Funnily enough, the reason the 3DS is doing well is because the cheaper cost of developing games for it makes it possible for mid-sized developers to make more niche, even "hardcore" games that just wouldn't be feasible on a TV console, especially stuff like the Shin Megami Tensei titles.

And the reason the Wii U is bombing is because it's casual trash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wkQGEpRgL0

Oh and the new Fire Emblem on 3DS introduced the Casual mode where characters do not die forever and the creators did not like it because it changed what made Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem :P

Well, I was referring more to dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey and SMT Strange Journey.

And you can't refute my point my pointing to one game, Wii and Wii U were from their very outset casual consoles, designed so that anyone and their dog, cat, little brother and grandmother could play on it, it was MARKETED as that.

I often times wonder about that. I'm not sure what the point of playing games like FO:NV in regular mode is, Hardcore is just a lot more interesting. Provided the mode is properly designed, it should be a lot more interesting.

I suppose some people might just be into the story or not willing to put up with the frustration.

By average, I meant my hands either small or big, medium would been a better choice for words.
Btw the reason Wii U is bombing is cause lack of exclusives. Seriously, I can name our a good few 3DS exclusives quickly but besides Super Mario Bros U and Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate (which isn't technically exclusive as it's on 3ds too) I have to think before naming others.

Also it's bombing due to cause it's casual trash? Seriously? The wii is one the most popular consoles ever due to it being casual?

I wonder too but my friend usually plays the easiest option possible tbh cause he's quick to anger and ragequits often. Then he wonders why he "completes" games so quickly.

I own a wii and I haven't used it in years. And that's sort of the problem, they sold a crapload of them, but they've done a poor job of convincing people to buy new games. It's sort of gimmicky and Nintendo is lucky that the units are profitable on their own, because the license money is much smaller than one would expect for the number of units sold.
Different strokes for different folks. But, I've learned that it's best to play on the higher difficulties, not necessarily the highest difficulty.

One thing I love abut difficult games is the sense of genuine achievement you get when completing things on it such as defeating Dr. Fetus in Super Meat Boy and killing a Rathalos in Monster Hunter.

What's worse is it's hard to know which is which :P

Not really. The PS1 was released in US in 95, not 94. There were many great games for the PS1 before FFVII. The PS1 was already "mainstream" before FFVII, mainly because it was cheaper than it's competitors at the time (Saturn and the 3DO, the N64 came later), it was easy to program for, it had a very powerful hardware for it's time which could handle 3D better than other consoles, and Sony had better licensing deals.

The PS1 also had some "help" from the competition. The 3DO was extremely expensive, i think it was priced at U$699 or something like that at that time not counting inflation, in "today's money" it would cost more. Nintendo made a HUGE mistake by choosing cartridges instead of CDs, not to mention that they treated third-party developers like shit (these were the reasons why Square moved over to the PS1 instead of sticking to Nintendo). And Sega killed themselves with the Saturn's surprise launch fiasco, the troubled development of Sonic Xtreme and terrible management.

Is it weird that I never actually heard of the 3DO console until now?

Not if you've not heard of the CD-I either ....

I said "overall" though. They lost SO much money on Xbox until around 2009 or so that I would be surprised if their profits since then have resulted in an overall positive. You never know, though.

Nintendo has only recently started to reverse their very 3rd party unfriendly policies, it'll be awhile before the big boy jump on board whole hog. That and the WiiU is pretty wussy compared to the next-box and PS4, I imagine it'll be a problem yet again, where the choice is between supporting 2 robust platforms or crippling your game for a 3rd platform that has so-so sales of third party titles.
MS has multiple billion dollar franchises on the 360, including their own Halo titles, I really would be surprised if they weren't way in the black by now.