Console Sales: Motive Versus Justification

[TheWPCTraveler]

I might want to note that I'm a really unorthodox buyer.

My family got a GBA SP, a GB Micro, and a GameCube, then a DS and PSP from our relatives. They were running a game rental service at the time. I personally had fun with the platforms, but then again, I played thousands of hours of Double Dash!! That, and we played lots of Pokémon and GTA on the DS and PSP, so I'm not surprised.

My family bought a Wii because it had backwards compatibility with our GameCube. I never bought any games for it, but I was extremely satisfied by the games it did come with, though I only played about a dozen of them in three years.

I bought a 3DS because of Fire Emblem... was introduced to me by the Wii. I now have more than a dozen games for it, and I'm interested in two dozen more...mostly RPGs.

Then, I bought a Wii U because of The Wonderful 101. I personally don't regret this, for TW101 is my personal favorite thus far this gen, but all four of the games I have for it are...short. They can be finished in a dozen hours, maybe less. And I can't find a copy of Pikmin 3, anywhere. So, I can say that it hasn't been worth the $349 I've dumped on it thus far, but it HAS gotten me to start buying Wii games...Super Mario Galaxy is fantastic!

I'd buy a PS Vita if I could, but I can't afford to get another home console for various reasons.

So, this is my disjointed wall of text. I'm thinking of just sticking to handhelds for JRPGs, while keeping the other genres on home console, though my brothers are making me rethink that decision. I may shift fully to handhelds if the next gen doesn't give me free, not-online off-screen play for the home consoles and the handhelds are at least as powerful as Wii U or so. Maybe close.

EDIT: Yeah, I might want to actually answer the post above.

The justification part really plays out here, since you can discover games like Fire Emblem that you'd enjoy but otherwise gloss over. For instance, I'd normally gloss over games like 3D Land or Pikmin 3 simply because...I otherwise just won't be interested, though I now am since they're actually really fun. That, and I now really don't have as much time to play, so I've really started to appreciate smaller experiences to jump in and out of. I might actually get that NSMBU+NSLU pack before I get Super Mario Maker...