The first handheld console to revolutionise the era was Milton Bradley’s Micro-vision in the late 70s. This console was the first of its kind to have interchangeable game cartridges, and due to its great innovation it managed to gross a total of about $15 million in its first year of release. However, due to its small screen, limited graphics, lack of cartridges and limited capabilities, it stuck out only 2 years into its release.
Soon enough a new global giant was about to enter the market, Nintendo decided to enter the fray with their very own invention, which was soon to dominate the market, the Game & Watch. This piece of tech was line of games that caught the gaming market by storm and managed to last 11 years in the handheld market before being retired for other extremely popular consoles to be released by the company that you expect everyone nowadays to know.
The next mighty innovation that was to come was, again, Nintendo’s own, Gameboy. This was Nintendo’s stepping stone into the interchangeable handheld game market, and what a step it was. Nintendo were now setting the mark for handheld consoles with the quality and the amount of content that was being put out for this console. The Gameboy’s sales were improved with new releases of popular game franchises such as Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong. This was surely the start of a new revolution; handheld consoles were becoming the next “in” thing. They were made so popular by Nintendo that masses of other companies tried to get on the bandwagon and sell some of their own products to gain a share in the market. Companies like Sega, Bandai, Neo Geo, Atari and even Nokia tried to get in on the act (and yes, Nokia’s own, gaming phone failed, another example of a product way ahead of its time).
However whatever was released, no one could seem to set foot on the mountain that Nintendo had crafted in the handheld console market with more popular releases such as the Gameboy Colour, Advance, SP, DS and today’s favourite of the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL. The series of the Nintendo DSs was one of the greatest things, if not the greatest thing, to happen within the handheld gaming market with it quickly outselling competitors and being, at one point, the most bought console in the USA for four months running. But this was the rising of the new age; PlayStation decided to step up in the handheld market when in 2012, they announced they would release an upgrade to the PSP in the form of the PS Vita. The PS Vita is the next-gen of handheld consoles with a HD screen, a touch-sensitive area on the back panel, and other high-techy things that makes a gamer squeak. But, has it sold well; with the recent releases of the Xbox One and the PS4, sales of the PS Vita, and the Nintendo 3DS, are starting to dwindle. One of the main factors of this is, one that has been picked upon by an executive of Sony, Fergal Gara, the advancement of smartphones and people not wanting to have to carry a dedicated gaming console when a lot of games can be played on people’s phones. So, what does this mean for the handheld generation, is this the end as we know it, or just a blip in the market. Will sales of the “New 3DS” and the PS Vita grow or will they die out? Will we have to deal with playing the new Mario and Zelda games on our smartphones? These are the questions that we need to acknowledge if we want our handheld legacy to carry on or to be put down.
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