Gamers Abandoning DS, PSP In Favor of Smartphones

donniebaseball23 writes "IndustryGamers reports on new research from Interpret, which shows that more and more people are turning to their phones for game time, leaving the DS and PSP behind. 43.8% of the phone/DS/PSP gaming market plays games on phones, which represents a significant 53.2% increase over the past year. At the same time, Interpret says that the proportion of those who play on the DS or PSP has fallen by 13%. The company notes, 'Gamers appear to be defecting from their handheld gaming devices to phones to get their gaming kicks: a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s).' Notable games industry analyst Michael Pachter also recently commented that handhelds continue to decline and Sony's much rumored PSP2 would be 'dead on arrival' as smartphones continue to gain steam."

Comments

Sony is already working on it

[devbox]

Yesterday the Playstation Phone was detailed. Sony Ericsson also already has a long history with mobile phones. Now, Nintendo might be in trouble here..

Re:Sony is already working on it

[Darkness404]

Right, because the phone/game console hasn't been tried before -cough- Ngage -cough-. The problem with a phone/game platform is that people have to pay a contract which takes it away from a key market: kids. No parent wants to buy their kid a $300 Ubersmartphone, pay a $40 text/call/data plan on it per month AND buy the games. Not to mention all the different operating systems that make it impractical to be a real gamer and play all the good games no matter what the platform. It is feasible for someone to own a DS and PSP, it is feasible for someone to own a Wii, PS3 and 360. It however, is impractical for most people to own an Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iOS and BlackBerry phone.

Re:Sony is already working on it

[Belial6]

My six year old has one. We got it for him last year. Or more accurately, I go my new phone, and he got my old one. Having a cell phone is a great idea for a kid. By having a phone, I can give him WAY more freedom, and know that he can find us if he needs something. Once we decided to get him a phone, a smart phone only made sense. Once you are already on a family plan, extra phones just are not that expensive.

That said, it isn't even close to a replacement for a DS. Sure, the numbers look like phones are replacing traditional hand helds, but the numbers are deceptive. In 1995, the same know of statistics could show that gamers were abandoning traditional gaming in favor of Solitaire. After all, if you polled PC users, you would find that a much larger percentage of users played Solitaire than any other PC game. We can see how, while technically true, it is implying something that isn't true.

Could cell phones replace traditional hand held game systems? Sure they could. Just adding regular buttons would help with that a lot. As they stand now, they don't. I still think that the solution is to make a case that the phone plugs into that has the gaming buttons. This could also be offered with a keyboard instead. This way the phone maker could make one model of phone, and sell it to the "It has to be as thin as physically possible", the "it is useless without a keyboard", and the "gaming" crowds. The key is that the protocol for the devices to talk to the phone must be standardized and open, so that you don't end up with a hundred different implementations.

Re:D-pad

[TheRaven64]

Adding a d-pad to a phone is a lot cheaper than adding a phone to a games console.