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Why Has No One Made a Great Gaming Phone?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the holding-an-xbox-to-your-ear dept.

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.'"

9 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. Because by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because phones are for TALKING. :P

    1. Re:Because by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Really so. I buy a phone for talking and texting, same as most of the people I know. They may have a fancier phone but this is about all they do with it. Keep the cheap phones for making phone calls and the game computers for playing games.

      Why a one-size-fits-all mentality? Why not use your cell phone for calls and texting, and others can use their "phones" for games, calls, texting, surfing, whatever else they want to do with it.

      I know people who basically don't use their home PC anymore. Anything they want to do (email, facebook, casual games, watching videos, streaming music), they can do from their smartphone. Not my style, but good for them. I don't think they should be held back just because I only use my phone for calls and the occasional text message.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Because by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

      Because phones are for TALKING.

      And GAMING phones are for SIDE TALKING.

      This may be why they never quite caught on.

  2. On the contrary by pwnies · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have an ngage you insensitive clod!

  3. meh. by milkmage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Because .... by phoxix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:The great irony is... by 7Prime · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  6. Re:They did by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was a gaming phone a few years back. It flopped. No one revisited.

    It's a good thing that not everyone has that mindset.

    Wilbur Wright: "Wouldn't it be great to build a flying machine?"
    Orville Wright: "Did you hear about that guy Otto Lilenthal who tried to make one?"
    Wilbur: "No, what happened?"
    Orville: "He crashed and died."
    Wilbur: "Oh well, then that proves it can't be done ever."
    Orville: "Yup, lets get back to making this bicycle and never talk about flying ever again."

  7. Re:Now your pockets are bulging by grahamtriggs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pockets full of devices? I can't see why. Two devices would be perfectly reasonable - one for things that demand connectivity (talk, text, net), and one for the other stuff (games, videos, music). Even if the 'other stuff' has occasional connectivity capabilities to download new music, etc.

    When people say phones are for talking, it's not a frivolous argument - they need to be available for talking. Which has two implications:

    1) What should happen when you have an incoming call? Do you lose your position in game, etc?

    2) The battery needs to stand up to the demands.

    As it is, 3G devices struggle to get through a day. It's not going to help matters by gaming on them for an hour or two - pushing the cpu, graphics, display to the limit. If your games console runs out of juice, it's generally less of an issue than if you suddenly can't make or receive calls.