Coffee Talk #327: The Last Gen of Pure Gaming Portables?

Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more…

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Handheld gaming is at a crossroads. Largely due to the increased gaming capabilities of Apple iOS products, I don’t think it’s enough for a portable gaming system to be focused primarily on games. With that in mind, do you think that the Nintendo 3DS — which is almost all about gaming no matter what Nintendo claims — will be the last handheld system of its kind?

The original PlayStation Portable was, perhaps, ahead of its time. In addition to great games, it offered strong multimedia capabilities (music, movies, photos), web browsing, communication (Skype), and more. It’s too early to tell, but it looks like the upcoming NGP will bring it all together, offering gaming, social networking, streaming movies, Internet access, communications, and multimedia in a much tighter way than its predecessor.

Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more NGP or more 3DS? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

67 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #327: The Last Gen of Pure Gaming Portables?”

  1. I think it is a phase determined by how well these products will sell, although I can also see more integration with our digital lives as well. Maybe it will get to a point where someone says "lets get back to the roots" and make a super duper gaming machine that is portable and solar powered.

  2. I'm most surprised at the limited interaction options Nintendo has with the 3DS. No messaging, nothing like it. Just a game invite.

    I think dedicated machines are riding into the sunset

    1. I think this has to do with Nintendo's own perception of their devices. It seems like they're content making "toys," while the competition wants to get it's fingers into as many pies as possible. Makes sense, since SONY and Microsoft do a whole lot more than make video games.

      1. @nightshade

        your last name is trending on twitter. what did you or someone related to you do!

      3. Really? Our interview with the NASCAR 2011 development team resulted in a huge week for us as far as hits. Maybe the two are related?

        Then again, Cesca is as common as "Smith" in the part of Italy that I'm from, so it might have nothng to do with me at all. idk….

      4. I'm looking for it now and I just found out Jackie Chan died. If you have a link or something, send it to me. I'm really curious now.

      7. If anyone can translate off of this off that link I posted, it would be great. This is like trying to understand when CNN posts Sarah Palin tweets with 7 acronyms and 13 strategically misspelled words and missing grammar. Bu the end of it all I don't even care what she had to say because my head hurts from the abuse of the English language.

      8. @nightshade

        I'd love to but the link is broken. I keep getting a message saying the page doesnt exist

      9. Takes me right there. idk. Twitter was down for me earlier today though (no surprise there. Solar flares in the Andromeda Galaxy cause Twitter to crash).

      10. Having scoured the "internets," I think it has to do with a character from some BBC show. I'm just glad one of my relatives didn't get arrested for doing something truly horrible. The other possibilites I was thinking about were that there's a guy named Bob Cesca (no relation) that writes for the Huffington Post, and a second cousin of mine used to be the kicker at Oregon State and set a bunch of school records.

      11. @ Nightshade

        Chances are, one of your relatives did get arrested for doing something horrible… it just wasn't as newsworthy.

        jk

      14. Yeah, I know that now thanks to BSU.. I'm betting it was started by Steven Segal.

      16. The that startles me though…

        The last celebrity death hoax before this one that actually caught my attention was on Myspace when some dude phished Nate Dogg's profile and issued a statement that Nate Dogg had died.

        Well, Nate Dogg really did die at 41 like 2 weeks ago. I listened to Regulate all day that day.

  3. I'm going to have to say that the future will be with a system more like the NGP, and that might not be terrible, but I hope that Nintendo always feels that the market is still there for the DS line or Game Boy line of systems and what they brought to the table.

  4. As much as i don't like the way it's going, portable gaming will be going with more social integration and multimedia portability. You know what irritates me when i'm playing a game on my iphone that it pauses every time i get a text message. Now if later iterations of the NGP or smartphones can have you disable the alerts during games then i'll love it but for right now i'm all for closed off, only dedicated to gaming handhelds.

  5. I damn near killed myself at the gym today. This shit song by some person named Rebecca Black started playing. WHO THE HELL THINKS THIS STUFF IS GOOD?? It came on and I damn near dropped 250lbs on my chest and neck.

    I actually asked them not to play that kind of stuff anymore lol. They said they can't guarantee it so I'm actually considering switching gyms.

  6. I think next gen will be all about it being multi-faceted devices, bringing on strong the social integration abilities. Nintendo will eventually have to come to terms with that. This all strikes me as very disappointing, probably making me old fashioned. I like my gaming handhelds seperated from music and chatting.

    1. I feel you Cami I feel that way too kind of a purist/old school view. I play games so I DON"T have to talk and interact with people (unless by choice of course).

  7. I like how Amazon is saying the record companies can take a hike on issuing new licenses.

  8. I personally feel that portable gaming will go in two different directions; I think that, for Sony at least, handhelds will continue in the gaming direction (PSP2), while adding connectivity options (Sony Smartphone) to other devices. I would hope that my phone doesn't become a gaming system or vice versa; battery will be sacrificed to keep those functions, unless they plan on putting a nuclear battery on the back… Not happening.

    I expect this to continue, at least in Sony's case, and I hope that Nintendo at least attempts to put more connectivity in their systems from now on.

  9. I would love to have a nuclear powered gadget. Bragging rights and all.

    Hell, that would be more powerful than my truck. Must have

    1. It's in Game Informer, about a month or two ago. There's a sarcasm section for game rumors, such as the NGP price. Such as:

      A $700 version that hooks up to the TV and can play PS3 games;

      A $900 version (I think) that is a PSP with a kitten on the front;

      A $(Insert Big Number Here) version with a nuclear battery. This one has a picture and everything!

    1. The article's facts are correct, but this stuff has been known for months. I agree with the article's position, but hate when writers try to report old news as a new revelation. This week there were a bunch of articles about Apple "announcing" the dates of WWDC to overlap with E3. That's complete BS. The dates for WWDC have been known for months.

      1. @Ray

        Yeah a few months ago when I first heard about this I was pretty shocked. You would think this would have been taken care of and native features would be available on launch devices. I think that's pretty poor on RIM's part. I was honestly hoping they would ship a great product that would move lots of units in order to make everyone else's game step up. Oh well.

  12. Ray, I remember putting forth some interest in the new Samsung laptops. How do you feel about them preinstalling a keylogger?

    1. It's a PR nightmare for the company. I'm curious to see how it's explained. Some people already have theories that the U.S. government was involved, since the owner has a Middle-Eastern name.

      1. @Ray

        Haha. I've been watching a lot of X Files lately. I guess those people think the Cancer Man is responsible? hehe.

        If this comes out to be genuine though (not the conspiracy) I wonder what the repercussions would be? Sony got hit with 500 million in damages for roughly the same thing, but this could turn into a privacy matter.

        I will fall on the floor laughing if the Cancer Man thing is correct though.

      3. @BB

        Season 4. So far I think they do a good job with the pacing. I enjoy the gov't conspiracy stuff with Cancer Man but I'm glad that isn't in every episode. It's nice they deviate and do 3 or 4 episodes that are off the wall or interesting and then go back into the main story. When I was a kid I never realized there was a larger back story. So far I'm enjoying it.

        I'm thinking that once I'm done with the series I'll move on to anime. There isn't much else that holds my interest on the instant stream besides Documentaries since content producers are trying to turn Netflix into the destination of all their worst crap :)

      4. Lol I was reading that the whole cancer man thing started because Gillian Anderson got pregos.

    1. So that Samsung deal was a false positive. The company took a pretty bad PR hit and uninformed people will be wary of the company because of a false positive. Ouchie.

  16. I think I might buy some Amazon stock. They need a few extra bucks to fight the music labels lol.

    Seriously though…that stock could really take off. With the digital economy and their foothold of everything..they could easily become the new walmart and dictate terms. Interesting to watch.

  17. @SG

    good call but i think i'd rather wait to see if they win against the music labels first.

  18. @Tokz
    Yeah hopefully they won't give up. It will be interesting to see how the courts view cloud storage. Cloud seems to be the future in the service sector so it's hard for me to see them stifling it by saying it isn't viable storage for a consumer.

  19. @SG

    i agree especially with Sony also saying they're going to allow people do access game saves via could storage if they are a PS+ member. you figure that if a judge rules against Amazon on this it will not only pertain to music but possibly all type of date saved in a cloud storage service, no?

    1. @SG

      thanks for the link. I find it dumb that they cover other smartphones and tablets but not any iOS ones. Best Buy does have the best plans but it's customer service can be pretty horrible at times. I really don't get any plans but the Apple extended warranties.

    1. i've had more CS issues with BB then att believe it or not. Maybe it's because i've been on the other side of that phone and know how i would like to be treated when someone calls in. i always managed to get any credits i want.

  22. Hmm. I have that silver membership with BB. Maybe they give preferential treatment since I spend a lot of money there?

    I'm finding it harder to do so though. They are carrying less and less of what I want these days.

  23. @SG

    oh yeah i agree. they are carrying less items (IMO) and they don't have as many deals with VGs and movies, i.e. DVDs/Blu-Ray. I find more deals with Amazon or Kmart (not as recently since they decided to only give you Kmart Save Reward points instead of dollar amount coupons like before.)

  25. @Tokz and SG

    You better not have a problem with me…..oh right Best Buy……*shame*

    lol

  27. @Ray

    Breeding for a Togekiss right now. It's giving a couple of my already EV trained pokemon some nice time in the day care while I walk around the togepi's to increase their happiness for breeding. These ones are rather tedious and annoying to breed, hopefully that just means they will be worth it when I'm done.

      1. That's one of the reasons I chose to breed this one, but it's slow going trying to breed this thing with the right ability, nature, and IV's when I have to evolve to a togetic each time I switch a parent out.

  28. I am too excited right now!! I just encountered and caught my first shiny pokemon ever!! In all of the games I have played, battles I've been in, hundreds of hours I have spent in these games I have never come across a shiny pokemon—let alone to run in to it without trying at all. I know there are some methods out there to increase the shiny encounter rate, but this was completely without intention of shiny hunting. Wow…

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