| NintendoPie said: Soundwave, you are seriously blowing the 3DS numbers out of proportion. This is hardly a disaster, it's just bad. A disaster would entail that Nintendo has no way of turning this slump around (like with the Wii U), which they do. With that being said, the combined totals for the Handheld market are pretty bad in the US. The Vita is really dragging. |
I said it was bordering on a disaster, not a disaster per se.
It is bad for sure. The thing about it is this is Nintendo's main platform, they can't afford to have weakness or decline in this product categorey. The other problem is "turning it around" operates under the assumption that Nintendo is in control of the situation, which they are not.
The decline of the traditional handheld business is largely out of their control because its due to phones/tablets.
Nintendo themselves has done almost everything possible to try and accelerate the 3DS -- $80 price drop, 2 new model revisions, Mario/Mario Kart, Monster Hunter exclusivity, casual games (Brain Training, Style Savvy, Art Academy), and a host of very good titles like Fire Emblem, Bravely Default, SMTIV, Luigi's Mansion, Zelda: ALBW, Mario & Luigi RPG, Animal Crossing, and of course Pokemon X/Y. They've put so much resources into the 3DS that the Wii U has suffered clearly.
This situation is simply out of their control now, they can't do much of anything to stop kids from using tablets/phones and the odds of them convincing teenagers/adults to carry around two devices that can play games instead of just one are pretty slim.
