So this month has been quite an exciting one for me and my fellow technophiles ( people who enjoy tech, not some form of electronically enhanced sex offender) with Nintendo announcing the release date of the highly anticipated 3DS and Sony unveiling their brand new portable console which is currently got the project name of Next Generation Portable. So the future seems bright for portable gaming, or does it (and by that I mean No, it doesn't.).
I could use this blog to talk about the new devices, speculating on what they will be like without actually experiencing it. I could quote the specs for both devices and compare them with each other and what's around, but I think that would be a bigger waste of time than watching ITV (with the exception of the football). You see my biggest issue with portable gaming is that in my opinion it's as obsolete as the newspaper industry (Everyone knows that its a dead format except the people making them). I realize I'm making these statements based on old portable consoles (Nintendo DS & PSP) but my understanding of portable gaming is that it's a games device you can take everywhere. That's fine both are capable of doing that but I can't remember the last time I was on the tube, bus or train and I saw someone playing a PSP or DS. I've not even seen an advert for the DS where someone is using it outside of their home. I believe the reason for this is the mobile phone. The main difference between now and 1990 ( the European release date for the original gameboy) is the rise of the mobile phone. Mobile phones today are incredible, they are basically small computers that can also from time to time make and receive phone calls and text messages. The hardware that gets packed into a phone these days is a scaled down version of what we used to get in computers only a couple of years ago. The operating software such as Google's Android and Apple's iOS is so incredibly quick and intuitive, that using mobile phones is not the chore it once was (I'm looking at you here, Nokia. Seriously I am never buying a Nokia phone ever again, but I can save that for another blog.) the apps that you can download today are amazing, there pretty much is an app for everything. The games you can download from Google Market place or Apple's app store are simply fantastic. The point I'm trying to make here is why on earth would I bother taking an extra portable device with me, when my iPhone has a pretty decent selection of games, I don't need to bother with cartridges all the games are on my phone already and if not I can always download them (network permitting). Another issue for me is cost, the new 3DS is going to cost £230, the current DSi XL costs around £150 and so does the PSP go. Is it really worthy spending such money on a device that essentially does one thing (I'm fully aware that you can take photos on the DS and you can watch movies on the PSP, but my phone does all that and more.) . Then there is the cost of the games, a brand new DS or PSP game can cost as much as £35 (3DS games rrp is £39.99) so essentially I can buy FIFA 11 for the DS for £30 but I could also get the iPhone version which is not too dissimilar for £2.99 from the app store. A phone is a hell of a lot easier to pull out and play a game on compared to a portable console, there's hardly any loading time and if my phone does get nicked it's insured (I'm also aware that you can insure a portable console, but who does that?).
I'm not saying portable consoles are all bad but there is a few things that they need to work on in order to make me interested. Firstly out of all the games I've played, only one PSP game (One of the smackdown games) let me carry on a game from a home console (PS2), I would be the first one in line to buy Sony's latest device if it allowed me to carry on a season mode from FIFA and play it out and about, even if the graphics and game play are slightly different being able to take my games with me is a dealmaker. With tablet devices being last years biggest gadget and with many more on the way, can the portable console really make a come back? Only time will tell, but it's safe to say it's going to be an exciting year for gadget fans like me. Sorry if this one is a bit more serious than usual, hopefully will be writing something a bit funnier soon.
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