Next gen consoles, are handhelds doomed? casual games?

This is just my thoughts on things atm.

Seem like Nintendo have woken up and decided to allow Wii users to transfer content to wii u http://www.computerandvideogames.com/351969/wiiware-vc-and-wii-saves-will-be-transferable-to-wii-u/ should have had a gamertag like system ages ago to deal with that mess

Casual gaming / handhelds, another area that has bugged me, they keep saying mobile downloads are killing handheld consoles because people pay 99p or what it is for a game. Well I tried tetris on my mobile phone when I got it and believe me it was not so smart phone, thought it was awful to play, no wonder they are for 5 minutes. Call me oldfashioned but I prefere proper controlls.

As for next gen systems, I hope next year is when they are released. xbox is 7 years old this November! Meaning it will be 8 before its replaced! Why so long when the longest a system usually goes is 5 or 6 years before replacement?

i see a couple of reasons, 1. Cost of development for games 2. Sony / MS have made very little money on current gen. 3. curent systems can do decent graphics and I dont think have dated as quickly as previous generations

Next gen games wll cost more which devs dont like and yet games are supposed to stay the same price, I mean £40 now is worth much less than £40 in 1992! Even though DVD / Bluray are cheaper than carts development costs have overtaken the reduction in price of medium they are stored on.

This gen was a shock for me, Sony fell quite badly, I think due to arrogance in part. Sony were leaders in 3 areas Games, mobile music players (Walkman) and TV's and they have been clobbered on all 3.

I do believe Sony have improved a great deal in the last year or so. Next gen should be easier for Sony and MS for some obvious reasons, certain new technology is not so new any more, just look at Sony

HDMI, and Bluray were cuttng edge when PS3 launched now are common place. a faster drive is now possible and wont cost as much as a drive in the original PS3. PS3 was delayed to accommodate HDMI which is now standard and also they have build the networks up as well (PSN, Xbox Live) so while I expect work to continue on them to improve them they are not starting from such a low base this time

Memory is quite cheap nowadays so 2 GB+ is not out of the question. for either PS4 or xbox 720 (or whatever) many games are starting to be cut back on current systems (Battlefield 3) but the experience dice gets from dx11 on PC will carry over to next gen consoles so a practice run if you like. I really hope the next cod does not arrrive on next gen consoles running on the old engine it will look so out of date

Good write up willow and i agree with everything that you have stated.