Smart Phones set to dethrone 3DS in portable gaming tally

Nintendo set to launch " Red Flare " 3DS  in Japan 

From Game Boy to 3DS, the handheld consoles played a vital role in our gaming life. Can you imagine a single moment without your beloved DS? If you ask me, I simply can’t live without it. With the coming of Smartphones, handheld gaming space got a major dent, thanks to phenomenal success of Angry Birds among other. Earlier, Nintendo consoles (handheld category) disappeared within hours of its launch, now the situation is different. Yesterday, Nintendo announced that their flagship handheld console touched a millionth mark in Japan. As we know, Japan is home to world’s second largest gaming animals after USA. This little country loves playing games on tiny screens. The original DS took less time to reach a million mark. If we go by latest data, 3DS took 13 weeks to reach a million marks. In the past 5 years, the sales of handheld consoles saw a downward trend.  Though , DS is one of the most popular console after PlayStation 2 but the momentum with which 3DS saw launch sales is no where what we saw at the time of DSi. In case of 3DS, the enthusiasm among gamers was not up to the mark from the beginning. There are many reasons for decline of 3DS hardware as well as software sales. Firstly, 3D as a tech is still in a nascent stage even Nintendo don’t recommend 3DS under 7 years of age. This is where Nintendo lost its most precious customers. I remember, when 3DS launched with much fanfare within few hours of its launch gamers witnessed dizzying headaches. Even media raised this growing issue, which saw awareness among gamers. Secondly, 3DS sales slump saw a huge blow when gamers didn’t get the games of their choice. Thirdly, lack of online store which ultimately a perfect reason to ignore 3DS.

Just before E3 expo kicked off, the company announced 3DS e-shop an interactive place, where gamers can download Gameboy titles, DsiWare and soon to be launched 3DSWare. The company also announced big first party titles such as Mario Karat 3D & The legend of Zelda among others at this years E3 expo. Now a new “Red Flare” 3DS is set to debut on July 14, in Japan. On the other hand, struggling Japanese giant Sony revealed PS Vita pricing for the consumers, which is at par with current 3DS minus 3D feature. In the coming days, we are going to see number of 3D enabled Smartphones from branded manufacturers like Taiwanese HTC & South Korean LG among others. This will mark the end of exclusivity enjoyed by 3DS in past months. Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) has done exceptionally well in the past few months (Japan). Due to strong software line up, the ageing console surpassed 3DS in every space. Though PSP has to be compared with DS, but Sony might not end the production till the time sales gets slow down (in Japan).

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