this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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If anything, it makes me wonder why we don't have more small dedicated handheld gaming devices that aren't phones or pseudocomputers and don't cost a bomb.
Like a £220 PSP/GBA/DS-like device with decent first-party support would be really nice for me imo
There are plenty handhelds in all shapes and sizes in that price range for exactly this. How many more do we need?
Because we already have phones.
The solution is to release games for phones that require a controller, but most companies aren't willing to be the first ones to do it.
I'm probably part of the problem. I've never used a controller except a few times at friends' houses. I grew up with Nintendo DS, Wii, PC, and smartphone games. I don't want to ever have to pick up a controller.
With a phone, there's a type of controller that wraps around the phone, turning it into a Switch form factor. That's probably the middle ground between atrocious touchscreen d-pads (or only playing games that actually work well with touch controls) versus lugging around a Dualsense and some mount contraption or kickstanding your phone on a surface.
The Switch Lite is exactly this. $200 handheld that runs first party games. There are android handhelds like the Retroid pocket 5 as well.
A Steam Deck Lite would be incredible. Small, cheap, linux-based, and powerful enough to run indie games and some light 3D. I think that form factor basically needs an arm cpu though.
Or just use a phone that's a couple years old