So giving its fans what the want is taking them for a ride now?

lol...good one curl!!!

No...Sony has proven after 2 failed attempts to overthrow Nintendo from it's throne as handheld gaming king that it does not understand that market!!! They should just drop the Vita and start developing handheld games on Nintendo's system. The Vita in a way has performed much worse than it's predecessor. Just my opinion, Sony should drop out off the handheld biz and concentrate on home consoles.

LoL I already beat ya to it, a quote from my original post

"I know that at the end of the day it's about games, and I agree with that..."

Graphics like sound and gameplay are part of the softwares Quality, to say otherwise is a bit silly. Now if were are talking about the proportion of these 3 base elements then we can have a discussion about that. Art/sound style is subjective to our tastes but we can still discuss the technical merits which are objective.

To me games are an interactive visual media, so it's important that gameplay is be fun and engaging while at the same time having gorgeous geaphics,  in other words, I value gameplay/graphics equally.

So if one have an option to play the same game on a better system, like Playing on a PSvita instead of a 3DS, and one owns both, why would one ever choose to play on the 3DS, when the better expeiriance can be had on the PSvita. Obviously people would play the exclusives on the platform the exclusives released on, that much is a given, I'm refering to the multiplatform handheld games which currently exist.

So it's fans wanted an underpowered handwith with a low resultion and low DPI screen, with a gimmick which steals about 50% of the GPUs power to generate a 3D effect which if not used is wasted, is this what the fans actually wanted?

Don't get me wrong, I know the fans wanted the mario and zelda games, and Nintendo is giving them this much. I just figured that in terms of hardware, these fans would have perhaps wanted more capable machine, say on the level of the PSvita, especially considering that the initial cost of the PSvita and 3DS was the same.

So in regards to hardware, yes Nintendo has taken it's fan for a ride, it 'could' have provided better hardware but because they dominate the hardware market with no serious competition it choose not too, and because it dominates the handheld market it by default gets most all games in effect forcing people who simply follow the games to purchase inferior hardware at a premium with no real option, this is why I am a proponent of good healthy competition.

Now had the PSvita and 3DS been about neck and neck in sales with a gap of 5Million, then what we would actually see is more people buying multiplatform games on the PSvita over the 3DS, with the 3DS making up the software sales through strong first party games,  just like we see on the home console. I know it's just a hypothetical, but I do believe that given time Nintendo will lose it's handheld dominance, after all, all great empires come to an end. I just hope that when it happens, the void is not perminantly filled with IOS/Android no button handheld gaming.

The 3DS is more affordable in the first place though, so if you owned neither and didn't want to sink a lot of money, 3DS could be the more appealing option. For many people playing in higher res graphics isn't worth paying significantly more money for.

I want the Vita to do better than it is now, but it don't need to beat the 3DS. The Vita really deserves greater support and i feel it doesn't need to compete with 3DS. 3DS is great for it's Nintendo games and Japanese style games, while Vita is great for the fact it can play the greatest PS1 and PSP games alongside it's own little collection, indie or otherwise. And i know 3DS is dominating but at least the Vita prevents Nintendo from having a monopoly, there is enough room for both handhelds to exist.

They didn't necessarily want an expensive portable home console either.

As of the present you are correct, but when the 3DS launched it was $250. Back then people had all but accepted that the PSvita would cost higher, with some even saying that it would be $350. It wasn't until the PSvita was officially priced at $250 that caused people heads to turn and made them start thinking for the most part that the 3DS was over priced for the said hardware.

Nintendo was smart to drop the price, had they kept the price at $250 when the PSvita launched, who knows how thing could have gone, but I'd say they may have gone in the PSvita's favour.

It's funny you mention that, but that's what people on mass seem to do with their Ipads, you know you gotta have that 'retina' display...but I digress, like I said both the PSVita and 3DS launched with the same price, it not about paying more in that instance as much as it is getting the better hardware for the same money.

That was then, and this is now, and as of right now the PSvita simply provides a better overall user experiance, from the slick OS and the multi-tasking, to the online and it's intergration to the home console, these experiences are far better on the PSvita than on the 3DS, so it's not just about the graphics. And yes some feel that it's worth spending the extra money to get a better experiance....the only thing the PSvita needs is simply more games.

Also, I'd like to add that the PSvita will have a price drop, when and how much I don't know, but I can take a guess and perhaps say that it will be at this gamescon, as for how much I'd take a stab at $50, this will at the very least make the afordability more comparable to the 3DS while retaining it's superior user experiance, while at the same time broadening it's games library with growth of the install base....just something to think about.

no your right, they just wanted an expensive leapfrog.

Sarcasm aside, the PSvita and 3DS launched at the same price, someone who bought a 3DS at launch can not then turn around and say the PSvita is expensive, because if the PSvita is expensive for all that it is, then what does that make the launch 3DS, a rip off?

Also you make it seem that having a portable home console is a bad thing, as if no one would want to play home console games on the go, and yet the 3DS and WiiU share almost identical first party library. So is this a bad thing? hell no, there is nothing wrong with having portable versions of home console games. There are gamers who predominantly game on home console and a little on handhelds, and there are others who game predominantly on handhelds and a little on home consoles, so having similar games on both benifits both type of gamers, it's a win-win for all. But if you think otherwise, I suppose that is your prerogative.