Loose Threads: Is there space for another handheld?

Though people might consider handheld gaming a niche area, we have our hands more than full here at Pocket Gamer, with easily twice as many formats to cover than our peers in the home console gig.

But that's not to say we don't want another handheld gaming force to enter the arena and bless us with an even heavier workload. Having a social life is overrated anyway (or so we hear - none of us has had one since the App Store launched).

But with so many formats to choose from already (DS, PSP, mobile, N-Gage, iPhone) is there room for another handheld console? That's the question we asked you last week, and this is what you had to say.

Quick off the mark as always was hunter_alien with this set of observations:

"Yes there is. At least for bigger companies like Microsoft or Apple. Others like Gamepark or Tiger will probably remain low-end producers, and will fall out from the 'race' (if we can even consider them competitors), but for somebody who has as much money as Apple, Microsoft or Nokia, anything is possible.

"Would this mean that an older handheld would be pushed out? No. The handheld market lately is arguably bigger (in sheer hardware numbers of course) then the console market, and both Sony and Nintendo are doing either great or phenomenal. If let's say Microsoft would come out with a Xboy, or PalmX or whatever it could easily cut a slice from Sony, a smaller slice from Nintendo and there you go, you already have a market big enough to secure 3rd party development for it."

Are you sure about that? The PSP has shifted millions of units but third party developers aren't exactly queueing up at the moment. Sorry, we interrupted you:

"The truth is that handhelds are extremely appealing for both hardcore and softcore gamers, and if you manage to get close to 10 per cent of those you are already sitting on a gold mine. Take the recent iPhone sales and the effect on the DS/PSP sales. There was no effect, and we all know that the iPhone is selling big time, especially in the US. So would another corporation's entrance force one of the grandfathers out? Hell no, it would just make the hand-held market even more competitive and thus even better."

Such optimism, but there are still loads of questions to address. SetsFireToPoshHammer obliged with some answers:

"Why not?

"I mean, mobiles, the iPhone and the N-Gage arguably occupy a separate consumer space to that occupied by the DS and the PSP, which are essentially the portable counterparts to the home console business. And as hunter_alien points out, if the home console market can support three dominant formats with fewer overall hardware sales than the handheld sector, then there's definitely a slice left for another dedicated gaming machine to come in a gobble up.

"The market share is completely skewed in favour of the DS anyway (which is the most gaming centric handheld out there), so a competitor could easily encroach on that turf while still allowing Nintendo to turn a healthy profit. The question I can't answer is what a new handheld console would need to do to win over consumers already happy with what's out there."

That prompted a swift riposte from the often absent Accelorata Jengold:

"What would it need to do to differentiate itself from the competition?

"Does it need to? As you say the bases are already covered but that hasn't stopped the PS3 and the 360 existing in the same space, offering near identical gaming experiences. Something that handhelds haven't nailed yet is the FPS (though the DS does a decent enough job).

"If a game-centric handheld with a control set up that allowed for some decent FPS action surfaced, it could do very well. Obviously Microsoft is the king of the FPS in the console world but I have a feeling that if it ever releases a gaming handheld, it will be a 'do all' device much like the PSP."

With the debate heating up, it was down to a cool, calm and collected certain someone to swoop in and temper the discussion:

"Two things: could a console manufacturer pin all of its hopes on one genre, and are FPS games really what handheld gamers are after?

"The DS is great because it has created a whole new raft of handheld genres and playing styles. You can only reinvent the wheel so many times, but I don't know if a handheld that attempts to do what consoles do best is really the answer. If someone could button down a handheld that you could use to remotely play already popular PC MMOs in some form however…"

Whoops, looks like I've opened another can of worms there entirely. But that's okay, the debate never ends in our forum so if you have something to add, you what to do.

After that heated exchange, we need to switch gears a bit. On with next week's topic:

Should Apple have a first party game studio?

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