5 ms·

This is clearly influenced by the Nintendo Switch, which has proven that if mobile gaming is "a meme", it's a supremely popular one.

jerf 5y ago
I would not classify the Switch as portable gaming. It definitely acts more like a console. Of course this is ultimately a definitional issue, but there is IMHO clearly a difference. I think rather than "mobile" the distinction might be "touchscreen only" gaming; contra some of the wild predictions I recall on HN about a decade ago, "touchscreen only" has failed to displace all other input mechanisms, because it's honestly not all that good. It works, and can be better than nothing, but I think it's hard for touchscreen to ever attain that transparent "flow" state where controls just disappear, and is table stakes for being a 'core gaming' platform.
- retromagik 5y ago
  The switch is widely used as a portable game console. The switch lite can't even connect to the dock
  - deeviant 5y ago
    Widely-used really doesn't mean anything anything to me. The numbers are 13 million lite vs 85 million non-lite sales. The mobile part is a meme, it's subsidized by the people who just want play Nintendo games (and the switch is the only/best way to do it)
    - RankingMember 5y ago
      There are numbers from Nintendo on the breakdown between mobile and dock usage, and they indicate a larger percentage of users play undocked vs docked. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/nintendo_gamers_prefer_using_switch_as_a_handheld_rather_than_docked https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/nintendo_gamers_pr...
      - deeviant 5y ago
        I saw the same numbers. They are from 2017 just months after it was released, back before many Nintendo exclusives had been released and even these numbers show 70% of users spend significant amount of time docked.
- nathanaldensr 5y ago
  My kids who play Octopath Traveler and Captain Toad on long road trips disagree.
  - deeviant 5y ago
    Yes, road trips, aka ~1% of time owned... Which could just as easily be fulfilled with a tablet or a phone. And in the case of valve deck, it even has to compete with the switch in the mobile space. It's a miserable position right out the gate.
  - jerf 5y ago
    So, your kids playing a couple of games proves that touchscreen gaming has in fact displaced all conventional controls? Someone better go tell the rest of the game industry they're really misallocating their resources. Dunno about Octopath Traveller, but I have no idea why your kids are playing Captain Toad without the controller, unless you just don't trust them with the controller or something. Camera controls are clearly better with the controllers. Deemo or something like that would be a better example, but it's also clearly an exception.

jerf 5y ago

I would not classify the Switch as portable gaming. It definitely acts more like a console. Of course this is ultimately a definitional issue, but there is IMHO clearly a difference. I think rather than "mobile" the distinction might be "touchscreen only" gaming; contra some of the wild predictions I recall on HN about a decade ago, "touchscreen only" has failed to displace all other input mechanisms, because it's honestly not all that good. It works, and can be better than nothing, but I think it's hard for touchscreen to ever attain that transparent "flow" state where controls just disappear, and is table stakes for being a 'core gaming' platform.

retromagik 5y ago
The switch is widely used as a portable game console. The switch lite can't even connect to the dock
- deeviant 5y ago
  Widely-used really doesn't mean anything anything to me. The numbers are 13 million lite vs 85 million non-lite sales. The mobile part is a meme, it's subsidized by the people who just want play Nintendo games (and the switch is the only/best way to do it)
  - RankingMember 5y ago
    There are numbers from Nintendo on the breakdown between mobile and dock usage, and they indicate a larger percentage of users play undocked vs docked. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/nintendo_gamers_prefer_using_switch_as_a_handheld_rather_than_docked https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/nintendo_gamers_pr...
    - deeviant 5y ago
      I saw the same numbers. They are from 2017 just months after it was released, back before many Nintendo exclusives had been released and even these numbers show 70% of users spend significant amount of time docked.
nathanaldensr 5y ago
My kids who play Octopath Traveler and Captain Toad on long road trips disagree.
- deeviant 5y ago
  Yes, road trips, aka ~1% of time owned... Which could just as easily be fulfilled with a tablet or a phone. And in the case of valve deck, it even has to compete with the switch in the mobile space. It's a miserable position right out the gate.
- jerf 5y ago
  So, your kids playing a couple of games proves that touchscreen gaming has in fact displaced all conventional controls? Someone better go tell the rest of the game industry they're really misallocating their resources. Dunno about Octopath Traveller, but I have no idea why your kids are playing Captain Toad without the controller, unless you just don't trust them with the controller or something. Camera controls are clearly better with the controllers. Deemo or something like that would be a better example, but it's also clearly an exception.