Lawlight said:
No, there's no market for any dedicated handheld. As I said before, even Nintendo saw the writing on the wall. They released the 3DS at a time where only 35% of the US population owned a smartphone. Now it's 95%. It's no wonder that 3DS peaked in 2011, in its year of release. Different times now. And Japan accounts for 35% of the sales. What does that say about the west's inclination towards dedicated handhelds? |
As I said, it's a matter of business model, not a matter of demand. My argument is that PSVita failed and the 3DS did worse that its predecessor not because there isn't potential demand, but because they both failed to capture that demand.
The 3DS was very far form an ideal handheld platform, if fact it was very disappointing on many aspects. It put all its bets on the wrong horse (stereoscopic 3D) while not offering any substantial innovation compared to its predecessor, lacking behind in many other departments (graphics, connectivity) and it also represented a downgrade in some departments compared to its prodecessor (portability, battery life), add to that they've completely missed the price point, so much that they had to cut price substantially. The console never had any substantial 3rd party support form the west (do did its very successful predecessor). Add all of that to list and despite all the macroscopic flaws it will still be able to reach 70m units.
