Poll: Do You Call Handhelds Like Game Boy And Nintendo DS 'Consoles'?

I call a Gameboy a Gameboy and a DS a DS. Nintendo systems always get their proper name

I think of a console as anything that plays a significant amount of games as its primary function.

Portability and the age of the games are irrelevant.

Mini Consoles are Plug-and-Plays, but I don't think Plug and Plays are consoles. Same reason as the Game&Watch - it doesn't have interchangeable, new games to either insert/download.

@sleepinglion Tell that to my family who keep saying "Wii Switch" but the Wii U is still "Wii"

It used to be, not too many years ago, that they were always called home consoles or handheld consoles. Then at some point the gaming community shortened those terms to consoles and handhelds. That has made the younger generation, and forgetful people I guess, think that handhelds aren’t consoles.

But they are. They’re all consoles. Home, handheld or hybrid, it’s a console used to play games.

Anything that is dedicated to playing games and is its primary use, I consider a console. Phones though, gaming isn't its primary use, so I wouldn't say that was a console and whilst Xbox's and PlayStations are more media centres these days, gaming is still its primary function, so they also count as consoles.

In my opinion anyway 🤷

I think there is a distinct difference between handhelds and consoles, both have very distinct design philosophies and different assumptions and needs from their users. The Game and Watch is a toy.

This is some slice of life **** right here...

That said, handheld consoles.

In My area/country, we've always called Gameboy and alike handheld consoles... Game&watch would be considered a "beep game"

Is it time for the Direct yet?

I called it a Gameboy and was happy with that.

Nobody calls Nintendo toys ‘consoles’ 🤦‍♀️. It’s ‘my Nintendo’ or their proper names.

@sleepinglion Agreed. But in general, they're all consoles

Consoles are any device that can play interchangeable video games. As we have seen home consoles can be changed into handhelds. Handhelds as well can be plugged into a tv in some cases. Plug and plays cannot change the games they play, but consoles can.

“A game console, video game console, or console is a describes a gaming box or device that is primarily designed to play games that connects to a TV.”

https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/console.htm

Maje a definition that includes handhelds but exclude Smartphones. If under your definition a Smartphone is a console, then tour definition is wrong. Same goes for PC.

My personal definitions:

Console: A system dedicated to playing videogames that utilizes your television as its display.

Portable: A handheld gaming device that can be taken on the go.

Mobile: 99.9999% trash to be avoided at all costs. Also unregulated or restricted by traditional point-of-purchase business models that have so far...mostly...kept the first two categories from dissolving into pay-to-win or other self-destructive approaches (although the likes of EA, Activision, and the console manufacturers themselves have constantly been pushing against them since online functionality went mainstream).

just call them all nintendo like our parents did. problem solved.

How it is for me is that they are "Systems." "Console Systems" and "Handheld Systems."

As long as you can put in different games to play.
Gameboy and NES: consoles
Game & Watch and NES mini: not consoles

The Gameboy is a console. It's a portable console, but it has the same principle as a gaming console without the need to plug it into a TV and take it with you.

Those Mini "consoles"... I don't think that definition holds true since you can't change or add games to them. They are a collectible, which can plug into your TV for a nostalgia trip.

Game & Watch are micro game devices, but cannot have new games added in or out at will.

You know… not only are handheld systems indeed consoles, but tablets (iPad for instance) are also computers, so there’s that. 😁

Console. Look at PS vita or PSP. They have similar button layouts to home consoles. And gameboy/gameboy colour had a similiar if not identical button layout to new.

Portable and Stationary Consoles!

If gaming is its primary function and you can swap games (physical or digital), it's a console. Size doesn't matter.

"No way! Proper consoles can't be put in your pocket"

So, 10% of people here are a little bit dense. Okay.

They’re consoles. Just handheld consoles. There we go, argument over.

The very first game consoles were so called dedicated consoles. The games weren't interchangeable. So they worked like plug and play consoles. According to the wikipedia article a game console can either be a handheld or home console and both can be either dedicated consoles or consoles with interchangeable storage media.

these consoles are like raiden weapon shards building the memories of ether one volt with each step

@dartmonkey Thank you Gavin for this article and its questions. They had me on the floor.

Oxford English Dictionary definition includes portable computing devices. I voted no before reading this so now I humbly withdraw my vote.

I tend to call handhelds, handhelds - GBA, 3DS, Vita, Switch, Game Gear, etc. I call devices that require a TV a console. But its just short hand

They're all consoles. Just set apart by being HANDHELD consoles or HOME consoles. Note how they both have the word "console" in them.

"Yes", "not really", and "yes". Seems I agree with the consensus view.

I do tend to think about ‘handhelds’ versus ‘consoles,’ but the reality is “handheld consoles” versus “home consoles.”

I also have a bad habit of saying ‘Steam roller’ despite the fact that those machines haven’t run on steam for like a hundred years.

First gen consoles didn't have interchangeable games (only variations on Pong). A games console is anything that's primarily built to play video games.

20 yrs ago it made sense to draw a line between home consoles and handheld consoles as they just were going for very different experiences. Ever since 3D became thing though and of course since the Switch, this line has blurred out completely.

If someone would have asked me 20yrs ago if I'm a console or PC gamer, I wouldn't have thought about mentioning the Gameboy (Advance) but today, I can just say I'm a Switch-guy.
Still, Handhelds are console type experiences in terms of closed systems that need as little hardware knowledge as possible and deliver a very focused gaming experience without much more. Thats why an iPad isn't a console while it might offer some things, that cld probably be compared to them.

Ok.

I totally had to think about that! LOL.

Yeah. When I had my GameBoy, I never called it a console.

But with the introduction of the Hyperkin Retron SQ, it totally makes it obvious that it is a console. LOL.

Yes. (that's it, just) Yes.

I think the industry tries to push things into one or the other but I feel that something that plays many games is a console and if it only plays one game then it's something different.

There’s consoles and portable consoles

My iphone is a console and a mobile device and a calculator

@YusseiWarrior3000 Laughs in Switch lite

@slowp0ketail Early consoles, for example Pong, didn't have interchangeable games. A games console is still a console even if it only gives access to one game.

@WhiteUmbrella you beat me too it! Yes, all 1st gen consoles had built in games and couldn't have extra games added

So if I pick up my PS5 and walk around with it, is it now a handheld console....

System malfunction. Need Input.

In Eastern Europe everybody literally calls any console "addon" ("pristavka"), handheld or not. So if anyone happens to talk about SNES Play Station, it is jokingly called "an addon for addon" ("pristavka k pristavke").
And yes, there are home consoles and handheld consoles. One may call the latter "handhelds" for short, but they stop being "consoles" because of it.

@JonEnumber5 In the words of Tyler Durden; "Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."

Honestly, I just call them by their names. When we're packing up for a trip, I don't remind my kids to bring their handhelds or their consoles, I say "don't forget your DS". So this only comes up when I'm having a "gamer conversation" exactly like this one.

In those cases, I tend to say "handhelds", which is actually just not good English but it's what everyone does.

The dictionary says that a console is a console ,whether it's portable or not. But common usage seems to be the opposite.

No, I personally don't call handhelds consoles.

If you think of things in terms of computers; a computer console, or a computer terminal, is a very static thing - a desk with a control panel/screen - a workstation fixed in one place, like a piece of furniture. And it is also just part of the system - a console is not a full computer, it's just the interface really.

So, for me, a games console is the same - a stationary device kept at home, fixed in place. And it is also just one part of the system - if you include tv, power socket etc.

I'm probably not fully correct on the definitions there but that's how I see it.

@WhiteUmbrella

A console, yes. If you want to exclude handhelds I’d ask for a “home console.”

If a dedicated pong console counts, why not Snoopy Tennis?!

Let me park my horseless carriage and then I'll get back to you.

Console just means it has a display and buttons used to interact with it. Handhelds and game and watch fit. Technically, the tomagachi and digivices are consoles as well.

I'd say handhelds aren't consoles because I've always used that distinction myself, but I'm not going to get mad at anybody who disagrees.

I did find it interesting that more people think a handheld is a console than think a mini is a console. Could somebody who voted that way please explain your thinking?

@SirKif a very insightful and informative answer. Thank you.

While "console" indeed used to originally mean something attached to another device, playing dumb about it is not entirely unlike expecting a computer mouse to eat cheese. Nowadays, a video game console is traditionally understood as a piece of specialized computer hardware for playing various video games. Emphasis on plural, so it can be concurred that classic tamagochis, and G&Ws are the only arguable handhelds not doubling as consoles (they come across more as "electronic games" in and of themselves instead... and, in fact, were officially called that verbatim on some occasions, like Game & Watch's Soviet Elektronika clones). And even then, others could cite Wikipedia which just classifies them as "dedicated" consoles. In any case, other portables from Game Boy to Switch, from Game Gear to Nomad, from bootleg emulator-stuffed "compilation" machines to the monochrome LCD "brick game" Tetris offsprings - they're all video game consoles. Deal with it.

As a longtime gamer, I just refer to them as handhelds or maybe handheld consoles. HOWEVER... Maybe we have to look at the intentions behind the word "console".

Before home gaming, it was all arcades and pinball machines. The idea behind bringing gaming home was convenience. Drop it onto your TV stand or wall unit. You could then "tune in" to your favorite games much in the same way as your car stereo's console.

Home gaming was originally designed with that level of equivalency. It was your wall unit's console for gaming. Portables came along and untethered us. That, by definition, changes the equation.

If you drop in a dedicated music playing device to your wall unit, you call it a stereo. When drop one into your pocket, is it still a stereo? Functionally, it's the same, but the term was originally coined for something, well, bigger. Yes. It still plays music. Yes. It still plays it IN stereo. However, the term was designed to apply to something similar, but different. That's why Sony would later create the term Walkman, which would later get co-opted by every other portable stereo owner.

What we have here is a stereo/Walkman situation. A walkman is technically a portable stereo, but the industry created an entirely new term to acknowledge the new form factor and shift in demographic.

I think that it's okay to call a GameBoy a console or handheld console, but the preferred term is probably just handheld. No different than how you can call your iPod a portable stereo (if you're old), but can also refer to it as just, well, an iPod.

It all boils down to differentiation. They're both designed to do the same things, but different terms exist to signify that one is static while the other is mobile. Switch is an odd duck because it is designed to do/be both.

(How many people actually still have a dedicated music device these days? Just wondering. I have one, but I also play music on my phone.)

How is this even a question? If its primary purpose is to play video games, then it is a console. I can't understand how some people don't see handheld consoles as "consoles". They're still video game consoles, just portable.

I just call them handhelds. Never put much thought into it beyond that.

I call them handheld consoles.

For lack of a better term. Portable device. Handheld device idk who cares

Of course handhelds are consoles. Some people like to gatekeep on terms though so sadly the question is valid.

While I have a GB all the way until the 3DS (the switch is a hybrid so not on this list ) handhelds have been a necessary evil for me.

I do adore the switch design though as it essentially is what I've been waiting on Nintendo to make since the GB came out. My only real disappointment with the system is that there was never a DS/3DS player. And since the WiiU tanked, they likely won't even worry about making DS/3ds games accessible until they toss them on NSO in like 10 years.

Yeah, handheld consoles.

Blame it on autism or whatever, but a console is a panel with buttons to control something electronic or mechanical. So, if your toaster has a panel of buttons that controls the output, that panel is a console. If these inputs control a video game as output, it is a video game console. If it controls a toast output, it is a toast console. If it controls a video game about a toast, it is a video game console still.

The verb 'to console' has a different etymology. Just saying, I once wondered, thought about it, eventually looked it up.

Any electronic device that plays video game software is a "video game console"... there are handheld video game consoles and home video game consoles. The Switch is capable of both.

Colloquially it is used to differentiate things like PS/Xbox from PC... i.e "Console Exclusive"... but that isn't necessarily correct usage.

I called them handheld game systems, hardly ever used the word console. Back in the 90s every videogame systems I own I called as just gaming systems. I don't even know where the word console came from. If it's a PC I called it a computer, if it's a mobile device then it's either a phone or tablet, if it's a handheld or home console I call it videogame systems.

Sure, to me handhelds where always portable consoles.

"Handheld Console" - it's right there in the name.

Is it a device designed to play multiple games?
That's a console to me. Game & Watch I draw the line.

I don't think I've ever referred to them as "consoles", I always say "handheld" or "portables" or, in some cases, "videogame systems".

In the case of the Switch, I refer to it as a "hybrid system", just like the Virtual Boy. Yes, regardless of your opinion on it, I consider the Virtual Boy a hybrid, too. Though in a different way than the Switch.

There's no argument about the mini consoles, those are 100% plug-n-play.

in terms of video games, I think a definition of "fixed hardware, multiple games" for a console is decent enough. Open to examples that break this though.

I called them each: NES, SNES, Gameboy. I don’t think I even knew the word console until around the GameCube. Nobody I knew called anything consoles or handhelds. Simpler times.

Yes they are. Not sure how they came up with that term for video game systems but yeah I considered both home and handheld "consoles" as far as I can remember.

Only ever called them handhelds. Never considered a gameboy a console before.

@dartmonkey A Mini console still can be considered "interchangeable software" since you can choose from many games loaded onto it, rather than just one, which I think is the distinction of a Game & Watch-like device.

(I would make that distinction, compared to some junk like Pop-Station which is one game with different names on it.)

This was a really nice prompt for my slightly-caffeinated-yet-not-to-full-capacity-caffeinated brain this morning haha... I thought I understood completely until that second question threw a wrench in my gears...

Yeah I think a console to me is one that plays games and the software is modularized so that you can swap it out on demand (cartridges/discs/etc.)

Who cares?! Nintendo consoles for the most part rock, and that’s what matters to me.

I think if it's primarily designed for playing multiple games and isn't a PC, it's a console.
Of course handhelds like gameboy, psp and ds are consoles. Cant see why wouldn't be.
Those old tiger handheld games would be where a draw the line personally myself really. The game and watch is more a game than a console to me as it doesn't play more than its 1 to 3 games.
Mini consoles are plug and play about 20 plus games, so I'd count them whereas things that play only a single game like those joystick plug and plays i wouldn't call a console.
Granted the line gets a bit arbitrary.
You can argue all are consoles but in my head it needs to play a few things and it has a stronger case if it has the likes of carts or cds or an eshop for games.

Honestly haven't given it all that much thought, but under the general banner of game systems, yes, handhelds are a type of console. They're not really all that separate, just a different way of doing the same thing.

To me, games are games...I don't view handhelds as a lesser form of gaming as some others may.

@cookepuss fantastic breakdown and a fair one. The issue is that some people get so caught up in marketing terms that they dismiss handhelds asap (sorta the way mobile gaming is dismissed now ...how the tables have turned) and despite the fact that they have always offered full (albeit usually graphically inferior) gaming experiences.

I can't stand the limited playback options on my iphone so I still use dedicated music players. In the market for a new one actually.

Handheld consoles and Home consoles.

The Game & Watch Systems are LCD-Games, though I wouldn't really call them consoles. LCD-Games are more or less considered to be toys. Imagine calling some LCD-Pokédex like the Rotom-Dex a Console

Yes. I do. Portable console.

Well considering that the first video game consoles were the Magnavox Odyssey and Pong from Atari, and I believe neither had cartridges that means Plug-and-Plays are "consoles".

The original Game-and-Watch, Tigers and Coleco are all Handheld Electronic Games and not consoles. They are still being made in the form of the Brick Game and other simple LCD games that play solitaire, Yahtzee, and other games.

I've always refered to handhelds and handhelds, and home systems as consoles. Orobably not truly accurate, but I've never had anyone say I was wrong, sooo...

I always considered consoles to be something to hook up to your TV, so no, I don't classify handhelds as consoles. To each their own, though.

I call em hand-helds or systems.

The Minis are definitely plug n play consoles. I wish I was savvy enough to be...naughty. That made me laugh btw.

They're all consoles, although G&Ws seem more like simple toys to me compared to the DS or Gamecube, etc.

I think we should at least use "home console" and "handheld console" to refer to them if you want separate labels.

The word obviously derives from the Latin "consolari", which means "to offer comfort or cheer". Your Switch Lite cheers you up, therefore it's a console!

[Video game] consoles are generally devices that play lots of separate video games that you either plug directly into them (usually as carts or discs) or that come pre-installed on them for you to choose from, and they usually either attach to your TV and output the game that way or they come as a little self-contained portable device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console

The Game & Watch is an individual electronic game rather than a proper game console: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch

And, no, adding a bonus mini ball catching game on top of the Mario or Zelda game that's included as the main title in recent Game & Watch games doesn't make them consoles.

The other two examples are clearly consoles, hence why they appear in Wikipedia's Best Selling Consoles of all Time list, both together and in their respective categories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles

But, even though they are both indeed examples of consoles, they can still absolutely be differentiated as handheld consoles (or just handhelds for short) and home consoles (or just consoles for short), and people have referred to them as such for decades.

It's not rocket science--stop trying to confuse people.

Basically, you're trying to redefine how these things are talked about to win your argument with your friend, but you're wrong on principle. They are both technically consoles, sure, but your friend was very clearly talking about home consoles and not handheld consoles, and he said as much multiple times. It's clear your friend wasn't saying handhelds are not consoles at all or something dumb like that, but more that he was simply trying to see which home console you both rated as the best. So you sticking to your guns and not allowing the talk to be about which is the best home console, at least initially, is why that argument happened--even if your friend simply referred to them as consoles. You should have both said what was your favourite home console as well as what your favourite handheld console was, because then both of you would have gotten an answer to their question--but clearly you wouldn't let your friend have his question answered unless he changed what he was actually asking to fit your all-encompassing definition of console--and then you both could have even picked what your favourite overall console was.

You may think you won that battle with your friend--and you're even trying to use this site and these polls to prove yourself even more correct and really hammer the point home--but you ultimately lost the war.

Go back and tell your friend you're sorry, and then tell him what your favourite console is (yes, that means your favourite HOME console--get over it, language snob), and then tell him your favourite handheld console, and then tell him your favourite overall console--and then ask him to give you his answers for each too.

Or else you've already lost, no matter the results of your little poll.

Wiki: A video game console is an electronic or computer device that outputs a video signal or visual image to display a video game that one or more people can play through some type of game controller. These may be home consoles which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a television or other display device and controlled with a separate game controller, or handheld consoles that include their own display unit and controller functions built into the unit and can be played anywhere.

Nintendo class the Switch Lite as a console and they combine these sales figures with the⁹ original Switch sales.⁹

If it's made to play games as it's primary purpose, then it's a console no matter what size it is, how it looks or how it's used.

I don't call it console though, but it is one. I call it handheld, handheld console, portable console.

I call them for what they are, but they are all consoles. It's easier to know what we are talking about when we call the handheld ones by one of the names i've listed above.

The Switch is a unique console. Can call it console, home console, handheld console, portable console or hybrid console. Call it what you want, there is no wrong way about it. It's just easier to understand what we're talking about when we call it by console and handheld.

For the main consoles i call those console and home console

ohhh that Osamu Tezuka gameboy looks fantastic

May have already been asked, but IF a portable device that primarily plays games is categorized as a console, would my smartphone be considered a console? I mean, who really uses their phone to make calls anyways??

@nocdaes

I think of a console as anything that plays a significant amount of games as its primary function.

This! My five year old daughter fits this definition and I'm happy to go with it! Thumps up

@sportvater lol

@voltaireis
Phones are, imo, not the best sort of gaming device - portable or otherwise. Touch controls feel neutered and the experiences feel more shallow. The form factor isn't the problem. The design of modern phone is.

Consoles and handhelds are task specific and have controllers built to spec. Something like the Wii was designed for one thing and one thing only. Games.

Something like the iPhone, however, has to be multipurpose. Its physical design has to bend to the whims of app developers. Consequently, the physical input mechanism has to be equally flexible. Hence touch input.

The downside here is that the experience may be adequate for in the general case, but equally flawed in the specific. Possible to edit your spreadsheets on a smartphone? Sure. A desktop PC would make the experience quicker, easier, and more natural though. Possible to play a RPG? Sure. Why not? You might have better, more tactile controls and more expansive story/experience on a system with a controller and internals built for gaming though.

Smartphones are the substitute teachers of the gaming world. They'll fill in well enough and do the job in a pinch, but will almost never be as up to the task as the person teaching that one class for a living.

As for the bit about making calls on your phone.... LOL ... I do text more often than call, but some conversations don't lend themselves to quick brain fart emoji filled responses. Especially true if the substance of your communique is longer than a sentence or two.

Certainly don't want to text the office or your doctor. Or maybe you do. I don't know. LOL

Can you imagine getting a text from your doctor that was just ... EGGPLANT... SAD FACE.... SKULL... DERP!

I'd change my healthcare provider and doc after that.

@cookepuss One exception I can think of, to consider a phone as a console... is if you're cloud gaming using a controller as your main input and using your phone as a display. Nvidia GeForce Now, for example. I think the term "console", handheld or not, has evolved. Phones, nowadays, are hybrid consoles, imo, fully capable of providing a home console or PC experience if you choose to make it.

@YusseiWarrior3000 its a hybrid console, because technically I could take a switch with me in a submarine if I wanted to