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ZhugeEX on 07 February 2016
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spemanig said:
ZhugeEX said:

If you think handhelds are alive then I honestly don't know what to think. 

The fact that they generated $3 billion in software revenues this year versus $30 billion for Mobile game software is very telling. Especially when handheld games cost $40 and Mobile games are free to play (mostly).

The Handheld games market doesn't even represent 4% of the total video games market at this point. 

When has handheld gaming ever generated $30 billion in revenue? Like ever? It doesn't need to do mobile numbers to stay in the game. They are two completely different markets.

 

There is a strong correlation between Mobile revenue and Handheld revenue. As Mobile revenue increases, Handheld revenue decreases. 

At the end of the day there is pretty much no third party support on 3DS or Vita apart from small indie titles. There are some big Japanese games on 3DS as well but that's because the Japanese market is an outlier at this point and the only market that still buys handhelds. But the mobile market there is more than double the size so whilst we're not seeing much affect on handhelds in Japan this gen, we may see an affect next gen. But anywhere outside Japan, handhelds have already been dying if not dead at this point. 

hunter_alien said:

But the 7th generation was the anomaly and not the norm. The 3DS and Vita are tracking roughly in the same manner as the GBA in the same timespan, when it comes to hardware and software. We will probably never have one like the 7th gen.

It is a niche. True. Buyt when you sell 50million+ every generation with a revenue attachment of 5 games +, its a profitable niche, that is worthy of a new itteration IMO.

Not really, they grew because DS and PSP were out at a time when the handheld market was in a prime position. Even the 3DS and Vita are doing worse than the GBA, especially when it comes to software.