Nintendo 3DS

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

 

If Nintendo doesn't release new hardware by 2015, they'll have literally no major source of income that whole year. 3DS is in decline and Wii U is already almost dead. They need something new. Soon. 

 

We have had this exact same conversation before, I'm sure of it, but Nintendo releasing new hardware would solve absolutely nothing. You don't create new buyers. You create a bunch of angry, betrayed fans and a bunch of apathetic owners of competing consoles who wonder why they should put down even more money on a machine that does jack-all more than the one they already have.

 

This is the equivalent of torching down your house when you find termites in it. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by making a new system except for the most superficial gains. I'm really freaking sick of this argument; not because I'm a Nintendo fan, but because from a business angle this is like shooting yourself in the chest to stop a heart attack.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 

 

If Nintendo doesn't release new hardware by 2015, they'll have literally no major source of income that whole year. 3DS is in decline and Wii U is already almost dead. They need something new. Soon. 

That wouldn't really fix anything, so much as just needlessly complicate it. SEGA tried that with the Dreamcast and we all know how that turned out. If anything, this'd only worsen Nintendo's stats, especially if people start to feel betrayed by the short lifetime of their 8th gen devices.

[Silencer226]

I really don't think investing in new hardware in the middle of the current generation would be a wise choice and might actually put them in an even tighter position than they're already in. Instead of going for new hardware they should work with what they currently have and seek out new ways to make it appeal to a wider audience. It's easy to say make a new console but in the long run I think it'd just alienate  people who already have one and it'd probably be far too late to get any attention in the midst of PS4 and the Xbox One anyway.

[Dejimon11]

Discoid I love ya but there are times where I feel you really don't know what your saying.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Discord I love ya but there are times where I feel you really don't know what your saying.

Discoid. But yeah, I'm gonna have to second that.

[Silencer226]

Discoid. But yeah, I'm gonna have to second that.

In a way, Discord would be a funny play on his username, I'd run with it haha.

[Sami]

We have had this exact same conversation before, I'm sure of it, but Nintendo releasing new hardware would solve absolutely nothing. You don't create new buyers. You create a bunch of angry, betrayed fans and a bunch of apathetic owners of competing consoles who wonder why they should put down even more money on a machine that does jack-all more than the one they already have.

 

This is the equivalent of torching down your house when you find termites in it. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by making a new system except for the most superficial gains. I'm really freaking sick of this argument; not because I'm a Nintendo fan, but because from a business angle this is like shooting yourself in the chest to stop a heart attack.

 

 

That wouldn't really fix anything, so much as just needlessly complicate it. SEGA tried that with the Dreamcast and we all know how that turned out. If anything, this'd only worsen Nintendo's stats, especially if people start to feel betrayed by the short lifetime of their 8th gen devices.

 

A new handheld counts as new hardware. The GBA was on the market for three years before the DS was announced. Four years to rise, peak and decline is not unprecedented, and it's up to them to build forward momentum before they get an even worse year than the one prior. 

 

I'm not saying the 3DS is dead. Please don't misunderstand here, as all I'm suggesting is they introduce a new major source of income before the well dries up. The 3DS will most likely get decent sales in 2014. Not necessarily good, but it'll live. The well will very likely dry up in 2015 though. 

 

Look, just analyze it yourself using the facts here - the 3DS has already peaked and will continue to go down. There has not been, to my knowledge, a single console ever that sold less than 100k for the first time in January, but went on to sell more than it did the previous year. The 3DS underperformed in 2013 (it pulled decent numbers in, but wasn't anywhere even near expectations), and it's almost certain that 2014 will be a worse year, followed by 2015 and so on. That's just how sales work. 

 

Look at their financials. The Wii U is a money-sink with practically no hope of improving. It's charting hundreds of thousands of units below the Dreamcast, and slightly over a million below the GameCube. Say what you will about how there's "hope" they can turn it around, but to depend on it would be monumentally stupid. The 3DS is the only thing they can count on right now, and it was the only positive thing they had in 2013.

 

Okay? So the 3DS is the only good thing they have going for them right now. But it's in decline. 2014 will be worse than the already disappointing 2013. 

 

So when the 3DS dries up in 2015, what then? If they don't have a new handheld in the works, that's a whole year of no major income. That's bad. 

 

You say I don't know what I'm talking about, but think about it. Really. What happens when the 3DS is no longer able to bring in money, and they still don't have a 3DS successor ready? I never implied in my post that it had to be a Wii U successor - I merely said "new hardware", and that's true. When a system charts below 100k, it's on its way down. Look at the Vita if you don't want to believe it. 

 

The 3DS needs a successor. No system has declined year over year, then turned around and increased the next year. 2012 was better for the 3DS than 2013. 2014 is off to a horrendous start. Do you really believe that 2014 will be a better year than 2013? Or that 2015 will?

 

You say I don't know what I'm talking about. Fine then, tell me why. I love discussing these things. It's fun. But please don't tell me I'm jumping the gun or that I'm not knowledgeable without actually giving me a reason why.

 

With that said, apologies for not being completely clear. I mean a 3DS successor. Not a Wii U successor. That can come later. But my point is that they need something.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

In a way, Discord would be a funny play on his username, I'd run with it haha.

Heh, yeah. I remember when I used to mistake his name for Discord too! Quite a fitting name too. XD!

 

But yeah, back on topic, Nintendo will just have to see Wii U and 3DS out though this. At least they've still got effort from some third parties actually making it to their versions still. Hopefully that new Transformers game will be one of such. SO far, I've been fine with just a Wii U. I hope that doesn't change.

 

With that said, apologies for not being completely clear. I mean a 3DS successor. Not a Wii U successor. That can come later. But my point is that they need something.

Honestly with game like Super Smash Bros 4 (not to mention more pokemon games) and more coming to it, it'd be too soon regarding the 3DS as well despite these "at the moment" sales you're presenting.

[Sami]

Honestly with game like Super Smash Bros 4 and more coming to it, it'd be too soon regarding the 3DS as well despite these "at the moment" sales you're presenting.

 

You think Smash 4 is going to be a better system seller than both Animal Crossing and Pokemon?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I did also mention more Pokemon games. Seriously, I doubt Nintendo's going to go a whole gen without having at least two or three Pokemon games on that gen's respective handheld.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

You think Smash 4 is going to be a better system seller than Animal Crossing

YES. IDEALLY.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

YES.

Ditto.

[Sami]

I said both. And if you really think it'll have a better impact than both of those games then... well, okay. I'll bet on that too. This seems like a pretty easy gamble to me.

[canderson]

Eh, I highly doubt that the upcoming Super Smash Bros game for the 3DS will come close to Pokemon, Monster Hunter, and Animal Crossing's sales. It probably won't even reach Mario Kart 7's numbers. I see it performing better than the Wii U version for sure, but not THAT much. 

 

I'd really love to be proven wrong though.

[RK64]

I could honistly see a new Nintendo handheld in late 2015; as Discoid said, the 3ds has been out a while (since 2012 I believe?) and nothing really is going to compete with last years onslaught of 3ds games. What I expect to happen is the Wii U getting more support over the 3ds this year (the Wii U really needs everything and the kitchen sink thrown at it like how Nintendo did that with the 3ds in its first year), with the 3ds still getting great games, but them being mixed between smaller E-shop tittles and full Nintendo/3rd Party games.

 

We are already seeing this with the latest Nintendo Direct with Rusty's Real Deal Baseball and Steel Diver Sub-Wars (plus games like Shovel Knight, Retronuts, Shante the Pairtes Curse and Moon Cronicles) mixed with full Nintendo games like Kirby and Mario Golf coming the first half of the year (with that same pattern contiuning the second half with Smash and a possible Pokemon RPG game coming this fall).

 

I think that Nintendo is going have the next DS (I guess....the 4ds with Vita-like specs?) BC with 3ds and DS software, so a new system shouldn't be much of an issue to fans; they could trade in their old hardware (after transferring stuff over....dam lack of a unified account ) and get more or less half of the price of this new system off so it isn't so pricey.

 

The Wii U might get better if given more support by Nintendo (common man, they could EASILY make tons of HD remasters of Gamecube/Wii games to pad out the droughts + have a REAL VC with all of the games on the Wii one being on the Wii U VC service instead of putting handheld games on the home console VC when it SHOULD be on the Handheld one...they are so annoying backwards its just not funny ) but their handling of the handheld side is much stronger, so I have a lot confidence in their next handheld .

[Autosaver]

I don't think there will be a new handheld in 2015, but I do feel there could be something akin to the DSi.

[PSI Wind]

Are we seriously going back to "3DS is doomed" after it being THE BEST SELLING PLATFORM OF 2013!?

[canderson]

It was the best selling platform and it's not doomed, but it doesn't change the fact that it's heavily declining though. =(

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I don't think there will be a new handheld in 2015, but I do feel there could be something akin to the DSi.

That's more plausible.

[Gabz Girl]

Are we seriously going back to "3DS is doomed" after it being THE BEST SELLING PLATFORM OF 2013!?

Exactly! Of course it's not selling as well as the DS. That's because of the mobile gaming market and the 3DS is affected by it. Mobile gaming was virtually non existent in 2004-2005 so it's no wonder the 3DS is not selling hundreds of millions of units!

Besides, isn't the Vita a bigger failure? Sure it's been selling decently since last year, but it's still lagging behind the 3DS and doing even worse in sales than the PSP. Again, because of the huge mobile gaming market! And I'm not against Vita at all, in fact I think it's sad that such a promising handheld isn't doing so good and has hardly any games on it that warrant me to buy one. Either Sony does something about it, or introduce a new handheld in 2015! Ehh but that's for another topic.

[Sami]

Are we seriously going back to "3DS is doomed" after it being THE BEST SELLING PLATFORM OF 2013!?

I think discussion will be more fun if people actually try to read and understand what I'm saying rather than blow it the fuck out of proportion.

Every console, good or bad, has a life cycle. Some have short ones, and some have long ones. The 3DS' is starting to show. It peaked very early on, and has been in decline for a while. 2013 was not as good a year as 2012. 2014 is off to a bad start, and looking at the list of games coming out, it's very unlikely that it will match even 2013. What this means is that by 2015 it will be a dying platform - it has already had a major hardware revision in the 2DS, and has already gotten a new generation of Pokemon games. There's not much else for them to do. Keep it alive for another two years? Yeah, duh. It'll live. But not having a successor ready when the 3DS flatlines is stupid.

And fucking Christ I addressed the "BEST SELLING CONSOLE OF 2013" thing too - 2013 was a shit year no matter how you spin it. The 7th generation was going on way too long, and that years #1 had the lowest sales of any #1 since 1996. The 3DS is selling a few more million units better than the PSP did by it's third year. However, the PSP didn't dip below 100k units sold per month until January of 2011, six years into it's life. That's one of the first major signs that a console is on its way down and a successor needs to be prepared, and the 3DS just hit it this month after only three years on the market. Look at the numbers yourself if you want. I'm stating facts.

I'll never understand why half the responses to sales discussion have to be ridiculously hyperbolic.

Besides, isn't the Vita a bigger failure? Sure it's been selling decently since last year, but it's still lagging behind the 3DS and doing even worse in sales than the PSP. Again, because of the huge mobile gaming market! And I'm not against Vita at all, in fact I think it's sad that such a promising handheld isn't doing so good and has hardly any games on it that warrant me to buy one. Either Sony does something about it, or introduce a new handheld in 2015! Ehh but that's for another topic.

Vita's already dead. Sony, however, has the PS4. Nintendo has nothing.

There's a difference in context you have to understand - Sony's main priority is home consoles, and their portable line has only been on the side. A failed portable is disappointing, but not horrible (the Vita is making them a marginal amount of money, it's not a loss) because it isn't their main source of income.

Nintendo is different. For several years their handheld line has been the only thing making them a decent amount of money, and it looks like it's on it's way out. What else do they have to depend on when that happens? A console that some would argue is already dead.

[Indigo Rush]

I'd be pissed if they stopped supporting the 3DS. I literally just bought the darn thing and I'm loving it.

[Milo]

Eh, I highly doubt that the upcoming Super Smash Bros game for the 3DS will come close to Pokemon, Monster Hunter, and Animal Crossing's sales. It probably won't even reach Mario Kart 7's numbers. I see it performing better than the Wii U version for sure, but not THAT much. 

 

I'd really love to be proven wrong though.

 

It's the very first Smash Bros. game for handhelds on the still popular 3DS. I highly doubt it's going to do average numbers at best.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I'd be pissed if they stopped supporting the 3DS. I literally just bought the darn thing and I'm loving it.

Same here! Just bought my 3DS XL last year!

[Sami]

I'd be pissed if they stopped supporting the 3DS. I literally just bought the darn thing and I'm loving it.

Same here! Just bought my 3DS XL last year!

Since when has a new console announcement automatically meant support for the predecessor dies instantly, though? To say nothing of the Japanese third parties making games for it, we still have Kirby and Smash coming in 2014. Possibly another Pokemon in 2015 alongside more third party, etc. All while Nintendo shifts their main teams over to "4DS".

Remember, they want the next console and handheld to have unified architecture. They could have console developers prepping up the next handheld and vice versa when the time calls for it, alongside a bunch of dual releases like how Sly Cooper is on both Vita and PS3.