Apple's iPhone 4
Mark my word, 2011 is going to be an incredible year for handheld
gaming. Apple continues to innovate with every device running iOS,
steadily gaining market share with the ever-popular App Store. Within
the last four years, Apple has surged forward as a real contender in
the gaming market with releases of the iPhone, iPod touch, and the
sensational iPad.
With over 120 million iOS devices sold, it's fair to say that Apple
has become the X-factor in the handheld market.
Apple's iPod touch
Should Nintendo and Sony be worried yet? Right now, I have to say
no, but they should definitely be on high alert, putting their best
efforts forward to retain their respective market shares.
Right now, each manufacturer attracts a different segment of the
market, rather than taking each other head-on in an all out war, but
that could change if Apple starts marketing an iOS device geared
specifically towards the core gamer. Currently, the most popular
iPhone/iPod touch games are more of the casual - yet highly addictive -
fare (Angry
Birds,
Bejeweled 2,
Flight Control, etc.), and certainly have taken that market by
storm.
Now for the competition.
Original PSP (top) compared to the PSP Go (bottom).
Sony's PSP goes for the hard-core gamer, delivering stunning
graphics and connectivity to the PS3 similar to how you may connect an
iPod or iOS device to your Mac and/or iTunes library. By employing
Sony's proprietary optical media with Universal Media Disc (UMD),
Sony's PSP has been able to deliver a wide variety of amazing games and
full feature films on the go that won't tie up space on your Memory
Stick and can be traded in at a resale shop when you want to try
something else.
The PSP Go, on the other hand, still has the same hardware, but
functions more like an iPod, since it eliminates UMD and uses only
downloaded content from the PSN to store on its built-in 16 GB of flash
memory or Memory Stick. The PSP Go has been very unpopular with
gamers, since, while the physical media was eliminated, game prices and
films were still essentially priced the same as their UMD
counterparts.
These things aside, the overall experience from both the PSP and PSP
Go is the same and very typical to what you might expect from a
full-fledged home console (very comparable to PS2 gaming and near DVD
quality video)!
Sony's forthcoming Next Generation Portable.
The successor to the PSP that was announced on January 27 was dubbed
"Next Generation Portable" (NGP) and offers an entirely different
experience. The NGP has four times the screen resolution of the PSP
(480 x 272), a slightly larger and much brighter 5" OLED screen, and
amazing connection options.
IGN had a live blog of the coverage that began from Tokyo at 1 a.m.
EST as the console was unveiled covered by several of their editors. If
you wonder what the NGP looks like, go right to the source and check
out the US Sony Computer
Entertainment page. Optical media and UMD backward compatibility
was nixed in favor of using a new flash memory format, which should
drastically speed up loading times. Not a bad idea - speedy load times
while retaining physical media. It's a win-win for the consumer and the
used games market.
Nintendo's 3DS is due on March 27.
Nintendo, on the other hand, woos its customers through adding new
concepts and innovation to the gaming experience itself. The Nintendo
DS introduced the first touchscreen on a major handheld game console.
The Wii (although not a handheld) delivered the best motion-sensing
gaming experience of its time, and now the 3DS, due out March 27, year
will provide gamers with an amazing 3D gaming experience in their hands
without the use of 3D glasses! Nintendo's 3DS page
describes the features of this soon-to-be-available console.
Which handheld will come out on top during the next generation
handheld console battle due to commence this year? Does Apple have a
trick or two up its sleeve to sway gamers to a secretly developed iOS
handheld gaming device designed from the ground up, geared specifically
for core gamers using Apple's App Store and iTunes? What's in store for
the next iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone?
Things are certainly heating up.
All in all, each device from Apple, Nintendo, and Sony has something
different to offer and will attract a specific audience, but regardless
of your choice, you can count on some amazing games and capabilities
never seen before on handheld gaming consoles. The table has been set
and is sure to excite many gamers!
It's just the beginning of the year, and I'm already looking forward
to this holiday season. 
Dan Bashur lives in central Ohio with his wife and children. He uses various PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Tiger and Leopard. Besides finding new uses for Macs and other tech, Dan enjoys writing (fantasy novel series in the works), is an avid gamer, and a member of Sony's Gamer Advisor Panel. You can read more of Dan Bashur's work on ProjectGamers.com, where he contributes regular articles about the PSP, classic gaming, and ways you can use Sony gaming hardware with your Mac.
