curl-6 said:
Japan's about the only country in the world where dedicated handhelds are still healthy. Have you seen 3DS and Vita's sales in North America and Europe lately? They're abysmal. In the most recent weekly hardware chart, 3DS is only slightly above the ailing Wii U, while Vita is on par or worse. Handhelds sold over 230 million units globally last generation; this gen they're on track to reach about 80 million. That's a decrease of nearly 70% from one generation to the next. That's catastrophic. Sony recognize this, that's why they've essentially pulled the plug on the Vita. |
Look at any 5-6 year period of handheld sales excluding 2005-2010, you will see that 3DS+Vita is pretty similar to those pre-DS/PSP levels.
You can say that a 70% decline is awful but it could also be argued that DS+PSP were over inflated due to being the right devices at the right time in a pre-smartphone era that caused a 200% gen over gen increase.
Are handhelds dying? Have they returned back to their previous baseline? Can they successfully adapt to smart devices and increase again? We can't accurately answer those questions until the next generation is underway but it will certainly be interesting to see how things unfold.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
