I mean if you think about it, both the PSP and the DS were plagued by flashcarts and illegal downloads and that lead to the ever decreasing software sales. And Nintendo's Gameboy lasted 11 years, with revisions along the way. They really like making good profit on some seriously cheap hardware. DS was just that.

But the extreme degree of piracy made people stop developing games for the platform and they couldn't keep software sales up. It's pretty clear that Nintendo had no intention of giving up the on the DS because they pretty much force choked it early for the sake of the 3DS. As for Sony, I think they felt as they couldn't be too late to the party after Nintendo launched.

And because they still wanted a certain degree of power, we saw the most expensive handhelds that Nintendo and Sony ever released (Even after 80$ price drop, 3DS is more costly than the Game Gear at launch. Though inflation and expendable income comparisons makes this a bit off).

I'd dare say that the early software droughts of the 3DS are partly attributed to Nintendo rushing out to the gate.

Because seriously, everything about the 3DS hardware isn't usual handheld Nintendo.

(Seriously, piracy's damn bad. The 2nd result after searching up Pokemon Emerald after the Wikipedia entry is "Pokemon Emerald ROM")

ds lasted 9 freaking years. almost the same as gameboy..........

EDIT: Wow, I'm dumb. just realized DS did only last 7 years xD

Gameboy was killed at the end of it's cycle. Nintendo still had games for the DS way up until 2012. DS was supposed to last a bit longer.

It's possible but they were getting old anyway. Some people still buy them though.

Piracy wasn't the only factor. Sony and Nintendo had to keep up with the new mobile market, not to mention each other. But yeah, the 3DS and Vita did come a bit early. I imagine that if Nintendo had it their way, they wouldn't have released the 3DS for another year, and would have let the DS live off of Pokemon G5 for that time. Plus, an early 2012 release for the 3DS would likely have been stronger than the actual 2011 one, even allowing for some resources still being invested in the DS in 2011, and would have had a price point at least $50 lower.

As for the Vita, I think it came out at pretty much the right time regardless of piracy, give or take a few months. The PSP was only really relevant in Japan by late 2011, and even there it was falling fast. In Japan's 2011, PSP hardware fell 30% YoY, and only two games sold over half a million. The only problem was that none of the launch games for the Vita were real sellers in Japan.

So, I guess piracy probably influenced an early release, but mostly for Nintendo. And even then, it was only one of several factors.

I never realized the Gameboy lasted that long. 11 years? Yikes. How long did the Gameboy Advance last? Also, home console gens typically lasted 5 years or so, and since there's now handheld to home console functionality, it makes sense to have them live around the same amount of time.

Only three and a half years, if by "last" you mean "until the DS came out." However, Nintendo supported the GBA pretty strongly throughout 2005 and into 2006, up until NSMB and the DS Lite were released. So in reality, about five years.

Nah, Piracy is the only thing that kept the PSP alive so long.

DS became obsolete because the tech inside it, it was horribly outdated, unable to easily render 3D worlds. If nintendo didn't really the 3DS by 2011 the psp would have taken over Japan.

PSVita is perfect on paper and the timing was right, it just didn't have the software and suffered from the cost/requirement of those damn memory cards. Ultimately sony hoped to build on their success in Japan and create the ultimate console accessory in the west.

So in short: No. The PSP is still going well in Japan but Nintendo really needed to introduce a machine to compete with it.

THE GBA lasted 10 years because it was such a huge novelty, existing for the majority of those years as a portable nes. Gameboy colour was also a big upgrade, almost a new console in itself. Lets not forget that nintendo also had no real competitors.