OPINION: Getting over the winter blues

A third of the execs we surveyed for our look ahead at 2011 named 3DS as their highlight of the year.

Indeed, a new console launch, not a hardware add-on, is a potential antidote to the winter blues.

And if the rumourmill is to be believed, we’ve got at least one new Sony handheld on the way too. Renewed excitement around games handhelds cannot come soon enough – if they’re not too late.

My most enlightening moment at Christmas was when an eight-year-old relative told me that now he owned an iPod Touch there was no way he needed another games machine. The family PS3 is ‘no fun any more’, FIFA on iOS is ‘just as good’ as on 360, and Angry Birds is ‘better than Mario’.

His words, not mine. And yes, the claims of a tech-dazzled kid with the attention span shorter than…

But you get the point – if that’s what kids are saying on the playground, which used to be games’ turf, then no wonder retail has taken a knock of late.