Nintendo 3DS

[Mr Loopone]

I wouldn't say the 3DS did too badly, after all I do have one (an XL model) it's just that the market is changing with developers and publishers focusing on the mobile market even in Japan where handheld gaming is strongest and that has affected the 3DS and even worse with the Vita (a lovely handheld but not much support not even from Sony). The Vita might be the last handheld that Sony is focusing on but wouldn't know that until they annouce something. As for the companies that released stuff on the Wii and the DS have also moved to mobile except GSP who still support the 3DS despite releasing licensed games. It does seem much of the handheld audience has moved on since phones gathered a touchscreen, even though people have been playing on mobile games since Snake was included on Nokia phones and there were various games however they needed certain models depending on game since each phone had a different OS. It took until Apple and the first Android phones where there was some unification but still to this day needed to test various models to make sure the game works (unless they decide for iOS 5/Android Kit Kat and beefy phones only), while handhelds are like consoles where they are less variables.

 

One reason why the 3DS isn't doing as strongly is because of the attachment rate of the games, people buy only a few games on the 3DS and that's it. While there are people who do buy plenty of 3DS games especially the RPGs, there are families who only buy what their kids what and not following up with ones. Whether it is money reasons (3DS games aren't the cheapest things but still cheaper than Wii U and so far the PS4/Xbone, 360 and PS3 games are cheaper and get reduced faster while Nintendo games keep the original price), lack of advertisement apart from the big ones (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, family games), lack of choice in stores, influenced by mobile gaming and think anything above a $1/€1/69p is too much or have a tablet/phone instead. One of the big ones last year and helped the 3DS was Animal Crossing: New Leaf and from what I'm guessing is that people bought it with their new 3DS (or might have even got it free via a promotion), either that the Pokemon games or a few Mario games.

 

The 2DS sold decently before Christmas due to a cheaper price and some even had Pokemon bundles, then again it is competition since the PS4 and the Xbone were gathering interest, the Vita was getting bundles [to the point where a few games were in the charts but not Tearaway], the Wii U had a couple of bundles and even the old 360/PS3 had bundles plus lowering the prices. Now Nintendo have to think about this year; they have Smash Bros 3DS, Mario Golf, Yoshi's New Island, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, plus stuff like Nintendo Pocket Football Club but they need a few more games to keep momentum between now and the next Nintendo handheld console since so far maybe apart from Smash Bros and maybe Layton vs. Wright, the other titles are lower key (they are still good but ones that are already in a demographic e.g. Mario fans, Yoshi fans). While I am looking forward to Mario Golf and have really enjoyed my 3DS with the games so far, some people might want to wait for another game like Majora's Mask remake or something.

 

As for the next successor (as in not a redesign or a model), Nintendo are already planning one after merging the R&D of their handheld and their console departments however when it gets revealed is up to Nintendo themselves. A clue of their next console is in the 2DS itself as in possibly no 3D screen and recent games are downplaying 3D support. Plus they are thinking about using the same architecture (possibly an ARM processor) with their next home console that might be one of the same. At this stage, I wouldn't be surprised if next year Nintendo will announce a new console at the earliest but might release it in 2016 or 2017 when they gave the 3DS plenty of time and just enough for the Wii U.

[PSI Wind]

A new console reveal only 3 years in the new generation is suicidal.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Since when has a new console announcement automatically meant support for the predecessor dies instantly, though?

PS2. The PS2 killed a lot of what success its predecessors were still having. It even did that temporarily with PC games, somehow, that's how bad it was.

Really, the only way you'd still get decent support for your console is if the current one is doing badly, which defeats the whole purpose of this exercise.

[RisingForever]

PS2. The PS2 killed a lot of what success its predecessors were still having. It even did that temporarily with PC games, somehow, that's how bad it was.

Not really, the PS2 was announced in March of 1999, and at that point the PS1 was definitely still alive and getting tons of games up until the PS2's release and a little while after that too. The N64 was still getting games like Smash Bros and Majora's Mask well into 2000. It isn't like developers are immediately abandoning the previous gen as soon as the new one is announced.

[Sami]

A new console reveal only 3 years in the new generation is suicidal.

No, sitting and twiddling your thumbs while Apple is stealing away your market is suicidal.

A new console reveal only 3 years in the new generation is suicidal.

No, sitting and twiddling your thumbs while Apple is stealing away your market is suicidal.

[PSI Wind]

No, sitting and twiddling your thumbs while Apple is stealing away your market is suicidal.

No, sitting and twiddling your thumbs while Apple is stealing away your market is suicidal.

The only way Nintendo can counter Apple is making a Nintendo Smartphone or putting their games on Smartphones.

[Dejimon11]

Are we really going to get into the whole smart phones will kill handhelds?

[Wraith]

I wonder how many nintendo threads are going to have this discussion before people get sick of it.

 

3DS sales slowing down(not even necessarily being bad, but slowing down) honestly doesn't seem like enough to kick off a new handheld already. It's been what, 3 years? And the 3DS has been doing solidly and making a profit this whole time? Yeah, I doubt it. At the most we'll get a 3DS revision similar to the DSi that still plays 3DS games.

[Autosaver]

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.

 

It's kind of weird. Nobody cares about Sony or Microsoft as much as they do about Nintendo.

 

Nintendo sales declining? New system needed! Nintendo is doomed!

Sony sales declining? Pfft. Who cares?

 

Case in point: Forums, news blogs, and websites have discussions about Nintendo 10x per a week. Sony is in a far worse situation, yet you rarely ever hear anyone discussing Sony's sales.

[Sami]

I wonder how many nintendo threads are going to have this discussion before people get sick of it.

3DS sales slowing down(not even necessarily being bad, but slowing down) honestly doesn't seem like enough to kick off a new handheld already. It's been what, 3 years? And the 3DS has been doing solidly and making a profit this whole time? Yeah, I doubt it. At the most we'll get a 3DS revision similar to the DSi that still plays 3DS games.

But we already did get a major revision. Not only the 2DS, but the XL too.

They need something ready on the fifth year at the very latest. Even the fourth would be a good time, because the sales by then probably will be bad.

It's kind of weird. Nobody cares about Sony or Microsoft as much as they do about Nintendo.

Nintendo sales declining? New system needed! Nintendo is doomed!

Sony sales declining? Pfft. Who cares?

Case in point: Forums, news blogs, and websites have discussions about Nintendo 10x per a week. Sony is in a far worse situation, yet you rarely ever hear anyone discussing Sony's sales.

Because nobody, including Sony, gives a shit about the Vita. The handheld division is a simple side-project, something they haven't invested nearly as much into or depend on as much as their home consoles.

Sony's in a far worse situation? How? Do you mean the company as a whole? If so, it's practically irrelevant to the gaming division anyway, and that's what we're talking about.

I'm genuinely baffled as to what your argument is here. Wha?

[Autosaver]

Sony's in a far worse situation? How?

The Vita is selling as slowly as the Wii U, yet I don't see anybody going crazy about that. We're specifically talking about handhelds in this thread.

 

Because nobody, including Sony, gives a shit about the Vita.

 

This is exactly my point lol. Sony's platform had a heart attack, move along now. Nothing to see here.

[Dejimon11]

Sony as a whole aka outside their video game division they lost over 1 billion dollars, laid off over 5000 people, closed down their PC division, nobody is buying their PC's, TV's, Phones and their movies arent so hot either was t it recently reported that they have 70% chance of going under in the next 2 years and their rating credit is junk?

[Sami]

The Vita is selling as slowly as the Wii U, yet I don't see anybody going crazy about that. We're specifically talking about handhelds in this thread.

This is exactly my point lol. Sony's platform had a heart attack, move along now. Nothing to see here.

Because it doesn't matter. The Playstation brand will still be alive and well if the handheld division fails, because in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. If a flagship Playstation home console performs poorly, you would absolutely see headlines and discussion about it. Just look at what people were saying seven years ago.

The problem is you're not looking at the context of things here - Sony benefits from the Vita doing well, but they don't need it to. It's making a very small profit and isn't a product they're depending on like the PS4 is.

Nintendo does not have this luxury. Hardware sales are account for more than half of their income, and right now they're stuck with -

1. A console charting less than the Dreamcast.

2. A handheld in decline.

They have nothing else. Their situation is worse, they're not even comparable.

Sony as a whole aka outside their video game division they lost over 1 billion dollars, laid off over 5000 people, closed down their PC division, nobody is buying their PC's, TV's, Phones and their movies arent so hot either was t it recently reported that they have 70% chance of going under in the next 2 years and their rating credit is junk?

Sony's problem is dipping their fingers into too many markets and juggling things they don't have any success in. They sold the PC division, which is a good thing, and they turned the TV division into a wholly owned subsidiary (also good).

They're also one of the premiere leading companies of their entire country. The Japanese government won't let them go down.

Sony's not in a good position, but they're taking steps to fix that, for one, and this whole situation has nothing to do with the performance of Playstation. Sony does not depend on gaming in the same way Nintendo does.

[Autosaver]

People have been spouting "Nintendo is doomed" since the N64. A decline this current generation happened, yes, but it never started the whole fascination with giving Nintendo huge attention.

 

It's making a very small profit

 

Link? As far as I know, Sony was making a loss at the $250 price of the PSVita. I highly doubt they're making a profit at $200 either. Software sales are abysmal and third party developers aren't really caring.

 

I actually have to disagree with the fact you consider Sony's handheld a small side-project. The PSP sold 80 million units worldwide. It made a large profit and helped Sony during the time the PS3 was failing. 80 million units worldwide is a TON and software sales were also very large. The fact that the huge sum of market is completely eliminated and nobody bats an eye is weird.
 

 

Their situation is worse

 

Handheld wise? Not really. I expect an increase in sales once Kirby and Smash Bros are released for it. Like I said, software sales are a huge portion of money for Nintendo. Their software continues to sell in large amounts.

 

Same with the Wii U. Charting less than the Dreamcast? Well sure, but I highly doubt that will be the case when the "must own titles, system sellers" are finally coming out. Software sales will be huge this year.

 

Nintendo will rebound and they're not going to kill one division off. They're going to keep caring about both.

[Dejimon11]

....isn't that what I just said? Outside their gaming position?

[RisingForever]

I highly doubt they are going to announce the 3DS successor in 2014, but I do think they will in 2015. That would then make it so they could release by the end of 2016 and give the 3DS a healthy 5-year cycle. The 7-8 year cycles we had this previous generation was very unhealthy for Nintendo and to an extent Microsoft and Sony too. The WiiU lacked any of the momentum the Wii had because Nintendo waited until they had nothing left to release for the Wii for an entire year to release the WiiU. The 3DS had the opposite problem with Nintendo deciding that it's a good idea to release the brand new generation of Pokemon on the DS mere weeks before the 3DS is supposed to release. The long cycles are also the reason the PS3 and 360 are going to die off quicker than Sony and Microsoft think they are going to.

[Autosaver]

Register 3DS + a select range of Nintendo game = get Pokemon X or Y for FREE.

 

Doing it right now. I'd love to have a digital copy of Pokemon X.

[Willsy]

I was wondering, how does Super Mario 64 DS play with the circle pad?

[Indigo Rush]

Pretty darn smoothly. I can't imagine playing it without it.

[KrazyBean]

I was wondering, how does Super Mario 64 DS play with the circle pad?

 

It plays epically. You can't go back to the d-pad afterwards.

[Conando]

It works far better. Though you're getting the 8 way you would would the d-pad, it just transitions between directions much more smoothly and comfortably.

[VO.SUPER]

Nintendo is looking to bring Unity to the 3DS:

 

Coming from a Siliconera interview with Nintendo’s Damon Baker, Senior Manager of Marketing at Nintendo’s of America’s Licensing department... 

“We’ve had those discussions and we are definitely looking at that. Our priority was to get the Wii U build [of Unity] up and done and ready. Because we need a test environment for it, it’s taken a while for Unity to get finalized on Wii U, so that we can actually test against it. So that has been made available now and that is why we’ve got all of these [game] candidates waiting in the wings that are just going through the submission process at this point.

Now, we can move on to other platforms and see how we can make those compatible, either with Unity or with additional middleware providers as well. So, 3DS is definitely an exciting platform for us, because we’ve got a huge install base, and we want to take advantage of that. We’ve got a lot of developers that want to take advantage of it. So, we’re working towards that as well. But nothing to announce at this time.”

 

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/20/nintendo-looking-bringing-unity-nintendo-3ds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+siliconera%2FMkOc+%28Siliconera%29

[Willsy]

Nintendo don't usually consider things like this, do they?

[8ther]

Apparently Donkey Kong Land is coming to the 3DS Virtual Console next week. though it's for Japan only, to DK fans there are three things to be happy about right off:

 

A Rare-developed Donkey Kong game is showing up on a download service again, implying any rights issues blocking the original Country games have since been sorted or never existed (Super Donkey Kong was pulled in Japan a little under a month after DKC was pulled for NA)

 

An entry in the Land series is being made available in any non-secondhand form since the mid-90s.

 

A Country-relevant game besides Tropical Freeze Digital can be part of the Donkey Kong spotlights and sales on the Nintendo eShop.

[Tails spin]

Apparently Donkey Kong Land is coming to the 3DS Virtual Console next week. though it's for Japan only, to DK fans there are three things to be happy about right off:

 

A Rare-developed Donkey Kong game is showing up on a download service again, implying any rights issues blocking the original Country games have since been sorted or never existed (Super Donkey Kong was pulled in Japan a little under a month after DKC was pulled for NA)

 

An entry in the Land series is being made available in any non-secondhand form since the mid-90s.

 

A Country-relevant game besides Tropical Freeze Digital can be part of the Donkey Kong spotlights and sales on the Nintendo eShop.

Since i have dkl I will wait for dkcl2 or 3 to download