How so? what is a good future? I dont think declining sales could be considered good. Unless you dont think they will decline and i am curious to know why. Sony is 99% NOT going ot make another HH so that right there is a decline.

People really need to stop using DS/PSP generation as a standard to base things on. Here are the sales for each of Nintendo's handhelds

Game & Watch-43 million

Gameboy (89-96)-54 million

Gameboy (97-03)-64 million

Gameboy Advance-81 million

Nintendo DS-154 million

Nintendo 3DS-51 million (rising)

People seem to forget that Gameboy was a 2 generation handheld so it's 118 million sales don't explain the full story. When stacked up against each individual generation, 3DS sales don't look too bad, it's actually on track to sell just as well as Gameboy did during the huge Pokemon phenomenon.

Again, this is good news for Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't care if the HH market will shrink because of a competitor leaving.

Things that could lead to an increase of Nintendo HH devices:

- Better gimmick: 3DS was basically a more powerful DS with 3D effect.

- Cheaper launch price: at $250 the 3DS was Nintendo's most expensive HH ever.

- Better launch games: the 3DS had the worst launch games ever on a Nintendo console. Pilotwings and Steeldiver? For real Nintendo?

- Better marketing: Nintendo was too cocky after the success of the DS and Wii.

- No direct competitors: Sony leaving the HH market.

im basing it on the PRIOR generation which generation should i base it on? OK whats your point? its a decline even if we go back another generation and compare it to GBA its still a decline and GBA was only on the market for 3.5 years so that doesnt paint 3ds in a better light, its actually makes it look worse. 

So again i will ask what will Nintendo do to stop the decline, casue best case scenario it becomes stagnant. Now tell me how that is a "good future"

the PSvita wasnt any real competition, thats like saying if Wii U drops support right now it will make Sony happy it wont cause the Wii U was never a threat to PS4. And even then there is no gaurantee that A. all those Vita owners (10 mil of them WOW thats a lot) will go to Ninty or B. they already arent playing on Ninty HH. 

What is the better gimmick? examples

how kind they have a new gimmick and keep it cheap as well? If they go the cheap route how powerful will the system be what will it do to make itself different from 3ds while being cheap?

subjective, was the DS any better? I really didnt think so

3ds was marketed, much better than Wii U. it was the price that did the damage

Again Sony isnt doing anything to them now, so its irrelevant.

I gave you reasons, you dismiss them without reason.

How should I know what Nintendo will do with their next HH? That's the job of their R & D department.

No matter how you try to spin it, Sony leaving the HH market can only benefit Nintendo. Even if it only boosts Nintendo's sales with 2%. 

The DS had a brand new and original gimmick and it was cheaper than the 3DS. Power means little, when has the most powerful console ever won its generation? PS4 is the only recent example I can think of now.

Those unfinished games as you assert being some of the best games of that generation.  Denying the greatness that is Skryim, Bloodborne, Destiny, etc just show your bias.  You've decided to deny these games on their face because you don't like the company or platform or game genre or all three.

You've said before that to not like all those 'great' Nintendo games is akin to not liking fun. Right back at you Rol.

smh.

Even if Nintendo only released Pokemon on their next HH, it would still sell a fair amount. There is a clear future for them. Sure, it's not as big of a market as it used to be, but that goes for home consoles as well.

We have a rising population.  When the Vita completely exits and the next Nintendo HH comes on the scene we will see, but I think ultimately it will be a decline in sales.  If they have the audacity to create a fusion platform that unifies a single medium you might well see a sizable cannibalization in total combined hardware sales.

Because when a single generation is literally 3x as much as the previous (GBA-80m to DS/PSP-240m) it's clearly not the norm, I'm saying look at the full picture, not just one single data point.

GBA was on the market for 6 years, not 3.5 years.

If we are to exclude Nintendo DS (clear outlier) & Game & Watch (didn't have interchangeable cartridges) and take the average of the 3 Gameboy generations (54, 64, 81) than we get about 65 million on average for the Gameboy family which is right about what 3DS is set to sell.

None of the Gameboy generations were seen as having an uncertain future so why are handhelds now not seen as one despite selling similar numbers?

We literally only have seen one generation of decline, we have no idea if that decline will continue, it's just as possible that sales will stagnate or even rise. What if Nintendo finds the next Pokemon or Minecraft craze among kids?

What I'm saying is a 50-80 million install has a strong future, especially when u have games like 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Pokemon, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart that are all capable of selling 10+ million per game.