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Soundwave on 10 May 2015
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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:


Actually what I feel happened in those years is mobile cut the legs off 3DS' growth. 

A normal healthy platform should have higher sales in years 2 and 3, and 3DS should have too, Nintendo was throwing everything at it ... all their big IPs, model revisions each year, but they were stuck spinning their wheels at the same level before starting to sink by the 4th year. 

If mobile didn't exist I think the 3DS' trajectory would've been more like this 

13 mill - Year 1

16 mill - Year 2

20+ mill - Year 3

18 mill - Year 4

But mobile is like an anchor on the 3DS, that's now dragging it down to its grave. Nintendo has to sweat like crazy just to maintain a baseline of 13 million in their peak years that would've been considered mediocre to them a few years earlier. 


For one, as I just pointed out, the 2nd full fiscal year was larger than the 1st full fiscal year (13.53 vs 13.95) and it's also very likely that the $80 price cut caused a lot of people to purchase one earlier than they normally would. It's also not uncommon for a device to peak in its 2nd full year, I believe PS2 did that so was that an unhealthy platform?

Ur also acting like releasing their big IP's and doing nearly annual revisions is some sort of desperate answer to mobile


We need to understand mobile gaming was still in a relatively infant state even as recently as 2010. The App Store did not launch with the iPhone it came later and took some time for the game infastructure to really develop and be understood by the consumer.

Launched in December 2009, Angry Birds is the first really huge break out blockbuster mobile game app. Through 2010, gaming apps started to blossom, and by 2012/2013 they were on a different level, by this time the impact on Nintendo is starting to become unmistakable as they are launching games like Pokemon X/Y, Animal Crossing, etc. on the 3DS but unlike the DS we are seeing no year over year growth. 

At GDC 2011, Iwata uncharacteristically blasts mobile games as being a threat to the industry, Nintendo already by then was deeply concerned by mobile's explosive growth. In the years since, I think they've gradually just come to the position that this may be a fight they simply cannot win and opted into their current position. 

I could be wrong too but I think every full year since the iOS App Store has existed, dedicated handhelds have suffered declining sales *every* single year since, and this coming year will simply continue that trend. 

The 3DS if anything benefitted from launching when iOS apps were still in their infancy. The iPad and tablets weren't a thing when the the 3DS launched either, and smartphones were still a relative luxury item for older people circa 2011. If the 3DS had launched later, I don't know honestly if Nintendo could have even hit 13 million in any of the years, mobile gaming had grown too strong by 2013 or so.