Was the SNES era the peak of Nintendo software development?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

zorg1000 said:

Cerebralbore101 said:

It's not spin, its context. If I told you that some 14 year old kid beat one of the NBA's best players at one on one basketball, would you want to draft that kid when he got old enough? Now, what if I told you that the kid only beat him because the NBA player had a full leg cast at the time? It's still a fact that the kid beat him, but context changes everything. 

The Wii and DS were not competing with the iPhone. The Wii was a completely different device. As for the DS we can just take a look at the following chart.

Remember iPhone launched in 2007. It doesn't look like it effected DS sales at all. 

As far as the N64 selling more first party software, well of course it did. 3rd parties left Nintendo in droves for the PS1, and with less 3rd party games, to compete, sales of Nintendo developed games shot up. 

I agree with the NES part. It was Nintendo most commercially successful system hands down. 

This isnt really telling the full story. Yes, iPhone released in 2007 but it took a few years before it became the mass market device we know today. Here are yearly sales of iPhone.

2007-1.39m

2008-11.63m

2009-20.73m

2010-39.99m

2011-72.29m

2012-125.05m

2013-150.26m

2014-169.22m

2015-231.22m

2016-211.88m

2017-216.76m

2018-217.72m

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276306/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-fiscal-year-2007/#0

I'm assuming Android phones have seen a similar sales curve.

 

There is no denying smartphones have affected handhelds & casual consoles. DS+Wii+PSP sold over 335 million units, 3DS+Wii U+Vita have sold under 105 million units. That's nearly a 70% drop.

I deny it.  The relationship between smartphones and handheld devices is very similar to the relationship between PCs and home consoles.

Back in the early to mid 80's, the home console market had crashed.  The prevailing belief at the time was that people were ready for PCs to replace home consoles.  "Home consoles were just a fad", they said.  In reality the rise of the PC and the home market crash just happened at the same time.  It was a coincidence.  When the NES came out, it sold roughly twice in the US alone what the Atari 2600 sold.  At that point it became obvious that the consensus was in error.  The PC has many uses, while a console really only has one use (playing games).  The two are not really in competition.

People are making the same mistake this time around assuming that handhelds are competing with smartphones.  The only difference this time is we can benefit from the lessons of history.  But most "analysts" are choosing to ignore history.  So they make the same mistake again.  It is still a coincidence that one market grew while the other fell.  A smartphone has many uses, while a handheld console really only has one (playing games).  The two are not really in competition.