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Why Has No One Made a Great Gaming Phone?
andylim writes "According to Engadget, John Koller, Sony's head of PlayStation marketing, recently said that 'Apple's entrance into the portable gaming space has been a net positive for Sony. When people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP.' What's odd though is that everyone knows that the mobile phone gaming market is a huge and yet neither Sony nor Nintendo has made a gaming phone yet. Recombu.com thinks that Nokia could enter the space with PSP-like devices and it has come up with a concept phone called the Ovi Orion, which would bridge the gap between phone and console, 'If the iPhone is Wii, then Ovi Orion would be Xbox and offer Xbox Live style features. A serious gaming phone for serious gamers.'"
Because phones are for TALKING. :P
There was a gaming phone a few years back. It flopped. No one revisited.
I have an ngage you insensitive clod!
The kids who play the games can't afford the service plans or phones themselves...
Most adults have other things to do, or more powerful systems at home to play "serious" games on.
But why not go the other way? Integrate phone capabilities to PSP or DS. It's a lot easier than creating a new platform which can never really live up to those two.
Nokia did already try it, but it lost to PSP and DS. It was semi-popular with guys in my country and at my age, but I didn't really felt like getting one. And there really wasn't any good games.
serious gaming? on a mobile device? c'mon. games on a phone are at best, distractions or time killers (babysitters).
the LAST thing I want to do is get heavy into a game and get a fucking call.
Great can be measured in many ways, you need to specify what way/how you want to measure great phone.
I'm sure there are plenty iPhone users out there that believe they have an amazing gaming phone,
heck, even I with my old Nokia and Tetris thought I had a great game phone.
That was true 5 years ago, but lots has happened. Look at who is getting all the US localization of Cave shmups. The Xbox 360. Gaming doesn't get much more serious than a Cave shmup.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You can buy a DS/PSP without a freaking multi-year ass-rape contract.
Buying a gaming console should never be a long term financial decision.
Because I have a large wide screen TV attached to my consoles at home, multiple computers in my house running multiple OS'es, a DS, a PSP, an iPod Touch, and yes a MAME cabinet. I don't need my phone to play any games. I barely use my iPod Touch to play games, and that seems crazy to some people. Maybe because I'm a 'serious' gamer (as named by various media and/or gaming companies) as opposed to all this talk of 'casual' gaming. If you want real gaming, toss your DS or whatever in your car, or grab a backpack/messenger bag/stylish-bag-of-your-choice and pop it in. I carry my Blackberry and iPod around without problem.
Clearly I need more caffeine or something. And get off my lawn. Damn, when did I get old?
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Why couldn't i use my PSP as a phone?
Actually, the PSP does support voIP via Skype; at least it used to - I had the second gen PSP. I'm not sure what the newer models support.
The teachers will crack any minute, purple monkey dishwasher.
Phones and Games mix about as well as SPAM and Phad Thai. Really, the only seemless way of doing this is to create a contextual device that changes from one to the other seemlessly... wait... we already have that, it's called the iPhone. And it's the most rapidly growing gaming platform on the market. With titles outselling the PSP about 20:1. Now, it's getting handheld console ports like Broken Sword, Spore, Myst, Super Monkey Ball, and on and on. With capacity and processing power that outdoes the PSP, Sony really should be worried. And they are, but this kind of speak that their using in the above quote reaks of double-talk spawned by latent fear. Basically, they realize they're in trouble, and their trying to make it sound like everyone is jumping on board with the PSP from the iPhone... but where are the numbers? The PSP hasn't had any major sales increases, in fact, I've heard that their numbers are falling. This is all speculation, wishfull thinking, and advertising on Sony's part.
The big hurdle is control. Buttons are always very nice for many kinds of games, though finger-pad is really nice for other things, and stylus is great for other things. Adding a d-pad to a smartphone is going to be either combersomb or unneccessary or both. There are games with extrodinary control systems on the iPhone, and there are games with terrible control systems. Same goes for the PSP. But I honestly don't think control system is going to be a big loss for people when the games are 1/4 of the price, run smoother, and are more portable.
Sony should be scared, and it's fairly clear that they already are.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
... because the lifespan of a cell phone has been around 2 years so far and no developers wants to invest in building apps for a platform that people throw in the trash every time they switch carriers...
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Serious gamers use a PC. Anything else might as well be Learning with Elmo.
Just what we all need, one more thing for people to do while behind the wheel of a vehicle besides actually driving.
"Do you know how dumb average is?" - Peggy Hill
Not really. Phones and game devices use vastly different technology, and even more vastly different infrastructure. Infrastructure is the most complicated part of making phones. Working out networks, contracts, etc. By comparison, the infrastructure for game devices is a walk in the park. When you make a phone, you're somewhat beholden to the phone companies which hold all the cards. Game hardware manufacturers control their own infrastructures, like XBox Live and Playstation ("home" is it called? I don't have a PS3). Also, the interface designs and hardware functionality is quite different. It's not particularly intuitive to combine a phone with a gaming handheld and not lose a bit of one side in the process. You hold them differently, the speakers locations for each are not ideal for each other, handhelds usually sacrifice some portability for ergonomics, phones must maintain an even smaller form factor. The two are really very different devices. The fact that they have screens and are essentially computers is the only major similarities. The control systems that are typically ideal for handhelds don't really make much sense for a phone. So then you either have tacked-on gaming controls which take up more space than your phone functionality needs, or you sacrifice gaming control to make up for the portability that a phone needs.
That's why contextual control devices like the iPhone are probably the MOST ideal. They're deffinitely not perfect, but they do both things relatively well without sacrificing too much. Now its a up to the game manufacturers to create control systems that are ideal to the non-tactile nature of the device. For instance, I've played a few very playable platformers on the iPhone like Soosiz (which uses large virtual left, right and jump buttons), Bounce On (which utilizes the tilt functionality of the iPhone remarkably well, for control). But on the flip side, Sega's port of Sonic the Hedgehog (which simply places a tiny virtual D-Pad) is almost entirely unplayable. This isn't Apple's fault, it's Sony's fault. Bounce On and Soosiz are both very similar to Sonic, and they play extremely well, so it can be done.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Agreed. Many times, graphics isn't about how advanced your engine is, but how creative you are with it. Still, probably my favorite graphics of all time are Okami, a fairly mid-budget PS2 game that blows away the graphics of most 360 and PS3 titles I see. The creators decided to go in an incredibly artistic direction with their graphics, but did them in sutch a way that they didn't require a lot of horsepower. In fact, the shots of the DS sequel (yes, that's right, DS), is remarkably similar, and the DS is one of the most underpowered devices out there. It's not how advanced your graphical power is, it's what you do with it.
Golden Sun is a dream too.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Keep the cheap phones for making phone calls and the game computers for playing games.
One device for browsing the web, one for playing music, one for watching video, one for playing games, and one for making calls. Now your pockets are bulging, even if they are all tethered over Bluetooth. The only big benefit I can see of having several pocket-size devices is that the cheaper phones don't require a data plan, which means cheaper service if you don't make a lot of calls.
If you're a company and you're putting out a product, which of these two product markets would you rather be? The Wii (iPhone according to the Ovi Orion article), or the XBox (their supposedly spiffy idea). Hmm... Massively huge gigantic market selling at a profit or Middling market that started out selling as a loss leader. Choices, choices, choices.
Perhaps that simple market comparison itself right there is why no one has bothered again with a "gaming" phone. Heck, even comparing portable gaming units. Which would you want to sell, the DS with it's again, gigantic huge massive casual market? Or the PSP with it's middling "hardcore" market? Now the true gamers most likely have both, I know my household does. But the casual gamer, of which there are a great many more? They've got the DS if they've got one at all.
We knew that were in a bad reception area when my wife bought her phone and so we asked which ones were known for better signal reception. She decided on the cute one instead. Fashion beat out function.
Different way to look at it: why do people want 50" plasma TV sets? Because they don't want to squint at a 7" or a 13" TV. I find watching a movie on the iPhone is equally disappointing. I can see the idea, I can understand the plot, I can hear the dialog, but I cannot get the experience.
So who wants to "game" on an iPhone? I'd never want to play Bioshock or Portal on the tiny screen. Bioshock would be exactly this scary: *boo*. Portal would be exactly this humorous: *ha ha*.
Different kinds of games such as solitare, sudoku, that kind of puzzle stuff, they're all great on the iPhone, because it's a different type of gaming. In real life nobody buys Scrabble HD Edition, or Wide Screen Edition Triominos. They're not needed. This is just the same thing in reverse.
John
But I know what you mean.
Don’t worry. Soon mobile phones and handheld consoles will merge (e.g. PSP + N900 style), just like cameras, GPS navigation, music player, USB stick, etc, etc, etc.
I give it 5 years, tops, until they become good.
Remember that Nokia already did make the N-Gage. Which was not great, but a start. (The start is never great. Just as the first iPhone was a true p.o.s. in everything except the cool multi-touch UI.) The point is that it has (already) started, and needs a bit of time to mature, finds its customers, etc.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
No you wouldn't. I consistantly look at my iPhone and MyTouch and wonder why no one is making a controller that the phone just slips into. The only problem with these devices for gaming is that they don't have physical buttons placed properly for gaming. So, make a 'case' that either connects via the data line, or via bluetooth that has proper buttons and directional pads. Have the controls and the audio pass through to the phone, and you now have a phone that is just as good for gaming as a dedicated gaming device.
I've had an emulator on my phone for years, and its never much more than an "aha! look what it can do!" feature because of the interface. Those games are super twitchy, and without a decent dpad and properly spaced buttons you can forget getting anywhere with it. Touch pad? Thats even worse - if buttons on a keyboard can't do it right, how would one where you have to lift your finger or whatever to move the guy down the screen work?
This is why Sony nor Nintendo should be looking to create a gaming phone, they should be looking to create PSP/DS with phone capabilities. Otherwise it's just going to fail.
Actually, I really don't think so. The time will come where what you say is correct, but I believe now is not the time. Here's why.
Basically, both phones and portable game systems are, in terms of their hardware and software, and the expectations of the users, continually evolving. However, I think phones are still evolving faster than game systems. New telephony technologies continue to be rolled out, network coverage in the US is still inconsistent between carriers and spotty in some places, and the iPhone, which is the item by which most people have set their standards and expectations for a high-end phone, is at present just a few years old - and has already gone through a couple revisions. Compare this to Nintendo DS and Sony PSP: DS has gone through two major hardware revisions in five years, and only the most recent of those changed the hardware specs significantly. The situation for the PSP is similar: roughly the same amount of time, and a similar amount of change to the platform over time.
I think that combining a phone with a gaming device at this time would probably still be a bad idea. Turning a phone into a game platform involves more than adding game controls to it - it means turning it into a platform stable enough that players and game publishers will be willing to invest themselves in it. Game platforms stay the same for years so that publishers can make money on software. Phones, at present anyway, are still caught up in a mad rush to one-up one another. A game machine with phone capabilities could be good now, but a couple years down the road its capabilities as a phone would practically be a joke. This doesn't preclude establishing a stable game system as a subset of a particular phone line's capabilities - but then the "game platform" games would be inferior to the "phone native" games or something like that...
Bow-ties are cool.
http://icontrolpad.com/