LG: “The Era of the Dedicated Handheld Gaming Platform is Over”
It’s hard to deny that the dedicated handheld market is facing fierce competition from the mobile phone market, with iOS and Android phones often boasting processing power that rivals handhelds. Sony and Nintendo still remain confident that there is money to be made in the market, but South Korean technology giant LG have proclaimed that “the era of [the] dedicated handheld gaming platform is over.”
The statement came from Dr. Jong-seok Park in a press release, he continued:
Today’s smartphones have the horsepower to compete with the best portable gaming devices and LG Optimus 3D is our proof.
We think 3D is the natural next step in portable entertainment and LG is eager to throw its hat in the ring with the Optimus 3D and Gameloft’s ‘must-be-seen-to-be-believed’ titles.
After this press release was given out, LG sent out a new one that omitted the initial statement.
Gameloft’s president Michel Guillemot added:
The most recent data shows iOS and Android devices capturing a growing part of the portable gaming market by revenue. With the next generation of smartphones offering 3D capabilities, the bar has been raised to a new height. On the Optimus 3D, we’re able to offer our most popular titles to an entirely new audience at very competitive price points.
The handset comes pre-installed with three of Gameloft’s 3D titles – Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, N.O.V.A. and Let’s Golf! 2.
While the glasses-free 3D aspect of the Optimus 3D makes the phone a viable competitor to the 3DS (although Nintendo’s first-party games are hard to rival), but do you think the phone can compete with the PlayStation Vita? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Via]
29 Responses to “LG: “The Era of the Dedicated Handheld Gaming Platform is Over””
That LG Optimus 3D has nothing on PlayStation Vita, 1: They make pretty crappy products 2: Handheld and Mobile Phones are not the same, As far as we know you can’t make call in a Handheld. 3: Since LG blocked PS3 shipment in UK for a few weeks due to some Blu-Ray patent they are just kicking themselves in the rear that the blockade is over and they didn’t win. Back to the point now, sure their phone might be 3D Glasses Free but they are better phones out there and LG’s phone is just a phone with a few “mini” games and NOT a handheld that focuses 99.9% on games.
Says the company who recently lost a court case stopping the sale of PS3 in areas of Europe…
Sorry LG, but I’ll take a dedicated portable system over a smartphone any day of the week. Touchscreen controls alone simply aren’t good enough. Oh, and your mobile devices simply don’t have more power than the Vita… end of discussion.
The way the non dedicated gaming handhelds are right now, no, the era is not over, but as soon as they add dual analog sticks, d pad, face buttons and trigger buttons wether physical or a way that is not physical but is just as good, the era will be over. I would DEFINETLY, MUCH rather own one device that is a good phone and a good gaming device than have one good phone and one good gaming device seperately, and so does most people if not everyone. That´s why I really want Sony to add phone capabilities, just at least make and receive calls and texts on PSVita because I´m a gamer so I want PSVita but I also have a phone so I would rather have one device that does both.
Don´t say get a smartphone or Xperia Play because I´m talking about a real gaming portable device that is good and no smartphone that I know of, including Play, is a real gaming portable device that is good.
Vita will have skype…….
I don´t think it´s confirmed yet but Skype isn´t phone capabilities,
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2011/06/20/ps-vita-to-support-microsofts-skype/
It’s great it has skype, but yeah, I’m still going to also have my mobile
That article´s title is misleading because it hasn´t been officially confirmed that Vita will have Skype.
If the Vita has Skype + 3G = cell phone
So once i get the Vita, ill be losing my phone.
Yeah, sure, it’s over.. Ok, now show me how should we play Metal Gear Solid in a touchscreen-only device like ipad, or the LG Optimus. Or maybe LittleBigPlanet…
While PSP have Need for Speed, LG Optimus have Asphalt… While PSP Vita have Konami games, mobile phones have Gameloft…
LG Optimus, iPad, iPhone… great for the casual gamer. But the real gamers need a dedicated gaming device.
DOWN WITH LG!!!
Their 3d phone cant hold my Evo’s jock! lol
Call me old fashioned at the ripe old age of 24, but who the hell needs a phone with 3D capabilities? I still only use my phone for texting and calls. No games whatsoever.
KIDS THESE DAYS!
Tony Stark
love my LGTV and they have a point i game on my phone more when im out then my PSP usually i dont even take my PSP anywhere cause the game selection just sucks on the PSP. hopefully vita will actually have good games.
You know what I would like to see? A TV with a PS3 built right in just like the Sony TVs with a PS2 built in. I would definetly buy that. Sony has already done Sony TVs with PS3 bundles at super discounts so I think they should do this.
My old Pentium 4 can compete with the new I7s lol yeah right a single core can only do so much especially with integrated graphics and ram. I know its probably a bad analogy but you get my point. I doubt the cell phone processors are probably not efficient enough to run real high caliber games. a truck engine with over 300 horse power wouldn’t make a good racing engine, they are made to compete in completely different areas, power over speed and vice versa, just like the Vita versus a Cell Phone
They’re just pissy over that whole Playstation ban they lost on. I’m sorry, I never, and will never, be satisfied by games on my phone. I don’t honestly know ANYONE who would rather play a game on a phone than a handheld. Besides maybe solitaire, or mind-numbing games to pass a few minutes of time.
I don’t understand why phone games are so popular, it’s a fucking PHONE. Since when did a phone need to be a phone, messaging service, camera, video recorder, movie player, gaming platform, and 3D device? REALLY?! What happened to the PHONE?!
Ugh, it’s just so stupid. I imagine a 3D phone would have a terrible battery life. It seems utterly USELESS to have 3D on a PHONE. A FUCKING PHONE!
Infinity Blade on iPhone looks better than anything on 3DS… Just throwing that out there…
Yeah but the 3DS is over-rated. It’s got barely any decent titles out at the moment (Ok so it has a remake of a good game and a resident evil minigame (Mercerneries is a freakin minigame for Resi 4 and 5 NOT a title in it’s own right) oh yeah and REALLY old games and the promise from Nintenwhore to remake all their old games.
Not that sony won’t be the same in the future. Just you wait everyone, we’ll be talking about the fact that the 3PS is terriable because Sony are idiots only going for the casual gamers and how it just has a remake of Uncharted 2: Among Theives, Ratchet and Clank’s grid rider and another Killzone, Resistance and Infamous (In this one Cole gets yet another ability making him more powerfull then 10 sylars)
The era of the dedicated handheld gaming platform will be over when I am able to play Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet on my phone and the battery not die the second the game starts. I think LG is a decent TV maker but I think they are a little full of themselves if they think people are going to pay 400+ dollars for a phone to play games instead of 250 for a much better gaming device. Sure the casual will pick the phone but PS Vita and 3DS have too much software advantage over phones. Okay, 3DS not so much right now but I’m trying to be nice.
I have to say, they’re not really in the wrong. People don’t want many devices with them. Smartphones can do almost everything including game. I have the EVO 3D, and theres really good games on here. It’s not the Vita with the gaming controls but it’s a device I always have on me
And that’s whats really important in the end. It’s like digital cameras as well, no one carries it anymore because their phone does it.
You gotta love how these big companies like LG think! “I’m making a phone that can play games, IT’S OFFICIAL! Dedicated gaming handhelds are finished” It’d be like Van Gogh announcing everytime he did a painting that it meant every other form of art was useless.
I don’t blame LG though for this sad attempt to bash Sony, they did just lose a court case against Sony and it’s a real shame really that sticking your fingers in your ears and saying you have an upperhand dosen’t work as a tactic in the games industry.
Otherwise everybody would be playing Black ops right now (As in everybody in the known and unknown universes). LG aren’t the only people doing this though, I think everybody in these industries (computer, games, advertising, etc) should stop this tactic. It’s one thing to promote your product and show off you unique selling point but it’s just downright cold blooded to go out of your way to attack the compeition by implying or in near enough EVERY case outrightly stating that your product is better and that their product will soon become technologically extinct. (For one this tactic has supermarkets Asda and Tesco in an advertising triad war)
the two devices are for two different crowds…those who just want to buy a new phone because it can do 3D and play games, and those who really just care about gaming…I don’t think anyone that truly wants to buy a new device because of it’s gaming capabilities is going to buy a phone that can also play games. It is true though, there is only a small percentage of people who are actually interested enough in the handheld gaming market to buy a dedicated gaming handheld…though for those few people, the PS Vita will not be matched.
I mean, we haven’t even technically had any of those. The last gaming thing that was ONLY about gaming was the Game Boy. Everything after that had extra stuff. the DS had that chat thing.
Those few people? I don’t think any of us can say any side of this argument is just a few people, I mean have you actively researched and gone through your findings to come to the conclusion that there’s only a “few people”
Handheld gaming isn’t going anywhere for a while espcially when you’ve got devices like the PS Vita that boost such impressive tech behind it. It’s the same for computers, you can buy laptops and PCs for dedicated gaming or just for browsing online. It dosen’t stop people buying gaming dedicated computers.
Atta stick your foot in your mouth LG. I’ll be avoiding your products now. Pity too, because I have so many of them. Anyone that doesn’t see there is still a market for handhelds doesn’t have a proper view of the world. Take me for example, I don’t own a handheld gaming device, but I plan on purchasing a PS Vita. It’ll be the first time I’ve owned a handheld, but you (LG) think it’s a dying market. Take your LG dumbphones and shove them up your asses. I hate when technology company tries to predict tech markets that don’t even have a product on the shelves. It’s like Nike coming out and saying the day of 3D televisions are over. Dumbasses.
LOL @ LG! If anything LG is a dying product.
No offense to LG but that was a stupid statement, no mobile phone will ever completely stop handheld platform sales especially when you have the most awesome handheld ever the PS Vita coming out soon so I highly doubt that “The Era of the Dedicated Handheld Gaming Platform is Over” and it will never be over in my opinion.
Sooooooo Sad!!