When Nintendo Co. cut prices for the six-month old 3DS at levels appropriate for devices nearing its five-year life cycle, speculations arose that social gaming and mobile devices like the iPad and smartphones are killing portable consoles.

Instead of buying the Nintendo 3DS and packaged games from traditional game publishers like Konami and Capcom, consumers are flocking to $1 games from the Apple App Store or Android market for their smartphones or tablets, or resorting to free games like Zynga's Farmville or Mafia Wars in Facebook.

Amid a suggestion by a Sony PSP ad that smartphones are only for "texting your grandma", Nintendo probably just made a bad product, and a device that shows three-dimensional images without the glasses are not what gamers are looking for. This would not be surprising, as prior to the success of the Wii console, Nintendo had its share of missteps.

Thus Sony Corp.'s PS Vita -- to be released Dec. 17 in Japan and Dec. 31 (??) in other countries -- will provide an answer to the ultimate question of whether handheld portables belong to today's gamers or for retirement communities.

I don't mind the hate mails from gamers, but the threat mobile devices are as real as Scarlett Johansson's nude photos on the Internet. Regardless if there is no correlation between the rapid growth of social games and poor Nintendo 3Ds sales, recent actions by Nintendo and Sony provide damning evidence to support such correlation. Nintendo has designed the successor to its Wii video game console to work like a touch-screen tablet absent the wireless controller and a TV screen. Sony's Tablet S and Tablet P devices are designed to download and play PlayStation games.

So why do consumers prefer tablets and smartphones that only able to play simple games, when Nintendo has the hardware (that has power and high-definition visuals) and controllers for hardcore gaming? This is where Nintendo misses the point. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata should avoid spending too much time with a life-size sword from Zelda or repainting some unsold 3Ds to misty pink and instead think "social" and "digital", if Japan's gaming giant wants to remain relevant.

Fewer people are now content with playing Mario Kart while lying in a hammock all day. Instead consumers now prefer a device that could let them interact with friends via Facebook, compete with online contacts using Zynga's social games, watch a movie or videos on YouTube, browse on the Internet, and take calls on Skype, among others.

Reversing handheld gaming consoles' fortunes is difficult but not impossible for PS Vita (Kirstie Alley did the impossible of losing 100 pounds, remember).

As an interesting pieceby Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield points out, PSVita provides the closest integration of external social applications yet seen in a dedicated game console. Sheffield points out that the 5-inch PSVita will have dedicated apps for Facebook and Twitter, is capable of multitasking, and has tablet-like features, including 3G connectivity, Skype calls, touch-screen, YouTube-style video service, live streaming and a browser.

PS Vita will be available in Japan on Dec. 17 at $390 for the 3G model or $325 for Wi-Fi only. The device is said to be free, hence, fans from other territories can order the Japanese versions.

Click on the slide show for pictures from the Tokyo Game Show and more details about the PS Vita and game titles.

Twitter Facebook Japan Ipad