Handhelds were once a Christmas gift favourite – and now they’re bigger than ever
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Switch has kept on selling since 2017…
…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.
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The Steam Deck OLED. Pic: Valve
From pockets to backpacks
Engineer Lawrence Yang describes it as “the product we wish we could have shipped a couple of years ago”, when pandemic-stricken supply chains meant new tech products were hard to come by.
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.
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.
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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.”
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.
Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
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Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
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UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”
Marks & Spencer’s website and app has not been working for several hours, with a message telling shoppers “you can’t shop with us right now”.
“We’re working hard to be back online as soon as possible,” it adds.
All the menus and images have disappeared apart from one showing a model in a green jacket.
Customers trying to use the app got the message: “Sorry you can’t shop through the app right now. We’re busy making some planned changes, but will be back soon.”
The site is understood to have been down for several hours.
Replying to one customer on X, the retailer said: “We’re experiencing some technical issues but we are working on it.”
M&S is the latest high street name to have technical issues – last month some Sainsbury’s shoppers had problems with their online orders.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The outage comes a few days before M&S is expected to reveal a big jump in annual profits.
It’s been a successful year for the brand, with strong sales across the business following a turnaround plan that has included store closures and cost cutting.
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