| kowenicki said: I'm trying to think of new ways to keep saying handheld gaming is screwed in the west due to phone and tablets without getting slaughtered and told I'm wrong... but there aren't any ways of saying it other than just saying it... so I will keep on saying it. Dedicated handhelds are screwed in the west. There, I said it and have been saying it for ages... any of the doubters starting to believe me yet? If people aren't able to spot trends going on around them then its very odd. |
*sigh* you are flat out wrong. Case and point? After only a little over a year the 3DS has sold over 10million units in the West. Basically it's not going to take too long to beat the Gamecubes LTD. A system which Nintendo profited off heavily. Not only this but it is also outpacing the DS despite the 3DS having had only 1 holiday season while the DS had two by this point. Now there were 2 things that made the DS sales explode. The redesign and NSMB, a game which sold over 25 million copies. And hey guess what? The new one is coming this August. A redesign is also yet to come, although I think a revision is more likely (possibly one at E3. Think more PSP-1000 to 2000 differences)
Not only this but you are the one who can't spot trends. Remember handheld sales before the DS and PSP? The GBA practically had no competitors and only reached 82m worldwide. You want to know why handhelds are struggling? When the DS Lite launched with NSMB (when sales suddenly took off) do you know the price of the system? $130. Heck even when the original DS launched it was only $150.
The PSP launched at $250 and it's sales died down very quickly and only picked up after a price drop and some big games. It's price dropped to $200 within a year iirc.
Whereas the 3DS launched at $250 and is now $170. While the PSV launched at $270 ($250 launch price but a memory card is needed). The simple fact is both Nintendo and Sony made huge mistakes with trying to launch with too high a price. Once the 3DS reaches $150 it will do fine. For the Vita? Harder to judge. $150 would definitely help but it might be okay at $200 (memory included). Especially considering Nintendo and Sony BOTH conditioned consumers to wait to buy handhelds. Nintendo with their drastic redesign and Sony with their fast price drop. People are waiting on these price drops and revisions to hardware.
The 3DS is all but guaranteed to be a success in the West. The Vita? Well it depends on how fast Sony react. Now I'm not saying they will reach the market levels of the DS+PSP combo (over 220m) because that was simply a golden time for handhelds. However you would have to be insane to not see there is still a huge market there. The GBA only managed lifetime sales of 82m and the gameboy only around 120m. The DS and PSP years were simply a massive boom. The 3DS and Vita will have carved out a very nice market size when they stop selling. And all your posts are going to be incredibly laughable. It seems you think the handheld market can only exist if they manage to reach DS and PSP sales levels. Which is just absurd.
