I don't think we have evidences to claim it is shrinking right now. Even after announcing Neo and not cutting the price of the PS4, Sony still managed to be up YoY on hardware. X1 is falling a bit, but that's more akin to the effect the PS1 had on the N64: the large lead started to make the other console lose steam.This gen already sold almost 80m units, with the leading console tracking above the PS2, another respectable number. Saying it will simply fall off a cliff from nothing is pure speculation until we have some evidence. We still have the NX coming that would increase this numbers even further. This gen will definitively be above the 6th and has a reasonable chance of beating gen 7.

Your point about the increase on DLCs, season passes and such are not related to a decrease in software sales. Most franchises are seeing their highest numbers right now, like GTA did. But games on the PS2 times would cost 15m to make. Modern games can cost 10 times that. As it isn't reasonable to count with a 10 times increase in sales, you have to grab cash using other methods.

Mid-gen upgrades are more related to a response to the competition. PS360 had a terrible last 2 years, with several high profile games failing. You could buy low end GPUs that would outmatch these devices. A Neo or Scorpio could make these consoles last longer and help late adopters. You say they are aimed at the hardcore players, but I believe that they are more intended to the end of the gen, with the current SKUs discontinued and the upgraded hardware being cheaper and not looking so outdated to late adopters.

Yeah, it's what I did. Now I have 2 DS4 so it's really not necessary anymore. I did some tweaking on my Wireless network and it actually improved a lot. Played Arkham Knight tonight for 2 hours using remote play and had very few hiccups.

They had two paths:

- Create a hardware on-par powerwise to PS4/X1 and rely on third party support. Would be a expensive console and, if 3rd parties bailed out, something very likely, they would end up with another expensive box with no games.

- Create a cheaper device, forget 3rd parties and use an aggressive pricing. Works as secondary console and to kids (cheap parents). Wouldn't depend on anyone except Nintendo itself.

A big flop for the NX could put them in a hard situation, so the second alternative seems more controlled. Even if it doesn't shatter worlds, moving 60m units or such, would already give a good profit with their software. And even this number would be pretty low, less than what Wii U and 3DS achieved. I'm not saying it will sell just that, but that this path allows them to get good profits without selling gangbusters. Creating a "PS4" that lacks the first 3 years of games and doesn't have guaranteed 3rd party support is a sizeable gamble.

Agreed. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this, but NX really needs to be cheap. They cannot afford a price that invites direct comparison with PS4/Xbone, as that's a fight they just cannot win.

The GBA had plenty of competition...from its succussor, the DS.  And the DS had plenty of competition from the PSP, which outsold the GBA and will outsell the 3DS, when all the sales are in.  The iPhone had also been on the market for almost 4 years before the 3DS launched, and Android for about 3 years, so DS also had some smartphone competition near the end of its life. 

Of course, the biggest thing against the 3DS is time.  You say 20M less isn't bad, yet the GBA truly only had 3 years by itself before it's successor was launched, so it acheived much of its numbers in a much smaller amount of time.  By Oct of 2003, 2 1/2 years after it launched, the GBA had already sold 51.2M consoles.  By comparison, the 3DS had shipped about 32.5M consoles 2 1/2 years after its launch.  It took the 3DS a little over 4 years to get to 51M consoles shipped.  Had Nintendo waited a full 4-5 years to launch the DS, the GBA would have easily shot past 100M.

Sorry, anyway you slice it, the mobile gaming market has taken a good chunk of the market away from handhelds.

Agree to disagree.

Are you out of your mind? The GBA fended off the first smart phone the 100mhz beast that is the N-Gage with enough power to piss all over the GBA's offerings

(click to 1:37 to get right to game play graphics)

if failed absolutely miserably like... just... fell out the door onto it's £250 launch price and died without much help from the GBA, that said... the GBA wasn't smartphone free.

Considering this is the version of THPS that the GBA got (which played amazingly well) it still was miles behind the ngage in terms of power.

Wow... Vita got hacked in the last 2-3 days google Henkaku if interested, only for Homebrew no piracy of Vita/psp software on it but checking out a few tools on it now, like I said just take a look if interested or you have a spare vita.

Working on latest firmware and it's just a browser hack so no work other than going to a website and knowing how to use an ftp client on your pc (client, the Vita is the server)

I've spent much of my adult life as a handheld gamer so I certainly don't rate handhelds as inferior.

I think it's just like how I favore gaming on a laptop over a desktop. I don't wont to be glued to a fixed screen. TV's don't have much of a place in my life.

Actually, the only home console to take up much of my time, in recent years, has been my wii u and that's because I can use it as if it's a hand held.
I want to play games on my bed, on my sofa, anywhere I feel,and I want to be lying down.Not forced to tilt my head towards the direction of some far off screen.
Consoles that force me to sit up in a fixed spot quickly start collecting dust. The biggest issues I have with my wii u is the range of the gamepad and the fact some games lack off tv support.

Well then... This works fine... Mario World absolutely refuses to behave and Yoshis Island runs at around 70% speed

I guess it is work done in 2 days of the firmware hack being out so early days yet. Still though, Fusion works perfect and looks... awesome.

You sure about that?  Pretty sure Metroid was never on PSV :p

Fair enough.  Good debating with you.  Or discussing.  Whichever you prefer. 

Nice.  Hope they get this working full speed for everything.  And I'm sure those games will look great on the Vita's screen.