Infinity Blade
According to a new survey released by market research firm Interpret, one-time fans of portable gaming systems like the DS and PSP are ditching them in favor of smartphones like Apple's iPhone.
The news comes amid heightened rumors that Sony, and its joint mobile phone venture Sony Ericcson, is about to unveil an Android-based smartphone that'll integrate PSP game functionality.
"Gamers appear to be defecting from their handheld gaming devices to phones to
get their gaming kicks," says Interpret's report, which polled 9,000
U.S. consumers. "A full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play
games on their phones only (and not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the device(s)."
Those defectors are being joined by some of gaming's biggest names. John
Carmack, legendary designer behind classics like Doom, has been an
advocate of the iPhone as a gaming system for several years and has
released several high-profile titles via Apple's App Store. And Epic
Games subsidiary ChAIR is set to release an iPhone/iPad exclusive game
this week, Infinity Blade, that could well outshine anything we've seen
so far on purpose-built portables.
[Kids going on expensive iPhone shopping sprees]
"The proliferation of highly multifunctional smartphones and messaging
phones is a very real threat to the dominance by the DS and PSP of the
handheld gaming market," Courtney Johnson, Interpret's Manager of
Research and Analysis, said in a statement. "Devices which satisfy a
variety of entertainment and utility are fast outstripping
single-function devices as consumer favorites."
Are you leaving your DS or PSP at home in favor of a gaming-capable smartphone? Let us know why in the comments.
Via IndustryGamers.
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