I see your point about the 2DS' failure. Why pay $40 for a 3DS game to play on my 2D machine if you don't want the 3D? Instead of shifting the cost burden onto both the hardware and software, you're just shifting it onto the software. That's not that much of an improvement. You pay a $40 premium for 3DS hardware. But you pay a $10 premium for every 3DS game you buy. Didn't the price go up from last gen? I think DS games mostly launched at $30 USD. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think inflation is valid to some extent. The Gameboy was $90 in 1989. The Nintendo DS Lite was $130 in 2006. Both sold like hot cakes. Even after the economic crash in late 2008, people were still buying the DS. The Playstation 4 and Xbox One are $400 USD. Back in mid-1995, people complained that the $400 Sega Saturn was too expensive. The Playstation 1 at launch was $300 USD. The SNES was like $200 USD? Don't know off the top of my head how much the NES and Sega Genesis were. And back then they included pack-in titles and even second controllers I think. They don't always include pack-in titles with consoles these days. I remember when the Playstation and Playstation 2 came out, there was no pack-in. No second controller. Not even a memory card! 

Inflation hasn't lead to much of an increase in game price though. In fact game price has went down. The same is true for the cost of music albums, computers, among other things. When I was a kid (and that was a long time ago), NES games were like $50 USD and Gameboy games were like $30 USD maybe? Depending on the game, a 16-bit game could cost $60-70 USD. The RPGs especially. I remember reading that Phantasy Star 1 on the Sega Master System (8-bit) was like $70 at launch because of the battery save pack that came with the game.

The Industry Whores are single-handedly keeping the Playstation 4 and Xbox One afloat and all the big budget game studios afloat. One day it's going to get to the point where no one is going to pay $60 for anything but Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto and lots of game studios will fold and game developers will lose their jobs. Maybe the home console industry collapse is not going to happen this gen. But maybe next gen.

~ Mod edit ~

This user was warned by TruckOSaurus.

Lets be real. He only cares about the systems that beat the competition. 

mobile gaming is portable gaming!!!!!!

I like how the opening statement had nothing to do with the rest of the "argument."

...You did remind me of Malstrom whom I forgot about since Rol and NoName's last talk about him, though. Terrible.

There will always be a market for it. But as the market shrinks, you also have to scale down your expenses to be in line with that shrinking market. With the release of the New 3DS, it's clear to me that Nintendo hasn't learned anything. They're continuing to focus on stuff that increases their expenses (graphics) in a shrinking market.

I should probably read more of your novel posts considering how good that one was. Only thing I disagree with is that the 3DS isn't selling "very well", it's selling alright. I would say a good level of sales would be GBA or GB. 3DS is just okay.

Let's get one thing straight: dying market =/= shrinking market. We can't be sure that the handheld market is dying. It's most definitely shrinking, but will the market disappear altogether next gen? Probably not. Depending on Nintendo's (because let's be honest here, Sony would be foolish to release another portable) next handheld iteration and how well it goes down, we might even have TWO portable generations a head of us - if not more.

I enjoyed the read..

The NES and SNES relied on casual gamers too. They had nowhere else to go. So in that regard these systems were not terribly different from Wii and DS.

I can also not take the title of this topic particularly seriously when the 3DS is outselling all home systems combined in Japan.

3ds is doing worse then ds becaue majority of casuals gamers are happy with their ds casuals don't really care about better graphics,Vita in other hand is doing worse then psp because psp has a lot better support then Vita,look at how many IP on psp didn't come on Vita