In one of their most recent print editions, Game Informer posed a rather interesting question. The question was whether or not mobile gaming (via smartphones, tablets, e-readers, etc.) will kill the handheld (DS and PSP) market.

One issue that pops up is the scope of the market. For gaming-dedicated systems (handhelds or not), games and subscriptions (like Xbox Live) are the revenue streams. There is still a lot of money to be made gaming-dedicated handheld and console markets, especially with the growing use of digital distribution.

Citing a subpar holiday season and Sony’s Playstation 3 still being the most expensive console, an article in the Wall Street Journal this week indicates there is almost no way the PS3 can catch the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii in sales. In early results, November 2008 sales of Sony’s controversial console were down 19 percent from the same period in 2007.

During that same time, the Nintendo Wii’s sales doubled and Microsoft Xbox 360 went up 8 percent according to stats supplied by research firm NPD. That makes Sony’s corporate goal of selling 10 million PS3s by March 2009 seem like a long shot. The article also notes that at $399, the PS3 is…

Once upon a time videogames were all about blasting space aliens, breaking bricks, kicking ass as a ninja and/or saving a princess. Now, it seems like every activity imaginable has a videogame, from cheer leading to dog grooming to gardening. This is best exemplified by the insane popularity of cooking/food-based games, a genre that was practically single-handedly invented by a little DS game three years ago called Cooking Mama.

The title was immediately popular on the casual-friendly DS, and went on to spawn several sequels and tons of similar games, including other TV tie-ins like Hell’s Kitchen and Iron Chef, paved the way for more novel ideas like the cookbook software Cooking Navi, upcoming restaurant sim Order Up, and the more casual imitators, like the Cakemania series. Right now, cooking games are everywhere you look – you can hardly shake a rolling pin in a game aisle without knocking down something tasty-looking. But why the sudden kitchen invasion? I have a few theories.