Originally posted on VGChartz’ gamrFeed
It seems like it came out of nowhere, but suddenly we’re realizing that dedicated portable handhelds are becoming a niche market. iPhones and others forms of mobile gaming via Android phones, iPads, etc. have taken hold of a large portion of the market. In the current circumstances, these devices aren’t fully capable of providing the full retail experience gamers need.
It’s hard to say if it will be only be a matter of time until dedicated handhelds are off the map, but as of right now we do know that the portable gaming is getting pushed to compete in a smaller niche market.
Sony and Nintendo both have a challenging course ahead of them, especially in the next few years where we see just how much of the market is willing to purchase dedicated handheld gaming devices. Competing with an iPhone doesn’t exactly make sense as the platforms are aiming at two different markets. Yet both Nintendo and Sony have made a handful of advances on social networking features like Facebook and Twitter apps as well as multiple other fancy internet stalking and harassing services.
Recently, we learned that the PlayStation Vita will include a handful of popular social networking hubs and applications. This includes Twitter, Facebook, Skype and even Four Square. Oddly enough, Nintendo has attempted to implement many as well, but instead encourages it through the web browser on the 3DS rather than specific applications. Sure, the browser could be for anything, but just step over to Nintendo Video that features a built-in “like” button that links to Facebook.
Vita has its own browser, but we’ll have to see if it is implemented into the user interface itself. It only makes sense that Nintendo and Sony would want to better their platforms and give more bullet points to draw in consumers, but are they reaching anyone?
The fact of the matter is, these sort of social networking features are almost redundant as they’re already built into our phones, an essential device for the modern person on the go. Putting another device in our pockets that does the exact same thing doesn’t exactly seem like anything too appealing.
Sure, you create a back-up device for those features, but it is simply that – a back-up a device. Chances are, it won’t be the main device in your pocket. That being said, not everyone has smart phones. Kids and people like me with entry level phones definitely have a use for these features (I’ve spent way too much time with the 3DS’ terrible browser), but it is a shrinking segment of the market as the smart phones’ penetration rate climbs.
Social networking does have a place in dedicated portable handheld devices, but it needs to be an original service to remain a significant feature of the system. While the 3DS features some basic local communication between systems, the PlayStation Vita is taking it to the next level, basically creating a beefed up Street Pass and Spot Pass hybrid for their system. More importantly, they’re incorporating features from other social networking sites in LiveArea for PlayStation Vita, the successor to the PSP and PlayStation 3’s XMB user interface.
Does adding third party specific social networking applications hurt the overall platform? At the surface level, no. But it does feel a bit unnecessary as it’s most likely that only a small chunk of platform owners care about these features. It would be nice if that focus was instead put in to specific social networking features of PlayStation Vita. Nintendo somewhat dodged a bullet as they only made a painful-to-use web browser that can be used for many of these services through one application, unless they use Flash. Because who cares about Flash, right? Flash is non-existent on the internet. At least that what Steve Jobs says.
