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The portable gaming market is older than many of you think, according to Wikipedia:

"The origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s."

But undeniably, the company who has owned that kind of market since they got in it, is Nintendo. Starting with the game & watch and its successor, the Game Boy who was an huge hit back then thanks to Tetris.

Nintendo used to always literally crush every device that dare to challenge their market dominance. Many tried and many failed, nobody could take down that market dominance and Nintendo's aggressive marketing strategy.

Until today's most recent generations of gaming devices, the PSP was the first to stand against Nintendo and not fail, even obviously not winning the "war" in therms of sales (PSP 65m) against its main competitor (DS 148m) it slashed good part of the portable gaming market for itself.

vgchartz.com

Fans, lovers and haters of both companies usually fight around about which device deserves the "Best console" status, and today this only heats up even more with the release and announcements of the new vanguard in portable gaming; The Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, devices that will surely lead the market of portable gaming addicts these who usually can not go out on a trip without some real gaming experience in the pocket (and not cheap smartphone games, i'm looking at you Apple)

Nintendo's strategy of sticking with best prices, iconic franchises and new experiences take some big challenge from sony now that the playstation vita is coming with an unexpected (taking in consideration sony's standards) price tag, counter-attacked with the recent 3DS price drop. The innovation is challenged as well, while the 3DS brings for the first time glasses-free 3D into gaming and the already known motion controls and touchscreen, the playstation vita brings the sensitive touch-pad on its back (and other known features, like the touch-screen, motion and cameras).

This week at TGS (Tokyo game show) Sony released the Playstation vita launch list, which will compete directly against the list of games the 3DS will get by Christmas in Japan:

"BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II Plus
Browser Sangokushi Touch Battle
Project N.O.E.L.S.
Fish On
Dynasty Warriors Musou Next
Shinobido II
Power Smash 4
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Hot Shots Golf 6
F1 2011
Dream Club
Disgaea 3: Return
Katamari no Biita
Shin Kamaitacho no Yoru
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Yuusha no Kiroku (turns your calendar into a RPG game)
Dark Quest
Lord of the Apocalypse
Michael Jackson Experience HD
NicoNico Douga (Japan’s equivalent of YouTube)
Sawari Makuuru
Ridge Racer
Monster Radar
@field
Minna to Issho: Friend Network
Army Corps of Hell"

Competing with 3DS titles like, Mario kart 7, Super Mario Land, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, Monster Hunter 3 G (japan) and others set to release near Christmas.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy for the 3DS

The games are there but what about the rest? Well, hardware is something very relative since it is not only about who can push more polygons or high resolution textures (this one PSvita clearly wins, but without the 3D which obviously also counts as visual enhancement). The objective here is: Which device will server its purpose of "portable", better?

Talking about portability itself the 3DS with the good ol' clamshell design is unmatchable, decent screen sizes, small while closed and keep the screens safe from scratches. I am aware that it is not too fair to judge a device that has not even been released, but i guess its pretty visible the Playstation Vita will not match the 3DS in therms of physical portability, as the PSP did not match the DS.

Other thing we can talk about now (even if one side is not in the battle field yet) is the battery life. Both devices have a considerably short time of usage, the 3DS stands officially between 3 to 5 hours running a 3DS software with the 3D and wireless on, at medium screen brightness (3). It has been officially confirmed by Sony that the Playstation vita stands between 3 to 5 hours in "standard" screen brightness (not specified, this could be minimum or maximum?), wireless (and 3g) off, using headphones, it seems the device will not go well with all its connectivity turned on. But going against what Sony fans said about the 3DS "short" battery time they seem well pleased with PS vita's battery.

(Click/tap to read, sorry its a bit blurry on the 3DS, i did my best to optimize it, its still readable.)My Thanks to this random person, he basically made a summary of what was going on. He commented on This Kotaku article. Click it if you want to see some more Fanboy Hypocrisy going on

As a last note, Nintendo will also release in Japan a Misty pink 3DS set to release in October, there will be also plenty of games targeting the female casual market, in contrast the Playstation Vita seems to be completely made for the hardcore market, it will release in the Black Color only.

Ya, guess its enough with all the judging, all we have to do now is wait and see how the market will react in the following months.

So..

The weapons are ready! the war is going to start this year in Japan (PSvita releases december 17), and it seems 2012 will be set on fire when both devices are available worldwide, in a quality and variety never seen before in dedicated portable gaming.

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Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment bellow ^^

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Sources:

kotaku.com