Let's go on with portable consoles. The most relevant products in the market are PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS or 2DS, as it has different models. Both have a different positioning. Nintendo's machine user profile is of a young person and also casual. This doesn't mean it doesn't have traditional games, but compared to it, PlayStation Vita targets a more traditional player which wants a conversion of Sony home consoles' games with high-quality graphics. Both consoles are very powerful, especially Sony's, but they are still way too far from the power of a home console. Both have incorporated innovation elements in their hardware, in part because of the mobile phones' influence, such as the camera, the motion sensors and the tactile interfaces. This platform is meant for short and medium length games. Their battery has an estimated duration of 5 to 8 hours. Although they share part of the usability and experience the mobile devices offer, we must remark that portable consoles want to give a more specialized ludic experience. They are meant to give them more time and more continuously compared to the phone or tablet games. Finally, developing games for these platforms has some requirements very similar to the domestic consoles ones. Now we're going to comment on the computer as a video games platform. First of all, computers offer an open hardware and the chance of regularly updating at a technological level. This capacity allows demanding video games to run with the highest detail level, but with an important and periodic economical investment. The digital download model through many distributors has revitalized this platform. Steam is probably the most important digital distributor, making aggressive prices politics offering a lot of games with low prices. Many other important companies in the field have tried to follow Steam's model, such as Ubisoft's Uplay. In computers, there is a big games supply, big AAA productions, middle-level games, independent games and casual games. Also, there is the chance of being able to play some games inside social networks such as Facebook. Also there are games made to play in the browser. Most of them are simple games in 2D made in Flash or HTML5, but there are also more complex games with polygonal graphics with high-detail games. This platform's user profile is specially composed by experienced and demanding players with a certain purchasing power. This kind of users tends to have hardware knowledges so that they are up-to-date with the innovations. This platform also includes a less-exigent profile, more directed to the casual public and the childish and young which look for easier games without the need of a huge graphics power. This platforms allows game sessions of different duration, from short games to really long ones. It also facilitates online games. Developing games for these platforms is usually more affordable as you can get rid of hardware brands that control and get money from publishing. However, we must take into account the difficulties of being noticed and getting sales and incomes inside such a big supply. Next, we will talk about the most relevant elements in the mobile devices. Basically we're speaking on phones and tablets. They are products which are sold mainly as hardware to consume electronic leisure contents such as multimedia and internet navigation. They have other productivity uses but they are very limited. Even with all that, playing isn't their main purpose, but it is one of the most relevant ones. Its hardware is limited compared to consoles and computers although its power is gradually growing. Concerning the software, Apple and Google are the owners of the most extended operating systems. Windows comes next. They are focused to a non-experienced casual public. Over time, other platforms' users have started playing in mobile devices in addition to their usual and more frequently used platform. It is a platform with a lot of potential users. In example, just in year 2014, Apple sold about 170 million phones, compared with Sony, which has sold 25 million PlayStation 4 in 2 years. We also have to take into account that the video games' supply for these devices is really collapsed. The kind of game experience in this platform tends to short games, especially in the phone, as usually players play in mobility situations. In a tablet it can change. In any case, we look for easy controls which suit the tactile interface these devices equip. There are controllers that can be connected to play games if it is required or allowed. Publishing on these mobile devices is affordable, with little entrance costs. The enterprises responsible for the operating systems will make some quality controls which must be passed. Let's finally go and comment on other platforms which are present in this generation or which might be present in the next one. Nvidia has launched many products which try to place themselves between the mobile devices and the specific gaming technology, or games at the highest technological level. Nvidia Shield is a portable console, while Nvidia tablet is a tablet which looks just as a traditional one, but it is very powerful. Both run on Android OS and are compatible with its games and other specific games for the device. They also offer the chance of playing via a Streaming from the PC. Smart TV's normalization has caused that they also want to be used as a gaming platform, either inside the TV's own software or connecting other external devices that work with operating systems such as Android. Apple TV is another product which wants to exploit this field, taking advantage of the already existent brand's ecosystem. Other technological devices with growing presence are smart watches. Most of them also allow us to play simple games. Finally, there are the augmented and virtual reality projects. Microsoft HoloLens is a holograms or augmented reality visor, which according to their creators will have a lot of uses at a gaming level. On the other side, there are many virtual reality devices being developed such as Valve's HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR. We still need to wait and see how these new technologies fit in the playable experience, as well as if they will have economical viability.
