Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

Pokemon 3D is a given, though. Just because its not announced doesn't meant its not in development.

As much as you might want to spin the smartphone angle, DS was still the top selling system of last holiday and now 3DS with its new price point is in a pretty good place to pick up where DS left off. You're assuming the 30+ female demographic (somewhat insultingly referred to as "soccer moms") are just out for Angry Birds when there are plenty up for some Final Fantasy or Persona.

[Icemage]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

Pokemon 3D is a given, though. Just because its not announced doesn't meant its not in development.

As much as you might want to spin the smartphone angle, DS was still the top selling system of last holiday and now 3DS with its new price point is in a pretty good place to pick up where DS left off. You're assuming the 30+ female demographic (somewhat insultingly referred to as "soccer moms") are just out for Angry Birds when there are plenty up for some Final Fantasy or Persona.

We can banter all day long about who belongs in what demographic. Let's see where the chips fall after this holiday buying season. Unlike some, I'm not willing to write Nintendo or the 3DS off this early, at not until they have a Black Friday and full Christmas season under their belt.

Where we disagree is that I think the overall market for handheld gaming devices has shrunk because of smartphones and tablets. You seem to think it hasn't at all (or at least not tangibly).

We won't know the real answer to that for a few more years after we see how the 3DS and Vita do in the long run. I just happen to feel some skepticism is healthy, given what we know at the moment.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I'd be skeptical if smartphones and tablets were providing an actual, rich gaming experience.

That clearly is not within the interests of any iOS device, otherwise we'd at least see some D-pads and buttons at least. The only company bringing games with any level of sophistication are Epic Games and SE.

That's just not enough for me.

[Cheezeman3000]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I don't want long, epic adventures on my phone. I'd rather not use up all its battery playing games for hours on an imprecice touchscreen. I'm sure there are plenty more out there like me.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I don't want long, epic adventures on my phone. I'd rather not use up all its battery playing games for hours on an imprecice touchscreen. I'm sure there are plenty more out there like me.

And I don't want rip-offs of the same short trifles I enjoyed when I was 12. If that's all I'm going to be offered, my phone is still just for phone calls and I don't need the extra expense of an iOS phone

So for, touch-only has only been really good for RPGs, traditional point-and-click adventures and stupid bird catapulting games, which is why I keep saying that a D-pad and actual buttons would go a long way toward what I want.

Apparently, you're content with mediocrity and novelty. I don't have to be.

[Kailea]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I would rather my phone be a phone, and my game system be my mother #$@% game system -.-

getting tired of all this "lets cram everything in to every device" BS going on now adays.

[Armando]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

getting tired of all this "lets cram everything in to every device" BS going on now adays.

Regardless of whether it involves phones or not, that's pretty much what technology is going to keep pushing towards. Game consoles included.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

Regardless of whether it involves phones or not, that's pretty much what technology is going to keep pushing towards. Game consoles included.

Hm. This never occurred to me, but it's totally correct.

Kind of reminds me of the

Gurren Lagann spoiler

Spiral Menace

from Gurren Lagann.

[Icemage]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I'd be skeptical if smartphones and tablets were providing an actual, rich gaming experience.

That clearly is not within the interests of any iOS device, otherwise we'd at least see some D-pads and buttons at least. The only company bringing games with any level of sophistication are Epic Games and SE.

That's just not enough for me.

And that's fine, but for a lot of people, that's all they want or need in a portable device. There's a fine line between what "we" want, and what "other people" want, and I think you're trying to blur that line a little too much.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

Regardless of whether it involves phones or not, that's pretty much what technology is going to keep pushing towards. Game consoles included.

Its taking the fun out of James Bond's gadgets, though.

[Malacite]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I thought this was a pretty epic comment over at joystiq that sums up how I feel pretty well.

Credit to the OP "Tachyonic Cargo"

@Nintenuendo

Here's a better idea. Instead of Nintendo handing out lame band-aids of 20 virtual titles from systems that have been long dead, which everyone has already played to death, howsabout giving early adopters their choice of any two retail 3DS games, to properly make up for the $80 in early adopter tax that people are getting ripped off on.

We've known from the beginning that 3DS was overpriced, and now that fact is coming back to bite Nintendo in the ass with far below expectation hardware and software sales on the platform. So, now they are scrambling to price the 3DS the price it should have launched for in the first place, the least they could have the decency to do, is refund the $80 difference to existing customers - barring that, then some proper 3DS games should be in order to placate the masses, not more virtual games from 15 years ago, that have been repackaged and resold to Nintendo fans on every Nintendo console since they came out, that many 3DS owners never had any intention of buying in the first place.

See, that is part of Nintendo's problem now. They are so busy trying to milk the shit out of their past successes, that they have almost completely neglected the need to have anything truly new on their platforms. Seriously, how many times in one lifetime does Nintendo expect everyone to re-purchase Ocarina of Time? I know it is one of two greatest games of all time, but still. And in the meantime, outside of their new line of casual games (like Nintendog) that began to spring up a year after they released the original DS, when was the last time Nintendo created a new IP from the ground up? I'm getting more Mario Bros this year, and more Mario Kart, but when was the last time Nintendo gave us a new IP from the minds of the people who created those classics, that non-casual gamers could actually care about?

This price drop will help 3DS sales, no doubt about that. But (and I said as much when the 3DS launched back in March), until Nintendo can start seriously investing in the creation and maturation of new IP, 3DS sales are never, ever going to equal DS sales, GBA sales or GB sales, at the height of those system's popularity. There is an age old rule in videogaming, that it is not about the hardware, it is about the games. And while true all of Nintendo's existing IP are legendary, in constantly milking and heavily depending on those IPs, eventually you are going to reach a point where everyone who could have played them to death, will have played them to death (even among the younger generation) - and then those people are going to want something just as brilliant, that is at the same time, something completely new. And if the Big N is not prepared to give those customers something truly new, then the long time almost religious hold that Nintendo has had over their fans since 1985, will start to showing serious chinks in the armor. And every quarter in that past year, when I look at Nintendo's financials, and see them dropping, because sales of hardware and software across the board are plummeting and not meeting projections, it is looking more and more like the chickens have at last come home to roost.

[Feba]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I'm too lazy to write my own derp

yeah ok.

Handheld gaming... has changed

I think there's a big point to be made here-- not just that the market is going to other platforms we don't look at as handheld consoles, but that the very concept of handheld games is getting outmoded.

Think about when you played handheld games 15 years ago. On road trips, plane rides, on the train, at grandma's house, waiting on friends.

In-car/in-flight entertainment, as a concept, is a huge blow to handhelds in the long run. The modern soccer mom has a DVD player in her SUV to keep her tots quiet. Or she can hand them her blackberry/iPhone, or laptop, which in modern times are both incredibly common and capable of playing games perfectly well, as far as anyone under the age of 14 is concerned.

Train rides and the like? Infinitely more likely nowadays to use a far more portable iPod. Plus, who wants to be interrupted in the middle of their game by having to get off? Even in Tokyo, iPods outnumber DS on trains at least 30:1.

That pretty much leaves grandma's house as the market for portable systems which can be played at length; or in other words, situations where you'd rather have a full console, but you're too cut off for whatever reason. This is why we're starting to see more of a move towards the portable being an accessory for the console, not an alternative.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I'm just not ready to buy into the idea smartphones are the future, because we said that about bulky cell phones and pagers, too. And the people that overused those things were generally annoying as people that live on their smartphones are now.

Something will come along and replace it and, in all honesty, Apple is far too comfortable and complacent where they are right now. They think just because they're back on top now means they can leave the iOS market unregulated unless a special group gets offended by something, but outright theft? They don't do anything about that - someone's making money and is happy somewhere.

That's going to be their undoing right here, really.

I don't mind the idea of my style of gaming becoming more of a niche market again. Its honestly better that way. Our market is too bloated right now, too, there are too many generic games coming out all the time under the guise of new IPs and too few new IPs that are truly good or original.

[Icemage]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

I'm just not ready to buy into the idea smartphones are the future, because we said that about bulky cell phones and pagers, too. And the people that overused those things were generally annoying as people that live on their smartphones are now.

Something will come along and replace it and, in all honesty, Apple is far too comfortable and complacent where they are right now. They think just because they're back on top now means they can leave the iOS market unregulated unless a special group gets offended by something, but outright theft? They don't do anything about that - someone's making money and is happy somewhere.

I don't mind the idea of my style of gaming becoming more of a niche market again. Its honestly better that way. Our market is too bloated right now, too, there are too many generic games coming out all the time under the guise of new IPs and too few new IPs that are truly good or original.

Let's put some perspective on this.

There are half a million Android devices activated EVERY SINGLE DAY

Yes, that means there are more Android phones and tablets sold in one day than there were 3DS units in three months. And that's before you add in Apple's iPhone and iPad (which are trailing Android devices a bit nowadays but still somewhere in the multi-hundred-thousand-per-day range).

And sure, not all - or even most - of those phones will be used as anything but a phone most of the time, but no matter what there's going to be someone who already ones a smartphone and/or tablet who's going to sit down, look at the 3DS/Vita and ask themselves: When will I use this? I've already got a smartphone that can play games, and if I want to play something more involved, there's always my PS3/360 at home for when I really have the time to dig into it.

It's not even just people who play games casually, either. I know a couple of people who bought a 3DS who are big-time gamers, and who sold it because they "hardly ever used it" and they had other devices that filled their needs adequately.


Icemage

[Feba]

Re: Nintendo 3DS to see $80 price drop, rewards early adopters

Let me give another reason for smart phones gaining ground over handheld consoles:

Very, very few bosses are ever going to buy you a Nintendo.

Many, many bosses are going to pay for your Blackberry/iPhone/Android. Some will even require you to have one.