Gaming is an ever-evolving product. That’s part of what has kept it in the “cultural eye” for so long. However, like many other technological properties, it has been held back in the past due to the constraints of certain devices. Handheld gaming used to be a rather limited thing, and then, in today’s gaming world, it’s arguably the most popular thing around. Why did people jump so quickly to that new paradigm, though? We’ll break it down for you.
#1 – Handheld Gaming Has Been Around For Longer Than You Think
No, we’re actually going to go even further back than the OG Game Boy. You see, true handheld gaming titles started out via Nintendo and a series known as Game & Watch. It was created by legendary designer Gunpei Yokoi, and every single version that came out was a simple game on an equally simple handheld device. Believe it or not, Yokoi was inspired to make this device when he saw a Japanese businessman bored on a train, with nothing but a calculator to entertain himself.
So, he made these small devices that had simple games that people could enjoy on the go or whenever they had a free moment. The series was actually Nintendo’s first true success on the “system” market, as it sold over 40 million units across the game line.
Eventually, with Nintendo now in the full-on console market and certain rivals popping up to challenge them, the idea of a “handheld console” came to people’s minds. The problem? The technology wasn’t there to make it both viable and cheap to own. Back in those days, batteries were what powered such devices, and certain things like the SEGA Game Gear couldn’t sell as well as hoped because people couldn’t stand buying an endless stream of batteries to play games that weren’t numerous or high quality.
…but…Nintendo cracked the code with the Game Boy. They were able to boil things down to their most basic visual form, and yet, have the gameplay styles and entertainment that would keep people coming back for more. Plus, the batteries didn’t drain as quickly as other systems.
For kids, including some of us here on this site who remember having the Game Boy and its successors, this was the ultimate gameplay experience, and you could bring it to friends’ houses, schools, parties, and so on.
The Game Boy line, all the way up to the Nintendo 3DS, was a huge hit for Nintendo and helped expand their dominance in the gaming industry, even when its mainline consoles weren’t doing as well as the handhelds were. Thus, we’ve always had a “handheld gaming itch” attached to us because companies like Nintendo helped make it that way.
#2 – The Switch Made Handheld Console Gaming Epic
For the longest time, handheld gaming and console gaming were seen as “two sides of the gaming coin.” Whether it was Nintendo, or their competitors like SEGA or Sony, they separated things into console gaming and handheld gaming because they knew that both were separate, important, and could do different things for players. However, the question that slowly grew in players’ minds was, “Could we ever truly take console gaming on the go?”
More than likely, all the major companies at this point in gaming history thought about it, and gamers were more than happy to make their own versions of “what that could be,” even if it was more style than function.
Then, the Nintendo Switch came along…and everything changed. To set the stage, Nintendo had taken a “half-step” toward mobile console gaming with the Wii U, but it wasn’t a big enough revolution for gamers to get on board, and so, the console flopped.
However, when the Nintendo Switch was fully unveiled in January 2017, and we got to see how the Switch would allow you to play on your TV like a traditional console, then you could pull it out of its dock and play it on the go, and continue like nothing had happened…it was life-changing.
We were going to get full-scale console-style games on a device that could also act as a handheld! Sure, there might have been skeptics, but once players got their hands on it and got to “play anywhere,” it changed the game. Things only got better for Switch users when Nintendo started cranking out arguably the greatest gaming lineup in the industry’s history, helping drive the Switch to over 150 million units sold, and well over a billion units of software sold.
It has over 70 million sellers on the system for its 1st party titles, which is insane, and proved that gamers were up for this kind of thing so long as the games were there.
#3 – The Future Of Handheld Gaming Is Looking Bright
Fast forward to now, and 2025 has proven that handheld gaming is here to stay in the best of ways. In fact, due to the success of the Switch, many other companies are either trying to replicate its success or doing their own version of it. The most obvious example of that is the Steam Deck, which allows those with a Steam account to play most of their library on the mobile device. You can even tinker with the settings to ensure you get the best “playable build” to suit your needs.
Sony and Xbox are doing their own attempts at this, with Microsoft recently announcing a ROG Ally Xbox model that’ll come out soon enough. Whether they succeed or not is up for debate, but it does highlight that these companies see handheld console gaming as a viable path for the company.
Then, there’s Cloud Gaming, which is something many people feel is the future of gaming as a whole. Very basically, Cloud Gaming is the practice of straight-up streaming video games off the internet, avoiding the need to download them to your consoles or handhelds. Many companies are diving into this tech, and with a few tweaks, it could indeed work.
However, at present, nothing beats Nintendo, which just dropped the Nintendo Switch 2 in June, and it’s been chewing up sales records ever since. The console is truly an “evolved form” of the OG Switch, which is exactly what fans wanted. The main games on it so far help showcase what it can offer developers, and it’s making fans eager to see what games come out next that they can play anywhere, at any time.
In truth, the transition from console gaming to portable gaming was a natural one. For the longest time, we could only play consoles at our homes or other key areas. Handheld gaming was reserved for handheld devices, and the games were always smaller as a result. Now, though, you can go as big as you want via things like the Switch 2, and know that players can take it with them any time and play it in any place.
That’s freedom, and that’s what gamers love more than anything.
