Smartphone vs. Handheld

[Brian]

I found this article from slashdot:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/biggest-threat-to-the-3ds-and-playstation-vita-your-smartphone.ars

And I'm finding that I generally agree....  I could easily see the handheld developers just moving to sell smartphone games instead of real ones.  That should actually be a huge benefit for the industry, given their typical complaints about piracy and used game sales, right?

I can see they'd be angry about losing money on hardware sales ... but don't they typically eat a loss on those anyway?

I strongly suspect that we're going to get one, maybe two more generations of handhelds before they give up the ghost and move to distributing their games at the apple/android stores.  Nintendo alone may fight this by trying to add new features that phones don't have ... but it's not like phone manufacturers aren't already in the business of adding new features whenever possible anyway.

I'll say ... within the next five years, we'll be down to a single handheld that isn't a smartphone.  What does the rest of SR think?

[thepanda]

I don't want a phone with a D-pad.

I don't want a handheld without one.

So, yeah, I don't see nintendo giving up the ghost anytime soon. As for sony, I haven't got a clue. The psp is a pretty rockin' device, but they haven't exactly followed that up with gold. Too many old fogies like to own there games.

[Brian]

Playing the role of devil's advocate to promote discussion (not pick a fight).

That's true, but here's an almost purely financial angle to consider:

The handheld manufacturer is asking for around 30$+ for a game.  Most apple store/android games run for under 10$, and quite a few are free (or have free demos).

I can see quite a few users being willing to adapt beyond a dpad for the price point, and most gametypes would probably not suffer greatly.  Some will suffer horribly, most especially any of the traditional approaches to twitch-gaming.

[thepanda]

The handheld manufacturer is asking for around 30$+ for a game.  Most apple store/android games run for under 10$, and quite a few are free (or have free demos).

I can see quite a few users being willing to adapt beyond a dpad for the price point, and most gametypes would probably not suffer greatly.  Some will suffer horribly, most especially any of the traditional approaches to twitch-gaming.

On the other hand, the sheer glut of crappy games in said store are going to be a turn off. Angry Birds is an outlier, not the standard. Paying $30 for thirty games seems like the better deal, but can you even name 30 ap games you'd want to play for more than an hour?

As for touch screen directional function, I have big fingers. Unless the phone market decides to bring back the stylus I cannot play many games on them with any level of accuracy.

And then you have you games getting interrupted for incoming calls, battery-life problems, security issues. . .

[Brian]

On the other hand, the sheer glut of crappy games in said store are going to be a turn off. Angry Birds is an outlier, not the standard. Paying $30 for thirty games seems like the better deal, but can you even name 30 ap games you'd want to play for more than an hour?

Well, I'll admit no, but send that back at you:

Can you name that many handheld games you'd want to play for more than an hour?  I don't think I can.  (This could just be me.)

As for touch screen directional function, I have big fingers. Unless the phone market decides to bring back the stylus I cannot play many games on them with any level of accuracy.

I believe you can use a stylus with almost any smartphone/touchscreen I know of.

And then you have you games getting interrupted for incoming calls, battery-life problems, security issues. . .

Well, battery life problems are going to be a factor anyway.  But aside from just phones, keep in mind the android and apple markets also serve to tablets.  That expands the audience and potential quite a bit.

Games getting interrupted by calls could be an issue, but mobile games are typically supposed to pause themselves when that happens.

I think the biggest problems would be things like a game manufacturer deciding the investment in time is only worth it for one market (IE., apple or android).  That kind of actually would relegate the smartphone market to a secondary handheld market anyway....

[thepanda]

"Can you name that many handheld games you'd want to play for more than an hour?  I don't think I can.  (This could just be me.)"

Yeah, actually. Even though I've traded in/lost most of them I still have games for the original gameboy, gamegear, neogeo pocket, gb advance, ds, psp, and for some reason a wonderswan game. >_>

Hell, I think I still have, like, ten pokemon games alone.

And while we're talking money, we cannot forget phone bills. I by my dedicated gaming handheld and that's it. I buy a phone and I'm stuck with monthly fees.

"I believe you can use a stylus with almost any smartphone/touchscreen I know of."

Everyone I know with a touch phone is heat sensitive. A small sample size, admittedly.

"Well, battery life problems are going to be a factor anyway."

But not in the same way. I can play my ds until it runs down and miss nothing important. If the phone runs down you might miss that job interview or emergency call or whatever.

[Brian]

Hmm, I think that points out a split between the more serious and casual gamers.  I've lost my old gameboy library ... and I think I gave the Neo Geo Pocket away a long time ago.

...sad that I've become a casual.

Anyway, looking at this somewhat more objectively, I think we can see both sides.  Now for the most important question:

Which market can offer bigger profits?  I'm thinking new developers are going to choose mobile markets over traditional handheld.  Well, we'll see!

...I'd still like to see even one good RPG for the iPad.  Rimelands is only okay, and has some serious balance issues with some builds.

[thepanda]

So we're basically arguing micropayments? If 10000 people purchase a $1 game then you make $10000. And the cost of development isn't as high as even a ds game. And you don't have to worry about a second hand market cutting unto profits. And the cheep cost might get people to pay that wouldn't purchase a full priced game. Easy entry into the market.

On the other limb, no quality control, security issues, the ease of entry into the marketplace means your game gets lost in a flood of other titles, and I don't even know how they advertise. I've heard of Angry Birds and Flowers vs Zombies via word of mouth. I haven't heard of ANY other must have app games. At all. And wasn't there some brouhaha about people copying someone's games and putting them on the marketplace as there own?

[Brian]

Yeah, but that's not a problem specific to smartphone marketplaces, you see that with the Xbox marketplace, too.

There should be quality control, but that's ultimately decided by the manager of the market (Ie., Google, Apple, Microsoft).  So, some markets might end up being better than others.

We probably will get a lot more advertising for app games if they become mainstream(er).

[Dracos]

Smartphones are replacing phones.

Phones are generally seen as a necessity.  Game handhelds as an option.  Everyone has a phone number.  Everyone has a cell phone.

And one day soon, everyone will have a smartphone, because that will be the only phone type they bother to manufacture.  The market for a phone that isn't a GPS with cellular and wireless internet functionality will become irrelevant.

Because of this, the phone game market is going to be a bigger player than the handheld game market.  It possibly already is in currency exchanged.

I dunno about the single handheld thing.  Really don't.  But hey, reality will be what it will be.

[Jon]

panda, there's Infinity Blade, and (depending on your tolerance of hipsterism) Sword and Sworcery. And of course, you can pay $16 to get an iPhone-only port of Final Fantasy Tactics!

I find it amusing that Brian is to some extent reiterating Penny Arcade.

[Brian]

Eh, it seems a logical enough argument.  Hadn't actually read that one, though.