Andrew Liszewski has been covering and reviewing gadgets—everything from headphones, to e-readers, to drones—for over 16 years, but his favorite topic and pastime is handheld gaming. If you’ve got a tip, a story idea, or a pitch, you can reach him at andrewl@gizmodo.com.
Although cheap LCD gaming devices with frustratingly limited gameplay were a hallmark of the ‘80s, handheld gaming finally found its footing with Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1989. It was followed by the GBA, the wildly successful Nintendo DS, and eventually the Switch, which made Nintendo’s flagship console games completely portable, and helped the company dominate the portables market.
Over the years, several companies have released competing products to challenge Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld gaming market, including Sega’s Game Gear and Sony’s PSP and PS Vita, but Nintendo has always come out on top, with competing products disappearing from stores. That changed in 2022 with the arrival of Valve’s Steam Deck, which is capable of playing AAA PC titles on the go, and devices like the Logitech G Cloud, which simply stream processor-heavy and graphically-intense console titles from the cloud.
Past challengers to Nintendo’s portable crown lacked compelling game libraries to woo gamers, but this new generation of handhelds have access to an ever-growing collection of PC, console, and even mobile games. In 2023, we expect to see several more companies announcing and releasing portable gaming devices with specs and performance that could already be several steps ahead of what Nintendo potentially has planned, as well as cheaper devices compatible with the best games on the market by leveraging the power of the cloud. Mario, Kirby and Link may have finally met their match.
3 free months of Xbox Game Pass + controllerThis ginormous display will let you experience deep blacks and bright whites that pop and an impressive range of vibrant colors.
Will devices like the Steam Deck or Razer Edge take a significant bite out of Nintendo’s handheld revenues? Not for a while. Flagship titles on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC are visually stunning, but the extreme popularity of mobile gaming, including smartphone titles that simply have players dragging pieces of candy around on screen, are evidence that most gamers care less about graphics, and more about addictive gameplay—and that’s where Nintendo excels.
Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to the brilliant The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is arriving next year, and unless the game is a struggle to play on the aging Switch hardware, it’s going to sell even more consoles for Nintendo. And if the rumored Nintendo Switch Pro doesn’t come with specs beyond what the competition is already offering, Nintendo will probably still sell millions to a devoted fan base it’s cultivated for years. However, Nintendo’s online services have always been disappointing, and if it ignores game streaming for too long, it could finally find itself behind the times in this space, and unable to catch up.
After tip-toeing into making its biggest money-makers available on iOS and Android mobile devices with games like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo is going to jump into game-streaming head first with a service that will put Breath of the Wild on your smartphone amongst other devices. Joystick drift isn’t a thing if you abandon hardware completely.
Source: Gizmodo