If DS was a fluke where's the "inevitable" handheld decline?

[Normchacho]

tak13 said:

Normchacho said:

Even if you ignore DS handhelds are in decline. The GBA was replaced after 3 and a half years while the 3DS has been the only Nintendo handheld since early 2011. 

But more imporantly, handhelds are going to continue to decline. Nintendo is going to start focusing more and more on the mobile market and that's going to really hurt handheld sales. If Nintendo even bothers to make another dedicated handheld.

                               

Enough with that...

Fat ds replaced gba  in the time period you cite. It  sold only 18m in two years, the real damage was made by ds lite in gba's 5th year-6th year! Fat ds had a very slow start and didn't really have any significant effect in gba sales, plus that gba was in decline before fat ds release... GBA would have barely sold 100m if it hasn't had a successor in 2004.

The unpleasant thing is the decline in NA but 3DS will have sold 25m+ there, that's very good but in Japan where smartphon gaming is bigger, 3DS has stomped gba.

What will Nintendo do? Mobile games for Nintendo are a synergy with their core business, it won't become their focus.

Look what Pokemon go did for 3DS and Pokemon S/M!

Teeqoz said:
The GBA sold a lot faster than the 3DS, and would've passed 100 million easily if it hadn't gone as long without a successor as the 3DS had. The DS launched only 3 and a half years after the GBA did. Meanwhile, the 3DS launched nearly 6 years ago and is still about 20 million behind the 3DS...

  What? 3DS sales in its first three years are the same with gba's... Go check it! My reply to normchacho pertains to you too..

 Guys, fat ds  only sold 18m in  two  years, gba was almost unaffected by it.

 DS lite was its real successor, which came in gba's 5th-6th year ...

Which means that the handheld market sold 18 million plus whatever the GBA sold in those two years.

Handheld gaming isn't going to flat out go away, but to suggest that it isn't in decline is silly.