| RaptorChrist said: @Cerebralbore101: Then what did kill portables? |
Bad price points mostly. History has shown again, and again, and again, that anytime you go over the $205 (factored for inflation) asking point for a handheld, sales drop massively. The one and only exception to this is the PSP, but even that got relatively crushed by the DS. Switch avoids this pitfall by also being a home console.
Gameboy launched at $186 in today's dollars.
GBA was $145 at launch in today's dollars.
DS was $203 at launch in today's dollars. Lite launched soon after at $165 in today's dollars.
3DS was $285 at launch in today's dollars. XL dropped it to $228 in today's dollars.
Notice how 3DS only really did PSP numbers? That's what happens when you go past the $205ish price point. PSP only really did 80 million because it was so powerful at that price point. 3DS was not nearly as graphically powerful in comparison at that price point.
Also during the 360/PS3 gen a lot of AA devs shuttered their doors. Combined with the ever increasing costs of going from 2D development to 3D development, a lot of AA devs just stopped making games on 3DS/Vita.
