You're assuming the PS1 and 2 hurt the systems, not that Nintendo didn't hurt the systems themselves.

The PS1 and PS2 did hurt the N64 and Gamecube. The only bad thing that Nintendo did was use carts for the N64. The Gamecube was a different story. It had ports of several multiplats, so disc size wasn't much of a problem. Sony also secured good 3rd party support from people like Rockstar, publishehrs who would not develop for Nintendo. Also, the PS1 crushed the competition, and there were a number of new gamers who, natrually upgraded with Sony. The PS2's hype was also bigger then the GCN's. 

I could name several more reasons, but yeah the PS1/2 did hurt the N64 and GCN.

Nintendo made mistakes just like every business does but as a consumer looking to buy a game system...PS and PS2 were the obvious picks.

The PS and PS2 had 100's of more games than the N64/GC. To the average person it becomes obvious what console to buy. Publishers supported Sony way more than Nintendo and a Price Cut was never going to change that.

With 3DS it is different.

3DS sales = pathetic imo.

Yes fortunatly for PSV 3DS won't have any serious game advantage when PSV launches.

The really, really piss poor sales would be a strong indicator about of the future the 3DS' sales. Much stronger than this history thing that IGN is going on about.

Also, the DS is the 3DS' worst enemy and will continue to thrash it.

I don't think the 3DS is going to be the success that the DS was. Dedicated game handhelds don't have the appeal that they used to. There are exceptions (I'm one of them, many of the users on this forum as well) but from what I noticed among male gamers, they have little interest in playing handheld games at home. When they are at home, it's PS3 or Xbox 360 time. And when they are out, they don't bother carrying a dedicated game handheld with them (though I did notice one guy I volunteer with playing on his PSP during downtime and one male acquaintance bringing his DSi along for our 2 hour+ each way road trip. But myself and two other male acquaintances in the car were on our phones (I had beat Eternal Legacy HD on that road trip. lol The two others were texting, on Facebook, etc.) And since most adults in North America outside of major hubs like New York City drive to and from work, there is even less need for portable gaming gaming. Let alone dedicated game handheld gaming. Google and Apple are a major threat to Nintendo and Sony. Dedicated game handhelds are here to stay. But they are becoming less and less popular. The PSP was already in niche territory for quite awhile in North America (no wonder the PSP has been mainly catering to the hardcore RPG/otaku enthusiast crowd in the last couple of years). And with Nintendo's market share decreasing and iOS/Android market share increasing, Nintendo should be heading into a niche as well (but not as niche as Vita will be).

I actually just bought a 3DS yesterday on impulse (after saving a few days ago that it wasn't worth it at this point) along with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars. I did it because I usually tend to get a system late in it's lifespan (I got the DS Lite back in October 2008. Only to find in the present day that I have a huge wishlist of DS games I still want to play) and I figured that I wouldn't make the same mistake again and get the hardware early this time. Plus with the system down to a reasonable price point for a game handheld ($170), I fgured "why not?" I figured that Nintendo isn't going to drop the price of the handheld again anytime soon and I'm holding on to the hope that the library will improve in the future. But when I look back at it, I just paid $170 + tax for a system that has only two games that I am interested in at the moment (Shadow
Wars and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor: Overclocked). And I just paid $40 for Shadow Wars when there are RPGs/SRPGs on Android Market that are far cheaper and good quality (I have several RPGs and Action RPGs on my Android phone.). Even when you consider $/hours of playtime.

I'm liking Shadow Wars thus far (thank god. I just paid $40 for the game and it's the first game I'm playing for a brand-new system). But I know that once I'm done with that game and I pick up Devil Survivor Overclocked next week and beat that too, I'm probably not going to touch my 3DS for awhile (I do have games on other systems that I want to play so it's not too big of a deal. But maybe it would have been smarter to just play those games on the other systems for now and wait for the 3DS awhile longer to give the library time to build). No interest in the Ocarina of Time remake. I have considered getting Super Street Fighter IV 3D and DOA: Dimensions but those are watered down versions of their home console brethren. On the DS I mostly played RPGs and story-heavy point-and-click adventures like the Ace Attorney series, Hotel Dusk, Jake Hunter, etc. But right now there's like 2 SRPGs (Shadow Wars and Devil Survivor Overclocked) and no point-and-click adventure games (they have Professor Layton in Japan but Professor Layton is not my type of adventure game and this is also why I'm not too keen on Ace Attorney vs. Professor Layton. But I probably will still check out that hybrid game.)

While I'm not thrilled with the stupid 3D gimmick, Nintendo sorta redeemed themselves in my eyes as a long-time Gameboy/DS supporter by cutting the 3DS down to $170 (I have been saying since over a year ago I think that $170-$180 was the right "sweet spot" price for a dedicated game handheld. And what did Nintendo do? They cut it to $170! I was impressed with this decision by Nintendo.) But like Rolstoppable has said, it's not about the price, it's about the GAMES. Hopefully Nintendo doesn't dissappoint me. I don't want 3D gimmicks. I don't want 3D remakes. (I never played Devil Survivor on the DS so that's the only reason why I'm getting Overclocked). I want original content. And I want the type of games that I bought the DS for (RPGs, story-heavy point-and-click adventures, etc.)

As for the 3D itself, I have problems viewing stereoscopic 3D images (I had an eye examination 3 years ago that confirmed this). I had difficulty seeing the 3D effects in Avatar in the theaters.) And I knew that going into the 3DS purchase. At $250, I saw the 3DS as a total rip-off knowing that the 3D would give me problems. But at $170, I was thinking "that's more like it." Anywho, surprisingly I can actually see the 3D effect with the 3DS screen without the glasses. That said, my eyeballs and brain started to hurt within a minute or so of playing Shadow Wars with the 3D turned on. I turned the 3D down half-way and it was still hurting a bit after like 15 seconds. So I just turned it off completely! Honestly I would have preferred that Nintendo used a 2D LCD display instead of a 3D display and invested the manufacturing savings on more bleeding-edge technology and higher-resolution video output. Obviously at $170, the 3DS isn't going to be as bleeding-edge as the Vita. But I would have preferred better graphics in 2D than investing in 3D when the 3D is pretty much useless to me (why would I play something that hurts my brain and eyes within one minute of exposure?)

Competition from smart phones won't hurt the 3DS. It's how Nintendo handles it themselves.

This argument that non-gaming centric systems is the next wave is invalid, as it was the SAME argument for home systems last gen, and it turned out those systems were doing better when they focused on games instead of other entertainment.

Correlation does not equal causation. I know it's asking a lot of IGN to understand elementary logic and analysis, but this article falls into "significant degrees of disanalogy"

A good first baby step for IGN should be asking how the launch price of the 3DS differs from those other devices. Who am I kidding, that would probably confuse them more.

Well 3 months to the truth!