Are dedicated gaming handhelds like the 3DS and NGP a dying breed? id Software founder and DOOM creator John Carmack thinks they could be. Speaking to the Dallas Morning News, Carmack said the upcoming crop of devices may represent the “last generation of specialized handheld game consoles ever built.”

Carmack points to the rapidly growing smartphone space as a driving force for this potential shift. “The smart phone may turn out to be 80 percent as good at gaming as a dedicated gaming platform,” he says.

“People are going to carry their smart phone, and if it’s an 80 percent gaming device, how many people in the gaming market will be satisfied with that? That’s the question that’s in everybody’s mind, and I really don’t know.”

Some interesting points raised there. If smart phones reach a level of gaming capability that satisfies majority of consumers — and not just the casual crowd, it could very well shake up the mobile landscape.

Smart phones and tablets becoming video game machines [Dallas Morning News]

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