Handheld gaming on the rise through economic downturn

A report from market analyst iSuppli bodes well for handheld gaming as the economic winter sets in, predicting that portable game consoles like the DS and PSP are in for a 4.9 per cent rise in unit sales by 2013.

The renewed uptake in handheld interest is apparently due to the recent surge of incremental hardware upgrades, though the report also states that, "If both companies had introduced true next-generation platforms, the level of growth in 2009 and beyond would have been much higher."

Sales are expected to rise from 2008's 49.4 million units to a steady increase of 63.5 million by 2013, though it's hard to see quite how the figures would be achieved considering both companies are likely to have new systems on the market by then.

The analysts suggest neither company will release a next-gen handheld before 2011, though current rumours lean toward the PSP 2 arriving before Christmas.

Regardless, it seems that pocket gaming is the life support the games industry is relying on to weather the global recession, and so far things are looking good.