Luck of the draw adds to It. Take The Worlds Ends with you. Why did that sell poorly. But Braverly Default succeed. People noticed the game. And it wasn't overshadowed by something else. But both equally are good games. Same happens with movies and shows. GTA China Town is really the fault of the design choice. There's a reason why GTA isn't top down anymore. It sells poorly.

An oversaturated market and a large percentage of the install base made up of people who just want Mario and Pokemon.

I think some of those games actually have pretty decent sales considering how niche they are...

Big titles get a lot of advertising and word of mouth, reaching a good deal of the large userbase while smaller ones only reach those who were likely to buy them on other platforms. And even for these people, competition with a large library play a factor, making it common for games to sell less on more popular platforms. That's basically what keeps Vita alive for third parties in japan today, as it gets many obscure games who would stand no chance on 3DS.

Too many games? Some are really niche, while others, I wouldn't have heard of unless I took time to search for these hidden gems..

It's the same with the PS2. And practically every other console. They always have great games that sell poorly. (example is The Wonderful 101 on Wii U, or Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne on PS2)

Because people who buy handhelds just don't buy as much software in my experience. People prefer to game on consoles I think, they deal with handhelds for certain games because they have too.

- big library and more competition.
- DS hardware sales is good, but software sales is not that good due to piracy. similar situation with Wii.

Competition. No marketing. And the former makes the latter an even bigger issue.

You forgot Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. If that one had sold better, CING maybe wouldn't have gone bankrupt and I would have my third game of the Kyle Hyde series :,(