Great analysis.

Like you said in an earlier post, the competition from mobiles and other forms of gaming is real. Patcher got flamed for it but he was right when he already 2 years ago said that mobiles would eat 1/3 of 3DS sales.

And home consoles won't go unaffected either. Whether it's competition from mobiles or PCs or something else we don't know yet, that will require further analysis, but undoubtedly there will be such competition that PS4 and X720 won't see anywhere near the same sales-numbers as current gen. I'm starting to get a little worried for PS4 and X720.

I believe we now can declare that Wii U is a parenthesis in console history. Nintendo is most likely already trying to design its replacement, although it's a difficult task.

Same with Vita, although that one will obviously never get a successor, since handhelds as we knew them will soon become obsolete.

I doubt Wii U will get a successor either. The market is pretty much dead now. There is hardly anyone left around me who play console games and everyone says the same. An Iphone, Galaxy or some other phone or tablet announcement creates much more buzz than a console announcement.  PS4 and the new xbox will be lucky to get half of the sales PS3 and X360 has been getting.

I think the admins also need to let go of their pride and list WiiU sales on the frontpage. I know that some of them have such a distaste for anything non-Nintendo they refuse to play any games on 'teh HD' consoles but this is getting to a point its hurting the credibility of the site.

Or maybe they are too busy playing inferior late ports on the WiiU.

Or...maybe they're just waiting until the PS4 and 720 are out so they can have all the stuff from the same gen on at once? Unless they didn't do that before and I just wasn't on the forum yet.

Really, though, the sales numbers themselves are more important than where they're displayed.

I disagree. It's not the market thats the problem its the consoles. They completely lacking when it comes to successful innovation and appealing to a broader audience.

If one of the big 3 or anyone for that matter can come up with the next big thing for a home console it will sell bucketloads irrepective of Smartphones, tablets, PC's etc. The wii is a great example of this.

I appluad Nintendo for trying with the WiiU but realistically it doesnt change up the experience. Sony seems to have gone the complete opposite direction and specifically cater for the hardcore gaming market which could possibly be a successfuly plan. We are yet to see what MS can come up with for the Nextbox, but if the Kinect 2.0 has some killer killer feature(with the software to go with it***) it WILL SELL. People are not walking into stores, contemplating buying home consoles and then not buying cos they have a smartphone or tablet...thats ridiculous. This might be the case with mobile consoles for sure but definitely not home consoles.

Correct.

I believe (though I'm not 100% certain since I wasn't around for it) that the same thing happened with 3DS numbers on the homepage before Vita was released.

Good point but this is a Nintendo dominated place and since the last few years when Wii sales went down the toilet its become an awfully quiet place. Either ioi is trying to reduce Nintendos humiliation or trying to make the most of the community thats left since HD gamers were always made to feel unwelcome.

...I think you're being too paranoid about this.

The Sony fandom has lots of heft around here, yet I don't see evidence of them glossing over the Hindenburg disaster of the Vita's sales to appease the masses. And with the number of people who watch for even the smallest adjustments from week to week, there's no way they'd get away with that anyway.

Sorry guys I've been way too busy lately so I hadn't updated the OP but now it's done!