Well, you tried.

OP: Amazing how well some have done in the face of analysts projections.  Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon were supposed to sell less than 2 million and 500k respectively.

My point is that the 3DS is becoming less and less relevant in the west and is being carried by Japan.

150mil ---> 55+mil

100mil ----> 10+mil

Both 3ds and Wii U were much more expensive and had way less 3rd party games than GBA and GC respectively, in a time with far more competition. I think those numbers are great, all things considered.

this.

the Wii U has been heralded pretty much universally as terribly marketed and conceptually put together badly. If you're not going to go for top of the line graphics then you either need a unique GIMMICK (think Wii with wii motion controls) OR at the very least a traditional format of controller

Nintendo did neither of those. they picked a large expensive controller with a huge screen that the majority of gamers just don't want. Players don't want to stare at their controller and a secondary screen

all Nintendo needs to do is make a more hardcore system that isn't about gimmicks and has regular controllers and the sales will go back to fairly normal

others have made good points though, even adjusted for inflation the Wii U / 3DS are priced MUCH higher than some other generations were. the Gamecube and GBA were at like 100$ and 70$ price points respectively after being out for a few years. the 3DS and Wii U are more than double that

in terms of dollar sales I don't suspect Nintendo is doing that much worse than the N64 / Gamecube eras. Obviously compared to the Wii / DS era (which was a record for combined sales of homeconsole + handheld) it looks bad, but its just not that big of a difference from some other generations in terms of dollar sales

the biggest thing that hurt Nintendo this generation was the development cost of the Wii U versus it performing poorly

they will do fine with the NX, the Wii U is an anamoly due to the poor decisions that have already mentioned many times

Like I said, a 20% decline can be explained by other reasons than simply "less mainstream"

What did a GC+GBA SP cost in 2003 onward? $200 total, what have the premium 3DS sku+Wii U cost for the majority of this generation? $500. Even adjusted for inflation, that's nearly double the cost to own both pieces of Nintendo hardware. Is a nearly 100% percent mark up on price a potential reason for a 20% decline?

As for marketing, many people initially thought 3DS was nothing more than a redesigned DS with a 3D screen and many people thought Wii U was nothing more than a tablet accessory for Wii, did either GBA or GC suffer from consumer confusion like 3DS/Wii U did?

3DS games are not a part of the 8th generation. They have their own gens.

Causes like price and appeal don't discount the end result though. Ultimately, people will pay higher prices if something is more desirable; PS2 was more expensive than Gamecube but vastly outsold it.

You wouldn't mind if I used this concept and put together lists for other publishers, would you? I would credit and link to this one, of course.

This is 3DS + Wii U right?

sony haspublished:

ps4 = 11 games over 1m by vgc. (nintendo has 17 games over 1m on wii u, its published)

vita = 3 games over 1m by vgc.

In that sense... nintendo doing 40 games over 1m, vs Sonys 14 games looks impressive.

However the PS4 & vita havnt been as long on the market.

By the time the PS4 is old and dying, Sony will probably be above where nintendo currently are.