Did piracy force the 8th gen handhelds to come early?

[Salnax]

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.