LOL I think GTA San Andreas and Bioshock beats litterally everything on 3DS in graphics, sound, length, and gameplay.  Not to mention it seems like you litterally have no idea how many good games actually come from mobile these days: 5 nights at freddies, and Republique come to mind.

Metrics?!  Profit, marketsize, units sold, and EVERYTHING else.

Wow. I am blown away. Inferior ports of ancient games that are widely available on other systems for cheaper, makes a smartphone better than a 3DS. Apparently.

Neither Freddy's, nor Republique have a very high metacritic score. Not in the user reviews, or in the user reviews. Not to mention both games are for PC as well.

Mobile is just a trash heap of bad ports, and quick cash ins. How can you take it seriously as a gaming system? Sorry. I'm not trying to be an ass. Really.

It does look like the market is shrinking. Having checked sales data for the past few years, I see the trend. 3DS sales peaked in 2012, and have slowly declined every year since. It hasn't been a huge drop off, but a small one, each year.

I think the handheld market is still strong enough to sell 80 million units per system. Nintendo just needs to not overprice their system. The 3DS launched with an insane price tag, and it has been more expensive than the DS, when you count inflation.

You can buy Bioshock on the 3DS for $15?!  Oh wait, no you can't.  Yeah it's pretty sad when 10 year old games are better than the new stuff on Nintendo consoles.  Then again one could argue that the majority of new nintendo games are just the same games they have been selling for 30 years.

That is the same sort of argument that Vita users tried to use two years ago. They would go on and on about how the Vita had all these ports of great games, and how that made it better than the 3DS. The Vita is now dead, and only serves as a remote play device for your PS4.

Yes. Mario has stayed the same game for 30 years. Nothing changed from World to 64 to Sunshine to Galaxy to 3D World.

Zelda has stayed the same too. Ocarina didn't reinvent the series. Majora's Mask didn't have insanely ambitious time travel elements. WindWaker didn't go for a new art style. Phantom Hourglass didn't perfect stylus controls, or juggling two characters at once.

Bayonetta, and Xenoblade are tired old franchises. Pikmin has been used by Nintendo way too many times.

MK8 may be the perfect kart racer, with super tight controls, well planned courses, and great item balance. But nevermind that. They've made a new MK once per Nintendo system. So let's ignore that.

Finally... Splatoon.

Id stop making consoles and only make games for already existing consoles, Id do that because I want to have all possible games in one place and not have to own like 4 different systems to ahve acess to everything. One can dream lol.

I really don't see your point here.  The Vita lacked enough AAA games, and the PSP sold so well (The PSP sold better than the 3DS ever will) because it was one of those first "Do everything" media devices.  The problem is that now smartphones do everything and so the PSP/Vita became mostly obsolete.  Now smartphones have great games too, and the 3DS is therefore obsolete.

Yes the Vita will end up selling 1/4th as well as the PSP, but then again the 3DS will end up selling half as well as the DS and so again - overall the dedicated handheld market is shrinking.  Nintendo can embrace this FACT and invest in the expanding markets, or continue to throw their money into a pit of fire.

The Vita didn't lack AAA games. It lacked AAA *exclusives*. There are a ton of great games for the Vita, but it doesn't matter because, they are all ports. If all of the games for a specific device can be played on another device, that you already own, then there is much less incentive, to buy said device. The PSP sold on the Sony name alone. Not to mention it has a nice little library of good exclusives. You have a point to an extent about the "do everything devices". Casual gamers that just wanted Tetris, or Bejeweled, or some other simple game to waste their time while on an airplane, have moved to mobile. The handheld market will never get those customers back, because those customers were never interested in portable AAA games.

The Vita died mostly because it was too expensive and it had a drought of games. Watch the Extra Credits episode on why the Vita died. They explain it better than I ever could.

The idea that the 3DS is obsolete, because Smartphones can play badly ported versions of Minecraft, Bioshock, and San Andreas, makes me laugh. A bad port of a great game is a bad game. The 3DS/DS library blows the iOS library completely out of the water. It's no constest. You might as well compare the SNES library with the Jagaur library.

"The Jagaur has Doom, Rayman, and NBA Jam. Therefore the SNES is obsolete!"-Some guy who thought just like Eddie decades ago.

Honestly the greatest things they could do, I think they are trying to do.

-Having their entire library able to be played on the big screen or on the go.
-Ditching the Wii branding and the negative association that goes with that.
-Getting with third party developers and givng dev kits early, and asking for feedback.

A crucial part of their success they still need to work on BADLY.

-Marketing, and making that marketing appeal to everyone.

Yep. The NX has already been leaked as a console-handheld duo packaged together. Third party is mostly taken care of, since it has been leaked that the NX will have top of the line chips for 2016. They are going to market the NX at E3, and then release it this fall-winter. Zelda U is practically gaurunteed to get the Twilight Princess treatment at this point.

I am not saying that smartphones definately have a better overall catalogue, but it is finally becoming comparable to those of dedicated handhelds.  Everyone already has a smartphone, and therefor for most there is no need to buy an entirely separate device.