| justinian said: Yet handheld console sales there are good, at least for Nintendo, so at this point it doesn't seem to be affecting that market. How long before this changes is anyone's guess. Maybe phones and handhelds can coexist. As for Google and Apple this is excellent news. |
Well, with the Vita being a non-factor and the DS managing three consecutive years of about 30 million sales, doesn't it mean something when the 3DS will likely peak between 16-18 million (about 13.9 million so far this year with four weeks left)? I think that the dedicated handheld market will be effectively halved this gen and we're already seeing it, the DS peak year was, as mentioned, somewhere between 29 and 31 million and the PSP peaked at about 14-15 million as far as I remember (which is right below the 3DS) wile the Vita will be lucky to sell more than 4 million in a single year at this point and the 3DS has averaged around 13-15 million per year so far with a likely peak well below 20 million.
The dedicated handheld market is taking a hit and it's not even hard to see. I'm talking global numbers now of course, but with Japan being the last bastion of dedicated handhelds, the change will all the more severe when it sets in fully, with the penchant for handheld gaming, they have all the more reason to embrace mobile/tablet gaming and with more intricate games arriving every year and hardware already being pretty good, it's fast becoming a real alternative to the dedicated handheld devices.
I think I've said that the combined handheld installed base this gen will half of the previous one or even less and I stand by that today.
