Sony says there’s still a market for dedicated handhelds

It seems we can’t go a week without someone in the industry claiming that dedicated handhelds are dead as they cast a cynical eye over the PlayStation Vita’s chances of success. Sony has finally answered the naysayers, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t agree!

“When you look at the type of consumer that’s playing cell phone games currently, it’s someone that enjoys smaller ‘kill time’ gaming and has not gravitated to the larger, richer, deeper experiences that true handheld gaming provides,” said Sony’s John Koller, rejecting claims that the mobile market was a thread to the Vita. 

“We’ve certainly seen that on the PSP, and I know Nintendo has probably commented on it for their products, but as we go toward the PlayStation Vita, I can tell you that as we started looking at that product and the market opportunity several years ago, we saw a real strong demographic for those deeper, richer, console-type experiences.”

I love both handheld gaming and mobile gaming, so I certainly hope there’s still room left for both “do anything” and “dedicated” machines. Guess we’ll see how well the Vita does once it’s out.

Mobile, tablet gamers will move to PS Vita – Sony [Gamespot]