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Mummelmann on 23 June 2016
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Aquamarine said:
Mummelmann said:

In general and for the future, I also said that the 3DS (and Vita) would be the last dedicated handhelds in the traditional sense. Looking at the Vita (ironically) being DoA and the 3DS needing more or less one hardware revision every year to stay afloat, it should be apparent to most by now that the traditional handheld format and design is no longer viable in the modern market, at least not in any way that anyone should wish for, profit-wise and concerning the relative cost.

This is abundantly clear, yes.

Japan is almost completely mobile, China is completely mobile, growth markets for traditional handhelds are flatlining, and young children in the USA are increasingly supplanting 3DS for mobile.

When companies invest in software production they look for markets that are thriving or remaining steady. Handhelds are undoubtedly in decline, so if you're looking at it from a profitability standpoint, who would ever want to invest in something that's going downhill?

It's the same reason why so many publishers refuse to port their game to the Wii U.

There were a handful of users in here who said that this would happen many years ago, around the time the 3DS was unveiled, the vast majority disagreed. I always saw the handheld space as more of a convenience gaming crowd, but most argued that they were entirely separate entities. I've written about convenience, entertainment nomads, fringe consumers and the change of pace in the entire market brought about by mobile/smart devices at some length elsewhere and also said that the 8th gen would have to churn out more revisions to keep up, especially since even more functionality has been added since the 7th gen.

I think the first time I saw the console market for real was during the years when I left it more or less completely and felt no personal investment in it, I think that a lot of predictions and arguments are cooked up out of desire and hope rather than any form of logic or analysis.