The 3DS was supposed to be the talk of the town when it came out. It was supposed to be the next DS in terms of changing the face of gaming and drawing in new audiences. The PSVita was supposed to be the PSP on steroids and become an even bigger threat to Nintendo’s handheld market reign. Yet neither have really set a strong tone in the current generation. Who might be at fault? Nintendo? Sony? Not quite, but actually Apple.
Apple has changed the entire spectrum of the handheld gaming industry by showcasing that you can indeed have fun and provide excellent gaming on the go-------at extremely small prices. Angry Birds practically exploded but not because of the gameplay but much more because of the pricing. You practically get a full-length video game at a tiny fraction of the price of your typical DS/PSP game. Draw Something has become the latest smash and is connecting people throughout the nation (and has created some nice, nice art). While Apple has never once stated they are in the handheld gaming war, you bet your arse that their impact is still felt with 35 million IPhones sold and 12 million IPads sold in the last quarter.
Compare that to PSVita’s current sales figure: barely 2 million TOTAL since its release. This might be the last extremely profitable handheld generation in gaming. The DS sold 151 million copies, the GBA sold 81 million, and even the PSP managed a respectable 73 million. Do you honestly expect the 3DS and PSVita to reach these types of numbers? When phones, Apple products, Droids, and tablets are cranking out games just as consistent and at cheaper prices? Impossible, there’s no way. Even with the 3DS outpacing the DS’s first year in sales, there’s no way they could keep that up unless they virtually explode in software for the next five years.
Can this be fixed?
Yes, but it requires swallowing a few pride pills, and a total adjustment in strategy.
In order for these handhelds to compete and not get defeated by cheaper thrills, they need to actually provide some of the cheaper thrills themselves and then combine that with their usual flare of software. We are talking about your dollar/two-dollar games similar in style and addictiveness of Angry Birds. While Sony hasn’t had much of a history with your small fry addictive games, Nintendo has had a very underrated history with small unsung easy-to-learn games with their 1989-1991 Game Boy beginnings.
Why couldn’t Nintendo throw in $1 Tennis, Golf, Tetris, Tetris Attack, Faceball, Game and Watch games? Yes some are available in Virtual Console but if you really want to draw appeal away from the more expensive-yet-appealing Apple products, wouldn’t releasing Game Boy masterpieces at a buck sweeten the deal? Why couldn’t Nintendo also release $1 packages of extra levels for games already released like Star Fox, Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus, etc.? That would strengthen the longevity of the game and the system itself.
And Sony (They are such a mess nowadays), your PSN Network already has a history of independent games, drawing into the past, and app imitations. Why haven’t you pushed for more cheap products, services, and software on your Vita? Not sure if Sony knows this, but they currently have a less than 10% share in the handheld market. Not sure Sony isn’t flipping out right now.
Lastly, both must become more connected to the social networking of the internet. Sony and Nintendo needs to connect to Myspace (Stop laughing, its still sort of alive), Twitter, and especially Facebook---which is approaching a billion profiles. Pretty much everything handheld nowadays is connected to some type of social site—it’s time the 3DS and Vita start doing the same. Apple actually (mildly secretly) allows for you to chat and text people around the world without a phone contract of any sort. Why can’t Nintendo or Sony pursue this? Despite what the handheld life used to be, nowadays handheld systems need to start behaving more like the Swiss-army knife phones and behave and function in multiple ways outside of its main purpose.
Bottom Line: While the PSVita is dying slowly and the 3DS is losing slight steam, Apple can be seen making incredible profits and applications extending throughout the phones and tablets are giving dozens of indie companies life and a way to make ripples in the technological industry. Unless Sony and Nintendo change their ways and try to imitate more of the “Cheap is Good” economic style of the sort-of competitors, then it’s going to be darn-near impossible to make a profit in the future. All it took was one month and Angry Birds Space has been downloaded 10 million times. Am I saying that Nintendo and Sony should drop their $30-$40 software in favor of $5 games? No, but they should push an effort to offer more economical prices. If handhelds not even involved with gaming are offering $1 games, why couldn’t you do the same?
Draw Something for the 3DS. It is that simple a solution.
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