Nintendo's consoles vs. Nintendo's handhelds.

[CastletonSnob]

Why are Nintendo's handhelds so much more successful than their home consoles? Most of Nintendo's handhelds have sold over 100 million units, while only 2 of Nintendo's home consoles have sold that much.

[Fasauceome]

Price is a factor. The Nintendo DS did not cost as much as a Nintendo 64. In today's money, it would cost over $300, while the DS compared at only about $200. The handheld devices are cheaper, easier to ship, etc.

[Zando_]

1 hour ago, Fasauceome said:

Price is a factor. The Nintendo DS did not cost as much as a Nintendo 64. In today's money, it would cost over $300, while the DS compared at only about $200. The handheld devices are cheaper, easier to ship, etc.

Convenience as well I'd imagine. The way I (and everyone I knew) as a kid used a DS or GameBoy was on long drives or waiting at a dr's office or any other idle time while out and about. They had solid battery life and can easily fit in a pocket, not something you can do with any of the consoles, or even with a Switch (due to its size, it needs its own dedicated bag still). Cheaper than a phone + a lot of parents don't want their child having a phone (also the reason the iPod Touch stuck around for so long). Durable as hell too, I think my siblings finally broke our OG DS after uh... well it was released in 2004 and I think we got it when I was very young, so probably 2004-2006, somewhere thereabouts. So a darn while. 

[HumdrumPenguin]

There are probably cultural aspects involved in that too, depending on which region we are talking about (such as Japan, where mobile gaming has dominated for a long ass time, with the game body and DS iterations).

[ADarkBard]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think Nintendo's games are better suited for handhelds. From the simple graphics and bite size playability they are like a perfect match.