Handheld Game Consoles - a touchy subject...

Our daughter's birthday is coming up soon, and she is finally in the age bracket to nag for a Nintendo DS (and she certainly has been). But is it really the way to go for a hand held game? Is cartridge technology a thing of the past? If I am going to spend about $200 plus on a hand held game console, do I want to then buy $30-$40 game cartridges on top of that? Then there is storage. You need a case to put them in, you cannot share your game with a sibling etc. The cases may be trendy, but that's yet another thing to buy. Even the Doctor Who TARDIS case almost converted me, but.....

Whilst investigating this on the Internet, I came across a short article addressing this very dilemma. Although the article is now 12 months old and admittedly from an Apple promoting site, it still makes a good case. Cohen (2010) discusses the very reasons why the iPod Touch seems like a more ideal hand held game investment in a busy household with children. It also resonates with the argument my husband's old university friend (who works in IT) gave us a year ago when we were weighing up the pros and cons. A huge selling point was that an iPod touch was much cheaper to run. You can't beat downloadable technology. Cartridges just seem so 1990s. "It's all going to be about touch technology and downloads with these things" my husband's mate preached to us at the kitchen table. He doesn't work for Apple.

Also, it is interesting to note, that Sony is now on the bandwagon, with the new version of their handheld game device. It will be interesting to see what the future of the Nintendo DS will be once this comes onto the shelves and how accessible the games will be to download and afford.

So, now what? Given that I have to pry my children off the iPhone, the iPod Touch is certainly very appealing. They can play all their favourite apps, play and download music etc and I can make phone calls without an argument or debate over a time share arrangement.