablets and the like? Or is Nintendo 100% hardcore or something now

Guy on GAF (quoted in a news story). It's a good point.

“You also have a lot of western journalists that never took handheld gaming seriously. They just didn’t. So for them, iOS portable gaming is all they know, and because they were not that interested in the PSP and DS, and never experienced the vast catalog of brilliant games, they just continue to [be] ignorant.


If I’m a writer that never played much on the DS or PSP but I do own an iPhone, and because I don’t view handheld gaming as something of value, the iOS device is fantastic.


But, if you ever spent any real time playing the great PSP and DS games then you cannot make the mental gymnastics needed to believe the stuff being written. …”

It is time to detail my viewpoint about this topic. I think there is some overlap in competition between smartphones and handhelds. The advantage of smartphones is that you have them always with you. If you wait for a bus or if you sit on a bench in the park. It does not matter where you are you always have your phone with you. So you always will be able to play quick time wasters. So in this scenario they have the handhelds beat. But will they make dedicated handhelds obsolete, like the timer on mobile phones have made watches obsolete? Will dedicated handhelds become like watches a mere fashion accesory?

The answer to that is not quite yet. There are still some differences between handhelds and smartphones that work in favour of the handhelds.

• Interface: touch screen is nice and motion sensing is nice, but the lack of buttons is really limiting. The 3DS and Vita have all the control options of the smartphones, but they also have buttons and sticks and d-pads. How would you play a game like Mario on the iPhone, or Street Fighter or any FPS? Almost impossible and not much fun. This means that the handhelds are able to provide a wider variety of games because they have a much more flexible input system. Handhelds are not like a PC or a console where you can get an extra joystick with buttons, what you get on the device is what you have to use for the remainder of the smartphones/handhelds life.

• Market: the smartphones have realy nailed the market with cheap one dollar games, but I am not convinced that pricier games can flourish there. How would a $40,- game sell? Why is that important? Because a 40 dollar game can have more content that a single dollar app. The meatier games simple cost more money to develop and therefore it would require a higher price. The Vita and 3DS have an online part where you can buy cheap games. It is nowhere near the level of the iStore, but I think it is easier to put cheap games on Vita/3DS then putting a 40 dollar game on the iStore. I think we will see lots of cheaper games that will come on iPhone/3DS/Vita/Android, but we will not see the 40 dollar games on the Android/iPhone ever. I think however that there is a gap in pricing. We have 1 dollar downloadable games, 10 dollar bigger downloadable games, 40 dollars retail game. I would like to see more 20 and 30 dollar games.

Of course you might say: "Iga you handsome stud who can satisfy my wife better than I could ever hope so, but this only matter to hardcore gamers, the casuals do not care about this stuff." And I would say casuals like accebility. New Super Mario Bros uses buttons and casuals would hate to control that with a touch screen. And you know why? Because it is easier and works better with buttons. It is simply not fun with a touch screen. Also I think it is a misunderstanding that casuals will only pay cheap prices for their games. As long as the content justifies the price the casuals will but it. The casuals bought Wii Sports Resort by the 10s of millions and they bought it for full price. Why? The game is packed and you get the WM+. Selling WPR for 1 dollar is and never will be feasible. Also Just Dance sold really well with no accesory, so it is not required to sell well.

I think consoles have a further advantage that neither PCs and smartphone/handhelds have, the party atmosphere. What made the Wii such an success was the local multiplayer. You had lots of people visiting your house and you have an awesome time by playing Wii Sport together, followed by Mario Kart. This is simply not as easy with smartphones, because having multiple people staring at their own handheld screen is not as fun.

Also you might claim that technical convergence might eventually make handheld obsolete. I would say it works both ways. Technical convergence means that certain technologies move to the same point. It is true that phones get more and more features, like camera, games and what not, but the same is true for handhelds. Even Nintendo the bastion of gameplay has camera's, video playback, internet browsing on their 3DS. The Vita has everything, you can even use it as phone thanks to Skype.

There are challenges in the future. You need an interface and form factor that is beneficial for playing games and using it as a phone. Pulling a Vita on your ear is stupid and it won't fit your pocket anyways. Maybe a clamshell design like the DS, but with an extra simple touch screen on the outside? So if someone calls you, you put something that looks like a fat iPhone on your ear. This screen could also be used for simple time wasters. If you want to play seriously you open the clamshell. But it does not matter in the long run. Apple will be bankrupt as soon as I invent my smartwatch with a cutting laser and powerful magnet. Glasses will be used to play games in 3D or augmented reality. There is also Nintendo's no glasses handheld that required a cybernetic eye surgery.