| PDF said: Why did the 3DS not get to DS level of sales? What has happened to mobile gaming market from nov 2004 to now? We all know its the introduction of powerful smartphone and tablet devices. Why would this trend reverse? |
The reason why the decline is unlikely to continue is because the entire "casual" market basically disapeared in the DS to 3DS transition, you can see this in the software sales.
"Casual" games on DS like Brain Age, Nintendogs, Big Brain Academy, Cooking Mama, Clubhouse Games, Carnival Games, Art Academy, Imagine Series, Penguin Club, Style Savvy, along with dozens of games based on kids shows were all multimillion sellers.
How did these series perform on 3DS? With the exception of Nintendogs (which had an 80% decline but still sold a few million) all of them were either non existent, sold like shit or best case scenario carved out a small niche.
3DS did not sell on the strength of these expanded audience "casual" titles. Look at the list of multimillion 3DS titles and it consists entirely of Nintendo's traditional IP (Pokemon, Mario, Animal Crossing, Smash, Zelda) along with a few big Japanese titles (Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, Yokai Watch).
The majority of Nintendo's traditional IP on 3DS saw little to no decline from DS, some even grew. 2D Mario is the only one that had a massive decline.
Based on essentially all "casual" titles disapearing and most "core" titles remaining stable in the DS to 3DS decline than its easy to conclude that damage is done and smart devices will have little affect on handhelds going forward.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
