this sort of follows on from a previously closed thread about Minecraft on consoles. Although I'm not looking to dig up the bickering that occurred.

I just watched this video, and it mentioned over a billion pc gamers, and the growing amount of people playing games on their smartphones rather than buying the likes of the PSP and 3DS.

It also touches on the subject of piracy, a previous thread I brought up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9510074.stm

the video certainly gives food for thought that we may, one day, not actually have dedicated consoles (whether hand held, or PS3/360 style) for gaming in the future.

I just watched this video, and it mentioned over a billion pc gamers, and the growing amount of people playing games on their smartphones rather than buying the likes of the PSP and 3DS.

I'm not buying the likes of PSP and 3DS, but that's because I don't like handheld. At all.

the video certainly gives food for thought that we may, one day, not actually have dedicated consoles (whether hand held, or PS3/360 style) for gaming in the future.

diablothe2nd

I don't think so. As popular as mobile gaming is, people would start craving "real" games once it was removed. Where would the graphics go? Where would the massive worlds go? Small indie games and social games are here to stay, yes, but they can't take over the entire gaming industry. The gamers would allow it.

I don't think so. As popular as mobile gaming is, people would start craving "real" games once it was removed. Where would the graphics go? Where would the massive worlds go? Small indie games and social games are here to stay, yes, but they can't take over the entire gaming industry. The gamers would allow it.

Kahr

The technology we use is constantly advancing further and further into the extremes. I wouldn't be surprised if one day we wake up to find that DuoMemory Sticks (or some other device of similar size) can hold terrabytes of information, allowing the larger than life games we crave for now to be played on handheld devices. On the other hand however... The biggest problem with all handheld devices used to play games is their controls. The size they tend to aim for, even when slightly bulky like the old PSP, can't fit enough buttons to have thoroughly engaging game play.

It's okay for casual games and even some of the simpler but still thoroughly hardcore games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter or Soul Calibur can be handled with only a few buttons. But when it comes to the big guns, Strategy, Role Playing and First Person games, you need a lot more dedicated buttons as well as comfortable peripherals to handle movement, aim* and in the case of strategy and role playing games you need a lot of hotkeys for managing units and specific attack orders. There will always be a call for dedicated machines that one can use to control these type of games. Until the day of course where we control games telepathically...

* Keep the peripheral arguments composed or I will hurt you with kittens.

It's okay for casual games and even some of the simpler but still thoroughly hardcore games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter or Soul Calibur can be handled with only a few buttons. But when it comes to the big guns, Strategy, Role Playing and First Person games, you need a lot more dedicated buttons as well as comfortable peripherals to handle movement

actually i've played a few good games on my XDA Pro 2 that fall into those categories. The first is Warfare Incorporated, second, Age of Empires as brilliant RTS games that use the stylus. just tweaking the interface made it more than playable. then for Role Playing there was (sadly now discontinued on the Pocket PC) the mmo Shadow of Legend, again stylus controlled. but the querk of this game is you could play with both pc gamers and other pocket pc'ers at once. Ancient Evil, a diablo type clone game. First person, Pocket Quake ran brilliant! Quake 2 should be now playable on most.

ok so the fps games are ports of old, but considering we've gone from the equivalent of windows 3.11 to windows 95 on pocket pc in a matter of less than a year... and now the kind of hardware being packed into these little things is now way over the 1ghz level i expect the likes of Crysis running on these things within 5 years.

dont forget also, smartphones are shpping with the capablity of being plugged into TVs. my XDA 2 Pro, now almost 3 years old has this function. Bluetooth joypads exist too.. so when you combine a smartphone with power (getting there), 3d accelerators (done), peripherals like joypads (done), tv outputs (done): we're so close now to basically a portable games console

Not in a million years.

Can you play high def with surround sound on a mobile device? No you can't, so there just isn't going to be competition. They will co-exist, and most times probably overlap.

Not in a million years.

Can you play high def with surround sound on a mobile device? No you can't, so there just isn't going to be competition. They will co-exist, and most times probably overlap.

DavH27

you can't right now, but i'm wondering what the future may hold.. given how many leaps and bounds the mobile hardware and software has jumped saying never would be a bit naive, surely?

Mobile phones are fine when it comes to games to entertain you when your not at home, but they are not practical for "Proper" gaming at home.

I don't believe they would ever take over as they are always going to be less powerful. It takes time to shrink the technology down so its small enough to fit into a phone. You also would have the problem of cooling its insides if it ever got powerful(Consoles + PC's have to have fans to keep there insides cool due to the heat generated).

I'm never going to enjoy playing with these handhelds. All huddled over, hunchbacked over a small screen pushing on those damn small buttons and... ugh! No, I'd rather pay 10 times the price for a PC or a console, than play on a mobile phone or a handheld.

I know mobiles are HD now, but I mean there is nothing of equal to a 30 inch plus screen with decent surround sound. Without lugging speakers around or having £200 Bose headphones, you just can't reach it.

No matter how much technology advances, unless they can make a telescopable featherlight screen with mini deployable speakers from the units back case (or something...thinking on my feet here...) it just isn't the same. Tech or not.

No matter how much technology advances, unless they can make a telescopable featherlight screen with mini deployable speakers from the units back case (or something...thinking on my feet here...) it just isn't the same. Tech or not.

DavH27

OLED

"Oh yes. Check out my Nintendo OLED_Triple-Screen_x5000! I'm going to play Mario Kart HD Virtual Drag racing drifting championships whilst commuting on the train. Escuse me people, I need to unfurl my 4meter Organic LED screen and tack it to the train wall so I can beat world 7-3 and beat my friend's mum's Labrador's best lap time and win fifteen cheevos. My Faceitter-osphere cyber buddies are watching my progress and are posting YouTube videos in angst of my lack of updates to my YouTube inter-virtual Griefers-channel.....excuse me mister commuter, would you mind kindly pretending your head is the steering wheel? Jolly good! Allow me to unroll the motion sensor wiring from the back of my Nintendo doodad, attach them to your skull so I can have the fully immersive experience!! Zap! pow! Eat turtle shell, virtual noobzz!!"

In fact, I can see this occurring thanks to crazy people on hackaday.com ...

For me personally, I see "mobile gaming" as a quick boredom relief if I'm stuck with free time out in the world and have no one to talk to. Just something to fill in that "wait time" everyone has... the time between actually doing stuff where you are idle.

Its nothing like PC gaming, where you look forward to the game play, the next level, the next boss battle, etc. Gaming at home is something you WANT to do.

In other words, games on a PC at home are an end-goal; its a thing I look forward to, that I save money to do, that I make time to do, that I look forward to doing, and work towards. Mobile games are just there to fill up time if I am stuck away from the real games I would like to be playing.

Years ago, before cell phones and iPods existed, people filled that 'wait time' with things like reading a newspaper, doing crossword puzzles, talking to people you just met, or daydreaming. Now, everyone has a device in their pocket that has more computing power than NASA used on the moon landings. Its a natural extension to use some of that computing power to relive boredom.

Basically, for me, mobile gaming is not much more than an expensive crossword puzzle while I'm waiting in a doctors office or riding in a car. So, in that respect, mobile gaming won't "take over", it will just be a thing you do to pass time instead of listening to music or talking on the phone. However, the total sales for mobile games might exceed home PC/console games eventually, because they are much cheaper, more accessible, and even if you are not a "gamer", you can figure out things like Angry Birds pretty easily. So, in my opinion, you can't equate total sales or volume of sales with a market segment "taking over" another. That would mean that if mobile games sales suddenly shoot through the roof, home PC/console games stagnate or drop dramatically. I doubt that will happen.

Lol that was awesome: "I play games on my mobile when I'm in between playing on my PC/console. Beep."

Mb0 you crazy!

I got to agree to most of that, however. They both serve different markets, different purposes. It is very rare you have people playing games in thier own home when they also own a gaming PC/console. Unless the game has them hooked.

Easier or intuitive controls or not, both markets will continue to strive and grow. The money spent on both industries will be equals to the technology and/or size of the market. There will probably also be overlap. The earlier occurrence of this that I can think of is with Final Fantasy 8 when you could train your Chocobo on a mobile Tamagotchi style gizmo - Pocketstation. Remember those? Exactly.

No, I'd rather pay 10 times the price for a PC or a console, than play on a mobile phone or a handheld.

"Kahr"

New Mobiles can cost £100-£200. A 3DS with 1 game is about £179.99. A DS is £90-£149 by its self(Price depends on colour).

So they are either not cheaper or they are not cheaper by much. So they are just slightly higher a cost than a crossword puzzle .

Note: I got the mobile prices based on what iv seen(But never bought, i have only ever wanted a phone for well... the phone part, so i just buy an older model). The other prices come from game.co.uk which is a group of high street shops.