The Handheld Thread
 

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This is a purely casual observation but it seems like the Vita is going to trump the 3DS pretty easily. I don't know - Obviously Nintendo has dominated handheld gaming since forever but the release of the kind of unimpressive 3DS followed by this is reminiscent of the Dreamcast's release followed by the PS2. Not that the Dreamcast was a bad system but the PS2 was superior in a lot of ways and it's release was timed pretty well. It looks like the same thing is happening here potentially.

In fact, Nintendo seems to be shying away from truly impressive hardware more and more. Even the Wii U just doesn't seem that great - It's, what, a generation behind in terms of hardware?

The 3DS was never meant to be a serious competitor in terms of hardware specs, and anyone who thinks it was has some serious misconceptions about Nintendo.

My main concern is the Vita's storage capabilities, but other than that it should be a good system.

Good stuff was announced for both systems this TGS, so right now it's a matter of waiting to see what gets localized.

What's the battery life?
A handheld's for on the go and I don't want to recharge it all the time; if my Vita dies in three hours, and my 3DS in six hours (just shouting numbers, I don't know), the Vita's impressive hardware can go take a hike.

From what I recall, both the Vita and the 3DS have a battery life of about five hours.

I'd agree that Nintendo hasn't really been a hardware competitor for a while now. If you want to split hairs, PC hardware now is a generation beyond the current generation. But what really matters in the end is the games, not how many polygons you can squeeze out. That's like icing.

The 3DS did have a really flat launch, and even my most optimistic of Nintendo friends have grown steadily apathetic with it. Can you blame them? The two hardest hitting titles right at this moment are 15 year old ports. I don't think the 3DS is out just yet, the price drop was a smart move. Now they just need some sweet games treatment like the DS saw, and it'll be a fine system.

This is, however, an opportunity for Sony to grab a bigger share of the handheld market. The Vita has great hardware specs, and it's going to be priced more competitively this time around (I heard $199.99 or $249.99??). I and many others feel like the DS curbstomped the PSP pretty hard, but the field is more even this time.

On a total aside from those two competitors though, I feel like the industry is shifting slightly. Hard for Nintendo OR Sony to compete with $0.99 to $4.99 titles released on mobile phones every day, and still charge $39.99 for games.

Yes i read somewhere that the batteries in the vita can last about 6 hours with all online stuff of and only about 3-4 with 3g active

Which is on par with the 3ds at least.

Also this time around sony has forgone their restrictive umd for a easier to develop system

The last time I looked the launch titles for the Vita weren't particularly exciting. About the same level of the 3DS launch titles.

I've decided being a late comer to pretty much any new platform is probably the best strategy unless you have clairvoyance or a lot of money to waste making a "mistake".