Is There a Future for Dedicated Portable Gaming Systems?

There was a time when hand held game systems did one thing: Play games. Now these systems have to be able to perform many different tasks to be competitive. They need to be able to download wireless content, play videos, play music, and even take pictures. While gadgets like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS still rule the portable gaming world, there are other devices that are beginning to offer some stiff competition.

Cell phones are now a serious player in the gaming world and offer titles that feature a depth and quality of gameplay once only found in dedicated portable gaming devices. Is there a future for a hand held gadget that only plays games now that cell phones have extensive gaming content? I believe the answer is no, and here is why.

Small screens reduce the need for super-powered graphics.

Hand held systems have small screens because they are meant to fit in a pocket, purse, or backpack. These miniature screens can produce some amazing effects and even play HD content, but that does not alter the fact that they are still very small. It is difficult for a dedicated portable gaming system to stand out over a phone since the viewing area tends to allow games with less cutting edge graphics to appear just as good or nearly as good as those with sharper, more powerful graphics.

Almost all cell phones now have gaming-capable screens of some sort.

The early cell phones had buttons and a display that showed the numbers. Many cell phones have displays that, while not quite as graphically sophisticated as a dedicated game system, are very close. The latest cell phones are advanced enough that their screens can match or even exceed those of portable gaming systems.

Many popular games being developed are only for cell phones.

Sure, there are cell phone versions of a lot of popular games, but there are many games that can only be found on cell phones. These are not just cheap flash games that will only entertain the gamer for a few minutes, but are instead complex, lengthy, and full-featured. The prices of these games are also an excellent value when compared with the cartridges and discs of dedicated systems.

Even console makers are getting into the phone market.

With Sony releasing what has been called the "PSP Phone", it is clear that gaming companies are realizing that simple gaming units are becoming dinosaurs. Portable units of the future will need to have the ability to send texts, pics, access email, access the internet, and do everything that a cell phone can do. With all the communications and computing functions cell phones are capable of, a dedicated hand held system no longer stands a chance.

It will be interesting to see what kind of success Sony's PSP Phone enjoys and how heavily other cell phone makers market the gaming abilities of their phones. With their powerful processing power and huge list of features, expect cell phones to be the portable gaming systems of the future.