For Nintendo's sake I hope that isn't the case. If it is then the Wii U will be the next Dreamcast (and 720 and Ps4 will be right there with it). 3rd party would turn away from home consoles and focus on iphone and tablets. Nintendo would get less 3rd party support than they already does and most likely would become a SW only company too. Sony and MS would just abandon the industry.

But I feel comfortable in saying the people who think this will happen are full of it. Ps3 never reached these lows. For comparison the Ps3 sold 2x as many (being 600$) this month than the Wii U did. So, I'm not worried. Wii U will settle back around what Nintendo's fanbase is which is around 40mil and Ps4/720 will be fighting over the rest of the 200 or so million

Handheld market this year for the month compared to where it was a few years ago ...

March 2013 -
3DS - 230k-ish
Vita - 33k-ish

March 2007 -
DS - 500k
PSP - 180k

March 2008 -
DS - 690k (wowza)
PSP - 297k

March 2009 -
DS - 563k
PSP - 168k

March 2010 -
DS - 700k
PSP - 119k

The handheld market has never been the same since the launch of the iPad in spring 2010 and the rise of the iOS marketplace. Things like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, etc. all become the first real iOS "blockbuster" hits in 2010. Not a coincidence IMO.

No, Gears is clearly a bigger franchise then God of War. What you were arguing before was which legs was better.

lol, those DS numbers are ridiculous. I miss the good old, gigantic NPD numbers.

PSP March 2008 > 3DS + PSV March 2013

Who'd have thought that?

What started the PSP decline?

Damn it, I misread a previous post when listing my estimates for Tomb Raider, GoW:A & GeoW:J and got it wrong. I thought it said TR outsold GoW:A which outsold GeoW:J and that from 600k they all sold in increments of 10k. So all the games actually sold between 600-700k correct? Tomb Raider probably sold around 690,000 (if Vgchartz is accurate) so that would put God of War: Ascension at about 680,000 (undertracked by almost 100,000 on Vgchartz) and Gears of War: Judgment at roughly 670,000 (undertracked by almost 70,000).

I want to see the official numbers, it seems both the GoW's did a lot better than many people thought they would and Vgchartz needs to do some updating. I hope game sites that reported on the bollocks estimates from Cowen and Company stop calling both games flops and report on the actual data. GoW:A did more than double what that clueless analyst estimated.

"Look at the Gears 2 example. Did you look at it before? Look at it now."

Gears of War 2 sold 2.4 Million units in its opening Year. The following Year, it sold 516000 units. The Year after, it sold 275000 units. In the 2 Years after release, it had sold over 790000 units. Fun fact - Gears of War 2's 3rd Year was higher than the 2nd Year, coming in at 392000 units (which is also higher than God of War 3's 2nd Year).

This bit is key -

Fun fact - Gears of War 2's 3rd Year was higher than the 2nd Year, coming in at 392000 units (which is also higher than God of War 3's 2nd Year).

Is Sony really taking a loss on the Vita? The PS4 looks like it'll be profitable since Day 1.

Is that not Gears 4th year? according to Vgcharts Gears 3rd year is 275000 the same as God of war 3rd year.

Lack of support that appealed to a Western market. Poor choice in hardware revisions. Rise of the DS/ Mobile Gaming.

If you look at the PSP's early releases, it was a great system to own. It had games like GTA, Tekken, Medal of Honor and FInal Fantasy... And Sony actually supported it with some pretty decent games like Daxter, Ratchet and God of War. The games at the time were brilliant to see on a handheld, expecially GTA.

Releases dried up. Sony stopped supporting it. It found new life in Japan.