Was the DS the last easy handheld victory Nintendo win?

Nintendo has always been king of handhelds, but with the Vita I don't think Nintendo will have an easy time winning this generation
Do you agree?

Not really. The 3ds is Starting to pick up.

It will be closer this gen but the 3DS will be victorious

Im wondering how the PS Vita will do.

Probably better than the PSP

Im not too sure. Lets remember thePS Vita is way more expensive than the 3DS ive even heard that the thing is running into problems in Japan right now with slow sales. Just like the 3DS when it launched.

It really depends how the Vita is marketed, I think. Considering the PSP has sold almost as much as the GBA despite being Sony's first handheld effort, they certainly have an opportunity to reach Nintendo. The main questions are whether they can sell a somewhat expensive handheld to the general market and convince people that the proprietary memory cards are worth investing in. Oh, and big Japan-oriented IPs like Monster Hunter.

Either way, both the 3DS and Vita are looking good right now in terms of games methinks.

Vita is on life support all Nintendo needs to do is pull the plug on the Vita and it will take a long nap in the scrapyard for failed gaming consoles right alongside Virtual Boy

I still think it's a bit early for anyone to be saying that - give it a few months and a chance to release AAA Japanese-oriented titles. 3DS hit it off big, went through a huge downward spiral, then recovered. Vita has failed to entice European and Japanese customers much, but the North America is eating it up. A worse start? Yes, but it's still barely a start. If worst comes to worst, it's possible for the Vita to survive as a niche product.

I'm probably alone on this but I don't think Nintendo and Sony are in competition this time around. I don't think the sales of the 3DS are going to hurt the Vita's and vice versa.

Sure, some idiots who think video games are as important as say, politics, are going to pick one or the other, but the majority of people are not.

Other than the usual overlap of both products being "entertainment" and "video game devices", I agree. Both attract different audiences for different reasons, which basically goes without saying. Either way, I'm enjoying both in their current states.

The Vita seems to be having a rough time because Vita sales are even worse than PS2 sales. D|

Sony has only sold 700,000 Vita's globally since its launch.

The DS did extremely well - but I think its too soon to say the Vita will beat the 3DS. Vita sales are below that of the 3DS at the moment, and as soon as Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario etc come out - the sales will increase further.

Sony needs to market the Vita better and secure more exclusive titles soon otherwise I fear that Sony might be forced to discontinue the Vita line of handhelds.

I don't want Sony to go down, but yet I do. On one side Nintendo needs compatition in there home country and they are NEVER going to get that from Microsoft. On the other side if Sony goes 3rd party, that means PSone, PS2, PS3 titles for DL on Wii U and PSP for DL on 3DS possibly

I dont think so. Vita sales have been much less than 3DS so far, and main complaints of the Vita is that its too similar to the PS3, and that there arent that many great games on it so far. Both systems need time to grow, but I dont think (right now at least) theres much competition.

Vita still has literally no third party support and has even worse first party support than the Wii U currently has

I think it's safe to say at this point the 3DS COULD top DS

I don't see the PS Vita as any kind of threat for the 3DS. Yes it is much powerful, but it hardly has any games. I haven't heard of any PS Vita games that are a must buy and even on the E3 there was hardly any mention of their handheld. The 3DS however sells very well and a lot of 3DS titles are in the weekly top 10 of most sold games across all platforms. I have yet to see a Vita game there. So unless a miracle happens for Sony, this is another win for Nintendo.

The Vita is doing horribly right now as the 3DS is light years ahead of the Vita in every single way. Nintendo will win unless as Sneaker stated "a miracle happens". That said it isn't impossible, just as the PS3 was by far in last place during the early-mid part of the current generation it's possible that Sony could do something to draw in the masses! The PS3 is currently in second place this generation, which is just behind the 360, and the Wii is now in third by a narrow margin despite its massive lead while it was still being supported.

I was under the impression that Wii was still leading in terms of lifetime sales, followed the the PS3, followed by the Xbox 360. Or are you referring to something other than lifetime sales? Just curious, I may be out of date here.

Still, the Vita's chances of overthrowing the 3DS aren't looking more likely over a year later and I honestly question if that's what Sony's going for anyway. The Vita TV may help, but I doubt it's going to change the landscape drastically.

The wii still has 100M while the PS3 has 80M and the 360 is at something close like 79M last I checked

This topic is interesting to look back at now we know how each system did

@KokorOtaku Especially with the Switch sales numbers and Sony bowing out of the handheld market.