By Aaron N
The handheld market began somewhat in 1980 with the release of the "Game & Watch" series. But the market didn't truly skyrocket until Nintendo introduced the Game Boy in 1989. The Game Boy was extremely popular and sold many copies. The Game Boy had many popular titles but it was the classic game "Tetris" that helped it become as popular as it did. This began the boom in the handheld market and it seemed that Nintendo had a stranglehold on the market. It would only be natural that other game companies would see this new market that Nintendo had basically created and would try to capitalize on it and become a competitor. Thus the first major handheld console wars was started.
Sega released their Sega Game Gear in America in 1991. Sega was Nintendo's main competition in the home console market so it was only natural that they would be Nintendo's main adversary in the handheld market as well. The Game Gear used the established "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise to propel itself into the top of the industry, but it would still have a way to go in order to topple Nintendo. The Game Gear touted that it had better graphics than the Game Boy. This was true, for it had graphics very similar to the Sega Genesis albeit still a little inferior to what was on the Genesis. The Game Boy on the other hand had graphics way under what the original Nintendo Enterainment System had. The Game Gear also had another major advantage over the Game Boy which was that it was a color system. This was a big thing for its time. The Game Gear had crisp, bright colored graphics while the Game Boy had graphics that were dull and had a greenish tint to them. So right off the bat just by looks the Game Gear was the superior system. I remember when I was a kid my friend had a Game Gear and it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen at the time. It looked cooler because of the buttons being on the side of the screen, and seeing the colors was something amazing. It was like going from a black and white television to a color television, it was hard to look at black and white televisions the same afterward. But if the Game Gear was so superior looking then why did Nintendo end up winning the war? The Game Boy had a better selection of games and more games to choose from. The Game Gear had the Sonic games but not really many other high quality franchises that could keep people buying them. The Game Boy had Nintendo's vast library of popular franchises that helped keep the Game Boy ahead of everything in the market. Also Nintendo would eventually release the Game Boy Color years after the fact. but it still took care of the dull green look that it had.
Nintendo would continue to be basically the only important player in the handheld market for about a decade. They went on to release the aforementioned Game Boy Color, but also the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Advanced, Game Boy Advanced SP, and countless other different variations of the Game Boy. Each improving on different aspects of the previous version. This ability to revamp and improve the system allowed Nintendo to keep making games and selling systems. Also with the release of the megahit "Pokemon" series to Game Boy systems, it would take a lot to one-up Nintendo. But in 2005 Sony would release the PSP in America and try their hand at topping the handheld goliath. The PSP, short for Playstation Portable, was the first major handheld system to introduce a joystick. Also, the graphics for the PSP were remarkable and very similar to what was being seen at the time on the Playstation 2. The PSP came out a few months after Nintendo released its newest portable system entitled the Nintendo DS. It utilized a touchpad screen and had two screens to play on. The system's graphics were similar to Nintendo 64's, so Nintendo was once again facing a system that had better graphics. Thus the second handheld war was started, but this time it was Nintendo facing off against Sony. The PSP started with a lot of momentum, it had better graphics plus it had the ability to show movies on the system. This was a different variable added to the war. Also, there were many who were not sold on the DS's dual screens and it was thought of as being too gimmicky. But eventually sales of the PSP declined and Nintendo continued to ship out different versions of the Nintendo DS and while the PSP is still being sold, Nintendo has clearly won this war as well.
With Nintendo dominating the handheld market, where does the market have to go from here? At E3 in 2010 Nintendo stated that their only competition was Apple. This was an interesting comment but it makes sense. There are plenty of games on the Iphone, Ipad and the Ipod. Many people who normally would not play games are buying games for those devices. This is who Nintendo needs to compete with now and it is a different competition than one would think of. Also, Nintendo is about to release the 3DS in a few months. This device is more powerful than the Wii and it is amazing to think of where the handheld market has gone since the days of the Game & Watch. It is exciting to think that a third and different handheld war could be on the horizon, but the question remains, will it have the same outcome? Or will Nintendo finally be beaten? We will have to wait to find out, but we as consumers will benefit the most from this.
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