Handheld divisions

[koemo1]

Why is microsoft handheldless? All of the big hardware companies have or had them.
Sega, Nintendo, Sony, Atari, NEC, SNK.
Please someone explain :O

[badATchaos]

They don't want to create competition with their own smart phone apps (games).
Edit: same reason why Nintendo doesn't make smart phone games. It would interfere with their handheld systems/games.

[disgaeniac]

Why is microsoft handheldless?

Decent question - I've wondered the same thing.

[kamikazekeeg]

I'm figuring they see that the handheld market is already overwhelmingly taken over by Nintendo and Sony, though mostly Nintendo.  I don't even think it would be smart of them to do a handheld.  They seem to be doing alright with their windows phones and I would agree with badatchaos, that you can't do both without one hindering the other.  Making a gaming smart phone certainly didn't work for Sony.

[fazerco]

The Nokia Ngage wasnt a succes. But Nokia is now in Microsoft hands, so who knows 

[badATchaos]

I'm pretty sure they were bought for their phones and not the ngage. The Nokia brand is still big in Asia and else were.

[fazerco]

Actually the 'brand' Nokia isnt anymore....... They call them microsoft lumina now......

[instantreplay]

The handheld market is fading quickly with the rise of smartphones. If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

[byron]

If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

[koemo1]

There is a market for handhelds but just not for two, there are many people just looking for the RPG's, mario kart and smash bros for on the go

[instantreplay]

If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

meant to say as well*

[karyann]

The handheld market is fading quickly with the rise of smartphones. If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

I have to respectfully disagree. That's what people have been saying for 4 or 5 years, but I haven't seen such a drop. I, for one, am someone who hates playing games on a small awkward touch screen. I only play on my phone when I have a very short amount of time to kill and don't have time or comfort to whip out my 3DS or Vita.
And on top of awkward gameplay / controls, smartphone games rarely have the depth that handheld games do. Personally, I don't think that smartphone games will ever kill the dedicated-gaming-handheld market, because both are very different and appeal to different audiences. But that's my opinion 

[maximo310]

The handheld market is fading quickly with the rise of smartphones. If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

I have to respectfully disagree. That's what people have been saying for 4 or 5 years, but I haven't seen such a drop. I, for one, am someone who hates playing games on a small awkward touch screen. I only play on my phone when I have a very short amount of time to kill and don't have time or comfort to whip out my 3DS or Vita.
And on top of awkward gameplay / controls, smartphone games rarely have the depth that handheld games do. Personally, I don't think that smartphone games will ever kill the dedicated-gaming-handheld market, because both are very different and appeal to different audiences. But that's my opinion 

I will say that although smartphones will probably continue to eat away at the market, there are factors that will prevent it from completely overtaking handhelds. The biggest one is touch screen controls, and although I seen some companies make really good touch screen controls, the majority are pretty awful and make it hard to perform certain actions when needed. The other problem is that many of the ports of already existing games for the smartphone market don't add anything to the game, and some companies( like SE) will charge $20 for the game, even when the game runs/performs worse than the original cheaper version, and its a market where it doesn't cost very much to put out games compared to other handhelds. I usually only use my phone for smartphone apps and free games/testing stuff on emulators, and its probably going to stay that way until the quality of games in their stores improve.

[burningdoom]

The handheld market is fading quickly with the rise of smartphones. If Nintendo had released the 3ds in the past year or two it would not have sold well.

And why is that? Nintendo has had wildly successful handhelds since their Game & Watches in the 80s.

[fauxshot]

I think others have made a good point concerning the fact that Microsoft mostly seems concerned with phones/tablets. Quite frankly, it's safer to invest in that than to risk developing a handheld that'll run the course of the PS Vita (though I blame that on Sony being stupid more than anything else).

Now, to be clear, Nintendo is thinking about developing apps on mobile devices, but (at the moment, at least) not games (http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/29/5359472/nintendo-investor-briefing-q3-2013).

I would like to think that if Sony could support it's handhelds properly, that they could win back a bit of the handheld market. The actual PS Vita system isn't bad, but it lacks a proper game library (though frankly, I think the same about the 3DS), and perhaps worse than that, promises were made about implemented features that never really were fulfilled. Plus, it was significantly more expensive to get into, thanks to the special memory cards and generally higher price of the system.

I think, ultimately, one of the worst aspects was that they decided to trade off battery life for hardware quality. Battery life and game libraries are, perhaps, the most important aspects that any handheld must have. The Nomad, Game Gear, Lynx, etc. all made this tradeoff, and obviously history tells us the rest. xD Not that this is the only factor, but it remains a very important one.

Not to say that the PS Vita doesn't have good games. But I hardly recognize any of the names, and those that are usually available in the store just don't look very appealing for the price. That, or the ones that DO look good are available on a console, and I kinda hate not to buy the console version instead, since I get a better looking (and sometimes, functioning) experience for the same price or less.

Sorry to go on a Vita rant. xD I really like the system and what it is capable of. Same with the 3DS. But I'm having a hard time finding much of interest for either console like I've been able to with the PSP. There's never much available in store for either system, and aside from a few titles (like Danganronpa), there just isn't much that's... interesting there. It kinda feels like the game libraries have taken a step back since the last generation of handhelds...