Do you guys think there is still a market for a dedicated gaming handheld that fits in your pocket and costs under 200 bucks in today's market?

>>715257490 (OP)
retro handhelds are extremely popular so yea

>stealth retro handheld marketing thread

>>715257490 (OP)
There is, otherwise this wouldn't be a thing.

>>715257661
I don't mean "retro" handhelds, I mean a dedicated handheld that fits in your pocket (that isn't a big 500 kilo brick like the Steamdeck or Switch 2) that costs under 200 bucks?

>>715257783
Yeah, it called "a phone".

>>715257783
it's called an android handheld then

>>715257490 (OP)
Chinkhelds are popular for a reason.
If you mean mainstream hardware then nope.
Even fucking phones are bigger than that.

>>715257490 (OP)
No, 99% of the benefit of mobile system is going from your backyard to your couch to your bed to your desktop PC. Sometimes the car if you want to be antisocial to the person you are driving with.
The vast majority of people will never take their system out to game in public. And thats a good thing.

Yes, but it'll be incredibly niche, losing out to things like smart phones and the Switch/Steamdeck. Whatever exclusives can be made for it will just be easily emulatable on the previously mentioned platforms which will further kill it. Then is the matter of who will actually exclusively develop for it? Yeah, only whoever owns the handheld will do that, and you need a considerable output to make it attractive.

No point in doing so unless you just want to make a better quality chinkheld, then you don't have to worry about the above, but you have to rise above the other handhelds since there's so many of them with differing opinions on them.

Why do you need a handheld that fits in your pocket
>I want to take it outside
That's cringe why are you doing that

>>715257851
>>715257912
Phones don't have a healthy game market. It's mostly stuff to scam kids out of their parents money or gacha stuff for scamming neckbeards out of their money, plus an exclusive touch screen isn't a good interface for gaming. I'm talking dedicated handheld.
>>715257920
So we will never have a Gameboy again? Just basedllenials playing emulators on their cheap chinese handhelds and Steamdecks getting stolen on the bus?

>>715258059
>No, 99% of the benefit of mobile system is going from your backyard to your couch to your bed to your desktop PC.
I have never used my handhelds like this. They where good for taking games with you on the go or when traveling. If you just sit at home all day that sounds like a boring and sad life.

>>715258198
And the new handheld will magically have a healthy gaming market? You're funny.
Why don't you just buy good mobile games?

>>715258175
>Yes, but it'll be incredibly niche, losing out to things like smart phones and the Switch/Steamdeck. Whatever exclusives can be made for it will just be easily emulatable on the previously mentioned platforms which will further kill it.
What if you just make dedicated binaries for both the handheld and PC and then just let user play the game on both platforms?

>>715258198
Android is so mature nowadays combined with how powerful phone chips that you can literally play every video game from the beginning until the switch AND we're getting decent advancements in window based emulators so you can install all the window/steam based games on a phone

So at this point, there's no real reason why dedicated handhelds should exist when android phones and handhelds can do so much.

>>715258314
>Why don't you just buy good mobile games?
There aren't any. The Play Store and Appstore is horrendous for fostering a healthy market for games since it's mostly interested in pushing scamware and free 2 pay slop.

>>715257490 (OP)
if there wasn't a market for a dedicated handheld then mobile gaming wouldn't be BTFO pc AND console gaming for the past decade+

>>715258198
There are plenty of actual games on phone, and plenty of space in the market for it, plus you can hook up a controller on bluetooth.
It doesn't get talked about because obviously gacha and various slop will always be more popular and make more money, but its still an option

>>715258280
Yeah I agree. It also sounds boring and sad to have your nose in a gameboy when you are out.
When I go out, its not to play video games in a different location, its to experience a different place or activity that I can't do at home.

>>715258593
Mobile gaming is a very different echo system though since they're mostly making their money from whales and adware (which usually leads to malware). I'm talking selling dedicated games.

>>715258198
>plus an exclusive touch screen isn't a good interface for gaming
yeah and the blackberry keyboard was a million times better for typing maybe we should all go back to that then right?
phones do so much these days along with powerful processors that can play pretty much anything there is zero reason for a handheld, the little niche of physical buttons isn't going to convince the majority to get one over a phone

>>715257490 (OP)
I bought a Powkiddy RK2023 for my 7 year old then I bought one of those GBA SP clone Anbernics for myself. Huge market. Anbernic sells hundreds of thousands of these things.
I'm waiting on the Retroid Pocket 6 as my "high end" device. The RP5 seems great tho.

>>715258647
How is playing a gameboy at the hotel before going to bed "sad"?

>everyone saying yes and bringing up chink handhelds as an example
are u guys retarded? the chinks dominate handhelds you literally cant compete with a 80$ machine with a screen, battery, analog sticks and can run 30 emulators

there's no way anyone would buy a sub 200$ device
these are the same people who shitpost on the playdate man u guys are retarded

>>715258743
Shouldn't you be talking with friends you are on the trip with? Are you antisocial?
If you bought a gameboy so you can play it 4-5 times a year before bed at a hotel, you must have never beaten a single game.
Now stop lying.

>>715258727
Yeah, the child market is one of the reasons for why I'm thinking this is untapped. There are a lot of parents out there who doesn't want to give their kids smartphones (for obvious reasons) and there isn't much space in the gaming market for kids games that isn't exploitative online shit like Roblox that allows grooming.

>>715258896
>here ya go timmy heres a switch lite that cost 169$ now go play fortnite with your friends
how can you compete

>>715258972
Deprecated hardware.

There is BUT the only company with any success in the handheld market is Nintendo why would they spend money to develop it just to cut into their own switch profit. The DS series was wildly popular and the only thing that could kill the DS was Nintendo themselves killing it to make way for the switch.

>>715259110
pffthahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHA HAH AA
just give up man you don't know anything about creating a platform
you WILL have to use deprecated hardware to meet a 200$ price point

>>715258178
>>715258175
As a father of young kids here are scenarios where a portable system is useful:
Sitting on the stairs listening to my kids take a bath so they don't drown.
Waiting for my kids swimming or dance practice to be over.
In the van if my wife is driving (almost never but theoretically could happen)
Maybe when visiting in-laws
If I'm at the playground with my kids and feel like neglecting them.

To be fair, a Nintendo Switch is fine too. I'm just so old I genuinely want to replay 7th Saga, FF5 and 6, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger etc. Also Astroboy and all the Fire Emblem games.

>>715258743
I bought my GBA SP when I was in Air Force tech school. Didn't have too much time to play but I have fond memories regardless.

>>715259117
And the switch is only bought for little timmy because it fills the niche timmy's phone doesn't do, a slightly bigger mario kart machine
there is no competition and there will never be any competition

>>715258896
The retro handheld market is super saturated tho. I'm surprised you don't know this. I mean, there are like 50 options ranging from $20 to the Steamdeck and similar.

>anon invents the switch lite
but it's ok to make fun of black people for thinking they invented a computer by putting in a gpu

I don't think so. Would you have people making brand new 2d/sprite based games? I mean it'd be amazing to see. But I doubt it would be probable.

Not impossible. But it'd just be another shitty chinesium android brick that plays the same games but worse.

Pgones are useless for ANYTHING aside from touchscreen consumption. cant game on them and cant run any worthwhile prograns or apps on them. because limited touchscreen input.
We used to have good phones but Apple showed other manufacturers people would pay for less and you can save money by removing features

>>715257490 (OP)
Small screen devices will always be a niche product in a post smartphone world, Sony/Nintendo are never doing anything PSP sized or smaller again. Normalfags just don't like small screens. Give up on your dreams and buy Chinese e-waste handhelds instead.

I’m playing Shredder’s Revenge on an Android handheld right now.

Those days are long gone and when you think about it the gamers who want core/hardcore games on a small screen, or at all, are gone or dying or are here jaded complaining about gaming. The majority of customers no longer want that they want easy casual disposable pick up and play slop and you don’t need a true dedicated handheld for that. I think eventually tech will reach a point where your phone is also your console but we’re caught in this funky in between right now.

We used to have extremely good and interesting phones.

>>715257490 (OP)
Nope. They genuinely lost to smartphones, and they won't be coming back.

>>715257490 (OP)
No because mobile phones with the capability of playing push screen games exist.
Are mobile games better than portable console games? no.
Are they time wasters you do to pass time while waiting in public while not looking like a weirdo manchild like holding out a switch would? Yes.

>>715257783
yeah retro handhelds are really popular so yea

If there was a market for it, we would still have them. Us autists on 4chan Saturday morning aren’t a market.

>>715257661
>extremely popular
You have a way with words. A very wrong and misleading way.

Phones used to be extremely nice and interesting
Now you're lucky to have a headphone jack. After all by not having a headphone jack the manufacturer can save a whole shiny quarter!

Was there ever a real market for that?
There was a market for portable consoles that you could play anywhere, but I feel like fitting in your pocket never was that important. Gameboy Micro was the only one that was actually small enough that you could keep it in your pocket without looking like a huge autist, and it sold poorly. Switch covers most of the same use case as Nintendo DS and Gameboy Color covered.
It is more expensive though, but then the real change is in how much money people want to spend on electronics. It'd have to place itself as a cheap toy for toddlers, because across the board people want to pay way more for electronics than 20 years ago.

>>715257779
I don't think selling 5000 units of your newest game boy will be enough to justify any sort of development effort. Might be because I'm not retarded, though.
Also good luck putting the eck in your pockets.

>>715258593
Why did you chose to base your entire personality on this one random graph with its made up numbers?

>>715261052
Not really true. Oftentimes the consumer has no say.
Physical keyboard for example were extremely popular but all disappeared at once from the market around 2012 ish despite customer surveys at the time citing them as extremely popular and desirable.
But it cost more to manufacturer them so all the major brands axed them ALL at once same year with the exception of the photon Q which had gimped specs and didn't sell thus giving the excuse to not build them anymore.
The market doesn't decide shit. Those who make things (who also very much communicate with each other) decide what you will get

>>715261067
I don't know what you're talking about. Sony still makes em.

>microSD slot
>3.5mm jack
>Snapdragon 8 elite
>5000mAh battery

>>715257490 (OP)
Maybe but the majority of people will just play video games on their phones instead.

>>715257490 (OP)
i have no idea because i havent played a video game in the past 15 years

>>715257490 (OP)
Small screens are really hard to go back to. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they were LCD or oled, but I recently started playing my 3ds again after 7+ years and after that long gaming on a 50 inch tv and 27 inch monitor, it took me about a week to adjust
Even still I have to play in a dimly lit room so even be able to see the screen which is depressing but manageable
Daylight makes it unplayable on the highest brightness while a totally dark room at night makes it blinding at anything above the lowest brightness. Screen technology has improved insanely in the last 10 years

>>715261506
Not him, I would buy their phone if they stopped pretending they are premium. Their prices are simply retarded.
I also wish they made smaller phones.
But at least you can unlock bootloader quite easily.

Yes they just emulate the old games now

>>715261343
Remember little over a decade ago when the gaming press and the industry kept saying that consoles/PC was dying and the future was mobile and facebook games? Never really panned out now, did it?

>>715257661
Those are popular because the games are free.

>>715257783
pockets are full of farts and sweat. Stop being a coward and carry a purse. Mine is a mini backpack with kawaii licensed IP decoration and it can fit an A5 notebook along with all the other stuff i like to have on me instead of 20 minutes away

>>715257490 (OP)
It's called a phone there's a reasonable market for it

>>715262616
>pockets are full of farts and sweat.
That says more about you than anything else.

>>715258198
>mostly stuff to scam kids out of their parents money
you mean the kids who won't buy a handheld because they're already addicted to their phone?

>>715257490 (OP)
Absolutely

I think it should have limits in power compared to the consoles or PC in order to keep costs and game prices low. At this point handheld games can still look absolutely amazing even by doing this since we have advanced so far yet also stagnated tech wise for gaming. I doubt PS6 for example will look any better than this current gen since this current gen barely looks better than the previous one.

So if they make a handheld with the mentality of cheap affordable prices + games with more of a pick up to play mentality behind the games I myself would buy such a handheld.

>>715257490 (OP)
What specs would a GBA-sized handheld have in the year 2025?

>>715265849
It would have to be cheap so worse than high end chinkhelds.
Battery life would also suck.

>>715257490 (OP)
No. A new handheld market isn't materializing for you at this point. Phones have taken normgroid brains and everyone smart uses the emulator machines, consoles or PC.

>>715257490 (OP)
What will you play on it? You need a big screen for modern 3D games.

>>715265849
>>715266150
Do you guys really not know about these?
https://anbernic.com/products/rg34xxsp

>>715265849
Whatever random android phone guts are lying around in the Chinese factory making them.

>>715257490 (OP)
Yes, it’s called the Switch Lite.
Close thread.

>>715257920
They're actually not very popular at all.

>>715257490 (OP)
Nintendo could had made a switch micro

>>715258724
>yeah and the blackberry keyboard was a million times better for typing maybe we should all go back to that then right?
NTA, but I would love a return of Blackberry.

>>715257490 (OP)
Unfortunately no. It is impossible to build a strong library for one that would be able to compete with smartphones and chinkhelds with their infinite library of ROMs.

>touch screen handheld
>buttons are hidden maybe through sliding screen or clam shell type design
>no more than 8 buttons (4 shoulder, 4 face buttons tops)
>sticks or nubs allowed for better movement/camera for 3D
>games are 2D, 2D pixel or early 3D only at most (nothing beyond 2010's in power)
>games are no more than $30-40 US
>online functionality, digital stores, physical releases allowed
>handheld itself cost no more than $200 US but maybe its more like $100-150

So would you guys be interested assuming it got a ton of exclusive games that were good? So I guess you could see it sort of like a PSP but released in our current year and way cheaper.

>>715257490 (OP)
My mother strong-armed me into breaking out the Nintendo vintage for my nephew's kids and they abandoned it quickly.

What kids want today runs counter to battery life and portability.

>>715270606
>assuming it got a ton of exclusive games that were good?
How would you even achieve that? Nintendo is literally the last company that is clinging to the concept of exclusives, how do you convince third parties to go exclusive on some dark horse console?

>>715271170
Guess under this scenario I am describing we would have to get some big enough tech company that wants to invest in such a handheld and develop enough exclusive games for it. Microsoft in theory has plenty of money they can burn even though we see exactly how they choose to do this and its never good.

>>715271756
The problem is, no big company is going to risk doing something like that. See >>715269879
Then there's the question of the exclusive library. They would need to throw money at companies, but the thing is, those devs who are confident in their games would just prefer to release their game on Steam, Switch and PS4, and those who are willing to take the bribe aren't going to produce a good game anyway.

>>715263793
>t. fartpocket

>>715262026
Just buy the international versions, they're only like 2-300 bucks and are the same phones

>>715273927
The cheapest Xperia 1 VI is over 1000€, I don't know where you get your prices from.
Maybe you meant older 10 series. But those are garbage in many ways worse than other cheap chink phones.