I was in a shop this weekend, holding a "Nintendo 3DS with Fire Emblem Awakening Pre-Installed" in my hands, but ended up not buying it. I am pretty sure that I would enjoy playing Fire Emblem. But as I don't have the 3DS handheld console, buying the game would mean buying the console. And at €220 for the bundle that is a lot of money for a single game. There were a few other games that looked interesting as well, like some Zelda game, but nothing except Fire Emblem which was really must-have for me. And when looking at the demo 3DS on display in the shop, I couldn't help but think I was looking at a type of machine that was already outdated.

I used to take a handheld console (a PSP) with me during summer holidays. Easier to transport than a laptop, easier to play in a comfortable sofa chair. But when I'm planning what to take on this year's summer holiday, the handheld console is staying home. I'll take the iPad instead. The iPad is larger, but thinner, and the charger is much lighter, so overall it isn't any more difficult to stow into a holiday suitcase than the PSP. I have a lot more iPad games than PSP games, as the iPad games are much cheaper. The screen is much bigger, offering more elaborate games. Touch controls are often less fiddly than console controls. And for other applications than games, like reading e-mail or surfing the web, the iPad is so much superior to the PSP that there isn't really a contest.

So as much as I regret missing out on some games which are exclusive to handheld consoles, I don't think I will buy any new handheld consoles any more. Neither a Nintendo 3DS, nor a PS Vita, nor anything similar. For me tablets have made those handheld consoles somewhat obsolete. And some of the games I used to play on the PSP, like Final Fantasy Tactics, have since been released on the iPad. So maybe one day I can get Fire Emblem on the iPad.