Game & Phone

[Obiwanshinobi]

Since I'm used to carrying a gamepad-shaped GBA SP holder around,

Spoiler

I can imagine the idea of Game Boy/Game & Watch evolving into a smartphone holder of sorts. Meaning here, if I was to get a smartphone and leave most other portable gizmos at home, such an extension could possibly come in handy. The question is what does Nintendo have to offer that will compete against ready-made devices of the kind. "Brand-new library of exclusive software developed with now-archaic controls in mind" (not easily portable to or imitated on bare smartphone) sounds conservative enough for them. After all, there's no scarcity of handhelds with real d-pad and buttons on the market, complete with emulation and homebrew in case you wanna taste old-fashioned controls on the go.

It's just that I don't think the Game Boy line of systems has ever been officially terminated, and this whatever thing hints at something of a continuation.

P.S. Changed the post title for the heck of it.

[Ed Oscuro]

I think Nintendo's "unique value proposition" with the original Game Boy was that it was portable and there wasn't any competition. So, taking something that does exist - a smartphone - and making it less portable doesn't seem like a way to get back the consumers or the developers. Personally I'd be okay with another Game Boy type device, so long as it was small and durable enough, but I don't know if they are going to give it a go again. Kind of a shame if so, since we're finally entering an era when acceptable portable screens are becoming possible.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I have a New 3DS and it's got the same flat dimensions as my Xperia smartphone. It's close to 3 times as thick though and the "in" thing seems to be slimming phones down. Though I don't see why a clamshell GBA SP/DS style handheld wouldn't work out for Nintendo if it has enough grunt. If you're carrying around a smartphone controller you've already bulked out your portable device... why not pack a dedicated handheld instead?

I'd rather have a dedicated device than run everything through my smartphone. I still have a Creative Zen for mp3s because the damn thing can play 20+ hours on a single charge. Given how much "being on" and "viewing webpages" canes the battery on my phone, if I add music and gaming the bloody thing will die in minute.

Mobile gaming is toxic anyway, ad-heavy and based on microtransactions. Even if you can buy the game outright you're at the mercy of OS updates as to whether it stays playable.

[Ed Oscuro]

As a guy who's still hanging onto his old flip phone, I don't much care for the pocket real estate requirements of regular smartphones. Given that everybody else already has one of those, and pretty much has to carry it around all the time, why would they want to put even more in their pockets just to have a marginally different gaming experience available? The only thing a Nintendo style device would seem to have going for it is standardization, but that's not much use if the market has moved on.

Personally it'd make more sense to me if it was really much different from a regular smartphone. I don't have any figures to back it up, but if I had to guess the biggest thing the DS had going for it was that budget smartphones hadn't eaten into its niche yet (remember, the DS launched well over 10 years ago, when the Razr line was actually considered nearly cutting edge).

[Obiwanshinobi]

Game & Phone! I reckon you read it here first (searching with Duck Duck Go returned only one online appearance prior to this one). It can ONLY be "retro", it MUST be or else.