Will Sony ever make another handheld?

Despite mobile gaming being around, and the Vita doing badly, do you think Sony will ever try their hand at a portable system?

Maybe the graphics will even be above the PS3 next time.

I personally think there'd be no point, because the only way it'd see the light of day is by doing tons of re-releases from the PS3 onto the vita.

You could argue the PSN store would be filled with a lot of PS2 and PS3 titles, and possibly even some exclusives MADE for the system, but I don't see it doing very well, because, like the vita, its very expensive to develop for.

I know this is gonna be brought up, so I'm just going to say it now, I doubt Nintendo will ever stop making games.

I think that they have 2 or even 3 more handhelds left in their life cycle.

That's if there is a market for handhelds anymore. There might not be.

There is a demand for handhelds, the offer is what is currently lacking.

That said, Sony will never make a handheld again.

Originally posted by Smasandian
That's if there is a market for handhelds anymore. There might not be.

No sane person would choose permanent mobile gaming over handheld gaming, no hardcore gamer.

Even the Nvidia Shield is considered a handheld and not a mobile gaming device, so I think handhelds have a chance.

Hardcore gamers don't sell systems. It's the casual and what I call core.

Look at sales figures. The 3DS is selling 50% less than the DS. Handheld market is drying up. Mobile gaming is taking that over.

Originally posted by Smasandian
Hardcore gamers don't sell systems. It's the casual and what I call core.

Look at sales figures. The 3DS is selling 50% less than the DS. Handheld market is drying up. Mobile gaming is taking that over.

It outsold ALL of Nintendos consoles, including the NES, SNES, and the N64.

Mobile Gaming dominating is not going to really change the landscape of Handhelds, imo.

People aren't gonna be like "Well, I got a phone, so I don't need that stupid 3DS".

Mobile Games aren't going to kill Nintendo's handhelds.

But they are gonna kill Sony's.

Except if you look at the sales totals. Out of the top 10 platforms, 4 of them are handhelds (DS, GameBoy,GBA,PSP).

While 3DS is doing well, it's not close to any of the those (still needs to sell 30 million copies to reach GBA and PSP).

And you are completely wrong, people are saying they don't need a handheld because they have a phone/tablet. I do. Why wouldn't it? I can get PC games on my tablet. You can play XCOM for **** sakes. That's crazy. Way better than any dedicated handheld can do.

And forgetting, and you always forget, what platform would developers want? A platform with 50 million consoles, or platforms with billions. It's also much cheaper to develop for it.

It might not kill there handheld business but it's not the same. Hell, people have been saying mobile games will kill the console business.....

Again you're working into the premise that handhelds aren't going to be compatible with computer/mobile games in the future to some degree. There might be a small market for handhelds by themselves, but there is a very solid offer of people who want to produce mid-budget games that actually make some money back.

The third party developpers have been keeping the 3DS alive because it's a good investment of their resources.

Originally posted by Smasandian
Except if you look at the sales totals. Out of the top 10 platforms, 4 of them are handhelds (DS, GameBoy,GBA,PSP).

While 3DS is doing well, it's not close to any of the those (still needs to sell 30 million copies to reach GBA and PSP).

And you are completely wrong, people are saying they don't need a handheld because they have a phone/tablet. I do. Why wouldn't it? I can get PC games on my tablet. You can play XCOM for **** sakes. That's crazy. Way better than any dedicated handheld can do.

And forgetting, and you always forget, what platform would developers want? A platform with 50 million consoles, or platforms with billions. It's also much cheaper to develop for it.

It might not kill there handheld business but it's not the same. Hell, people have been saying mobile games will kill the console business.....

Console gaming and Handhelds are never going to go "out of business" because of mobile gaming.

Bill Gates is the richest man on the planet by a LONG shot.

You'd have to play consoles to get certain experiences as well.

Someone with an Xbox One is gonna get a different experience from tablets.

Thats great that you can play XCOM, I'll be playing Smash Bros. on my 3DS, or Persona 4: Golden on my vita.

As long as there are hardcore gamers, handheld gaming will never die

Especially if you're someone like me, who only has Flappy Bird and Final Fantasy: Record Keeper.

Mobiles have good games, but they can't do what handhelds can do.

Also virtual reality is going to be a thing during our lifetimes, that kind of technology demands an easy to use console set up in order to become a relevant mass market.

Originally posted by Bentley
Again you're working into the premise that handhelds aren't going to be compatible with computer/mobile games in the future to some degree. There might be a small market for handhelds by themselves, but there is a very solid offer of people who want to produce mid-budget games that actually make some money back.

The third party developpers have been keeping the 3DS alive because it's a good investment of their resources.

Just because developers are willing to produce games for a handheld, they won't if nobody buys it.

I'm not saying handhelds are going to die but mobile gaming on other devices will eat into that. It already has. Look at the DS and PSP numbers as proof. They have huge amounts of sales from NA and EUR. I bet most of those purchasers didn't buy the 3DS and Vita because they have cellphone/tablet that provides the same function.

I agree, but I do think that will push handhelds into a more "tablet friendly" kind of interface or structure. Play actual games and tablet games that are easy to bundle at come at a cheap (enough) price tag for their power.

This isn't entirely bad since it will keep the market from promoting bad products such as throwaway cheap LCD-ish consoles or microgaming gimmicks (which was a possible trend considering connected objects are more and more available).

Integrating console and handheld gaming into mainstream technologies is a good thing for consumers. Instead of paying your access to the PSN you could have it at a discount in your internet bill because Sony made a partnership, and with that they could propose you unexpensive access for online gaming into other products of theirs.

I don't know. That might be killshot against handhelds. If handhelds get more tablet friendly then it becomes a question of "which to buy" and unless handhelds can provide the same type of functionality that tablets, why would anybody buy one?

I think handhelds are only going to last if the demand for Nintendo software continues. If they start releasing on handheld, I think the market is dead.

I think the idea of PSN and Xbox Live subscription with ISPs is a terrible idea. You would start to see greedy ISP's find some way to capitalize on that.