The red line is 3DS, the green line is DS and the blue line is GBA

Lots of industry experts are arguing that the expansion of mobile phone and tablet gaming is having an impact on the fortunes of dedicated games consoles like the 3DS, but Gamasutra's Matt Matthews has taken a closer look at the figures and found that the truth is somewhat different.

Matthews has taken the recent shipment figures for the Nintendo 3DS and compared them to the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS across the same time period - around 21 months following launch. The results show that Nintendo's latest handheld is actually tracking quite closely with its predecessors, a fact which refutes accusations that the system is struggling in the face of iOS and Android.

The report also covers the phenomenal success of the DS console, and why it has perhaps skewed people's perceptions of how popular the 3DS has to be before it is considered a worthy successor. Make sure you give it a read.

[source gamasutra.com]