Is the dedicated handheld console market dead?

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Dan The Man

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The Playstation Vita flopped and has basically been discontinued. The 3DS sold way less than its predecessor and currently game support for it is being winded down. Cell phones right now tend to be in the 5-6" range and mobile gaming is dominating. Nintendo's current console is a handheld/console hybrid and they have not made any announcements towards a successor to the 3DS.

So, is the dedicated handheld console market dead?
 
I think the Google Android, Linux and custom Raspberry Pi mini PC handheld market will exist for many years to come because people still enjoy playing older games with emulators for PC, Android, and Linux.

Pokemon is still a popular handheld game for 3DS.
 
I still see a lot of people playing the 3DS. Generally, it's mostly kids I see but at least people are playing it. I still have my 3DS and yes, I do play it from time to time. If I want to play gaming on the go, I prefer to take my 3DS with me instead of taking my Switch with me, even though I know the Switch is a console/handheld hybrid. I'm a little nervous about taking my Switch out and about with me when I go anywhere. Maybe that will change after I've had it awhile. But I don't think it is dead, no.
 
I think handhelds may become less popular when $200 to 400 laptops and tablets performance is fast enough to run games in higher video quality settings like 720P 1080P HD and 4K at 30 to 60 video frames per seconds. Many Laptops and some tablets have more storage space like 256GB to 1TB to store games compared to most handhelds where the storage space is a few GBs or less. Laptops' storage drives like SSD drives are also faster at loading games than handhelds which may use slower flash memory cartridges to load games.
 
I think its fair to say that things will either become mobile or a part of the Switch hybrid at this point.
 
PC games like Fortnite, PUBG, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Dota 2 and League of Legends are popular with gamers. The price of laptops with a faster CPU like AMD Ryzen 7, 8GB RAM and Radeon RX580 video chip is becoming more affordable because some people are earning more money because their state's minimum wage is now higher at $15 and more an hour, and they make extra money doing work at home like selling things on eBay and Craigslist.

I think some gamers who are mainly interested in games like Fortnite, and earn more money may choose to save $1000 to buy a better laptop to play PC games rather than buy a cheaper handheld, tablet, and smartphone which may no longer have the games they mostly want to play. The mobile and handheld version of PC games like Fortnite, PUBG, and Need for speed Most wanted does not look as good, run as fast, or have as many features, mods and levels as the full PC version.
 
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