14 DAY TRIAL // 2011 is the year when both Sony and Nintendo, the two big players on the market, are set to launch new handhelds, but at least one leading video-game developer believes that the specialized mobile gaming devices might be on their way out, threatened by the rise of ever more powerful smartphones and tablets.
John Carmack, who is the leader of id Software, has said, “The smart phone may turn out to be 80 percent as good at gaming as a dedicated gaming platform. People are going to carry their smart phone, and if it’s an 80 percent gaming device, how many people in the gaming market will be satisfied with that?”
He added, “If that’s what the consumers are going to trend towards on there, there may not be much as developers we can do about that. You don’t always get to build pyramids just because you want to.”
Carmack also says that some users are still anxious about spending money on digital only games on smartphones, but that the market is slowly moving to that business model.
The Nintendo 3DS will be first out in Japan on February 26 and both North American and Europe will get it before the end of March, for a price point that hovers around 250 dollars.
The unique selling point for the device is that it delivers full three-dimensional gaming without the use of specialized glasses and big franchises like PES, Zelda, Metal Gear and Mario are being prepared for it.
The PlayStation Portable 2, or the NGP as Sony currently calls it, will be out on at least one major market before the end of the year and delivers a processing power similar to that of the PlayStation 3 and a new multi touch display.
Sony has confirmed that series like Uncharted and Resistance will arrive on the NGP.