Is the dedicated handheld market really dying or simply returning to normal?

[Soundwave]

zorg1000 said:

Soundwave said:

The indicators right now are not good though. The 3DS keeps declining year over year no matter what Nintendo throws at it ... Pokemon, Animal Crossing, model revisions, 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, etc. etc. etc. 

I think this basically is the new baseline for Nintendo handhelds ... 6-11 mill handhelds/year. 

How are you coming up with 6-10 million being the baseline when 3DS had 3 consecutive years of shipments at or around 13 million?

FY 2012-13.53 million

FY 2013-13.95 million

FY 2014-12.24 million

I think the days of 13+ million shipments are kinda winding to a close for them. Mobile is continuing to hurt them every year. 

They never really ever had to try this hard just to manage these types of numbers before. 

They need a game changer to alter this, like finding a new Pokemon type hit. 

The thing with the expansion of mobile is that even 2012 is a long time ago now. Mobile has grown much bigger since then. Back then seeing a TV commercial for a mobile game would've been absurd today it's commonplace. 

The 3DS yearly shipments we're seeing in 2014, 2015, and 2016 I think are more indictive of what the future holds for dedicated Nintendo handhelds.