handheld games drought of early 2012

So right now from where I'm sitting,the next 3DS game release that I'm interested in is Heroes of Ruin that has been pushed back to a release date of June 29. A full 3 months from now.

As far as I know, the next big PS Vita game I'm somewhat interested in is Resistance: Burning Skies which is scheduled for May 29. 2 months from now.

Almost this time last year, May 2011, I was complaining about a bunch of canceled 3DS games that I was interested in. De Blob 2, BloodRayne, Saints Row the Third... The 3DS had just come out barely 2 months before and already titles for it were being canceled.

Now, the PS Vita came out in Canada in Feb 2012, it's April 2012 and BigBig Studios, the makers of Vita launch game Little Deviants, and Zipper Interactive, the makers of Unit 13 have both been shut down.

As much as I'm anticipating Heroes of Ruin on 3DS, I'm also looking forward to Warrior's Lair for Vita... which got a recent shout-out by Sony saying "it's not canceled".... the way they said it it sounds like it *is* canceled, but if it's still on, it doesn't feel like it's coming anytime soon.

The next 3 months or so look dry dry dry for Vita/3DS handheld games.

I suppose this is the way it has always been in the past. But in the past the only handheld gaming system was the Gameboy, and more recently, the DS & PSP. So there was less choice and we were used to it being that way. Plus if a developer wanted to release a handheld game, it had to go on that system since there were few others. Now with iOS development, not only are we seeing more games coming out for that system but it makes the wait between games for "dedicated gaming handhelds" more obvious and painful because devs are choosing not to even create for 3DS/Vita.

If you have 100 iOS games come out for every single 3DS/Vita game, even if 97 of those iOS games are cheap knock-offs or crap, that's still 3 good games for every 1 "dedicated handheld" game. And I think that 97/3 is a pretty skewed ratio, there are probably a larger percentage of good iOS game releases than that.


I bought a bunch of 3DS games during the Xmas Toys 'R Us sale specifically to tide me over the lean months of the first quarter of 2012. But if Heroes or Ruin is the next game I get, it'll be 6 months since I last got a 3DS game.

And since it hasn't been out as long, the PS Vita library is far less developed than the 3DS. I have no idea what's coming out for it in the rest of 2012.

It's a very tough time to be a 3DS/Vita owner.



later
don