I don't understand the console wars

I'm comparing the Vita vs 3DS situation with the PS4 vs Wii U situation, and it doesn't make sense.

Power vs gimmicks - PS4 (power) kills Wii U (gimmicks), 3DS (gimmicks) kills Vita (power)

PS4 succeeded because it's more powerful than Wii U and doesn't rely on gimmicks. The 3DS vs Vita situation is the complete opposite.

Because power on mobile is pointless when you have shitty games.

a) The handheld market and the console market are two very different things

b) In no way was the 3DS more or less gimmicky than the Vita. The Vita had nonsense like the rear touchpad, the 3DS went for 3D

Which leads me to

c) The PS4 killed Wii U because it has more and better games. The 3DS killed Vita because it has more and better games. Simple as that, end of story.

You say power vs gimmicks

I say marketing vs games

@charizard1605: The reason PS4 killed Wii U is because it's more powerful, which attracted more developers, which led to more games.

The same should have happened with the Vita. More power = more support = more games = more sales.

@charizard1605: The Vita's rear touchpad wasn't a huge gimmick like the 3DS' two screens, developers overlooked it, like they do with the PS4's touchpad.

Once again, you are forgetting the key point, the handheld market and the console market are fundamentally different. Power has always mattered in the console market, and never in the handheld market, this generation just repeated that.

The 3DS's dual screens are no longer a gimmick- they were back when the DS first came out, and after ten years of the DS being the leading handheld platform, dual screens became a handheld standard.

The gimmick on the Vita was just that, a gimmick, and it was certainly not ignored for the first two years- a lot of Vita games suffered from it being shoehorned unnecessarily into games.

@charizard1605: dual screens are only popular on Nintendo handhelds. It's far from a standard feature on other platforms.

Why doesn't power matter on handhelds? Developers refused to support Wii U because it's underpowered compared to PS4, but they're OK with supporting 3DS when it's underpowered compared to Vita.

And power hasn't always mattered with consoles. PS1 and PS2 were both underpowered but they got more support and games.

@doomsdayplay: So it all boils down to marketing?

If the Wii U was marketed better it would have gotten more sales and therefore developer support? Even though it's less powerful than PS4?

Because the handheld market has other demands- lower costs of development, immediate delivery of content with minimal loading times, battery life and power conservation... all things that directly contradict high power. Power does not matter on a handheld. It didn't matter with Gameboy versus Game Gear, it didn't matter with GBA versus N Gage, it didn't matter with DS versus PSP, it doesn't matter now. Yes, it's the opposite of the console market, but that's because handhelds are made to a different spec and standard. There is no 'why' here, if you understand the requirements of each market. It's the same reason that modular flexibility is a big deal in the PC gaming market, but is a non factor in the console market. Different markets, different requirements. You can't compare trends in the console market with trends in the handheld market, that's nonsensical.

And PS1 was the most powerful console when it released, its more powerful competition didn't release until two years later. Ditto PS2.

@charizard1605: Xbox was more powerful than PS2 yet it got less sales and support.

PS1 and N64 released 1 year apart, yet PS1 got more games.

@tendoboy1984: Because PS2 released a year earlier and firmly entrenched itself as the third party go to ecosystem. The same thing that the Xbox 360 did with the PS3 a few years later.

N64 versus PS1 was a disaster of Nintendo's making, their asinine policies with third parties versus Sony's flexibility caused the inevitable.

@charizard1605:

When Wii U was released it was slightly more powerful than PS3, but PS4 hype killed it. PS2 was less powerful than Xbox but Xbox didn't generate enough hype to kill PS2.

So it all boils down to marketing and hype?

Because power is only a factor.

@tendoboy1984: No, because the PS2 was powerful enough to keep apace with the Xbox and Gamecube, but the Wii U was comically a generation behind the Xbox One and PS4. if the Wii U had released in 2012 with Xbox One level specs, it might have entrenched itself as a PS2 equivalent. With the hardware it had, it was never going to do better.

@charizard1605: PS3 got the same amount of games as Xbox 360 in the end.

Wii U's situation is very strange. It released before PS4, but PS4 hype overshadowed it and developers jumped ship to PS4.

So what matters more? Release timing, hype, third party relations?

I literally just told you above, I am not repeating this.

@charizard1605: And 3DS is barely more powerful than a PSP while Vita is further ahead. That didn't affect 3DS' success.

Wii U's lack of power lead to its downfall, but 3DS wasn't a big leap ahead of PSP either.

Because, for the final time, the handheld market is different than the console market. Power is not a factor in the handheld market, and it is in the console market.

Are we done?

Let's not forget the Wii U and Vita names are terrible and the marketing for both was a disaster. History has proven that power means little to nothing when determining a winner.

Trying to understand it would be to take it seriously. My advice would be to do neither.

Wii U and Vita killed themselves. They wouldn't have sold well even if they had no competition because of the way they were designed.

@GoldenElementXL: "History has proven that power means little to nothing when determining a winner."

Tell that to PS4

@charizard1605: The Wii U is more powerful than PS3 so wasn't that enough for it to get developer support? Being more powerful than previous gen hardware is what matters in the console market.

there is no war ps4 already won

everything you need to know about divisive, contentious, hostile social trends on the internet, all in just one video...

I thought 3DS is doing well because of its games and Nintendo's support.

If I was going to buy a handheld, I wouldn't even consider the Vita. Not even Sony care about it, so why should I.

Power isn't a factor in handhelds, Sony should have learnt from the PSP. I'd still play Game Boy games, that's how little power matters.

Games and price, man. At the end of the day, nothing matters as much as that entry cost barrier and the library that lies beyond it.

@charizard1605: The original Wii was severely underpowered compared to Xbox 360 and PS4 yet it didn't matter. Developers still made games for it.

This time around the power gap between Wii U and oher consoles isn't as large, but developers refuse to make games for it. The Wii U doesn't need multiplatform games, it just needs games period. Third parties won't even make unique games for the thing.

Games.

The PS4 killed Wii U because it has more and better games as Charz said.

Only reason PS Vita is losing is because of high price and lack of marketing.

I think it's more involved in the case of PS4 vs. WiiU than simply power. The Wii was the lesser console than PS3 and Xbox 360 and outsold them both, handily.

The Wii U had terrible marketing. If I didn't regularly check the web for gaming news, it probably would have spent 2 years on the market before I even realized it existed. I think for console sales, marketing is most important. Games are also important, but you really only need the expectation of games down the road to sell a console.

Power and gimmick really has never been the subject. Compelling games>all

same thing happened back with the ps2 and xbox. The ps2 had a hundreds more games than the xbox. And most of them were better also. Even though the xbox's graphics were way better.

n64 vs the psx. again same thing. N64 did have better graphics, but the psx had much better games and more games.

DING DING DING DING!!!

Games win in both cases, though. The consoles with the best game libraries nearly always win in sales. Wii is the only example I can think that doesn't follow that rule. PS4, PS2, PS1, SNES, NES, Atari and all of Nintendo's handhelds follow the pattern though.

In the handheld market, there are a lot more factors to take into account than just the power, like the power consumption, battery life, visual design, size, comfort, back-lighting, and of course the software library. The most powerful handheld has never won before.

Same could be said for the mobile market. Apple's products are usually weaker than rivals like Samsung, HTC, and Google, yet Apple's products still lead in sales.

The Vita and the 3DS aren't consoles.

@charizard1605: It's all about the games.

Understand the console wars you will.

Power has not always mattered in the console market dude. You know very well PS2, Wii, NES all won their gens while there were stronger competitors