To be fair, the same people who play games on their cell phone are NOT the same people who would buy a DS or a GBA anyways. I mean they just aren't.
The people who play games on their cell phones WERE the same people who would buy a DS or GBA. I remember how it would be common place to see a DS or a GBA on the tube, now dedicated consoles have been 99% replaced by phones.
This is quite a weird place to discuss this because it's such a pro-Nintendo echo chamber. It reminds of when Kimishima was interviewed by the Wall Street journal shortly after the Switch announcement. They asked him why he thought Nintendo's shares had dropped 8% following the reveal and he had no answer. He was genuinely baffled. These people really can't see the problems ahead and are doomed to make similar mistakes that they did with the Wii U. The future of mobile gaming IS mobile phones. If Nintendo wanted to do well in the mobile market they should release a bluetooth controller for $20 that holds the phone and distribute games that way. Yes they have to give a slice of the profits to Apple/Android but at least there's profits to share. This will not be a widely used portable gaming console, so what does that leave? An underpowered home console with added manufacturing costs and weak third party support. Wake up people! The breadcrumbs are so close together on this one, how can you not see the way this is going to go?
No this isn't a pro-Nintendo chamber as you call it, it's a place where people of all walks who happen to enjoy Nintendo discuss the happenings of Nintendo.
Dude if you think I am some blind Nintendo fanboy you haven't been reading my comments AT ALL or you are too new here to know me. First I am NOT a Nintendo fanboy, I am not even pro-Nintendo as you call it. And newsflash, I game on my cell phone *AND* I DO NOT OWN a Nintendo handheld.
There might have been some overlap, as in there were people who were casual gamers that picked up a dedicated machine for HANDFUL of games, when the price was right, to play on the go. Those were a NICHE, small numbers, they were not the massive number of dedicated fans who buy dedicated hardware.
Those people migrated to cell phones, sure, but they were NOT a significant portion of the market at all. Now you keep quoting some Japanese executive from Japan, first mistake, assuming America is the same as Japan.
Second mistake you keep assuming we are all die hard ultra pro-Nintendo when we certainly are not. I have gone on record countless times not just criticizing but openly stating I have disdain for the N64, the Wii, and the Wii U. I have gone on record to call the 3DS and over priced machine that does not justify it's own existence, countless times.
The Switch is not the 3DS! That is your second mistake. It is a new console that does both, appeals to both.
Now I won't dig deep into this again but you are flat wrong, FLAT WRONG, when you say the countless masses of casual gamers that game exclusively and casually, usually sticking to one or two very simple games like Tetris, Candy Crush, or something along those lines, are the SAME massive numbers of people that picked up the GBA and the DS. They were a sub-set of that market. You want proof, look at the 3DS, it is tracking slightly below the GBA, it's about 15 million behind it, GBA was sold both at a time when cell phone games didn't even exist or were expensive, BTW the N-Gage was around then and in direct competition with GBA so...
Next the DS, okay the DS picked up a lot of those people sure but so did the Wii. Now many of those people, which you lump into ONE large homogenous group which is also false, there are lots of subsets of the larger market, maybe take a class in marketing and learn a little about demographics and the like before you lump everyone into two camps, pro-Nintendo dedicated gamers and everyone else. Ass.
Then, well the Switch is NOT a portable device first. It is a dedicated gaming TABLET that you can hook into your TV or take on the go , it is literally the first of its kind. There have been other devices that were similar, tablets that could connect to a TV and use controllers but this is the FIRST DEDICATED gaming tablet to be marketed to the masses for gamers of all markets, casuals and dedicated.
Finally, if I am PRO-Switch it is because I am anti-Nintendo. The thing is such a balls ass perfect product it will attract everyone, mark my damn words. As the gamer on here that HATED the N64, the Wii, the Wii U and the 3DS I can assure you that if *I* and everyone i know that thinks like *I* do, mostly heavy leaning Playstion fans, are excited for this thing, bet your ASS everyone else will be too.
I could break it down by demographic and audience but I won't, I will just say your flat wrong of your assessment and quoting what goes on in Japan is pointless, I don't live in Japan I don't give a **** what goes on there and if this thing sells well there, which it WILL, and it sells well here which I assume it will, then its going to be big.
HOW big is the question.
I stand by my prediciton of 90 million, that is roughly the size of the Nintendo fanbase, the entire united fanbase that includes kids who want a cheap gaming machine, hardcore fans that love their franchises, casual that only want one or two games (M) who get everything else they want on Playstation or Xbox, the moms that ate up the Wii, because they game on tablets doesn;t mean they want to game on a tablet, again PC gaming was big when everyone had a PC in their house, it has shrunk in some ways because people do their computing on the tablet, those that used the PC as a gaming/media device, did so because they had no alternative, those days are gone, now only people gaming on a PC are die hard PC gamers, which consequetly still make up enough MONEY even if not numbers, to matter.
Which takes me to what does matter. Soccer moms who buy a tablet do so out of necessity, they need a portable device with access to facebook and email that they can browse the web, mostly shopping amazon, pay bills and netflix, those moms do game on the tablet, because it's convenient. But they have kids, kids that one to game on the tablet too, so what does the mom do, buys her kid a 3DS, that kid is going to now be getting a Switch in stead. Game set and match, The RAT because I don't need your damn facts or opinions to win arguments I just go by my own gut observations and thats just how I roll. SO have fun not playing Switch when everyone you know will have two.