Very arrogant segment there by the Pach man. Essentially said "those numbers do not count because there is literally no way they can continue"
I agree he was a little on the arrogant side, but then again, it is GTTV -- arrogant statements always come out of these shows.
But that doesn't mean there wasn't some truth to his words - the casual audience that bought the DS in droves around the time the lite came out, has seemed to move on to the smart phone/pad market. So Nintendo may be winning ground with the core gamers, those who frequent sites like NeoGaf or IGN and love the news they see on the 3DS on a regular basis...but in the larger scheme of things (that is to say, in the real world) the 3DS is not selling to the larger numbers (causal audience) who would pick up the platform.
I personally hope the 3DS does well because I would love for a true "PS2-SNES" like software environment from a handheld, which 3DS seems to be the most poised to do given it also has Nintendo first party support, and is the first Nintendo handheld to deliver modern era console quality game experiences.
That said, I do not doubt it will do well, but it likely won't do as well as the original DS did simply because that casual market has moved to other devices.
To me, this is why Oni-Training is going to be a huge demonstrator in how well the 3DS's expanded sales future is. No casual gamer, or rather very
very few, would purchase a $170 system plus $20-40 Brain Training 3, when they have their old DS lying around plus Brain Training 2 or can get new software experiences/similar software experience that are just as legitimately targeted towards a casual audience on the Android or Apple App stores.
If Oni-Training can prove to be the type of game that can bring that crowd in, then that is exceptional news for Nintendo.
But if it can't, then the 3DS may likely be confined to a core-only space.
That would be great news for GAF, and hardcore gamers alike sure.
But for Nintendo that would be tough news indeed. It means less $$$ for them, and at the end of the day they are a business that needs to make money.