Are kids still interested in dedicated portable gaming devices?

Anybody in mid/high school or have siblings or kids or w/e that are in school?

Really curious what 'handhelds' kids play these days. At my bro's mid school, iphones and ipod touches is where it's at, but we live in one of the most wealthy zip codes in GA.

Do kids still play ds's and psp's where you live?

I notice a few ds's in the wild when a new pokemon is out, but otherwise, not really.

My brother's in middle school and apparently all the cool kids have a DS or PSP. Hell, he brings his PSP with him almost everywhere he goes.

I just graduated from high school. There weren't a whole lot of people that had DS's or PSP's, but most of my friends had at least one of the two. Of course, most of the video game playing that happened outside my circle of friends was just Call of Duty or Wii Sports.

Kids don't play games any more

they just chew gum and vandalize

Computer says no

yes im still in high school.  i dont think most people care anymore.  iPhone's are the norm but i live in a good area so take that into account.  of course there are a few video game enthusiast that own DS's and PSPs but all the "cool kids" play games on their iPhones and Blackberrys

I've always been baffled by the wide spread domination I keep hearing about from iOS devices. I went to an art college where almost 3/4 of the student population were required to have Mac laptops, so its not like Apple products are unheard of. I knew exactly one dude with an iPhone, and he doesn't even fucking play games. Its entirely possible its only in rich neighborhoods or what have you, but everything I've seen and heard personally stems from the DS and PSP camps.

@Zippedbinders said:

I've always been baffled by the wide spread domination I keep hearing about from iOS devices. I went to an art college where almost 3/4 of the student population were required to have Mac laptops, so its not like Apple products are unheard of. I knew exactly one dude with an iPhone, and he doesn't even fucking play games. Its entirely possible its only in rich neighborhoods or what have you, but everything I've seen and heard personally stems from the DS and PSP camps.

A kid with an iphone =\= he enjoys gaming on it.

Kids just need facebook and youtube to be entertained these days. Socializing or something.

@Zippedbinders said:

I've always been baffled by the wide spread domination I keep hearing about from iOS devices. I went to an art college where almost 3/4 of the student population were required to have Mac laptops, so its not like Apple products are unheard of. I knew exactly one dude with an iPhone, and he doesn't even fucking play games. Its entirely possible its only in rich neighborhoods or what have you, but everything I've seen and heard personally stems from the DS and PSP camps.

A kid with an iphone =\= he enjoys gaming on it.

Kids just need facebook and youtube to be entertained these days. Socializing or something.

Kids aren't the main market for gaming. They haven't been since the early 90s.

@SeriouslyNow said:

Kids aren't the main market for gaming. They haven't been since the early 90s.

I'd tend to agree for console gaming, but handheld has always been about the kids. Otherwise how else would pokemon games always end up being one of the top selling games of the year?

@Zippedbinders said:

@chickdigger802 said:

@Zippedbinders said:

I've always been baffled by the wide spread domination I keep hearing about from iOS devices. I went to an art college where almost 3/4 of the student population were required to have Mac laptops, so its not like Apple products are unheard of. I knew exactly one dude with an iPhone, and he doesn't even fucking play games. Its entirely possible its only in rich neighborhoods or what have you, but everything I've seen and heard personally stems from the DS and PSP camps.

A kid with an iphone =\= he enjoys gaming on it.

Kids just need facebook and youtube to be entertained these days. Socializing or something.

But that's the thing, everyone I know who has those kinds of things just use them for facebooking or what have you. The people that are buying iPhones or iPads aren't the kind of people who would have ever bought a DS or a PSP in the first place.

idk, the 'casual gamer' that picked up a ds before to play crossword and sudoku games would rather do that on their smartphone. But nevertheless I do believe even for 'core gamers' must decide for convenience. Before I got a smart phone I usually did go out with my wallet, my... RAZR (best phone ever!) and my psp. Now I just go out with wallet and iphone. Sure I won't get the full experience of hardcore gaming, but your out and about, get a few moves in words with friends or carcassonne. I can go home to my big screen monitor/tv if I want to do some HD gaming.

Now I think about it, the last time I really played a lot of handheld games was during my 3 months stay in China where I didn't have my gaming rig.

Kids love PSP/DS/iphone cause the games are so easy to pirate.

Fucking filthy kids. Oh to be ignorant and uncouth again.

Everyone of my little cousins (and I have alot of them) all have DS's and always have it on them.

I don't think there isn't any room in the handheld market for a device that is dedicated to gaming. Smartphones have taken over that market.

@niamahai said:

Kids love PSP/DS/iphone cause the games are so easy to pirate.

Fucking filthy kids. Oh to be ignorant and uncouth again.

haha more like blame your allowance. When you have all the time in the world, you can't afford all the games. When you can afford the games, you don't have the time to play them. Life ain't fair!

But when I have kids, I'll get them gamefly accounts, they do portable games too right?

My nephews still gather around with their DSes whenever they're forced to sit inside and they will not move an inch if they're playing with one so I say yes

When I was a kid all we had was sticks and mud to play with. Kids these days are so spoiled...

My lil'bro who's heading into middle school is obsessed with his ipod touch.

I was never a portable system gamer even when I was a kid. I lived close enough to school to walk and I rather took my gaming console with me when were on vacation since most places have a TV. I still pack my PSTwo when going somewhere rather than my PSP or DS. If I do play games on handheld systems it's exclusive games like Advance Wars that cannot be found anywhere else and even then it's 95 % of the time in the same sofa where I sit when I play games otherwise.

@dagas said:

I was never a portable system gamer even when I was a kid. I lived close enough to school to walk and I rather took my gaming console with me when were on vacation since most places have a TV. I still pack my PSTwo when going somewhere rather than my PSP or DS. If I do play games on handheld systems it's exclusive games like Advance Wars that cannot be found anywhere else and even then it's 95 % of the time in the same sofa where I sit when I play games otherwise.

the definition of video gaem gangsta'

My 12 year old brother had a PSP Go but he doesn't really play it anymore

Before i graduated Highschool 3 years ago, i rarely saw a ds / psp mainly because who wants to play a game when hanging with friends at school? Most of my friends waited till after school to do that. I have one friend in particular that has had the DS since launch and is on his third one from the abuse he puts it through with the hours and hours of gaming on it that he still does today. Handhelds were scarce at school but once we were out and heading home on the good ole 30-50min bus ride, thats when you started seeing screens light up and the music of a dozen different games.. mostly pokemon :D Not many people had Iphones when i was in school but there was a shit load of ipod's and the Android phone had come out i think right after i graduated so very very very very few phone games were going on. Just alot of music.

It's sickening that it was all iphones and ipod touches in my high school. There were some DSes and a couple of PSPs.

I have a DS, and had a GBA, GB Color, GB. I will more than likely pick a 3DS up when the money comes in, I would like to experience Ocarina of Time and i love Lulgi's Mansion. 

Worked a Lamestop for the summer discount. If someone came in and they were under 14 or with a parent, 99% of the time they never left the nintendo section and it wasn't for the Wii.

When I was a kid all we had was sticks and mud to play with. Kids these days are so spoiled...

I see DSs every once in awhile but I have never seen a PSP out in the wild.

I'm in highschool and am known for always having my psp

@Brockly46 said:

@chickdigger802 You would be surprised how many grown men love them some Pokemon.

a fair bit I gather, but should be a small chunk of the pie compare to kids no?

The last handheld gaming system I ever bought was the gameboy color. I still whip it out occasionally and get weird looks on the subway line. Most other handhelds I see around are iOS systems. I think we tend to overestimate the amount of hardcore gamers there are out there. Especially since hardcore gamers tend to hang around each other.

I think the days of a kids having a handheld console supplementing a home console are over. It seems to be one or the other in a lot of cases, why do you think they came out with PSP output cables?
 
Basically, my opinion boils down to the Sega Nomad being way ahead of its time.

iPhones all over the fucking place, EXCLUSIVELY