Gamers Abandoning DS, PSP In Favor of Smartphones 305
donniebaseball23 writes "IndustryGamers reports on new research from Interpret, which shows that more and more people are turning to their phones for game time, leaving the DS and PSP behind. 43.8% of the phone/DS/PSP gaming market plays games on phones, which represents a significant 53.2% increase over the past year. At the same time, Interpret says that the proportion of those who play on the DS or PSP has fallen by 13%. The company notes, 'Gamers appear to be defecting from their handheld gaming devices to phones to get their gaming kicks: a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s).' Notable games industry analyst Michael Pachter also recently commented that handhelds continue to decline and Sony's much rumored PSP2 would be 'dead on arrival' as smartphones continue to gain steam."
D-pad (Score:4, Insightful)
This might work for some genres but the staples of gaming, platformers, shooters, etc, require the precise control of a d-pad.
Counterpoints (Score:5, Insightful)
Regardless, I own a Motorola DROID and until they release games like "Zelda: Spirit Tracks" for my phone, I'll need my DS.
I would speculate that this is growth of the gaming market and not replacement like the summary seems to imply. I can't argue with the numbers but my gut would say that people who game on their phones do so on both devices. And nobody's going around buying a phone just to play games on so the DS & PSP still fill that market exclusively from cellphones.
a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s).
I'm not saying this quote is wrong but I am awfully suspect of that figure. They claim an online sample size of 9,000 [interpretllc.com] but they don't say how many of those actually own both a gaming phone and PSP/DS. I would be interested in the hard numbers.
Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
Correction: Some regular people (not gamers) are turning to their smartphones for gaming. Gamers are people that have a discerning taste for games. Smartphone game quality is lacking (as are controls) when compared to a dedicated mobile gaming device. I've tried several smartphone games, and they are little more than time wasters. You play them a few times, and probably forget about them in a week. There are several titles for PSP that I actually make time to play. There are NO mobile phone/smartphone games I will MAKE time to play.
Ah, statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
So the percentage of handheld gaming conducted on solely gaming device fell.
What this doesn't prove is that gamers are "abandoning" the DS and PSP.
It could just as likely mean that the pool of handheld devices that are game capable has exploded.
If you had 150M handheld gaming devices back when phones sucked for gaming, and now there's a billion total - with 200M being dedicated devices and 800M being smartphones that can game effectively, then yes - the percentage that's DS/PSP plummets, while the total number still climbs.
Without some actual numbers, I'm skeptical that it's wholesale abandonment. The growth of the pool is far more likely to me.
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
So already I can't get popular titles to run on my kick ass workstation with high end graphic cards and monitors. To play them I would have to buy a crappy console and hook it up to my mediocre TV.
Now, people want to move from that to playing on a phone?
Seems we are going backwards here.
Re:D-pad (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. The D-pad (along with the digital joystick) are the most precise input mechanisms around. They allow you to go in precisely 8 directions at precisely one speed with no error. And you can change between them instantaneously.
Compare an analog joystick that allows you to move in many directions, but with more error. If you want to move at 45 degrees, you might end up going at 40 degrees and having to correct. It also takes time to sweep the joystick from one direction to another, and all those intermediate values are sent as input.
Don't get me wrong, analog controls are useful too, but you wouldn't want to play MegaMan with them.
Re:That became clear to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Both myself and my son are gamers, so yes i'm biased. However, saying that the kids are all crowded around a demo ipad playing games means nothing. Its new, they most likely don't have one at home and excited because its the latest and greatest toy. When my son goes to the games store he stuck on whatever Wii title they are demo'ing... Half the time we have the damn thing at home and he doesn't touch it.
I brought an ipad home from work for 2 weeks. Both my kids (gamer son, daughter) constantly used it the first few days. 2 weeks later I was the only one using it regularly and not for games. My son quickly reverted back to the DS, PSP, XBOX or PS3 to play games. Up until I brought an ipad home my daughter had a fund saving up for one. I think she spent it on clothes since then.. I haven't heard a peep.
There are a few games that perfectly suit an ipad. I have a few puzzle games, line tracing games, etc. but other than that, any serious gamer is going to have a portable gaming device or a console. Can't wait to play me some Black Ops on an iPad, not....
I have an iPhone and yes I play games on it but they are timewasters. I've tried the ones with the virtual keyboard/buttons and quite honestly it sucks. You end up missing because there is no tactile feed back, your finger blocks the screen because you pulled the joystick to far, end up dying, etc.
These people playing games on their smartphone probably would probably never buy a portable gaming device.