Twenty-five years ago, few gadgets were on as many Christmas lists as Nintendo’s Game Boy Colour.
The iconic handheld, released in November 1998 and home to classics like Pokemon, Super Mario Land, and Tetris, was wrapped up under the tree in living rooms up and down the country.
With almost 120 million units sold, the Game Boy is one of the most successful games consoles ever made.
It still inspires new products to this day, with the retro Super Pocket – loaded with 90s classics like Street Fighter and Ghouls ‘n Ghosts – among the stocking-fillers vying for attention this festive season.
Image: Nintendo’s Game Boy brand was still going strong with the Advance model in 2001
Not so long ago, though, portable gaming devices looked to be yesterday’s news.
The rise of the smartphone and games like Candy Crush usurped the once popular Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable for many, while dedicated fans gravitated towards the power of consoles and PCs.
But as Christmas beckons again, the handheld market has arguably never been healthier.
Image: Games like Brain Training and Nintendogs helped make Nintendo’s DS aother huge hit
Nintendo’s trend-setter
Despite being almost seven years since it launched, Nintendo’s Switch keeps selling.
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It sailed past 130 million units sold last month, helped by being the exclusive home of two of 2023’s most critically acclaimed games in Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and Super Mario Wonder.
Image: The Switch has kept on selling since 2017…
Image: …helped by games like Super Mario Wonder. Pic: Nintendo
Its hybrid nature, one which allows players to use it as a portable or hook it up to their TV, was novel in 2017 but has become trendy. Its success inspired Valve, which runs the industry’s most popular store for buying PC games, to release the Steam Deck last year.
Like the Switch, games once reserved for consoles or computers can now be taken on the go. The Deck means the year’s most critically acclaimed title, Baldur’s Gate 3, can be a portable game.
With Christmas shopping under way, the company released a fresh model. Starting at £469, the Deck OLED has a better screen, battery life and lighter build.
That couldn’t be further from the truth now. The modern handheld craze goes beyond the Switch and Deck, encompassing rivals like the Asus ROG Ally (£499) and Lenovo Legion Go (£699).
Admittedly, they do all rather stretch the definition of “handheld”. With its beefy dimensions and 7.4-inch display, the Deck OLED dwarfs the Switch – let alone the Game Boys of yesteryear, when portable meant pocketable.
But Yang thinks we’re at the “start of a new gaming handheld category”, blurring the line between those that stay in your living room and ones that come with you.
Just as bigger phones got people comfortable watching films on the train, the Deck could normalise playing blockbusters on a flight.
Image: The Game Boy-style Super Pocket is dwarfed by the Nintendo Switch and even heftier Steam Deck OLED
Removing the compromises
Games industry expert John Ozimek says devices like the Deck have “removed the compromises” people came to associate with portable and phone games, like simple graphics or being stuffed with adverts.
Canadian developer Nine Dots is in the process of bringing its hit adventure game Outward to the Switch, meeting players’ growing desire to play any game they want on the go.
Creative director Guillaume Boucher-Vidal believes in as little “friction” as possible to meet their needs.
He was an early backer of Google’s dead Stadia gaming service, a Netflix-style service that streamed games over the internet, and still thinks there’s a “bright future” for cloud gaming.
Image: Google Stadia died – but cloud gaming lives on
Great expectations
Console makers Sony and Microsoft are certainly taking notice.
Like Valve, Sony has a new gadget on shelves for Christmas with the £200 PlayStation Portal. It lets PS5 players stream their games from the console to the handheld.
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, the closest thing gaming really has to Netflix, is more accessible than ever. It lets subscribers stream a growing library of games on phones, tablets, and consoles.
Steve Cottam runs a similar service, but for classic games. Dubbed Antstream, it makes more than 1,400 retro titles available across iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Xbox.
“People expect that accessibility with movies, music,” he says. “The idea we treat games differently is a fallacy.
“If I’m at the airport and can keep playing the games I’ve been playing at home, that’s hugely appealing.”
Image: The PS Portal requires strong Wi-Fi and a PS5 to work, but could feasibly let you play Spider-Man on the loo. Pic: Sony
There are no such trips in my immediate future, but the convenience does appeal.
I’m not saying I would play Baldur’s Gate 3 on the loo, but it’s pretty cool that I can.
Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, is kicking off a search for its next chairman, months after it completed the biggest takeover deal in its 142-year history.
Sky News has learnt that Nationwide is working with headhunters to identify a successor to Kevin Parry, who has chaired the mutual since 2022.
Mr Parry has been on the building society’s board since 2016, meaning he is ‘timed out’ under the corporate governance guidelines applied to listed companies.
Although owned by its 16m members rather than listed on the public markets, Nationwide adheres to comparable governance principles.
One of Britain’s biggest high street financial services groups, it employs more than 18,000 people and has more than 600 branches across the UK.
In September, it completed the £2.3bn acquisition of Virgin Money, the London-listed banking group.
Last year, it sparked fury among its high street banking rivals by running a provocative television advertising campaign which mocked them for their approach to serving customers.
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One of the ads was banned for wrongly implying that – unlike its peers – Nationwide was not closing any of its branches.
Mr Parry, who is also a former chair of the mutual Royal London, is not expected to leave imminently, although it is possible that a succession plan could be confirmed at or before Nationwide’s next annual meeting in July.
It was unclear whether any of the mutual’s existing non-executive directors might be in the frame to succeed him.
The new owner of WH Smith’s high street chain has effectively been barred from launching a wave of mass store closures for at least 12 months amid plans for rapid restructurings at two other retailers it owns.
Sky News has learnt that WH Smith would have the right to cancel a year-long transitional services agreement (TSA) put in place with Modella Capital – which struck a deal to acquire the business in March – if it launched a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) before the first anniversary of the transaction’s completion.
The clause in the TSA, which enables Modella Capital to continue using WH Smith’s systems after it takes ownership, is significant, according to retail insiders.
WH Smith agreed to sell its 480 high street shops to Modella in a £76m deal, ending 233 years of high street history.
Modella plans to rebrand the chain under the name TG Jones after it takes control.
In recent weeks, Sky News has revealed plans drawn up by Modella to launch CVAs at both Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop, which it has owned for nine and three months respectively.
Both of those restructuring processes have put significant numbers of stores at risk, and industry executives say that, over time, a sizeable part of the WH Smith high street estate could also be at risk.
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A spokesman for Modella said: “We have a number of exciting plans for the future of TGJones.
“A CVA is not on the agenda, as it is a solvent business.”
WH Smith, which will become a pure-play travel retailer once the Modella deal completes, declined to comment further ahead of the completion of the sale.
The owners of Hovis and Kingsmill, two of Britain’s leading bread producers, are in talks about a historic merger amid a decades-long decline in the sale of supermarket loaves.
Sky News has learnt that Associated British Foods (ABF), the London-listed company which owns Kingsmill’s immediate parent, Allied Bakeries, and Hovis, which is owned by investment firm Endless, have been involved in prolonged discussions about a combination of the two businesses.
City sources said this weekend that the talks were ongoing, but that there was no certainty that a deal would be finalised.
Bankers are said to be working with both sides on the talks about a transaction.
A deal could be structured as an acquisition of Hovis by ABF, according to analysts, although details about the mechanics of a merger or the valuations attached to the two businesses were unclear this weekend.
ABF is also said to be exploring other options for the future of Allied Bakeries which do not include a deal with Hovis.
If completed, a merger would unite two of Britain’s best-known ambient food brands, with Allied Bakeries having been founded in 1935 by Willard Garfield Weston, part of the family which continues to control ABF.
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Hovis traces its history back even further, having been created in 1890 when Herbert Grime scooped a £25 prize for coming up with the name Hovis, which was derived from the Latin ‘Hominis Vis’ – meaning strength of man.
Persistent inflation, competition from speciality bread producers and shifting consumer habits towards lower-carb diets have combined to impair the bread industry’s financial health in recent decades.
The impact of the war in Ukraine on wheat and flour prices has been among the factors increasing inflationary pressures on bread producers, according to the most recent set of accounts for Hovis filed at Companies House last year.
The overall UK bakery market is said to be worth about £5bn in annual sales, with the equivalent of 11m loaves being sold each day.
The principal obstacle facing a merger of Allied Bakeries, which also owns the Sunblest and Allinson’s bread brands, and Hovis would reside in its consequences for competition in the UK market.
Warburtons, the family-owned business which is the largest bakery group in Britain, is estimated to have a 34% share of the branded wrapped sliced bread sector in the UK, with Hovis on 24% and Allied on 17%, according to industry insiders.
A merger of Hovis and Kingsmill would give the combined group a larger share of that segment of the market, although one source said Warburtons’ overall turnover would remain larger because of the breadth of its product range.
Nevertheless, reducing the number of major supermarket bread suppliers from three to two would be a test of the Competition and Markets Authority’s approach to such industry-reshaping mergers at a time when the watchdog is under intense government scrutiny.
In January, the government removed the CMA chairman, Marcus Bokkerink, as part of a push to reorient Britain’s economic regulators around growth-focused objectives.
An industry insider suggested that a joint venture involving the distribution networks of Hovis and Kingsmill was a possible, although less likely, alternative to a full-blown merger of the companies.
They added that a combined group could benefit from up to £50m of cost savings from such a tie-up.
In its interim results announcement this week, ABF said the performance of Allied Bakeries had continued to struggle.
“Allied Bakeries continues to face a very challenging market,” it said.
“We are evaluating strategic options for Allied Bakeries against this backdrop and we expect to provide an update in [the second half of] 2025.”
In a separate presentation to analysts, ABF described the losses at Allied as unsustainable.
The company does not disclose details of Allied Bakeries’ financial performance.
Allied also owns Speedibake, an own-label bread manufacturer.
Hovis has been owned by Endless, a prominent investor in British businesses, since 2020, having previously been owned by Mr Kipling-maker Premier Foods and the Gores family.
At the time of the most recent takeover, High Wycombe-based Hovis employed about 2,700 people and operated eight bakery sites and its own flour mill.
Hovis’s current chief executive, Jon Jenkins, is a former boss of Allied Milling and Baking.
This weekend, ABF and Endless both declined to comment.