Author Topic: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?  (Read 8664 times)

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Offline tendoboy1984

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Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« on: August 14, 2014, 03:49:00 PM »
Gamers and developers are obsessed with specs and hardware power. PS4 outsells and gets more support than Xbox One and Wii U because it's more powerful. Smartphones, PC's, and tablets get more powerful every year. PC gamers always want the best specs, GPU companies are trying to push the limits of mobile graphics, etc.

But when it comes to handhelds, it's like no one cares about specs anymore. Vita was lauded as the most powerful handheld of its time, yet the weaker 3DS outsold it. Game Boy outsold Game Gear, DS outsold PSP, the list goes on.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2014, 03:51:27 PM by tendoboy1984 »
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2014, 03:55:14 PM »
Because Nintendo doesn't care.  Simple as that.  They've dominated the market so long and fended off so many competitors over the years that they have that luxury.
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Offline tendoboy1984

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2014, 04:11:28 PM »
Then gamers are hypocrites. They keep saying they want better specs and more power, they build powerful PC's, buy powerful consoles, and buy powerful phones. Yet when it comes to handhelds, they stick with Nintendo, even if more powerful handhelds are available.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2014, 04:22:27 PM »
Its more like this.  Over the years natural selection has weeded out all the more power people from the Handheld arena.  There only in the Phone Arena because that was the only demographic that actually cared about PDA's and phones are pretty much required now.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2014, 04:42:56 PM »
The most powerful hardware has historically pretty much never been the most commercially successful. Sure, there's a group that always wants the most powerful tech, but for most people there are a number of different factors that go into it.

EDIT: Also, it's not hypocritical to want different things in different contexts. It's perfectly fine to have different priorities for handheld systems than you would for home consoles, and insisting otherwise is just stupid.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2014, 04:50:47 PM by NWR_insanolord »
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2014, 05:59:54 PM »
The Game Boy's big benefit was that it had good battery life while the technically superior Game Gear and Lynx sucked them dry.  What good is a handheld if you can only play it on the go for half an hour?  And that pretty much set the tone for handhelds ever since.  Nintendo set a standard and everyone is pretty much content with it.  It isn't like Nintendo USED to make high end handhelds and stopped doing so.  The GBA was a noticable step up from the GBC, and that continued with the DS and 3DS.  Sony has tried to be a step above but Nintendo has just been so dominant that they're the trendsetters.  Shrinking down the tech to make it handheld size also contributes to why handhelds never match consoles and we all accept that.

The comparison here is obviously the Wii and Wii U.  Those consoles broke the conventions that Nintendo themselves standardized.  Consoles aren't truly cutting edge as there is a consumer friendly price point that needs to be reached.  But you went for as good as you could at that price point.  A new generation meant new hardware with superior specs to the old one.  Nintendo set that standard with the SNES and continued it with the N64 and Cube and Sega and Sony and later MS all continued down that path.  The Wii bucked the trend.  It was like if the SNES was a slightly fancier NES with a new controller.  That put Nintendo out of step with the other consoles.  The Wii U is actually a perfectly acceptable successor to the Wii, it's just because Nintendo is a gen behind that to catch up Nintendo needed to jump two gens.

With a handheld if you go too powerful your "handheld" would end up huge and would have no battery life.  But there is no such restriction to a console beyond price.  We all know that the Wii U isn't what Nintendo HAS to make.  The market is willing to accept the PS4's specs and its price point so why isn't Nintendo offering something comparable?  Nintendo is being intentionally weaker which just isn't the way things traditionally go on consoles.  Nintendo's reputation from 1985-2006 wasn't making scaled-back budget consoles.  Nintendo probably hopes they can be their own thing that doesn't compete with Sony and MS but the market doesn't see enough of a distinction to their product to make it something different.

Offline Soren

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2014, 06:00:21 PM »
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2014, 06:07:03 PM »
Then gamers are hypocrites.


Duh.

I mean, yeah, but this isn't an example of that.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2014, 06:42:10 PM »
PS4 outsells and gets more support than Xbox One and Wii U because it's more powerful.
Correlation, not causation. Xbox 360 and PS3 outsell Wii U too, but they are not more powerful.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2014, 06:54:27 PM »
Wii sold the most. The PS2 sold the most. The PS1 handily outsold the N64. If anything, history has shown that the least powerful system has the advantage.
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2014, 07:19:39 PM »
The PS4 has sold the most so far. Its the strongest system in terms of specs.

Offline Shaymin

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2014, 08:09:01 PM »
That's largely due to its competitors emptying an entire clip into their feet.
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Offline BranDonk Kong

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2014, 09:17:33 PM »
PS4 was also $100 cheaper than Xbone for the first several months, so of course it sold more in the beginning - but 9 months later, when they cost the same people still go for the PS4 because their friends probably already have one.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2014, 11:46:27 PM »
That's largely due to its competitors emptying an entire clip into their feet.
Which is also a big part of why Nintendo has outsold it's more powerful competitors on the handheld space.

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2014, 12:40:02 AM »
The PS4 has sold the most so far. Its the strongest system in terms of specs.

I would say that the 3DS is the market leader but no one ever considers handheld consoles with home consoles as being part of the console wars. In which case, the "weakest" spec console is the market leader. I guess it is because handheld are usually released in that weird zone between home console lifetimes. But they are usually tied to a certain console. GBA with GC, DS with Wii, 3DS with Wii U.
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Offline Triforce Hermit

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #15 on: August 15, 2014, 07:09:22 AM »
Then gamers are hypocrites. They keep saying they want better specs and more power, they build powerful PC's, buy powerful consoles, and buy powerful phones. Yet when it comes to handhelds, they stick with Nintendo, even if more powerful handhelds are available.
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Offline lolmonade

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #16 on: August 15, 2014, 07:58:03 AM »
Tendoboy, you make the assumption that gamers don't care about handheld specs because the Vita is doing poorly comparatively to the 3DS, which is clearly graphically superior.  I'd argue a few points:
It's the games that matter more for a handheld, not being the most graphically impressive.  Sony for the most part didn't get the point when they released both of their handhelds, thinking that people wanted a meaty console experience on the go, but Nintendo (and now smartphones) have and are proving that most, not all, but most handheld games need to be consumable in bite sized chunks because of what people are doing when playing them (public transportation, mostly, or as a brief time waste while waiting).  Sony's big releases at Launch were Uncharted and Killzone, both games that probably take a decent amount of time to make progress in.  I love my Vita, but I only play it at home in place of another console.  I take my 3DS with me and sneak in some games to play while waiting at the Dr., or if my wife is driving somewhere on a rare occassion I can't drive.
 
Sony's barrier to entry in handhelds is EXPENSIVE.  At this point, Nintendo's point of entry is 2DS, is only $129, or approx. $170 with a game, but it comes with an SD card, so you're ready to go at the outset.  The Vita? We're now talking about $200 for the system, $40 for a game (yes, I know, PS+, but let's compare apples-to-apples for a second), and then you need to buy the memory separately.  Have you seen the cost of the Vita memory cards??? It's highway robbery, at $80 for 32 gb.  And you'll probably want to get a rather high memory card, if you're going to take advantage of that awesome PS+ membership, but let's assume you just want to have space for save files, so we'll add $20 for the 8gb, since it's on-sale at best buy.  Even then, we're comparing a 3DS at $170 or $260 for a Vita with game.  That's an extra 2 games with a 2DS, or one extra game if you decide to get a regular 3DS.
 
I say all this as someone who bit the bullet, bought one, and loves my Vita.  That said, I more often use it for Remote Play on my PS4 than anything else, so lately, it's become more of a glorified controller for me, but I'd love to have more games made FOR the Vita to play.

Offline UncleBob

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #17 on: August 15, 2014, 08:53:59 AM »
PS4 outsells and gets more support than Xbox One and Wii U because it's more powerful.
Correlation, not causation. Xbox 360 and PS3 outsell Wii U too, but they are not more powerful.

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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #18 on: August 15, 2014, 11:29:32 AM »
Actually, needing a memory card for a Vita isn't true anymore, if you are only using one for save data. The Vita-2000s have 1GB of onboard storage for saves and tiny downloadable games.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #19 on: August 15, 2014, 11:54:28 AM »
There's a lot of stuff on Vita that isn't available physically, though, especially in the West. Even if I owned all the Vita games I have that are available physically in that form I'd still need a hell of a lot more than 1 GB for the rest of them.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #20 on: August 15, 2014, 02:24:54 PM »
Wii sold the most. The PS2 sold the most. The PS1 handily outsold the N64. If anything, history has shown that the least powerful system has the advantage.

The PS1 and 2 get used as examples of this all the time.  Has everyone forgotten that Sega existed and twice had a technically inferior console get creamed by a Playstation?

I consider the Wii an anomoly as its success is largely based on attracting a new audience.  In all other generations it seems that the winner is usually just a competent product.  The "crown" then stays with the incumbent as long as they continue to be competent and only changes hands when they screw up and then the most competent competitor takes over.  The PS4's scenario is really no different than the PS1.  Sony, a newcomer, came in and stole the whole market pretty much because Sega and Nintendo both fucked up.  And it seems that that is the only way to steal the crown.  The market doesn't switch because you're so great and have this cool feature or these superior specs or these awesome games.  That can build an audience and put you in a good position to eventually take over but the masses don't switch teams until their guys turn them off.  So the strategy is to make a conventional, functional and competent console with good games that attracts some decent third party support and builds up a modest fanbase and continue with this formula until the leader let's their hubris **** everything up and you'll take the top spot for yourself.  Then just continue to do a good job and you'll  in theory never lose your spot.

Or you can go for the Wii exception and try to grab a new audience that's bigger than the traditional audience but you have to hope to hell that that audience sticks around because if they don't you get the Wii U.  How do you keep that audience?  Who knows since this exception has only happened once.

Doesn't this formula kind of apply to Nintendo with handhelds?  When have they truly fucked up a handheld so bad that it would make sense for everyone to run to a competitor?  That's what you have to do to lose your spot in consoles and Nintendo has never done that with handhelds.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #21 on: August 15, 2014, 02:43:39 PM »
I wasn't trying to ague that lack of power was the deciding factor in any of these cases, just pointing out that the idea of "superior tech=success" that this thread is based on is not something that has really ever been true. A certain segment wants that, and will make decisions based on that, but the market as a whole is a lot more complex.
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Re: Why don't handheld gamers care about specs?
« Reply #22 on: August 17, 2014, 11:12:42 PM »
I think it also has a LOT to do with Nintendo's own history, the companies that are most successful on hand helds are the ones who had a strong Arcade presence back in the day, arcade games have the same feel as hand held games, small short bite sized games. Sure there are bigger games out there but most hand held games tend to have a very arcade like feel to them. Sega hand held games were pretty good but their major flaw was their battery life. The Nomad would have pretty much owned the hand held market if it had not guzzled batteries like a 60's muscle car drinks gas. Also hand held games tend to rely heavily on nostalgia more I think than consoles do, same with smart phones all the successful smart phone games are either reminiscent of old school games or pretty much direct ports/sequels/remakes, with a few exceptions of games that had their creators been in the industry then would have been made anyways.


For me the hand helds have always had the best game selection but I hate the tiny screens.
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