It's 2020. It's been 13 years since the introduction of the iPhone and thus the start of the smartphone craze that's still going on and in all that time, we've never seen a well-thought out approach when it comes to one of the big firms making a proper gaming phone.
What I basically want is something like the old Xperia Play, an Android device with a slide-out panel that has some awesome controls built in.
Wouldn't it be time for companies like Microsoft or Sony to tackle something like that? There's tons of kids playing Fortnite, Minecraft and other games on their smartphone, it seems like there ought to be a huge addressable market? The Switch is selling gangbusters, why not give this kinda idea another try?
I mean, I'm a gamer. If I have the choice between buying a regular phone or a phone that's also a great gaming device, I'd probably pick the latter. I'm okay with a phone that's a little thicker if it has some kickass controller built in, wouldn't you?
And let's get back to the Xperia Play for a second. That thing actually wasn't half-bad:
www.youtube.com
It just came out too early and Sony supported that thing even worse than they supported the Vita. Yes, those Analog discs were garbage, but the slide-out mechanic is still way, way, way better than any of the current solutions on the market.
And please don't point me to the Frankenstein devices, the cheap clips, the Junglecat, the Kishi, etc. - they're all the equivalent of the shitty third party controllers we bought for cheap in the 8/16bit days in order to play games together. They're just never high quality devices that are fun to game on. The clip solutions are all top-heavy and insanely unergonomic. And yes, I've tried them all, I have an insane amount of plasticky crap devices lying around here and none of them are what I'd consider good enough. Not to mention that schlepping some controller attachments around with me all day is just never gonna happen.
Streaming is coming. 5g is coming. Todays phones pack a shit ton of power - Merging a phone with a first-class portable gaming device seems like such a no brainer, I'm honestly still amazed that nobody has come up with the right solution yet. To me, this seems like such an obvious, huge market gap, I really, really don't get it. Instead we get silly foldable phones with dual-displays that nobody wants or needs.
It is time, Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo. Gaming on phones could be so much better than it is now...
What I basically want is something like the old Xperia Play, an Android device with a slide-out panel that has some awesome controls built in.
Wouldn't it be time for companies like Microsoft or Sony to tackle something like that? There's tons of kids playing Fortnite, Minecraft and other games on their smartphone, it seems like there ought to be a huge addressable market? The Switch is selling gangbusters, why not give this kinda idea another try?
I mean, I'm a gamer. If I have the choice between buying a regular phone or a phone that's also a great gaming device, I'd probably pick the latter. I'm okay with a phone that's a little thicker if it has some kickass controller built in, wouldn't you?
And let's get back to the Xperia Play for a second. That thing actually wasn't half-bad:
The Playstation Phone - The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play | MVG
In 2011 Sony Ericsson released the Xperia Play. An Android smartphone with elements of a Sony handheld game console that is very similar to the design of it...
www.youtube.com
It just came out too early and Sony supported that thing even worse than they supported the Vita. Yes, those Analog discs were garbage, but the slide-out mechanic is still way, way, way better than any of the current solutions on the market.
And please don't point me to the Frankenstein devices, the cheap clips, the Junglecat, the Kishi, etc. - they're all the equivalent of the shitty third party controllers we bought for cheap in the 8/16bit days in order to play games together. They're just never high quality devices that are fun to game on. The clip solutions are all top-heavy and insanely unergonomic. And yes, I've tried them all, I have an insane amount of plasticky crap devices lying around here and none of them are what I'd consider good enough. Not to mention that schlepping some controller attachments around with me all day is just never gonna happen.
Streaming is coming. 5g is coming. Todays phones pack a shit ton of power - Merging a phone with a first-class portable gaming device seems like such a no brainer, I'm honestly still amazed that nobody has come up with the right solution yet. To me, this seems like such an obvious, huge market gap, I really, really don't get it. Instead we get silly foldable phones with dual-displays that nobody wants or needs.
It is time, Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo. Gaming on phones could be so much better than it is now...
