Personally, no, i dont believe that. There will be one more gen for portable systems. After that, this trip will end. The following gen though will be imho the last gen for home console games... The graphics are nearing perfection and the the consoles themselves are gradually becoming multifunctional devices, kinda like pcs. very sad.
If you are referring to gaming-only devices then maybe yes. The NGP is already some sort of a smartphone/handheld console gadget. But with Nintendo's traditional way of leading the market, I don't think they'll ever enter the current trend of hybrid devices.
Not a chance in hell. Portables are a huge thing in japan and look to dominate the game market for the foreseeable future. Hell PSP world wide sells are still better then some consoles. With hw makers pushing for SOC, I wouldn't be shocked if we eventually get to hybrid portable/consoles that are portables to take out but sync to a base station when home to play out as a console.
No way. However, I'd be surprised if this wasn't the last gen of portables with actual cartridges/cards, with future ones becoming DL only.
I remember people saying this when Doom came out As long as hardware continues to improve I think we'll continue seeing new consoles.
Joke topic? Or did I read the question wrong? What sparked you to even think of this as a possibility anyway? Too many cross-eyed kids resulting in a ban of all future portables? Hahaha, I dun get it. ++++
Consoles will keep on changing. What we know as a console today is very, VERY different from what we'll know as a console in 2021. It has been happening since there have been consoles. The change has been so gradual, so it's not that noticeable to us - but really, today's consoles are so, SO different from late 80s consoles that they could be considered not the same thing. They do different things, and connect to different displays, work differently - the games are delivered in different formats, and we control them with different interactions. An Xbox 360 is not an Atari 2600 or an NES. Whatever we'll have 20 years from now will make the 360 look like those old machines. It depends on how other technologies change (and whether mankind doesn't disappear in the meantime). Portable devices are the same thing. I played with plastic devices where you had to shoot and order and move ball bearings inside figures, and little boxes filled with water and plastic rings. That was "portable gaming" before the Game and Watch, and the Gameboy. Today's portables do more stuff, but when new stuff comes out, the newer portables will do that too. There'll still be gaming, console and portable. It'll just be so different from today's gaming, it'll almost be unrecognisable.
As long as Nintendo exists, I doubt it. Sony's products will eventually just evolve into an iPad though (if it hasn't already).
Doubtful. Quite a few Japs have a handheld as their main gaming device. Watching people here on the trains really does show you how popular they are. Quite different to England and the West in general, where more people drive everywhere I suppose.
I think in the relatively near future, all, or nearly all, digital devices will sort of merge together. There will probably be 2 classes of devices - a home device, and a portable device. They'll be similar to the devices we use today, but less specialized. There will cease to be distinctions like "PC," "videogame console," "smartphone," and "handheld videogame console." They'll just be all-purpose devices that play games, browse the internet, make calls, play videos, etc. There might be different sizes, like an iPad versus an iPhone. The other thing is, the differences between portable and home devices will gradually get smaller as well. So eventually, the only reason to use a home device is that it's maybe marginally faster, but more importantly that it's set up on a large screen. This is just my own opinion, of course. This just seems to be the direction things are going in.
Besides hardware and being able to perform multiple tasks, the game consoles today, even handheld ones, are not far removed from what existed in the late 70s early 80s. Boxes which played software. This will continue just like televisions evolved into hdtvs or even google tv internet machines.
I can see the day in the next 20 years where all videogame services move online, and you have merely a dongle you attach to your TV or something (if even that.) So you'd be subscribed to the Nintendo Channel, the Sega Channel, etc. Personally I really hope it doesn't come to that, but it only makes economical sense. We saw a huge increase in dlc with this generation, and there's already services like Onlive that are starting to explore this territory.
Meh I'm such a tard. I saw the thread title and thought of Neo Geo Pocket =/ Multifunction devices are the way forwards but their battery life will always be shit, their hardware will always be overdeveloped but under used (think of a big bodybuilder with a small cock then has a heart attack in their 40s) and their latency with regards to online gaming via mobile networks will be a problem for some time too... PSP2 and 3DS will not be the last dedicated devices but in a recession they will be the last for a good while.
I agree with LeGIt, generally these multifunction devices tend to lack in many fields, (no stellar performance/interface). I too also thought this was about the Neo Geo... Nonetheless, I think it will be an odd transitional phase with these A-I-Os; I predict that the portable console market will suffer for a while but make a comeback. Kinda like how when Online music services appeared, CDs slumped (AFAIK) but reurned, or how radio, technology which is 'inferior' (in terms of use/delivery of info) is strong even though television and internet appeared. Radio evolved into HD radio/ Sat-radio, yet the traditional radio is still strong, it just changed to reflect society. So me theory is that the portable console will slump, then returning with a great splash, as new technology comes available (flexible OLEDs, digital tactile inputs, conductive plastics...). Technology will redefine how games are played, but you can't beat the classics. I also predict that the gaming market will go back to (Old-school) basics, yet make full use of recent/future technology. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
