I think Mario Kart 7 was great, so I think we need more opinions here.

I guess its time to end this tit for tat. All in all, each side of the industry has declined. The handhelds has lost more due to one of them completely giving up. They would have declined by roughly the same if Sony did their part. The decline in each would be simply due to Nintys screw up.

The handheld market declined more due to both Ninty and Sony screwing up, while only Ninty screwed up in the home console space. The declines would be somewhat similar if Sony kept up their side of the handheld industry.

As you pointed out the Wii was also ahead of the PS2, but which console had the longer life and eventually sold more? Oh yeah, it was the PS2. Even you can't definitively say that the PS4 won't outsell the Wii lifetime. It wouldn't be a surprise if the PS4 has a longer life than the Wii and because of that, ends up selling more. We'll just have to wait and see.

Also, for the 8th gen home consoles, only Nintendo as of this point has a reason to be worried because they're the only ones that have experienced a decline.

There's only so much Nintendo and Sony could do in the face of the mobile tide. Ninty may have bungled the launch, but they pulled out every big gun with the 3DS; a big price cut, Pokemon, 2D and 3D Mario, a portable Smash Bros, exclusive Monster Hunter, new models, and in spite of all that, it's still not going to reach even GBA/PSP sales.

And the 360 will have a longer life than One due to Kinect boost. They all have a reason to be worried lol, Sony had to pull the plug on handhelds lol. How is that not a decline? Micro will certainly sell less home consoles this gen, why do we not even know how much the One has even shipped? Yet they had no problem letting us know during the 360 heyday lol. They all have something to worry about because there is no excuse for the PS4 and XB1 to not be signicantly shitting on PS2/xbox. That means there is a lack of growth in a market which isnt very big to begin with. This gen could even sell less hardware from just 7th gen ps/xbox to 8th gen ps/xbox. So far everything points to PS2/Xbox > PS3/360, that trend could continue with no reason at all besides a stagnant or declining market. Why do you think Ninty is so obsessed with expanding the market? If the market wasnt so niche, big players like Apple and Samsung wouldnt laugh at the idea of making a dedicated home console.

Every Big Gun? Good lord you are trying so hard. The Call of Duty franchise on Ps4 alone will sell more than all of what you mentioned combined. Thats the kind of stuff im talking about, what you call the big guns just plain isnt enough. Pokemon is the only significant exclusive you named and its not what it use to be. When Mario and Pokemon get help, that handheld plat sells fine(see DS). Pokemon is no longer enough, it has declined enough to not be able to save Nintys handheld division alone. You just fed even further into my point, handhelds simply dont have enough outside of Japan. Notice how in Japan the 3DS is doing fine because it gets the 3rd party support that is similar to the CoDS and GTAs of Japan. Japan is proof that a handheld wouldnt be seen as something that could be replaced by a smartphone if it had enough differiating(damn i cant spell)ip. Smartphones replace the PS4 and WiiU in japan because they dont have the support that could establish them.

Notice how I said home consoles, everyone knows that Sony experienced a huge decline in handheld sales. Sony themselves know the Vita was a commercial failure, hence their abysmal support for it. It's probably why they'll never create another handheld again and put their focus on what they are good at: home consoles.  As for why Microsoft doesn't give out shipment numbers for the XBO, it's because of public perception. It looks much better to say that the XBO is selling better than the X360, which many considered to be the superior console last generation, than to show the PS4 beating the XBO by almost 2:1 worldwide. Both are true, but only of one those looks like a positive.

Your bias against handhelds is why you can't imagine handhelds and smartphones living side by side. Your view of handheld dedicated gaming is so bad, you dont even realize handhelds are nothing but last gen home consoles with screens and batteries. Thats whats wrong with majority of this sites community. You dont even realize stationary devices are nothing but more expensive portable devices that lack batteries and screens.

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~ LipeJJ

Nothing can save handhelds. Their place in the market has been supplanted, it's really as simple as that. People are less and less willing to pay hundreds of dollars for another device just to play games on the bus when they can do the same thing with the smartphone they already own. Mobile eliminates the need for a dedicated portable, and the sharp decline in portable sales reflects this.