Stats Suggest That UK Kids Are More Likely To Game On A Tablet Than A Nintendo 3DS

The idea of having games on a smartphone is just ridiculous. Making games on the phone not only requires a lot of thought put into it since it only has touch screen functions, but also very difficult to compete against since the apps are nearly countless.

A gaming console on the other hand gives more depth of the gameplay and also makes use of every other function besides touch screen. Lots of games on the phones these days are nowhere as close as original and when that happens, Nintendo will again rule over( even though they already did it!)

For me I personally think the 2DS itself if given a cheap price like say 99$ at best is itself good enough to compete with the smartphones.

Yeah with tablets, parents don't need to purchase any apps/games or it doesn't cost much compared to retail games. That's why most parents prefer it.

I use to let my kid play with a tablet/smartphone but I've already banned it a few months ago. He can watch TV or play an hour on our Wii U alone (or a few hours with me) if we're not going out.

I can believe these figures as most apps/games on smartphones and tablets are free to purchase. The plumbing apprentices I teach all have games on their smartphones.
Personally in my house we have dedicated handhelds 2DS, 3DS XL & Vita for gaming as the majority of games on these systems you pay up front for the game and are not pestered for in app purchases.
But in my mind smartphones and tablets have made a big dent in the handheld market. Nintendo are rumoured to be looking at a handheld/ console hybrid with the rumoured fusion console and I believe Sony will not make another handheld after they have all but abandoned the Vita

@Farmboy74 plumbing apprentices should be playing Mario surely!

@dinosauryoshi obviously I have failed them! Just like Obi Wan failed Anakin they have all turned to the darkside!

Would say it's because more normal (Non gaming) parents buy tablets for themselves since it's the fad these days, and then the children borrow or get the old version to play around with.

I can't live without my iPad. But I also can't live without my 3DS. Of course I was also raised on gameboy so I don't know about kids today. They kill pigs, I kill goombas, what are you gonna do?

As someone who takes good care of my devices, I wouldn't even be able to stand giving a tablet to a small child. I lend my 3DS to my little sister for a half hour and she gives it back with the greasiest smudges all over the thing... the top screen too! Why is there a giant thumbprint on the top screen? Gah.

Good thing about the iPad though is that the OS is restrictive and doesn't allow customization. Good for kids who like to fiddle. Nothing more annoying that letting your kid play on your Galaxy and then getting it back with everything in a different place and 10 new widgets on the home screen.

I can’t relate to this new generation of kid preferring an iPad over a 3DS. The Nintendo 3DS has amazing games and physical buttons and the 3D effect for more immersive gameplay.

I believe the reason smart phones & Tablets are loved my modern children is because of all of the multimedia entertainment and apps that come with many smart devices. Nintendo is going to really need to up the CPU and RAM in their next new handheld, plus create an OS similar to iPhone and iPad so kids and parents can easily navigate the system.

According to my own anecdotal research, kids are more likely to play 3DS, when both are available.

Owning a tablet is almost a norm, and people in general don't know much about 3DS and the difference of the platforms as a gaming devices and their libraries. Most parents seem to be content to having a 500€ device for playing Angry Birds and Where's my Water.

@Blue-Thunder Good point, I do see a lot of little kids play educational games on their tablets.

Serious question for adult owners of a tablet though: What is its purpose? I have a smartphone that does everything that a tablet does, plus can call/text and is small enough to fit in my pocket. Is there some function or feature of a tablet that I don't know about?

I predict a Video game console crash within the next ten to fifteen years. I also predict that Nintendo will save the industry again.
I think using a phone for anything other than to communicate with others one form or the other is dumb. It is like using a brick to talk to your friends.
A 2DS makes SOOOO much more sense then a tablet. Which would your kid waste more time on- a one game, or a few hundred app?
Another thing- for 500$/Euro/Pound/Other Currency, you could buy an iphone, and few dozen free apps that are covered and ads and are tiny. With the same amount of money, you can buy a 3DS XL, six full retail games (ad free), a few awesome eShop games, and a few VC games.
People are just scared to be different and use something else for entertainment.
If I were to go to a doctor's office, and play angry birds trilogy on my 3DS, people would probably sit up and move somewhere else or give weird stares. If I were to be playing the same games on an iPhone, no one would care.
Sorry for wasting your time.

Oh please, you can use statistics to prove anything that's even remotely true

Well, I wouldn't take kids there seriously. I mean, it's the same country where children think cheese grows on trees and fish burger is made from chicken according to statistics. As @Serebii said, you can prove anything (although I still love that Polygon thing with Mario Kart 8 selling less than 2 mln by 2015 - that was hilarious)

@CaviarMeths A tablet is bigger, which makes on-screen buttons bigger too (Less mis-tapping when typing stuff) and is less tiring on the ol' eyeballs when used for longer periods of time. (It also helps that i'm not a very "Out and about" kinda guy, so i don't need a fancy phone)

As for the original discussion: i think it's a matter of people wanting to carry just one piece of electronics with them (Or parents wanting to pay for only one :3 ), and that makes it a choice between "games" and "games and a phone and internet-access and a decent camera", when parents are making the final buying decision, multipurpose wins out...

The price of 3DS-games (Or video games in general) ATM doesn't help either, sure a good phone or tablet is more expensive, but once you have it, you're paying 3 to 5 euros per game (Or get the game for free) instead of 45 to 50, and then you'll hit that break-even point between 3DS plus games and smartphone/tablet plus games damn quickly.

@CaviarMeths All they are really is larger phones that can display more content on the screen. They're much easier to use for extended periods and are more compact than a laptop, and usually have better battery lives; overall still not a good of a experience than a actual laptop, but close enough. My nexus 7 2012 has basically replaced my laptop due to how portable a convenient.

And convenient is the key word here. A tablet is not a essential as a phone and is just a comfier phone.

On the actual topic, I agree with @MysticX that it's mainly due to convenience. Why bother bringing around a game console, mp3 player, camera and phone when you can have all in one. While smartphones don't bring the best experiences for each function, it's easy just to have one device rather than a whole arsenal of them.

Don't see decided gaming consoles surviving for at the most a decade due to how most phones are getting really good at gaming though. They just need to make the game controller support more streamlined and you can have a experience just like, if not better (due to higher clarity screens and more processing power) than a 3DS/Vita.

tl;dr CONVENIENCE

After no research and by simply acknoledging that whenever I read statistics they appear or even in-your-face ARE a bunch of made up nonsense, and no one ever asked ME any questions, I conclude the following: statistics also show that 90% of statistics do not meet the requirements of a valid statistic, and up to 99% of statistics still don't represent fully represent the people.

Furthermore: if I ever have a kid, gaming will have to be a social, local happening. Maybe a 2ds or whatever replaces it by then for when I don't find the time to spend on gaming, and my old consoles, just to build some appreciation for the art and history of gaming. And LEGO's. All for when it's raining outside that is. Kids should play outside more often, and use their eyes to see the actual world, with all its beauty and ugliness.

@MysticX @Parasky What do you do with it that takes long periods of time though?

I dunno maybe the issue is that I see it more as a convenient tool than a legitimate time-sink. I use my phone to check the weather, pay bills, check my email, manage my bank account, etc while I'm on the go. If it's anything bigger than that or I'm at home anyway, I just use my PC.

@Serebii This.

Also i wouldn't be suprised anyway, until you play 'real' games you dont know any better. A tablet is a low point of entry, they are open ended in utility and the games are cheap and plentiful. Kids can easily try 1000 games and spend less than a tenner, the quality of said games is moot as these children will not have experienced 'real' gaming and or not even appreciate it yet.

One of a tablet's attributes is that as soon as you get bored of a game you just get another one because they're alomost all free (or at least very cheap). It's not like with a console where you always meticulously research your games before you buy them (well i do anyway).

Stats suggest kids are more likely to go see a Dreamworks animated flick in the cimema than go to the opera. Surprise.

I know it isn't the same thing. But with a core user adoption rate of one smart device every 1 and 1/2 years, chilldren in the western world are now swimming in older devices with access to hundreds if not thousands of free games.

I am currently typing this on an iPad 2 that was given to me by my father in law because he'd bought an iPad Air.

I think what happens is:
-Parent gets a tablet/phone
-Parent lets child play a game on it
-Child keeps pestering parent to play said game
-Parent buys child their own tablet/phone

who cares about kids lol. they'll play on tablets today and then move on to something else.

The lack of buttons is the biggest issue but also the superficiality and shallowness of the games on android devices is what keeps me away from them. Even the most console-like experiences lack all the depth of real console and pc games. Dead Space was okay but mostly "pick this up and then go to next checkpoint". Not to mention the countless Slendy and other games that rely solely on cheap scares. Tablets and phones are great for puzzle games but that's it.

I think most parents just prefer handing over their tablet, phone, or even ipod over to their kids for a bit than buy them their own personal handheld gaming device. How many non-gaming parents would see much benefit in a $170 handheld plus $40 software over that?

Tablets are also just seen as multipurpose devices, they've pretty much taken the same role as laptops these days. They can be used for work, school, web browsing, just about anything you could think of. Thats why parents buy their kids tablets, gaming is just a small piece if it, that and even non-tech savvy parents understand it. They've found the value in it themselves.

Personally, in my experience most kids don't really care what they game on, nor are they picky about what they play either. They just l want to have fun and will play with whatever is available to them.

44 percent for 3 between 12? I had no idea.

@CaviarMeths Yes, the appeal of tablets and smartphones is in convenience and short "Spend a few minutes" or "quickly look something up" bursts (And those short bursts add up over time), where the problem lies is that the "Spend a few minutes"-idea was a big part of the appeal of portable consoles until smartphones (And games for them) reached a certain point. (Which happened late in the DS's lifespan)

If i want to game for a longer period of time i still waddle over to my PC or get my 3DS out, but for short bursts or anything internet-related, i get my iPad, i had a laptop before, but it was noisy, ran hot (More "Laptoast" than "Laptop" >_< ) and got unreliable right after the warranty expired (Figures... )

TL: DR version: The "Short bursts of gaming" got taken over by tablets and phones, the "Long spans of gaming" is the terrain of home consoles, so soon enough the portable consoles will be finding themselves in a spot of trouble...

Bayonetta is playable with only touchscreen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAHup4CXF9E
12 minutes in.
If such a complex game can be played with one hand there will soon be other following on smartphones and tablets!

Tablet gaming? I have a tablet. Fact: I DON'T LOVE IT. I have a 3ds. I LOVE IT! There is the difference ladies and gentlemen. But I'm kind of an adult so I guess it doesn't count lol

Just goes to show you why there's so much shovelware on mobile platforms.

I give it three years before the bubble bursts, if it hasn't started doing so already.

By the way, here's a thought: A lot of people emulate old games on their smart devices, and that qualifies as gaming.

While it may not attract kids who almost certainly don't know what the power of nostalgia can do, it's still something to take note of.

I like playing games on my iPad but I'll always prefer buttons for most games/genres I like... Platformers arent the same without 'em.
There are plenty of games that work well on a touch screen but its hardly ever perfect.
And it tough finding great games in the App store...so much crap to sift through!

And they needed to carry out a survey to find this out?
Wherever you go there is a good chance that there are kids playing games on tablets / phones.

I have had a smart phone for 4 years now. So far I have 2 games for it that I like (both driving games).

I'm going to but a 3DS XL soon and am going to buy 6 games with it.

Dedicated handheld consoles are a lot more fun IMO however tablet/phone apps are more something to do if you have a couple of mins to waste.

Well, most kids have smart devices mainly for the reason to have them really.
Its the same crux as with colthes brands back in the day.
You want to belong to the cool kids club ? Better sport the latest gear then.

Most "casual" smart device games are made to numb you down and entangle you that way. Im sure it works even better for kids.
And with attention spans getting smaller and smaller, most of them just dont have the patience to commit themselves to "real" games anymore.

All in all, there is no right or wrong on this one. But there is no denying that games made for dedicated gaming devices are far far superior in pretty much any regard.

Since they do more than gaming, I hardly think a parent buying a tablet for a kid is surprising. It feels almost unfair to compare 3DS/Vita to tablets since their primary functions are gaming and not being devices for consumption of various goods, to include gaming. One product is more broad, one is more specific. Of course, this fits into the "Nintendo needs to make mobile games" narrative that people will repeat ad infinitum.

@Daisaku36 It's pretty unfair to compare 3DS and Vita as Sony's pretty much abandoned the Vita and downgraded its purpose to second screen for PS4.

The data is kinda pointless. For one, tablets have multiple purposes, they arent dedicated gaming machines. Of course parents will buy a tablet, but "for their child" is complete bull. They're getting one for the household, so mommy and daddy can use it, the kids could maybe play a few free games and Minecraft in order to shut them up for X period of time, then shove homework in their face.

the reading stat is also too ambiguous, 45% are reading what, nutrition facts and TeenBeat Magazine?

Without detail, it just seems like they mined pointless data while asking the wrong questions. And I dont mean this comment to be on the "side" of handheld gaming or anything like that, just pointing out this is a very unfocused study.

I'm surprised so many people still don't want to believe in the rise of mobile gaming. I like gaming on a tablet just fine, when the games are built around it, demonstrated by the fact the best reviewed game of the year so far is a free to play IOS game in Hearthstone. They can be just as good as any other games, and while I wouldn't trade my dedicated handhelds for them, there are a lot of people across the world that DO prefer gaming on phones and tablets though, and it's a lot more than kids.

On a recent trip to Japan, the amount of people playing games on phones vastly out numbered people playing on handhelds, and we've always thought of Japan as the true home of handheld gaming. The revenues these mobile software companies make are incredible, and dwarf even the success of the mega sellers on 3DS like Monster Hunter.

I'm sure OUR parents thought those video games were pretty 'dumb' forms of entertainment compared to books too, so those of us now calling mobile gamers idiots are pretty much just taking the place of those who opposed video games back in the 80s, Or the people that mocked the Wii and it's new ways to play.

@CaviarMeths I use the iPad to browse the Web (at this very moment, actually), and to read books. I've read countless books on it. I have also loaded countless games on it, but since it's touch screen only, the gameplay experience usually is quite shallow.

This is the main reason why these devices keep selling to the masses

Apple should purchase a company capable of making bluetooth gaming controllers, just like they did with the folks that made Beats headphones.

I live in the uk and all I see is people playing there 3ds or ds.

@MamaLuigi PLEASE don't give any more reason for smartphone and tablets to become the only way to play video games while travelling. It's bad enough as it is to see children on buses playing free to play games that often serve no purpose than to make you spend more money than it is to buy a 3DS game.

@Pinemeowth Where a bouts are you in the UK? I think only once this year have I seen that.

So pleased to see that children are still reading. I don't have a problem with them using consoles and games (my children love their ds') but sharing a book together is, in my experience, much more special and fun than cooperating on a computer game together.

I assume Nintendo will come out with a follow up to the 3DS, because it's Nintendo and they were the kings of handheld even when not in the home console market. But I don't know if they could produce a system along with games that could make any real impact with the way things are going.

And for those who believe or hope the next console is a hybrid, I actually hope it isn't. I don't think the technology to produce a system that is capable of being both a handheld and home console is there yet. What ever Nintendo would have to produce would I feel be a step backwards in terms of power from the Wii U which is not the right way to go when everyone else is making more powerful hardware.

Well, I'm glad kids are still reading at least. Faith in humanity restored!

@Peach64 But there's just one problem with phones. It isn't designed for games. Seriously though imagine play Super Mario Bros on a phone. Three thing would ruin this port.

1.Everything being in a touch screen blocking most of the screen.

2.There are countless of clones that are just like Super Mario Bros.

3.It would require Nintendo to make an application for all their things and do it as a bundled thing for all the phones which requires cost.

The real problem with games on phones is the lack of game feel in them. The reason you have lots of buttons is to enhance the game feel not make it worse. Why would a touch d-pad be better than a real d-pad for playing platform games? Also not every phone is powerful enough to maintain the game quality such as graphics, gameplay etc,

I have a feeling that like Atari, the phone gaming would eventually crash. I really think that if the 2DS were cheap and if Nintendo makes a price drop for their retail games like say 15$ (I'm positive that won't happen btw) Nintendo can easily dominate the phone gaming as well.

video games will always be a niche market, that's not going to change with tablets and smartphones imo

@Artwark but there are games that designed for phones.

Yes, let me voice in with everyone else in recognising that this is true, but I'll never be a part of it. Every time I get a call (I work at a Samsung call centre) where a customer whines about their kid not having their tablet yet, or whatever, I just wanna be like, "Give your kid a f***ing Game Boy!"

@MAB The funny thing is that is quite an accurate representation for people who only uses Phones.

Well duh. And I'm more likely to make a phone call on my cell phone than my tablet.

As far as Nintnedo is concerned though it really is a matter of quality over quantity. Do the kids want to play on a 3DS but they are playing on a tablet b/c thats what their parents hand them or a phone b/c their parents let them take a phone to school but not their 3DS?

How many 3 year olds would even have a 3DS? or 2DS?

Nintnedo just needs to kep making good games that kids want to play adn they'll be fine. Though I still think they need to make minigame sthat serve as advertisements to reach these kids while they'r eon their phones and tablets. Even i fit' sjust a video short, Nintneod needs a dedicated game hub app for name recognition exposure.

Oh PLEASE! I way prefer playing on my 3ds than on a ipadsmartphone. I don't like using touch screen controls to move around. Most of the games are on the mobile are not very good (with a few exceptions) anyway!

As if I didn't already hate Apple for ripping off TouchWiz and becoming popular off of it, now they making their pathetic overpriced garbage tries to compete with the 3DS. If I wanted to spend $600 a year (plus the cost of repairs, since they are purposefully made to break), could tolerate a 640p screen, and had an IQ low enough to enjoy their manure that they dare call "video games", I'd gladly get an i Phone! My Sony Xperia Z1S kicks the crap out of the i Phone in all departments, and it's even waterproof! I still don't play video games on it a lot, but if you wanted video games on a phone/tablet, Windows Phones/Tablets are the way to go.

@Parasky @MysticX i absolutely agree it's the convenience of having an all in one device which also happens to have some of the most popluar games kids are playing and talking about. With a simple push of of a button kids can play games, watch video, stream shows or take pictures…an all in one package thats more tempting than a handheld that's primarily a great gaming device but has a slow sluggish everything else…

@Peach64 i couldnt agree with you more i wonder if maybe it's just denial or maybe since we grew up playing with dedicated game controllers that maybe we just dont want to see it's appeal? This is what Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft should really keep an eye out for before they get swept up by this underestimated contender. But like consoles it comes down to software and exclusives you wont get anywhere else and thats what these devices have to compete with because i wouldnt trade my gameplay experience of W101, Halo 2, or Shadow of the colossus for a simple and non immersive touchscreen device but that's just me…im just old school

Tablets are competition and the consumer has more choice than they had a few years ago. So every tablet bought for gaming is one less 3ds sold, unless the purchaser can afford both. If that's the case then less 3ds games will be sold, because less time will be spent playing the 3ds.

But I guess more casual gamers may have spent the money they would have bought a Wii u with on a tablet and are content with their old Wii.

Remember, these kids are the same people who buy Beats Headphones, manufactured and marketed for $14, sold for $400!

@Farmboy74 nooooo, think of the children!

On a more serious note this statistic doesn't surprise me at all. Parents would rather lend their kids their iPad to play on than get a 3DS. I think the handheld market will definitely continue to be dented by smartphone/tablet gaming but I think there'll always be a market for handhelds due to the increased precision etc and wider gameplay opportunities actually having buttons creates. I hope this'll be the case anyway.

@Peach64

I believe it and I don't care for mobile gaming (tho I will admit there is some Jap games I find interesting). I feel most react this way due to insecurity that something may some day take over the handheld gaming market for the newer generations. It's visibly clear when you look around you and see kids playing more on a Tablet than a DS / 3DS (it comes to the point for me at least where I'm shocked to see a kid playing a 3DS instead of a Tablet like the majority do now). I also find the excuse about Tablets not having physical buttons ordeal so lame now in days since a newer generation of people seem to have no problems playing with just a touch screen. This doesn't mean I prefer non button games because I don't, but that excuse reminds me of how old folks have trouble getting newer products like say how they have issues understanding a Smart Phone and just prefer their old button dial number only phones.

Tablets may have games available for cheaper than a handheld game, but the majority of mobile games are just awful, overfishing microtransactions and underusing good gameplay. People have tried to make good mobile games, but they just don't work on mobile devices the way they'd work on a handheld. Tablets aren't designed for games, handhelds are.

9-10 year olds having phones? You've got to be kidding me.

Why would a 9 year old have a smartphone or tablet?

No way my kid's getting a phone at 9 years old. Good way to develop ADHD.

@ryanator008 No, Windows Phones are not the way to go for gaming. How do I know? I own a few, and I do play some time-wasters from time to time.

(x86) Windows tablets, on the other hand, are things that could singlehandedly throw our iPads out into the garbage bins. (In terms of sheer functionality. And the fact that they have actual games, of course.)

@ryanator008 I suddenly love you very much. (Though I'm an Android guy myself.)

When I was a kid we had a TV, a video recorder, a cassette deck, a record player, a home phone, a calculator, a dictionary, an encylopedia, and a games console. Now a kid can own a tablet or phone and it does all of these jobs and more- some of them better. The way technology works is people invent things, then someone incorporates them into something else. Eventually we won't be buying games consoles, games will be uploaded to our televisions or phones via the internet without the need of games boxes. Even Nintendo will forego hardware, as will Microsoft and Sony.

But that's not going to happen yet.

The reason Nintendo hasn't yet moved over is the technology, interface, and copyright security is not there yet, and degrading their current product would be harmful to their IP. The 3DS still has an audience, but not for games like Tetris or Brain Training any more- phones can do that. The next logical step for Nintendo would to be to amalgamate their handheld and console gaming into a unified system where the HD multi level/open world games you can play on a TV can come with you. This way Nintendo can give you more options what games to play on either system that you can't play on a PC, tablet, or phone. This is what Sony have tried to do with the Vita, but with unstable tech and uninspired IP. Nintendo can however succeed in this business model. I would imagine such reliable technology is about 2-5 years away?

My daughter's school has successfully introduced a byod policy, so I gave her my old iPad when the iPad Air was released. She has a 3DS and she does play on it, but if she didn't already have it before I gave her my old iPad there's no way I'd buy her one just to play Pokemon and Animal Crossing.

The fact is that the iPad is something she needs for school; the only thing the 3DS really does is play games. I'm more likely to buy her a new iPad before I'd consider buying her another dedicated gaming machine, it's just about priorities.

''Game''...
Real, quality gaming is pretty hard to find on Android/iOS devices. When they start craving actual video games, the 3DS is where they'll go.

Simply put, tablets and smartphones do not belong in kids hands until they're old enough to get one from their own money (yes, I'm referring to them having a job). There are many purchase/ad traps even in "child-friendly" apps, and for the most part, there's no reason to give children any kind of smart device.

@Sean_Aaron How does that work? Are you telling me her school supports the kind of scam that is the principle of tablets? Cause that would be a new low point for education systems.

In a parent's mind, a fifty dollar tablet from Wal-Mart on Black Friday seems more attractive than a one-hundred dollar 2DS system. My nieces and nephew each got one last Christmas (ages 2, 4, and 10 respectively), mainly as an educational device for the girls and a gaming (ie: Minecraft) device for the boy. Whenever I visited though, one of my nieces ogled over my 3DS XL, loving the drawing feature in the 3DS camera app (so we'll see).

If I had to choose between a smartphone/tablet or a dedicated handheld gaming console, I'd choose the handheld.

There's nothing wrong with tablets, but when it comes to gaming, I'd choose the original Game Boy over one any day. The buttons are the biggest issue as multiple times gaming on tablets/phones the touchscreen has either not registered my touches and swipes or done the opposite of what I intended.

Also, games on dedicated devices have more depth. Fact. Games on phones and tablets are getting close, but on a system made purely for a gaming experience, there's so much more that can be (and usually is) offered. I know about games like Clash of Clans and I know about games that try to emulate home console experiences, but (not going to knock Clash of Clans because I haven't played it) they're just uncomfortable to play without a controller input. I know there are controllers supported now, but I'm going to call you crazy if you'd rather get a tablet and a controller for it as well as a stand to rest your tablet on just to play games you could have gotten far easier on a console.

I just... To show you where I'm coming from, I have 2048. Got it for free on my phone. Play it a bit. Have fun with it. I heard it came to the 3DS eShop and I'm seriously considering the purchase. I just prefer gaming on dedicated consoles that much.

I've also tried to play games similar to my other DS/3DS experiences like RPGs and such, but they were so difficult to control that I couldn't deal with it. And I didn't care.

The thing is, computers are a necessity of life. Cell-phones are now a necessity of life. So basically, everyone is going to own either a tablet or a phone- that's just the way it is nowadays.

So the high percentage of kids playing games on tablets/phones is only a natural result of the reality that we all own one. But what that statistic doesn't tell us, is if they're playing games on tablets/phones INSTEAD of on a handheld. Those kids might have been the ones who never would have cared about gaming, and only play games because they're free and available at the tip of their fingers. It all comes down to what you want to do. If you want to browse the internet with the benefit of low quality F2P distractions, then of course a tablet is the way to go. But if you're main objective is to play games for entertainment, there's no way a tablet/phone makes for a proper substitute.

Not to say that I don't think tablets/phones have impacted the gaming market, because they have. I just think the impact is not as big as some make it out, and I also think there are some positives which help counter the impact. For example, now that everyone owns a tablet/phone, everyone can be brought into the world of gaming. Baby steps as they say. This could provoke interest in a dedicated gaming device, interest that would have never occurred without tablets/phones.

Of course, entertainment can be found in iOS/Android games. But it's a much lower-quality entertainment. Once a person gets a taste of the true milk and honey, on dedicated gaming handhelds, it's going to be hard to go back to playing F2P on a smartphone. Black and white TV was all the rage when color wasn't available, and quite entertaining, but once people got a taste of color TV it dulled the impact of black and white. Hard to go back to.

Unless these smart devices can implement proper game controls, it will never top a dedicated games console/handheld.

I actually think there's going to be some sort of gaming crash too, due to over fragmentation of the market. Playstation TV indicates that even Sony want some kind home console/handheld merger and the Wii U emulating DS games points in the same direction.

With so many devices on the market, I really do think we are overstretched. Even PS4/One, home consoles are not safe, with increasing console/handhelds ports/releases.

Nintendo just need to stick with making gaming the most in depth and pleasant experience possible. People will see the quality. More importantly, there's a market for quality gaming.

Tablets vary in sizes and main ideas. It just seems stupid to incorporate Microsoft's tablet in the same section as Leapfrog's tablet. They both have two different goals with the consumer.
I find that a family (community) tablet is not only a great way to entertain a child, but also a good way to teach them responsiblity, not really surprsing. When I was a child I loved going on kid-related websited, like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. It only makes sense that the following trend is practically a mobile computer.

@Kaze_Memaryu I don't understand how handheld computers are a "scam," but here's how it works: she attends a private school where most of the parents can afford these devices. The school has a contract with a company that makes the educational (and free) Frog application. Rather than having a dedicated computer lab which classrooms might share and kids access a few days a week they have access to a tool that provides better research opportunities than most school libraries as required.

It's not a substitute for learning maths and writing by hand, but a useful adjunct. I personally have never felt a need for computers in education, however what I've seen here makes sense. As far as other purchases go, she's too young for an iTunes account so she cannot install anything herself, something I definitely appreciate over giving her a general purpose computer which would only mean more work for me.

The fact is this is the future in modern industrialised nations: children will be growing up with handheld computers of one kind or another. I cannot see how a dedicated gaming device will be able to compete with that. A child that doesn't grow up using a joypad isn't going to miss it. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo continues to be relevant in this space.

Mobile gaming is popular because of emulation and cheap price for games/emulators. Does that make it better than a 3ds? No. More convienient yes.

Stats in my house suggest that the 3DS is more robust than a tablet. Bought a Nexus 7 about 18 months ago, broke this week by running out of batteries (now will no longer turn on or charge!). Meanwhile, a 3DS from 3 years ago is still going strong.

@Sean_Aaron
. A child that doesn't grow up using a joypad isn't going to miss it. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo continues to be relevant in this space.

============================

Utter nonsense, unless you think the touch screen is the all supreme game mechanic for controls in gaming!

Hence the PINK 2DS !!!!

@Varoennauraa I'm pretty sure people don't buy a 500€ product just to play when it's useful for other kind of activities and that way they take the convenience of downloading apps to play because it's all in one machine. Kids see their parents using, kids want it.

Parents are also just lending kids there tablets in safe mode to play certain titles, so its not like they get to choose to much. Unless your spoiled rotten like me & have become an emotional eater LMAO !

@DilMan33 no, it's reality. If a child never uses a joypad how would they make a judgement otherwise? Try thinking outside of your own experience and preference. The only thing that will matter to kids growing up with touch controls is whether a game is fun to play.

Hell d-pads and buttons aren't the best controls for all kinds of games either - I used to think the Nintendo NES pad was crap compared to a proper joystick!

As a gamer, I would always buy a dedicated handheld for my kids. Tablets are just not the same. The gaming experience on a tablet/phone is really shallow.

However, tablets are good for the smaller kids who can't handle challenging gameplay, and they also do come in handy for video playback.

As an owner of both a 3DS and a 3GS(not a tablet, but a phone), I think the 3DS is WAAAAAY better. I've been playing me 3DS a lot lately, but I've been mostly using my (highly outdated) phone just for the internet, CrunchyRoll and Gmail. I've grown annoyed with on-screen buttons.

I guess most parents dont have good information and buy $500 ttablets for kids to play add filled poor designed games instead of a nintendo friendly console and software. Tablets are just marketed better. The "educational" value is also considered but of coure kids dont use/need tablets for that

And you know what I don't blame them for choosing a Tablet over a gaming handheld, because the games on there are mostly free & and cheap. So I don't blame the parents for buying them a tablet. If Nintendo will stop thinking the way there thinking and start doing things right. For example if they started to sell there games more cheaper & start doing free games the 3DS. If Nintendo started to do those things they will sell a lot more then usual. It soo sad seeing kids with tablets & there missing out on great games on 3DS. I just wish Nintendo will do a little better.

tablet games are simpler even a monkey can pick and play, they also rarely have a true objective or a way to beat so they are disposable, not to count the low prices and F2P games, for a gamer(or people who bother to do the math and discover that the microtransactions will end wasting more money than a retail game on a console, or a big name PC game) this is probably all stupid but when you're not a gamer(or you're a "casual gamer") this is definitely more attractive than games that have an evident high price tag, need you to follow an objective and force you to give it some effort even if you'd rather pay to advance.

When I have a kid I'm going to make sure he doesn't know tablets or smartphones exist until he's 14-16. I'll give him a 2DS or whatever the newest Nintendo handheld with a simple game for one of his birthdays.

@eleccross no start them off like we all did by playing NES or Super NES. Then buy them a Gameboy Adv. SP....then work your way up...That's what I'm going to do if I have kids.

@kereke12 wow that's really hardcore, all you gotta do is teach them financial math and they will definitely see how deceiving the casual gaming can be.
and the plus side is that kids seem to learn math with money way easier than they do with common math, for some reason

if kids are playing simple games on their tablets there is a chance that getting their hands on a 3ds and playing some full fledged games will stop them playing the tablet. This is only wishful thinking though. Video Games might die if this doesn't happen. The current gamers will eventually grow old and die. If only these tablet playing kids are left, no one is going to buy any consoles.

Can't stand only touch controls, can't stand non-immerse games.
∴ I don't ever play tablet games. I don't even think I could.

@Sean_Aaron
no, it's reality. If a child never uses a joypad how would they make a judgement otherwise? Try thinking outside of your own experience and preference. The only thing that will matter to kids growing up with touch controls is whether a game is fun to play.
Hell d-pads and buttons aren't the best controls for all kinds of games either - I used to think the Nintendo NES pad was crap compared to a proper joystick!

======================

Christ, with that sort of thinking, it's a wonder how the hell anyone got into d-pads and joysticks, analog sticks in the first place! Fact is these are still the best control mechanism for game play.

The sole touch-screen experience is actually very shallow and limited.

Nintendo competes in the gaming industry with other dedicated gaming devices. It really, doesn't compete with PCs/Tablets and Phones. How do N stay relevant in the handheld console space? By creating kick-ass games that shift systems.

And yes, as far as I am concerned some fundamental things never change, such as: creating harmonious content between software and its hardware.

There are games I like with a touchscreen, but a lot of what I play doesn't work well with that scheme. But the fact is the kids don't buy these things their parents do, so if they're already getting them a device for school which plays popular games like Minecraft and Stupid Ways to Die and whatever the kids see on youtube, then there's no reason to get them anything else. And that is the problem Nintendo is facing. Yes, kids may want Pokemon, but they're also good at making do with what they have, unless they're totally spoiled brats!

@Sean_Aaron The thing is, there's a considerable gap in social activity when computers or tablets are used as a tool for education.
Besides that, there's nothing about a tablet that has the ability to teach anything a teacher can't, so it's mostly a waste of recources, anyway. Technological details should be taught by the parents, if anything, since (if they're at least decent in their parenting) they know how far they can go and if it's even in their children's interest to learn how to handle them.

Also, you're kinda missing a huge point with industrialization: most people own tablets because they can, not because they need to. It's a status symbol that only became relevant to the public after enough owners showed them off. So the actual relevance of tablets boils down to their popularity, not usability.

Meanwhile, Nintendo offers something tablets don't work with, parents fail to see and children don't know about: quality entertainment. They don't pretend to be educational, they offer games to deepen imagination and creativity.

Nintendo tablet with buttons? There's nothing like pushing buttons. I really do not enjoy gaming on a phone or tablet. I was excited at first, but that faded quickly. I rather play quality games and Nintendo has them.

F that noise. as an adult, I switched from my iphone to my 3DS. I was so sick of half baked games.

@Aslanmagic Amen to that. I was like that at first, the ability to play games on the phone was awesome. But like you it faded quickly.

You cannot replace £40 games with 69p games or free to play. The quality won't be there for starters, and physical buttons will always triumph over touch screen.

I literally only use my tablet and phone to access the internet easily.

"Are kids getting the same quality of entertainment from their tablets as they are from the 3DS?"

Absolutely not. They're just being spoon-fed poor excuses for "games" entirely designed to generate revenue. The difference in gaming with a console, like the 3DS, is that you are paying for depth and quality. They are designed to generate revenue, but you are actually getting video games- a label that 99.9% of tablet games do not deserve.

My little brother was on his iPad, and I told him he could play my 3DS. He jumped at the offer. He knew the quality of the games being offered to him. Case in point, these kids haven't the simplest idea of quality games

I'll just say it: Tablet and mobile games are not games, they are cheap, mainly free temporary entertainment devices.

A 3 year old most likely owns a 'educational tablet' than a Kindle or an iPad, one that teaches math, grammar or social skills through 'games', granted the odds of that decrease with each year the child ages, thus further deluding this study.

I ask you, were your emotions ever stirred by a good game of Bejeweled? Now, how did you feel when you watched someone commit suicide in Fire Emblem Awakening? See, because it's(mobile) not a game, it's distraction.

Mobile gaming will never, ever defeat handheld titles. As Reggie Fils-Aime put it at this E3: "Those of us who play games know there's nothing quite like them in the world." No one feels or speaks that strongly about Flappy Bird.

Further, one could make the argument that a solely mobile gamer( iOS, Android, Windows ), is not a gamer at all. Why? Because mobile gaming is not gaming, gaming is something you look forward to, mobile 'gaming' is a time-killer.

I'll say it again, mobile gaming in and of itself does not exist. Mobile games save a few are not to be even considered when the topic of video games arises.

The games that are made for touch interface are quite good, but the Android / IOS market is now flooded with freemium games. The only true way I feel you can play traditional games like Mario, Sonic, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed etc is with traditional controllers as Sonic on a touch screen does not feel the same.

@Kereke12, I have started all three of my kids on Nintendo hardware, they have all played on my Gameboy Advance Sp, the DS, Wii & Wii U. My youngest (6yrs) has his own 2DS. I even brought him Angry Birds for it in a sale (£15), he can't get enough of it. The only thing I would say about the DS family is I cannot see how I can set a time limit for gameplay like you can on a tablet.

@dinosauryoshi, as far as my apprentices are concerned I'm a gaming fossil for sticking with Nintendo and not being seduced by smartphones & Xbox!!

But I am watching and training the next generation of Nintendo gamers from a far!!

Playing games on a tablet/smartphone just doesn't feel right for me. 3DS XL FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's some great quality gaming to be found on ios devices people. Like it or not, it's nintendo competition.

But that ecosystem is gaming unfriendly - shovelware and crapware drown out gems, and getting interrupted by notifications makes the brain go numb through short burst distractions.

I experience superior quality and gaming with nintendo, mind.

From my experiences, iOS/Android gaming is either Animal Crossing (in the sense where you have to play every day to actually progress, or you have to wait a certain amount of time) and the only reason for that is so you come back and view their ads again and again. That, or you have to pay to win/progress, which is the cancer of video gaming. We need gamers in the developer seats, not businessmen.

To put it another way though, more kids are playing on smart devices than dedicated handheld consoles. However, software for these devices are mainly priced at super low prices if not free, so, selling a good quality game at regular retail price like MK7 or Bravely Default at full price on a 3DS would be incredibly more profitable than the el cheapo games on a smart device right?

Daft stat. A dedicated gaming device is an extra device these days. So most kids who have a 3DS will also have access to a tablet, but not the other way around. Yay maths!

@Farmboy74 Yeah but the controller for iOS that Hori showed at E3 looks totally fine. http://toucharcade.com/2014/06/12/e3-2014-hands-on-with-horis-mfi-controller there is plenty of stuff now that supports iOS physical controls. see http://mfigames.com (And there are some publishers that have loads more stuff that have just started the process).

Take something like Lego Star Wars : Complete Saga - You get the whole of Phantom Menace for free. The rest you can get for a single £7 IAP.

All the Sega stuff already supports controllers.

I'm not always proud of my nation...

And it has nothing to do with game quality.

Its the fact that most tablet games are free and more parents are likely to own a tablet than a 3ds.

Honestly Tablets should be outlawed because they are the biggest scam in the history of technology. Its half a laptop, does half the things, with a quarter of the power and people pay three times as much for one.

I play my 3ds more than my iPad. 3ds has more to offer.

The elitist comments on here...

Facts:

Portable gaming got it's start with the same kinds of basic time wasters as mobile gaming. (Game & Watch)

Tetris (yet another basic, time waster with no depth) was a major selling point for the Gameboy.

I'm not defending some corrupt practices in the mobile market, nor am I saying that the shovelware isn't that, but we do need to acknowledge that mobile gaming is indeed gaming. It's in its fledgling state and has a lot more maturing to do. Do you expect babies to be born with the same reasoning and understanding of a full grown adult?

@SomeBitTripFan I would argue its not in it's fledging state anymore, it has been around for a lengthy period of time and I personally do not see things changing for mobile gaming simply because too many developers/publishers see money in producing these kind of cheap or free to play games. Look at the new Atari and EA.

My tablet (when it worked) was not as much used as my 2ds after I got it. I got my tablet after my dad smashed my DSi XL to bits(well, in half[long story]). I only have @ 3ds licenced title and one that I can't play just yet (long story again). I hated my tablet because there are NO apps anywhere (mainly Amazon, Google Play did not work on my Android tablet) for my favorite Video Game character, Mario that was Nintendo licenced. Also, I'd rather use a D-pad and Circle Pad for the games that I love! NO SUBSITUTES!

No one under the age of 15 needs a cell phone. No one. My parents were super busy when I was a kid and we kept in touch just fine. I got my first Nokia 3310 when I was 15.

Parents should keep an eye on their child instead of just give them a cell phone. That's just wrong.

@Hy8ogen: You had multiple?

@SomeBitTripFan Yup. My cousin borrow my first one and never returned it and I lost my 2nd one. My 3rd phone was a motorola E398. Loved that phone.

@Hy8ogen: I was afraid for a second that you had broken one... XD

@SomeBitTripFan That phone is pretty much unbreakable lol. God I miss the days when phones have buttons. Symbian will forever remain special in my heart

Back on topic though, @vamkar I feel bad for them as well. Phone games are just boring and offers no depth. Imagine when they grow up, their "classic" games are some shovel ware in the appstore instead of games like Legend of Zelda or Metal Gear Solid.

Yes, it is because the tablets and games for them are cheaper.

I love my 3DS; other than the occasional angry birds, I don't like gaming on my phone. They're all the same, there over half rip-offs of other games, always asking for an in app purchase (or just crazy adds), the controls are usually awkward & there is almost no depth to them.

@Kaze_Memaryu You don't know how they're being used in my school, so I won't get into a serious discussion about it, but you do know that state schools in the UK routinely ask for school reports in primary school in the form of PowerPoint presentations, right? It's expected that kids have access to a computer at home.

Which leads me to my second point. Apparently you've missed the fact that tablets aren't status items: they're becoming the computer for many people and they're directly responsible for the ongoing collapse of the laptop.

To the people writing off every game on mobile: you've clearly not taken a good look. I mainly play pinball, but X-COM is really good on iOS and there are other "real" games to be had if you look. I don't do much mobile gaming at all, but I don't think it's impossible to game on an iPad exclusively.

I certainly have no desire to own a 3DS because my iPad does just fine for on the go; when I'm at home I can pick up the Gamepad for a quick game of Colour Zen or Donkey Kong.

Smartphone and tablet "gaming" is killing video games like a cancer.
The UK now has a generation that are attuned to remedial, mindless, low input-quick reward gamers. Playing finger swiping games and brainwashed by the tidal wave of "free games (with in app purchases)" games that are the gaming equivalent of a betting shop. Kids are getting switched onto this junk and bypassing true video games altogether. Steve Jobs should have buried this craze with him.
Save video games.
Do NOT buy your 6 year old and Ipad, because somebody at curry's fools you into believing the educational benefits it also brings.
Buy them a Nintendo or something tha presents challenge, lateral thinking, coordination and logic.

Stupid UK! Should learn more about good games with their FIFA and whatnot...

Just kidding, this is not really surprising. Kids stick with any bad games their parents give them, and since tablet/smartphone games are cheaper, they stick with those.
THANKFULLY there still are some parents smart enough to give their children actual gaming devices. And smartphones/tablets are not really affecting 3DS sales in any significant way so...

This generation of kids is gonna suck.

Kid one: "Hey! Do you remember that game candy crush?"

Kid two: "Heh, Yeah, it was so awesome, Oh the nostalgia!"

Kid three: "Hey, what about Donkey Kong?! "

Kid 1 & 2: ".....The heck is that?"

@Hy8ogen I know right. I got my first working cell phone at the age of 19... when I was able to hold a steady job. Now that I have it, I didn't feel like I needed it back then.

According to VG Chartz, the 3DS was the biggest selling console last week!

Together with the Vita, this generation currently has over 50 million handheld console sales, that's what matters the most!

@TheWPCTraveler
I guess it's more accurate to say that Windows Phones have a lot of potential for gaming. It's awesome that they have Xbox 360 games like Illomilo and Hydro Thunder Hurricane, but they just need more. If they had more Xbox games on it, they could make the i Phones look like the underpowered, overpriced turds they really are.
@Dr_Corndog
I hope that means you're a girl...

@electrolite77
That's why the handheld Console market is contracting.

==========================

The whole console market (home + Handheld) is maybe contracting! If you think the 3DS is doing badly, then what about the Xbox 'One'?

@FragRed: We can't really be sure, but the chaos of the current market, especially mobile reminds me of the time before the North American crash. Things may turn out different, as the mobile ecosystem is very unpredictable, but there may be something that changes it.

@unrandomsam, I have to agree that the MFI controllers are now starting to look the business especially the game vice for the iPad mini. Maybe something the Wii U gamepad should have been like?

£7 for the Lego Star Wars saga is not a bad price for the DS it's £9 and Wii £14.

Don't get me wrong there are some Gems on IOS but I left that market sometime ago due to the flood of mediocre games rife with IAP at every turn. A one of IAP purchase I'm not against it's the pay to win model that makes my blood boil. With a standardised controller scheme Apple could become a big player if they wanted.

@SomeBitTripFan I think we could be in for a very serious problem with the way the mobile market is going. It's not just handhelds that it is eating away the market of. But home consoles which you would think wouldn't be affected, is too losing ground to smartphones and tablets. New generations are being bought up in a totally different world to anything before.

This is why an Hybrid Home/Handheld console is an good idea, that will happen. We are seeing an indication of it slowly, with Playstation TV and Wii U emulation of the DS library.

I think that's the next logical step forward..................

There is a strong relationship between handheld/home consoles then people like to believe.

@DilMan33 I still think it is too early for a hybrid console to be released of any true quality. The hardware I feel is not good enough yet to be able to compete as a home console and at the same time be a portable handheld. I am not sure I will need to check what was said, but I have a feeling Nintendo said something similar to that effect. If a hybrid happens, I would be very surprised if it is the next console like many think or hope it is. Not that you were suggesting it would be.

Not surprising in the slightest.

@FragRed: Possibly. The game industry is going to change within the next number of years regardless though. I can't say how things will play out, and concerns are justified, but a crash would have to come eventually. There's always a breaking point, and it usually is reached at some point. Nintendo is responsible for much of how the console market developed after the chaos that lead to the North American market crash. The mobile market is similar in some regards, except that consumer's are hardly charged much of anything up front. Who knows, there's nothing completely like it to compare it to.

@DilMan33: I can understand your thinking, but I see a different kind of hybrid. Something tells me all we'll have are screens, with the cloud doing all computing.

@SomeBitTripFan That is very true. And if, or should I say, when the crash happens, unlike the last time it will have a global effect due to how integrated the studios, publishers and market as a whole is. Also this time around there is billions of dollars at stake in the home console market alone. And then you have all the areas that are directly or indirectly linked such as gaming shops, websites, Twitch etc. There is a lot more to lose this time round.

However, I think that like last time, a company like Nintendo will be what brings us back down to the roots of what true gaming is, after the crash has happened, and a new market will be built.

@FragRed: What would be scary though is if nothing did come. Gaming would eventually come back, but it could possibly be years before a company took the risk to revitalize the industry.

@SomeBitTripFan Yes I think we were lucky last time, being that it was just the North America game industry that crashed and that Nintendo were looking to capitalise on the success of the Famicom in Japan by going global. This time around, unless Nintendo do something similar, I see a possibility it could be some time before it happens.

One concern of mine is that the current generation of consoles (Xbox One and PS4) have a supposed 10 year life cycle and are being produced by 2 companies who are currently undergoing major changes, Sony especially. The future of these systems and successors rely heavily on whether Microsoft and Sony will be around, or in the position to continue operating the way they are in the next decade.

@FragRed

well maybe, there's room for an handheld that has an home console output, like a Playstation TV. You can still have a main home console, if you are going for power.

@SomeBitTripFan

I think cloud computing won't change anything. Even if it does take off, it's just an delivery system. I still think companies will find ways to bring out hardware as needed.

@DilMan33 Microsoft won't want cloud computing to take off. If it did, then there is no need for an Xbox One successor as the whole idea of the Xbox One is the if evolves through the cloud allowing better graphic capabilities and power.

@FragRed I think they care more about Azure than Xbox. (And Surface even.) Streaming their own stuff to their tablet that isn't selling I think would be something they would like even if it meant scaling down Xbox.

I'm a tablet gamer since I play Shovel Knight on my Wii U GamePad. I'm such a naughty boy!

There's a whole lot of denial going on in this thread. I love my 3DS as much as the next person, but anyone who doesn't think that Mobile and Tablet gaming is going to just keep eating up the market is fooling themselves. Every day more and more of these devices make their way into people's hands. All types of people young and old carry a smartphone, and love to kill time with a quick game of Angry Birds, or even a round of something like Warhammer Quest.

These games are usually easy to pick up and put back down, which makes them perfect for gaming on the go. Also, despite what people seem to think there's a lot of games on Mobile with a lot of depth, and an entire new generation that are learning to play them with touch screens.

For those of us who have grown up before the rise of the smart device; we prefer buttons. Young people now will be growing up with an entirely new way of controlling their games — touch, and motion. Things are going to be very different in the field of portable gaming in the next ten years. There's no use denying it unfortunately.

I never even owned a tablet or touch screen phone in my entire life so I really don't care about this nonsense. Honestly my PC is like 5x more powerful than both.

Whenever I see kids playing on their phones, it is always Minecraft, but around half of those kids will play Pokemon on a 3DS just as much. In fact when you put a 3DS or any hand held gaming device near them it grabs all the attention.
The ones that only game on a phone or tablet feel left out. Not to mention they seem to get bored a lot faster.

If it does get to the point where smart devices just replace handhelds I don't think I could do handheld gaming again, because I would just be completely missing out on the experience a phone or tablet can't offer.

Despite some people defending these smart devices, they really do need proper controls, and quality content. This would also cost more money, so these apps cannot be 'free' or ad supported for long. Even kids aren't that stupid, they understand that Mario and Pokemon are quality titles and the ones that realize this do ask for a dedicated handheld, the ones that don't well they are just not interested in it.

I just feel, these smart devices are at their limit. It probably has an similar affect, like PC gaming has on the home console business.

At the moment the gaming audience is overlapping between:
PC to Home Console to Handheld Consoles to Smart Devices

The whole industry may be stretched from 'AAA' development to smart device developers. It's a real fragmented market, that I don't see any major changes soon. Only a slight merger between Handheld and Home consoles is possible in the near future.

Eh. My son switches it up between his 3DS and games on my iPhone... there's room for both, but you can't compare the two in terms of quality. 3DS game quality is much much higher. lol

Phone "gaming".

@SomeBitTripFan Thank God kids don't have the same reasoning as adults... mankind would sprinting to damnation way too fast.

As for the digital nose picking on phones and tablets... they suck idk why a kid would prefer flappy bird over any side scroller Nintendo made.
I tried to play many games on phones/tablets but it's mostly swipe the pictures. Sure the scummvm emulator runs fine but those are point and click adventures. But games like GTA vice city are "playable" but that is where it stops but the experience is not there it's simply lacking on all fronts be it graphics gameplay and audio(blasted phone mics)

And mobile phones being a nessecity of life... come on...(that's why it's good kids don't get the understanding of "adults" right away) that's the biggest nonsense ever. Sure they are used a lot and often but I can do without mine. There is this strange idea that people should be in touch 24/7.

This whole generation is used to being bombarded with with a rapid succession of nonsense and information.
Maybe peope need to just take time and sit down and take some time to play a decent game for once instead of angry flappy candy clans.

@electrolite77

wow, well that sound like a collection someone would have on an portable PC! It's still not the high level of output Nintendo publishes on the 3DS though!

And how can it be denial, when the 3DS still outsells all other consoles systems on alternative weeks?

Statistics can tell you anything. 87% of all people know that.

Statistics can tell you anything. 87% of all people know that.

Just sounds like bad parenting to me

They're touch-enabled computer monitors, and you have your good games and your bad. I think the reason kids are warming up to them is because they are all purpose. Parents have smart phones and tablets, or get one for the kids. Students maybe want a tablet for school, etc. Once they have one, they wind up on the app store. Just like how many get laptops or PCs for functionality and media, then discover Steam, Gog, etc. People also forget that controllers are taking off on these, mitigating the "lol touch controls" critique. I have a Moga Pro for my phone (looks and feels more or less like a 360 controller) and the Moga Ace for my iTouch. There's a shell for iPad Mini coming soon that I can't wait to try also.

If you think of a tablet as a "tablet PC," you can see how some games are suited for it. Puzzle and tower defense are easy ones, as well as rpgs and strategies titles. The Autumn Dynasty series of strategy games are exclusive to the platform and very fun. 4x games are great (my fav being Starbase Orion, a spiritual successor to PC classic Masters of Orion). Ravenmark and Wesnoth (the latter is a PC port) are great.Mecho Wars, an Advance Wars clone, is fun, as is Great Big War Game.

Battle Heart Legacy has great depth and mobile controls. Anyone who has ever played the DS Zelda, or Star Fox, or any number of titles where everyone raved about the INTUITIVE STYLUS CONTROLS can't sit here and act like there is no room for creative input here. It's just sad when a dev simply slaps a touch dpad on a console-esque title and expects that to work. Also, everyone knows the DS was no stranger to shovelware.

But yeah, when my son is playing Spy Mouse, Plants vs Zombies, the classic Sonic games (I prefer buttons, growing up with Genesis, but they are simple enough that he doesn't have that nostalgia keeping him from doing quite well), Oceanhorn, etc, he has just as much fun as he has on the 3DS or Wii U.

And for my part, when I'm playing FTL, Baldur's Gate, Final Fantasy Tactics, King of Dragon Pass, The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us, Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers, Dodonpachi (or any Cave shooter), a port of 3DS' Liberation Maiden, Chaos Rings II, The World Ends With You, Stealth Inc, Dokuro, Wayward Souls, VVVVVV, Infinity Blade 2 or 3Hearthstone ETC ETC ETC, nobody can tell me I'm not enjoying "real games." I can't wait for the iPad port of The Banner Saga, as I rarely have time to sit at my computer long enough to play it but I take my tablet almost everywhere. .

@DilMan33 it's denial that people say any game you might play on a phone or tablet = angry birds. You see this quite often. To be fair, when the App Store was new, this wasn't far off. Infinity Blade and a port of Sega CD classic Vay aside, it was mostly physics puzzlers, simple swipe games, and of course the rise of freemium leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. But I have more gb worth of "real games" on my iPad than they even sell in Vita memory card sizes. Just have to know what you're looking for.

@CaviarMeths Thats good? What is the world becoming? Are people becoming too lazy too make their devices just the way they like them? I would never even consider buying an ipad or any apple device. Especially for gaming. If you need a tablet for gaming, which is really sad if thats all you got for video games, get an Android device, so you can make it the way YOU like it.

I agree with @Gilantus - the parents I know don't buy their kids a tablet, but they will give them their old tablet or phone when they're ready to upgrade themselves. Also, many parents let their young child borrow their phone/tablet on the metro or while waiting in line to give them something to keep them distracted - so in that temporary situation, it's not worth it to carry a separate device.

I know mostly parents of young children (2-4ish), so their kids mostly aren't asking for video game systems yet. Also, I think there's a much larger selection of games on the App store that can be played by YOUNG kids, plus they can watch videos on it too. Most Nintendo games don't start being REALLY playable until about 5 years old. For younger kids, it's a waste to drop extra money on separate hardware and then at least $15 on a cart that is small enough to choke on for a game no better than 99 cent apps on the app store - we're not talking Mario or Final Fantasy here, we're talking "Count with Big Bird."

Tl;Dr Parents give kids old models when they upgrade and for preschoolers, touch screens are easier to use and games aimed at that age group are no better on the 3DS but are more expensive.

To be fair though, 'Count with Big Bird' has sold over 100 million FREE downloads

@Link506 Hey, I like a reactionary knee-jerk response as much as the next guy, but take a step back and reassess the context of my comment. A restrictive OS is beneficial for parents who share a device with children who fiddle. Kids move things. They delete things. They buy things. Those are bad things that you don't want.

And my device is a Samsung S4 mini. I don't own so much as an iPod anymore. Contain your outrage for some stranger passerby using an Apple device you don't like.

@CaviarMeths Sorry 'bout the rage. I just hate it when people buy devices just because they're popular and when they don't take a step back and view BOTH sides of things. I like any android device for all the freedom they give you. Looking back now, I have no clue how I would survive without customization.

@Link506 I agree, in so far as I prefer an android phone. I prefer my iPad due to the game selection on the app store. Which is why I jailbreak, giving me nearly the same level of customization as on my phone

@Token_Girl I think you're spot on. My son has been playing Plants vs Zombies since he was 3. It was decent math practice haha, he's quite proficient at it now. It also cost...$3? The same game cost I think $15 o Ds/DSi and looks terrible to boot (they redrew all the assets horribly low res). He also loved the Rayman runner titles. Now that he is 5 and has a feel for platformers, he's "graduated" to Rayman Origins and Legends on consoles. But when he was learning PvZ and some of the simpler iOS platformers (Paper Monsters for example), he could not grasp Mario. Again, he was 3 and 4 at that point. I think I was about his age now when I even saw a Nintendo, so the tablet gave him a head start.

I'm not surprised by the figures. The thing about tablets and smartphones is that there are so many of them and some are fairly cheap. Also with tablets they are quick easy games while most games on the 3DS require more time, which children don't have the attention span for. Also tablets and smartphones can do much more than play games. They can go on the internet (with simple controls), play music and videos, and some take decent pictures. Granted the 3DS can do some of those things too but it is far easier (and faster) to accomplish those tasks on a tablet/smartphone.

Another problem with portable gaming is the price of the games. Take Angry Birds for example. The price of Angry Birds for the 3DS is $29.99 (at the time of release) for 3 games. Those same three games will cost you $3-$15(HD) on a tablet/smartphone. Another example is 2048 which costs $2 on the 3DS and is free on the App Store. I think this is probably the biggest problem with console gaming nowadays but there is nothing that developers can do because of the money it takes to develop console games.

If say that if you look at figures of teen in high school or college, you will find that more of them own a 3DS and/or a home console. However, I still think that smartphones and tablets will beat them in the amount of time that people spend gaming on such devices.

"Reading is apparently the most popular activity for UK kids, with 45 precent reading every day of the week."

There's a typo you might want to fix in a sentence about literacy of all things!

@Quirky you might want to check if the battery molex connector hasn't come loose very easy fix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Hp3Gl-isQ

@Kisame83

Yeah, but people are failing to look at the overall picture here.

There are already billions of smart devices already out there, but just last week the 3DS was still the best selling gaming hardware console! (Certainly more than the Xbox 'One', which is doing poorly!)

Smart devices probably do have an impact, but it will never be a real games systems offering quality content. I really do believe that.

I think this might be true in the US as well. My grandkids won't even take a sniff of a 3ds or console these days and have an iPad glued to their hands.Heck even my kids are glued to a touchscreen system these days and old Gramps (that's me) is toodling around with his 3ds.

Here we go again...

Now there is nothing like a good ole Bomberman 94 free for all to bring the family together during the Holidays My kids always look forward to that when we get together. We play the PCEngine version which is still working like a champ.

Boo-hoo, I weep for Nintendo, truly. Oh come on! This is old news! We've known this for years!

kids like to play on a tablet because of the free-to-play games...

@electrolite77

This article is about whether handheld consoles (or even any dedicated gaming hardware) can compete with Smart Devices. The answer is clearly: 'Yes'. Especially when the 3DS is more or less still the number 1 selling video gaming system right now!

I really don't see any issues with this, apart from it maybe a 'declining' market.

In fact I think 'smart devices' can actually help dedicated handhelds in particular in a way. Especially if it gets the customer used to buying online digital content on a large mass.

Also you have to take in Nintendo's business model for system releases. People initially buy Nintendo systems for one or two quality titles; then the install base grows from there with the library of titles increasing. This causes a chain reaction through word of mouth and then this further increases the install base/choices of titles.

It's completely different to the smart devices market.

Personally, I have faith in competitive free markets to know that quality always shines through.

@Meaty-cheeky. Agreed Friend!

Kids today play this stupid games called Angry Birds,Flappy Bird,and Candy crush?This is not good.I remember back when Children play games that are engageing like Sonic 1 or Mega Man,not this games where you just throw birds to win.

Sadly enough, this is true. The mobile market has stripped Nintendo's handhelds of the hyper-casual audience of the DS and the majority of the kid audience of their handhelds in general. Parents would rather buy their kids a $150 Android tablet with $1 or free games than a $130 2DS/$200 3DS XL or even a $300 Wii U.

This is why I say that the 3DS is fighting a tougher battle than the Wii U is, despite being much more successful.

43 million in 3 years is pretty good given the state of the market now. This is why you see Nintendo actually localizing games now: they need to fill the release schedule. However, it's only going to get tougher from here on out for the 3DS. Has the 3DS already peaked? Will system sales just decline from here on out, reaching below pre-Kart 8 Wii U sales by this time next year? Nintendo has to make sure the answer to these questions is a solid no.

@DilMan33 I don't disagree with your point about Nintendo remaining viable. Also, we have to keep in mind, it's not a 1:1 comparison like it is against, say the Vita. What is a "smart device?" You have smartphones of varying power and ability, low end readers that have ventured into tablet territory, and higher end tablets that function as portable computers more or less. It's hard (and unfair) to do a direct device sales comparison.You'd essentially be saying that all Windows, Android, and Apple phones and tablets and touch media players (IPod Touch for example) outsold the 3DS. Well of course lol!

That's why I prefer to consider those devices as offshoots of computers, rather than direct console analogs. I mean, Steam draws people away from consoles to a degree, but the console market is still making money.

I absolutely disagree with you that these devices offer no quality content. This is subjective, sure, But I listed a number of games in my earlier post, many of which are highly regarded. FTL, I fell in love with that on Steam, but consider the iPad version the definitive version. I know some people decry ports, but I in the age of virtual console, PS1/2 classics, Gog, and cross platform and even cross gen releases I really don't see the problem with options. For example, Telltale's games (Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us) are always planned for iOS, there's just usually a small delay. At first it was a month or weeks, these days sometimes it's the same week. So that's no different from the same games launching on both PC and console as well.

There are a number of games like that I love. I won't re-list them all, but just read my earlier post. There's also mobile-exclusive content that is great. Not all devs are going freemium to make a buck. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was very enjoyable. Wayward Souls is amazing, and has controller support planned in the next update I believe. Oceanhorn, while derivative of Zelda, has great production values (including a musical score co-produced by Final Fantasy's Nobuo Uematsu!) and controller support. I play it on my iPod Touch with my Moga controller shell, and it doesn't feel much different from playing on a PSP.. Infinity Blade is basically Punch Out for the dark fantasy crowd, and the third game in particular really shines. Battleheart Legacy honestly blew me away and has very intuitive controls and a lot of depth and customization. The Chaos Rings series by Square Enix are solid classic-style jrpgs for the platform. Just to name a few.

Mobile games are made to trick people into buying ingame add on content. Console & Handheld games are made for people to enjoy them and have a great time & experience. See the difference?

I've tried mobile gaming but I just never see the idea of playing those games. I've never had fun and I've never had an epic experience playing a mobile game. I understand using social media apps on a mobile phone, but bying an expensive touch screen just so you can get ads and "Buy this buy that" screens thrown at you? Just no. Most of the mobile games are pay2win too, which sucks.

I definitely feel mobile gaming with TV connectivity is the 'way of the future'... now here me out before we all assume what I mean to say by only reading one sentence. The CURRENT status of mobile games is a joke. I do feel however that tablet technology is going to continue to advance. Buttons and home theaters aren't going anywhere.
I wish Nintendo had made the WIi U Gamepad a stand alone feature that I could take with me and play on the go (it might have needed a different physical design for that) and then sync it to a system at home to use it for asynchronous and other more in depth gaming experiences. Tablet's currently connect to the TV for some material but no one is really utilizing the objects at hand for anything REALLY meaningful. I understand there are a few good things out there but on an industry wide level, tablet's aren't overtaking consoles/handheld gaming devices quite yet.
My main point in all of this is that I feel someday my Android tablet might just sync up to a box on my TV stand that has a lot more power to play some pretty spiffy games with a command console on my lap as a control (with buttons)

That's pretty terrible. Mobile games are mostly trash, there's a few really good ones but you get bored of them fast anyway and they're still nothing compared to the full, long-lasting experiences of console games. Even though little kids are satisfied with either, when they're older they won't be as likely to try consoles since they didn't grow up with them.

@redivgamer90 So wait, what you mention for iOS-games is what even iOS-gamers consider the dregs of the app-store (Countless bad "Flappy bird"-clones, freemium "Games" with paywalls), but for handheld consoles it's "Not counting bad games..."? Way to stack the deck there... ~_~

I feel bad for kids today. Free to play games that just want to rob your money is not the way kids should be introduced to video games these days... It's so sad.

@MysticX There's some crap yes but no matter how crap 3DS games get none of them ever try to rob you out of money.

Plus theres these things called reviews if your not sure about a game check a few reviews before paying your cash to play it.

Or ask the often friendly staff in your local game store most of the time they'll have a good suggestion or two.

Yea, what's with the double standard?? I listed a number of great titles on iOS, and people are willing to ignore shovelware on consoles and then act like mobile shovelware is all there is?

Again, if you think there are only "pay to win" or mindless cheap physics puzzlers on the app store, you are ignoring the presence of legit great games. Highly rated games. Final Fantasy 1-6, After Years, Dimensions, Tactics, and Dragon Quest 8 all have mobile versions. And a port of Chrono Trigger DS. FTL is highly regarded. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are the definition of epic, as is Knights of the Old Republic. X-Com: Enemy Unknown is on my iPad. The World Ends With You. Controller-enabled versions of Terraria, Bastion, R-Type 1 and 2, Metal Slug, Blazing Star. Loads of classic Cave shooters (EspGaluda 2, the Dodonpachi and Bug Princess series', Deathsmiles). Telltale's Walking Dead S1 and 2, and Wolf Among Us. The Another World remake everyone is gushing over on here? Port of the iOS version from years ago. What about updated Sonic the Hedgehog on eshop? iOS and Android had that first, full treatment to Sonic 1, 2, and CD so far with controller support for each. Upcoming HD rerelease of Phoenix Wright 1-3? Came out over a year ago on iOS.

And that's just the ports! I've also gone into titles unique to the platform.

I'm not saying mobile gaming will crush Nintendo the way some predict. Two different markets in many regards.

But, if you're going to keep chanting that mobile has no good games, just free to play crap...you're being JUST as biased as the people who claim Nintendo is worthless because it just has casual games and "kiddy crap."

tl;dr- when I was fighting the Atma Weapon in FF6 over the weekend, my thought was "this is awesome, great memories." Not "lol this device I'm on only has freemium games." Nobody likes an elitist attitude.

@manic221 Not all iOS-games have paywalls (Or even In-app purchases, lots of games have IAPs but are perfectly good fun without spending cash, too)

I can see you haven't been to where i live yet, all the people in stores here can tell me is where they have the games-section, anything beyond that gets me a blank stare...

Lastly: you didn't address my issue, comparing the worst of iOS to Nintendo's "Not the bad games"-category, which is still a double standard...

@Farmboy74
Obi-Wan: Anakin, tablets are evil!
Anakin: From my point of view 3DS is evil.
Obi-Wan: Then you're lost!

It ain't just kids. In my experiences, full grown men that I've never seen talk about video games are playing them on their newly acquired smart phones and tablets.

I personally know of 8 guys in the military (1 of which is my bro in law) that all talked each other into playing Clash of Clans together. None of these people own a traditional video game console.

The tides of change are real, people. Wake up and take the blinders off. You all sound like BlackBerry fanatics around the time the first few iPhones came out.

I think people should spend the same amount on their 3DS and tablets. When I was little I only had a 20 inch TV, A Nintendo 64, The Gamecube, A Nintendo DS, A Playstation,A PSP, and A computer. Now I have A 3DS, A Wii, A 50 inch TV(or bigger),A Samsung Galaxy Tablet 3, A computer and a TV on the same device, a laptop, a Playstation 3,A PS Vita, and I still have a Gamecube, and A Nintendo 64.

My favorite games on the tablet are :Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Papa Pear Saga, Hay Day, and Clash of Clans.

Let's face it, we're officially seen as freaks again.

@redivgamer90 But that's no different from PC. This argument is like saying Half-Life, Starcraft, Deus Ex, and Neverwinter Nights don't exist because of the existence of Facebook games and random flash mini games (many of which were precursors to ios shovelware, if not fodder for direct porting).

@electrolite77 nothing ludicrous whatsoever about my 'rant' bit offensive of you to use such a word.

It's true. The games are remedial and sole focused of rinsing unwittingly people of their money.

I don't remember the last time shinobi charged a child over £400 of actual money for adding shurikens to play with. Whereas a really deep and logic based game like 'ninjas versus zombies' did EXACTLY that.