Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

At present, the mainstream attention in the game industry is on the VR platform.

As for the handheld, as Meng Zuo said before, it has already gone into decline.

Even many old-fashioned handheld manufacturers have gone bankrupt and have been acquired.

This piece of Chen Xu also has some understanding.

But in Chen Xu's opinion, these handheld consoles in the parallel world are completely on the wrong path, narrowing their own path.

how to say?

Can cell phones replace handhelds?

In Chen Xu's view, it is impossible to completely replace this.

There is no way to deny that mobile phones will compress the handheld market.

In fact, the relationship between the mobile phone and the handheld is a little bit similar to the relationship between the host and the PC in the previous life.

As the PC becomes more and more powerful, the market for the same host is actually compressed.

This is also why in the previous life there were exclusive games that only console platforms had on the PC platform.

Can the PC in the previous life replace the host? Obviously not possible.

And the PC of the parallel world is actually a bit like the host of the previous life.

The main reason is that it is irreplaceable.

Exclusive games, more focused gaming experience, cheaper than a computer with the same configuration, and a more friendly architecture for game developers, these are all advantages and doomed that the console will not be eliminated by the PC.

The same is true for handhelds. When the performance of mobile phones is getting more and more powerful, why would anyone buy a handheld?

If it's just portability, isn't a mobile phone more convenient?

After all, there is a well-known saying: Don't you have cell phones?

The real reason is that the handheld has unique and irreplaceable advantages.

In the past life, with the rise of smart phones, the old handheld market was constantly being eroded, but in the end, Satoshi Iwata started to carry out a major reform of the department, changing the previous development concept and system, and then the switch appeared in such an environment.

Just like PCs, mobile phones have never been purely for gaming services, even so-called gaming phones.

The second is the price. If it is just for playing games, a high-profile mobile phone is actually more expensive than a handheld.

There is also a feel compared to a mobile phone that is only a touch screen. Obviously, the handheld can bring players a better experience in the feel.

The bottom line is that mobile phones are not game consoles after all.

In this respect, mobile phones are different from PCs, because PCs have stronger scalability.

And in terms of operation feedback, even if the handle is not linked, the keyboard and mouse alone can bring better results than the touch screen.

At the same time, in some specific games, the keyboard and mouse have greater advantages, such as RTS and shooting games.

Of course, the technology is black to a certain extent, and it may indeed make the handheld disappear. For example, one day there will be a portable VR that can be controlled by the mind and integrated into devices such as making calls, but at that time, it is estimated that mobile phones should have also become history. .

In the parallel world, the reason why Chen Xu said that the direction of the handhelds in this world is wrong is because the handhelds in the parallel world have completely abandoned the characteristics of the handhelds themselves, and all kinds of stacking materials pursue hardware.

Having said that, some handheld brands that went bankrupt in the past two years have a lot to do with Nebula Games.

Because of these handhelds, I strive to run games with specifications such as "Monster Hunter: World" and "Dark Souls".

Then the last one of the machine was too expensive, so it naturally broke itself.

This also made Chen Xu more speechless.

After all, for handhelds, the game is the most important, and the hardware is only auxiliary.

Think of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo in the previous life. In terms of hardware configuration, Microsoft is the strongest.

But in the host wars of the past dynasties, they have never been able to gain an advantage. Why?

In addition to the late start, the most critical point is because of the game.

On the Sony platform, there are exclusive masterpieces such as The Last Survivor, Uncharted Sea, Bloodborne, God of War, etc. Although with the expansion of the PC platform market, these exclusive games will basically land on the PC one after another.

It can't be denied that in the early days, these games did have a very strong appeal.

But there are very few on Microsoft's side, and the only ones that can get hold of it are Halo, Gears of War and Horizon.

As for the old Ren, there is no need to say more. Mario, Carriage, Dongsen, Big Smash, and the Pokémon series on the switch, as well as Zelda, who has become the number one in the world by many players, each is a thousand Thousands of games.

Of course, the game is one aspect, and more importantly, Lao Ren fully understands what kind of appeal the handheld should have.

That is irreplaceable property.

If the masterpiece on the PS is brought to the PC platform, will it lack some unique core experience from the handle to the keyboard and mouse?

No.

But games on switch do.

Somatosensory, portable, and sharing, this is the unique point of the switch.

Even many of these games are made to adapt to show a function of the switch. If some games are not played on the switch, you may even feel a little less flavorful.

Machines make games, and games make machines.

However, Chen Xu also knows that this is also because of the times in the parallel world, so that these handheld manufacturers are more hardware vendors than software vendors.

Therefore, in the development of handheld consoles, they always focus on keeping up with the mainstream hardware era, rather than thinking about breaking the game from the perspective of games.

This leads to higher and higher cost of handheld computers, and at the same time, because of stacking materials, even the portability of the original handheld computers is lost.

Who wants to go out with a handheld like a brick?

Atari and Nintendo in the previous life were able to rise to prominence. In the final analysis, they were game software manufacturers in the earliest days, and they knew that they should design hardware from the perspective of games.

As for Sony, it was an accident. After all, if it wasn't for Nintendo's royalty system that made the world's game designers work hard for a long time, after the PS appeared, all rushing over to develop games for Sony, then there would be no first party established by Sony, and then Consider it from the perspective of gamers, and promote the development of cinematic games.

Microsoft? That's even more of an exception. The word "rich" is enough. I can buy it without technology or experience! Didn't you Sega just tinkle out of poverty from the console war? Uncle, I have money! If you don't want to sell yourself, then I'll cover you for a year and a half, you should be able to agree?

So Microsoft directly entered the field of consoles, which is why Microsoft's first-generation consoles were almost the same as Sega.

In the field of handheld computers in the parallel world, in Chen Xu's view, the market is still very large.

In the previous life, the global sales of switch have reached 85 million units, and they are still setting new records.

Although it is a blessing from the old brand, as well as IP games with decades of history such as Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, etc., they were created together.

But also with the unique features of the switch and games tailored for the switch, it has also attracted countless new players to the switch.

Using switch as an entry point, Chen Xu believes that this gap in the parallel world can be filled.

At the same time, there is a very important point, that is, it is possible to make the switch a unique platform.

Not a software platform, but a hardware platform.