And really, people said that phones wouldn’t replace PDAs. They did. People said phones wouldn’t replace CD/MP3 players (and that MP3 wouldn’t replace CD). They did. People said phones wouldn’t replace in car GPS. They are. People said phones wouldn’t replace cameras. They are. People said phones wouldn’t replace portable game consoles…

The mistake people like you keep making is thinking that “better” trumps “convenience”. It doesn’t. It never has. If people can play games on the phone they already have or play better games on some other piece of hardware they have to buy and carry around in addition to the phone, the phone will win. Just like in some of the other segments the dedicated hardware will survive, but as a niche thing for hardcore types that want more then what the phone can do. (The SLR camera market is doing well because for people that want to do serious photography it’s light years ahead of what a phone can deliver thanks to the physics of optics. But there’s no real reason to get a low end point & shoot camera if you have a good phone.)

The casual market? Forget it, there is no chance whatsoever. Nintendo’s software division at this point is hamstrung by their hardware division. If they made Pokemon for phones it’d sell a ton of copies. The market is there if they’d stop being so stubborn and join us in 2012.

So for years they’ve been successful with last gen hardware, thanks to the innovation of motion controllers and is the main reasons why we now see both the competition continuing to try to push their own motion controllers.

While Nintendo’s next console may again be mainly a upgrade but it should still offer more than present consoles and it just remains to be seen if they can continue to provide a unique gaming experience to set them apart from the others.

Basically, since the Wii came out Nintendo doesn’t depend on beating the competition with performance but with being unique from them and that’s likely to be still key to whether they’ll continue to be successful or not.

Along with a good reason why they won’t go for the idea of letting their games be played on just anything.  Since those games are part of the unique experience Nintendo provides.

Though differences are also why three game consoles have managed to survive so far in the market.  Since gamers tend to go with the console that provides the types of games they’re most into, otherwise they just get multiple consoles and that kept all the consoles in business despite competition.

I personally use a PS3 because I usually prefer the games they get exclusives for and because it made a good Blu Ray player at a time when most were too pricey.  The XBox RRoD also being a deciding factor at the time.  While I would get my nephew and niece a Wii as they like the games it offers.

All these things change with time though, XBox 360 being much more stable now for example, and we can’t ignore the obvious successful history Nintendo has had. While only time will tell for sure how it will play out.

People just use emulators because often it’s the only way they can still play many old games as usually they are for gaming devices that no longer exist and/or for games not usually compatible with their system.

While some old games have been ported to mobile devices, the reviews have been pretty consistent in that the experience is always less than the original. 

So aside from the novelty and nostalgia, emulators aren’t used that often by most people. 

There is also the problem that emulators will use more power than running natively and that can be a issue for mobile devices running on battery power. 

While the Mobile games that actually sell well are games that were made for casual gaming and optimized for Smart Phone controls.

Problem is that such games don’t cover the range we would normally play on a dedicated gaming device.  Since only certain kinds of game play can be optimized for Smart Phone controls and it doesn’t change that people would mostly only play them when they only have a short period of time to kill.  So limits it practically to only casual gaming as that’s what’s practical for most people’s mobile usage right now.

Most serious gaming is done at home, where people have far more time to themselves for example and most people outside of home are either working or traveling and that doesn’t give as much time to really enjoy a game or get overly involved with it.

Mind that traditional games still sell if they’re good.  The highest grossing PC game of last year for example grossed over a billion world wide.  Compared to only millions by the highest grossing Smart Phone game.

So even factoring in the difference in how much each game sold for, mobile games are really only catching up to the number of traditional game sales.  It’s just the fastest growing segment because right now the mobile market in general is the fastest growing.

Mind also the profit system for mobile devices doesn’t really lend itself to the high spending now involved for the really good high end games we can play on consoles and PC. 

Something like Angry Birds requires far, far, far less effort for example than Modern Warfare, Mass Effect, Halo, etc.

So even with growing capabilities of mobile devices, we aren’t likely to see them use it to its fullest potential any time soon.

However, every market eventually reaches saturations and when the growth numbers start leveling off then so too will the game sales figures for mobile devices.

Mind people also like to experiment, and push the limits of their devices.  Even netbooks were pushed to see what games could be played on them even though they were never intended as gaming systems. 

So take any talk of how big the mobile gaming market is becoming for devices like Smart Phones with a grain of salt, as enthusiasm often inflates such numbers but eventually levels off as people finally face the real limitations of the device.

This is the only reason I still look at the site.

Besides, Smart Phones and Tablets aren’t designed for anything more than casual gaming.  While Sony’s attempts at gaming Smart Phones pretty much failed anyway, to show even with some game controllers built in that it’s still not as good a experience, especially if it gets in the way of its usability as a Smart Phone.

Never mind ergonomics and how gaming on mostly touch only devices is going to be terrible for our fingers and hands, or how hard things get once we start getting sweaty palms and the touch controls get less responsive.

If anything, mobile gaming for gamers is on the decline as most gaming takes place at home regardless of device being used anyway.  Leaving just a growing number of people who just casual game play on the go, especially since most people don’t have as much free time as they use to and even less while being mobile.

Much of which has to do with the state of the economy, and prioritizing what we spend our time and money on.

All of which may change if things start getting better but for now it’s not a good time for mobile gaming in general and casual gaming may take over for the time being for simply being more convenient and less costly.

That way, you have a handful of “Hardcore” games on the console, and your casual games that are focused on gimmicks or gameplay anyway act as filler between hardcore game releases.

For bonus points, make the console’s controllers bluetooth compatible, that way players have the option to use the controllers with their phones as well instead of all touch-based controls.

trolls….

Now the golden period is over, nearly everyone that wants a 3ds has one, and  the market is saturated with wiis. And of course they don’t mention that the whole industry is in a slump not just nintendo. The profits leveled out and they were still spending more, that’s it. But don’t worry about anything with the industry, this is how markets work. Markets always rise and then fall, rise and fall. We were just on a big market rise a few years back and now it’s falling like normal and soon it’ll be rising again.