Wyrdness said:
GBA sold in an era of a monopoly with no competition that's the flaw when ever people try to use it as a comparison to the 3DS, the second competition appeared in the form of the PSP it was dropped like a rock with in 3 years and replaced by the DS. 3DS will finish it's life at around 70m or so sales while less than the GBA this is achieved in an era where mobile exists and the was competition and also when development is starting to become like console development unlike back then. The irony here is when you add Vita's sales to the 3DS you'd find more portable units have been sold this gen then back then which indicates mobile hasn't had as much affect on the portable like people claim, these Vita owners have to go somewhere for their portable fix once 3DS and Vita are retired. Momentum will be maintained by the rest of the main third party titles and the fact that the portable market is now in a monopoly again, Pokemon, Smash, Tomodachi, 2D Mario, Metorid, Zelda Switch, Fire Emblem, Mario RPGs, Animal Crossing etc... The's still a lot of ammo to fire with the entire first party library going to be on one platform in future and because of the portable form it has better third party support especially from the eastern developers. Switch is a 3DS successor and a Wii U successor anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves like McGregor's fans thinking that he'd win that boxing match, the PR in the west markets it as a console to give it more appeal while the platform itself is handled like the portables. You think Nintendo wouldn't be working on a 3DS successor if the Switch wasn't it? Please. |
3DS barely had competition; Vita only put up a fight in Japan.
You can add both figures and end up with more units, but you shouldn't forget that GBA achieved it's numbers in way less time and it could have done a lot more if Nintendo didn't release DS so soon.
To me, the biggest reason for this is mobile. And i honestly think it's a fair assessment.
Tomodachi? Don't know.
Metroid? Never was a system seller.
Zelda Switch is coming probably at the end of the Switch's life cycle.
Fire Emblem? Sold really well. But, system seller? Wait and see.
You're right, it does have better 3rd party support from Japan. But at the same time, where are the great titles? We'll get DQ11 someday...
I admit i don't know much of what sells in Japan, but i don't recall seeing heavy (biggest titles) support from the likes of Capcom, Namco, SE.
To me it's a Wii U 2.0 - with all flaws corrected.
It's not just because you can use it as a portable that it makes it a successor to 3DS, too.
