From my memory, the DS saw it's U.K release in March 2005 (however I had mine before as my Uncle picked one up while on business in New York a few months previously).  Before and immediately after launch, the critical and commercial reception wasn't that good, worse than that of the 3DS; the PSP was far far more anticipated.  Similarly to the 3DS, things changed towards the end of the year when Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs arrived.  However, if I recall correctly it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that the 3DS hit full momentum and turned into a sales beast, when the DS lite, NSMB and Brain Training arrived.  From then, the DS powered on and on, overtaking the PS2 and becoming the country's best selling platform, I think.

As I brought up in a recent Galaki thread, I get quite a few streetpass hits while out walking in London (usually hit the 10 limit, sometimes several times in a row), I also see quite a few (but not loads) of 3DS' being used on the London Underground and other rail services around the capital.  However, this is dwarfed by the amount of DS and to a lesser degree PSPs I see.  From this I infer that smartphones haven't reduced people's percieved values of handheld games that much, however, they have greatly reduced the percieved value of a handheld console and therefore one's incentive to 'upgrade' to a 3DS or PSV instead of continuing to occasionally play on their DS or PSP.

I think expecting big sales for MGS Snake Eater is foolish

It came out as single "remake" game for more cost than 3 "remake" games in HD collections available for consoles or 2 of those games for the Vita for similar cost.

I think RE-Revelation sales being low is just proof that Nintendo fans don't care for those games even if their small vocal majority do ask for and get those games.

Mmm I wouldn't say it's proof that Nintendo fans don't care about "those games" when the only kind the 3DS has received has been a PS2 port of a franchise that has hardly had a presence on Nintendo systems, and has come out in a collection with two other games on two other consoles. And RE, where a lot of people were turned off by RE5 anyway. I mean i'm a huge Metal Gear fan but I bought the HD collection for my PS3.

I just think the right type of "core" (is that what we are calling these two games? Mature?) hasn't come out yet. I would definitely say Monster Hunter is right up there with Metal Gear and Resident Evil, and Monster Hunter usually does pretty well over here.

I think one of the reasons might be that Western gamers, in general, don't really enjoy handheld games that replicate the home console experience.They may still sell decently, but never truly take off.It's a different case with Japan, since they've been favoring handhelds for quite some time now.

One of the reasons the DS was so successful was that it wasn't `trying to be a home console on the go`, it had its own games that were a perfect fit for handheld gaming.

Games like Uncharted, God of War, Resident Evil, 3D Zelda, 3D Mario, etc...for handhelds might make some gamers drool with anticipation, but they're not the recipe for success in the West, as far as handhelds go.

I'll have to agree with ROFLMAO, I was also one those lads that would stick to brands that I cherish and pass up the ones I barely knew back in my younger days due to my naivety. But now I have other problems that prevents me to buy more games than in my comfort zone that I want to, Budget and it's so tight that I'm biting off the hands that feeds me... :(

Indeed. It's almost strange that Snake Eater 3D has sold as much as it has.

Those snake eater sales aren't strange there slghtly to low imo.

Geez Radish! How could you be so careless.

I also refuse to believe Smartphones have totally taken the market. (iPhone and Android were both around in 2008; a time when DS sold greatly.)

Basing off what you have written, I would say that the 3DS will get quite the boost this Hoiday. Around the world the world that is. We're a getting the 3DS XL revision (DS Lite) and we're getting NSMB2 (NSMB.) Those two things reflect the time when the DS started selling. I think we might see an increase YoY after the Holiday for the 3DS in all regions. Hopefully I'm right.

I thought the barometer for success was lower for handheld games; like 250k+?

The games will obviously sell more over time at lower prices. Nobody wants to pay $40 for a damn handheld game...We'll see what happens after the holidays when 3DS starts its peak year and sales in the West actually pik up a bit.

Right now, there is absolutely no Nintendo advertising going on in America, and hasn't been for months...and I will not expect anything until Wii U drops.