The future of handheld consoles: will iOS and Android rid the 3DS once and for all?

10 years ago, it was different. People actually bought handheld consoles to play games on the go. Sure, you could play Snake on that Nokia you had, but to play console-quality, console-length games, you had to splurge on a PSP or a DS.

But today, people are increasingly turning to the iPad and Android tablets to play games. No longer are you confined to the blocky graphics of a mobile game, nowadays, the processors in top-end smartphones and tablets are more powerful than those found in the 3DS and Vita. Moreover, games often cost less than $10, while a 3DS game easily costs $40. So, is the mobile revolution set to kill handhelds once and for all?

The answer depends. If we go at this rate, yes. Every year, smartphones go from HD to Full HD to Quad HD and processors go from dual-core to quad-core to 64-bit. These smartphones get more and more powerful every year. But the 3DS is stuck with a screen that barely qualifies with its 800 x 240 resolution (400 x 240, really, 400 pixels for each eye) and a dated 1GHz dual-core ARM9 processor. The problem is that these consoles only get replaced every five or so years. The solution? Keep the price low and keep the games coming. Gamers still want tactile controls and you have to buy an additional controller for a mobile device. When you buy a 3DS or Vita, there’s no need to buy that. Most gamers will say touch controls are a poor substitute for movable sticks and pressable buttons and I agree - it’s different playing Ocarina of Time on an Android emulator and playing the same game on 3DS.

We saw what happened when the 3DS launched at $249 and barely had any games. We saw it again with the Vita, while at the time, powerful, it barely had games (and still barely has). Nowadays, the lowest-end 3DS model, the 2DS retails at $129 and has a massive library to pride itself on. Even the large XL model costs just $199, which can last you at least four or five years. Meanwhile, for about $30 more, you can get a Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX, but it will likely only last another year or two before you need to replace it. Their relatively long life, tactile controls and massive game libraries has kept them afloat, at least for now. But something needs to change soon and if it doesn’t, the 3DS and Vita may very well be the last of their kind. Gamers may still want them, but it’s the casual crowd that the DS captured, a crowd the iPhone stole. And that’s precisely what the 3DS needs - lots of customers.