Is it safe to say that Nintendo will never lose a handheld battle?

[Chazore]

Nuvendil said:

But are those userbases (core gamers/traditional gamers vs mobile gamers) in the same demographic subset?  Or rather should they be considered as part of that?  I think not.  When the behaviors, desires, and goals of one group differ so radically from another, grouping them together into a subheading of the "general gaming market" or some such is not useful.  What I am saying I suppose is have we lost to them or are they a totally separate, neighboring market that has only recently developed around new technology and only ever used traditional devises for lack of better means to satisfy their needs/wants.  I go with the latter.  And I think most companies also recognize this.

Also, while the mobile market makes it possible to make a lot by spending a little, it is also a massive gamble.  Popularity is so unpredictable and trends move so fast it's hard to find success.  You could produce a game and make oodles of cash.  Or you could produce a game that is actually better than most of the competition only to have it rot in irrelevancy for no quantifiable reason than bad luck.  And the mobile platform limits you because of how the race to the bottom price has driven the perceived value of all mobile games through the floor, limiting what you can charge for any given game.  Basically, you have to bank on freemium revenue (big risk) or bank on selling massive quantities at very low prices (again a big risk).

Basically, all of those two paragraphs to simply say I don't think this arbitrary "mobile vs ttradition" cage match the media plays up is really an accurate reflection of the realities of either market.

And I would totally agree because at the end of the day I know there are different markets out there to appeal to different demo's and the like which is why I feel handhelds won't exactly be going away for an extended peroid of time, I mean if handhelds died off completely then that sizeable group that are dedicated to handhelds aren't entirely likely to just switch to mobile gaming which is also why another market or company will likely take advantage of such a situation to snatch them up or pander to.