At present, the mainstream attention of the gaming industry is focused on the VR platform.
As for handheld consoles, as Meng Zuo said before, they are already on the decline.
Even many established handheld console manufacturers went bankrupt and were acquired and acquired.
Chen Xu also has some understanding of this.
But in Chen Xu's opinion, these handheld devices in the parallel world are completely on the wrong path, narrowing their own path.
how to say
Can mobile phones replace handheld consoles
In Chen Xu's view, this is impossible to completely replace.
There is no way to deny that mobile phones will compress the market for handheld consoles.
In fact, the relationship between mobile phones and handheld consoles is somewhat similar to the relationship between consoles and PCs in previous generations.
As PCs become more and more powerful, the market for consoles is actually being compressed.
This is also why in the previous life, there were exclusive games that were only available on the console platform and landed on the PC platform.
But can PCs replace consoles in previous lives? Obviously impossible.
The PC in the parallel world is actually a bit like the console in the previous life.
The main reason is irreplaceability.
Exclusive games, a more focused game experience, cheaper than a computer with the same configuration, and a more friendly architecture for game developers. These are all advantages and are destined to ensure that consoles will not be eliminated by PCs.
The same is true for handheld consoles. When the performance of mobile phones is getting more and more powerful, why would anyone buy a handheld console
If it's just about portability, isn't a mobile phone more convenient
After all, there is a very famous saying: Don’t you have a mobile phone
The real reason is that handheld consoles have unique and irreplaceable advantages.
In the previous life, with the rise of smartphones, Laoren's handheld market was constantly being eroded, but in the end, Satoru Iwata started to carry out major reforms in the department, changing the previous development concepts and systems. Under such circumstances, switch appeared.
Just like PCs, mobile phones are never purely for gaming, even if they are so-called gaming phones.
The second is the price. If it is just for playing games, a high-configuration mobile phone is actually more expensive than a handheld console.
Compared with mobile phones that only have touch screens, it is obvious that handheld phones can give players a better experience in terms of hand feel.
The bottom line is that mobile phones are not game consoles after all.
In this regard, mobile phones are different from PCs, because PCs have stronger scalability.
And in terms of operational feedback, even if the handle is not connected, the keyboard and mouse alone can bring better results than the touch screen.
At the same time, in some specific games, the keyboard and mouse have greater advantages, such as RTS and shooting games.
Of course, when technology reaches a certain level, it may indeed make handheld consoles disappear. For example, one day there will be a portable VR that can be controlled by thoughts and incorporate functions such as making phone calls. But by that time, mobile phones will probably have become history. .
In the parallel world, the reason why Chen Xu said that the direction of handheld consoles in this world is wrong is because the handheld consoles in the parallel world have completely abandoned the characteristics of the handheld console itself, and all kinds of materials are piled up to pursue hardware.
Having said that, some of the handheld console brands that have gone bankrupt in the past two years have a lot to do with Nebula Games.
Because these handheld consoles strive to be able to run games with specifications such as "Monster Hunter: World" and "Dark Soul".
Then the cost of the last part of the machine was so high that it naturally ruined myself.
This also made Chen Xu speechless.
After all, when it comes to handheld consoles, the game is the most important, and the hardware is just an auxiliary.
Think about the past life where Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo were divided into three parts. In terms of hardware configuration, Microsoft was the strongest.
But in the console wars of all generations, why has it never been able to gain an advantage
In addition to starting late, the most critical point is because of the game.
There are exclusive masterpieces such as The Last of Us, Uncharted, Bloodborne, and God of War on the Sony platform. Although with the market expansion of the PC platform, these exclusive games will basically be launched on the PC one after another.
It cannot be denied that in the early days, these games did have a very strong appeal.
But Microsoft has very little on its side, and the only ones it can offer are Halo, Gears of War, and Horizon.
As for Lao Ren, needless to say, Mario, Carriage, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros., and Pokémon series on the switch, as well as Zelda, who is regarded as the best in the world by many players, are all thousands of Thousands of games.
Of course, gaming is one aspect, but more importantly, Lao Ren fully understands the appeal of a handheld console.
That is an irreplaceable attribute.
If a masterpiece on the PS is brought to the PC platform, will it lack some unique core experience when switching from a controller to a keyboard and mouse
Not really.
But games on switch do.
Motion sensing, portability, and sharing, these are the unique features of switch.
Many of these games are even made just to adapt and display a function of the switch. If you don't play some games on the switch, you may even feel that they are missing a bit of flavor.
The machine makes the game, and the game makes the machine.
However, Chen Xu also knows that this is also because of the contemporary nature of the parallel world, these handheld console manufacturers are more hardware vendors than software vendors.
Therefore, when it comes to the development of handheld consoles, their focus is always on keeping up with the mainstream hardware era, rather than considering breakthroughs from a gaming perspective.
This has led to the cost of handheld machines getting higher and higher, and at the same time, the portability of the original handheld machines has been lost due to the stacking of materials.
Who wants to go out and carry a handheld device that looks like a brick
In the past life, Atari and Nintendo were able to rise because they were game software manufacturers from the earliest days and knew how to design hardware from a game perspective.
As for Sony, it was a surprise. After all, if it weren't for Nintendo's royalty system that has made game designers all over the world suffer for a long time. After the emergence of PS, they all rushed to develop games for Sony. Then there would be no first party established by Sony at all. Then Think about it from the perspective of gamers and promote the development of cinematic games.
Microsoft? That's even more of an exception. Two words "rich" are enough. I can buy it without skills or experience! Didn't Sega just lose the console war and become extremely poor? Uncle, I have plenty of money! If you don’t want to sell yourself, then you should be able to agree to my guarantee for a year and a half, right
So Microsoft entered the console field directly, which is why Microsoft's first-generation console was almost the same as Sega's.
In the field of handheld consoles in the parallel world, Chen Xu believes that the market is still huge.
Global sales of Switch in the previous life have reached 85 million units, and they are still breaking records.
Although it is a blessing from the old Ren brand, as well as IP games such as Pokémon, Mario, and Zelda that have been developed for decades, it was jointly created.
But it also relies on the unique features of the switch and the games tailor-made for the switch, which has also attracted countless new players to the switch.
Using switch as an entry point, Chen Xu believes that he can fill this gap in the parallel world.
At the same time, there is another very important point, that is, it is possible to build the switch into a unique platform.
Not a software platform, but a hardware platform.