| Sentient_Nebula said: I'm hearing smartphones cited a lot as reasons. The issue I have with this theory is that smartphones don't seem to have had a major impact on the 3DS. |
Actually, I think you're wrong. Smartphones are the most central explanation for why the handheld gaming industry as a whole has taken an absolutely massive nosedive in the matter of a single generational transition.
Many older players are not sure about carrying around so many devices simultaneously, while many younger ones are preoccupied with mobile games. The niche that handheld game devices used to fill is now filled by devices which do far more and are becoming practically first-world requisite. This greatly reduces the overall handheld market to core/persistent handheld gamers and a smaller but ongoing youth demographic.
There is also a small elderly phenomenon in Japan, but that's sort of negligible.
You're naming much less proven problems for the 3DS. Marketing and time seem to have fixed the name confusion, the massive emergency price cut caused a 3DS sales spike, and innovation doesn't explain a lot. Meanwhile, the impact of smartphones is one that cannot be precisely measured but is quite qualitatively proven and quantitatively supported. This hit the Vita harder (it has more in common with a smartphone overall and has some of its own challenges), but it still hit handhelds en masse.
