A Brief History of Hand Held Gaming and Why Microsoft Needs to Be Involved

Triverse writes, "Many have tried to dethrone the mighty Nintendo from their pedistal built around hand held gaming. Those same companies have failed, some damn near into bankruptcy over their failed hand helds. It takes clout, it takes deep pockets and exclusive titles to even make a dent in the armor that the Game Boy built."

[NameRemoved0017]

They are kind of involved, a few windows 8 tablets can run PC games like the Razer Edge, more will be able to do this as the adoption of intel haswell grows.

[Shnazzyone]

Nah, once you go there all cell phones and ipads become dedicated gaming devices. That's a portable computer that also does gaming really. In reality, it's good nintendo owns that market because it allows them to produce great things like Fire emblem, pokemon and animal crossing. It also helps keep nintendo in business so they can do the crazy experiments they do.

[Pittoo]

It can be called the XBox Small One.

[Moonman]

Or Xbox Zero. ;p

[Moonman]

Xbox Dead for the disagrees. :P

[Pillsbury1]

At this point they shouldn't even be involved in consoles.

[InTheLab]

How about fixing the Xbone and GFwL before we jump onto another failed venture.

[hellvaguy]

How bout not commenting on fake troll articles like they are real lol. Starting after mine is done. k now!

[triverse]

It is not a "fake troll article", it is as the title states, a brief history of hand helds and why MS needs to be involved.

[Hicken]

How about not always coming to the defense of a company with shitty practices, hellvaguy?

[hellvaguy]

"It is not a "fake troll article", it is as the title states, a brief history of hand helds and why MS needs to be involved."

Yes it was really was fake, unless MS recently announced plans to release a handheld because I've read nothing whatsoever on that.

@Hickys

Was saying to not comment on fake troll articles, sorry you got emo and went into defensive mode and spun it to thinking I was standing up for any company.

[Hicken]

What makes it fake? It's an opinion piece on why the author thinks MS should be in the handheld market. Did you even read it?

No, that would be the sensible thing to do. And you're not the sensible type.

Speaking of, don't PM me with an exact copy of your last comment, all the while having me blocked.

[NameRemoved0017]

I think we can all agree they have abandoned GFWL

[Mikelarry]

Hey let's not get carried away now boys and girls their home console only did well with the 360 now your saying portable I think they should first perfect home consoles before doing anything else

[BillytheBarbarian]

I would love a portable 360. Just make a 360 controller and throw a nice PSP or Vita screen in the middle of it and boom. Throw a decent sized SD card in there and play whatever is on the marketplace. Leave it without a disc drive to save space/parts. Also allow it to play games from your gamertag library. I would buy one yesterday.

[Software_Lover]

They are already involved.

Windows 8/rt on tablets

Wp8. Some great exclusive games on the platform, including the upcoming Halo game.

[triverse]

Windows Phone 8 is not on dedicated gaming hardware. Using that as an example, you could say they have already tried portables with the Zune. The problem with that argument is that the Zune wasn't dedicated to gaming either, just like Windows Phone 8 and 8/RT on tablets.

[BillytheBarbarian]

All that dedicated means is that it can do more than just game. Who cares if the games end up being better than something on a dedicated handheld? Because you can't go on the internet and watch youtube on a 3DS it's dedicated?

Being able to do more than play games isn't a negative thing.

[BuffMordecai]

Microsohit can GTFO and stop ruining gaming.

[_QQ_]

Microsoft shouldn't be involved,honestly neither should sony,Nintendo's handhelds are the only ones who achieve success in sales.

[boybato]

This is a good idea!!! Hopefully it doubles as a vibrator so that if MS imposes some of its "policies" I could use it while I'm bent over.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

No they rlly shouldnt it would be a waste of time and effort. Ninendo is king of the handheld market the fact that Sonys's PSP series is trying to compete at all is amazing. then also competing with smart phones,tablets etc.. MS entering the handheld race would be pointless.

[UNGR]

Why? It's dominated by the 3DS. It's like to compete against the PS2, you have no chance to survive.

[Snakefist30]

So that they could ruined Handheld gaming?No thanks!!!

[infamousinfolite]

Its too late for Microsoft to make any movement in the handheld market plus I'm sure this article was written to try and find a positive for Microsoft but no there is no 'positive' for them.

This generation will be even worse for Microsoft. Last generation I played Halo Gears and COD before I moved to Sony true PS3's great single player titles like MGS4 Motorstorm Uncharted Little Big Planet Infamous and so on and so fourth.

[triverse]

Actually, the article was written with the history feature as the primary focus and the MS stuff added as a future looking discussion as to the most likely next portable combatant to enter the market.

I have more stuff coming, and giving MS positives is not an option or a concern of mine. Rather, I am writing about what interests me and what I see for possible things to happen.

[DragonKnight]

Why, so they can restrict that too? No thanks.

[triverse]

Restrict how? All gaming, outside of PC (for the most part) is restricted quite a bit. Nintendo has done it through both software and hardware tricks. Sony goes out of their way to keep gamers from doing a lot of the stuff they want (such as taking screenshots of PSP games, why was that NOT included in the OFW?).

Apple is no better about it either. You have to jail break to do a lot of things that Apple could have easily implemented in the official OS.

Android is as close to "open" as you can get and look at the trouble it is to find games that work on various hardware. Look at how long it takes for many titles to hit the platform too, and the number of comments from devs/publishers stating they won't support the platform for various reasons (standardized hardware being one).

Restricted by MS? Sure, but they would just be following suit as how portable gaming has been operated, nearly, from day one.

As far as openness goes, Microsoft Windows is the most open, commercially available gaming platform out there. Not bringing that to consoles or portables is nothing new, that honor goes to Nintendo for their famous lockout chip in the original NES. Even Atari left their systems more open.

[DragonKnight]

"Restrict how? All gaming, outside of PC (for the most part) is restricted quite a bit. Nintendo has done it through both software and hardware tricks. Sony goes out of their way to keep gamers from doing a lot of the stuff they want (such as taking screenshots of PSP games, why was that NOT included in the OFW?)."

Let's take the example you used for the PSP. The restrictions that lockout the ability to take PSP screenshots are the same restrictions that cause the removal of Youtube Let's Play videos. They are licensing in nature and implemented because Sony would have to pay the price of licensing breaches as a result of those pictures. If we take a look at Microsoft's restrictions, we see things like the X1's online check every 24 hours. How is that remotely the same?

"Apple is no better about it either. You have to jail break to do a lot of things that Apple could have easily implemented in the official OS."

Irrelevant. Apple isn't in the gaming industry like Microsoft is, and no their iOS platform isn't the same.

"Android is as close to "open" as you can get and look at the trouble it is to find games that work on various hardware. Look at how long it takes for many titles to hit the platform too, and the number of comments from devs/publishers stating they won't support the platform for various reasons (standardized hardware being one)."

That entire paragraph has nothing to do with platform holder restrictions. Moving on.

"Restricted by MS? Sure, but they would just be following suit as how portable gaming has been operated, nearly, from day one."

You've provided one example, and a flimsy one at that. How is it remotely comparable to the anti-consumerism and arrogance Microsoft are displaying with the X1?

"As far as openness goes, Microsoft Windows is the most open, commercially available gaming platform out there."

Sure, if you discard Linux entirely.

"Not bringing that to consoles or portables is nothing new, that honor goes to Nintendo for their famous lockout chip in the original NES. Even Atari left their systems more open."

Not bringing what to consoles? Windows or "openness?" And what do you call openness? Plenty would call piracy openness. You see, some restrictions that are the result of laws (i.e. licensing) and the ability to make any profit (i.e. preventing outright piracy) are common everywhere. But user-based mandatory restrictions is a whole new ball game. Imagine an Xbox handheld that wouldn't let you play your game unless you performed a wi-fi check in? None of that sounds good to anyone but Microsoft.

[MikeMyers]

The PSP Go was restrictive too was it not? Obviously Sony will try and do things too to see how consumers react. Sony was also part of that Rootkit scandal with CD's. Everything you buy on the Sony store is restrictive. Warhawk restricted you to a 24 hour period on another system. Final Fight on Playstation Network had DRM but not on Xbox Live. Sony also adopted online passes.

So let's not act like one company has been 100% perfect in the past.

[DragonKnight]

@MikeMyers: *Ahem* After having had a comment restriction for 2 days due to your incessant and compulsive obsession with me, why do you continue to follow me around like a lost puppy? Are you looking for more restrictions? This is a continuation of the initiative I have undertaken to continue asking the above question until you answer it, or until it can't be asked any further.

[Hadoukameha]

I'd like to see how M$ does in handhelds. I think they could do well. Either way, more options for gamers is never bad, even if they crash.

[Dogswithguns]

They never wanted to... why now?

[fsfsxii]

No please, thats the last place i don't want MS to go into, they'll ruin it. The handeheld word is better off without Microshit

[cm_]

I don't know why microsoft never developed a gaming console that took the form of a tablet. something much more powerful than current handhelds and something that could interact with their xbox one. the last few years would have been an ideal time to develop and market such a thing.