Nintendo 3DS business/general talk *spin-off feat. 3DS as a P.I. in New Orleans

[Brad Grenz]

While a single anlog stick isn't ideal it was the standard during the 32bit era with the saturn and n64 having a single anlog and some of the best games were made using a single anlog stick.

So... 3DS: Welcome to 1996.

Seems the exact same senario as last time. Yes the NGP has a second anlog stick and rear touch screens but this hardly means anything if the software isn't there and it wont be because experiances like RDR and GTA5 are not meant to be had in minute long sprits of play time

Yeah, the exact same, except for all the difference and you pretending there won't be any games.

Why would nintendo need Nicole Kidman playing New Super mario brothers on a comercial ? It sold like 20m copies without wasting money on a celeb.

Sure, Mario sells the same 20 million copies whether it's on an installed base of 30 million or 140 million. That's kinda my point.

If people bought a $150 + system to play just Brain age or just picross cause nicole kidman did a comercial then they will buy whatever nicole kidman tells them to buy the next time she does a nintendo comercial.

Or they'll already have their Smart Phone they play games on and won't see the point any more.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Oh, but 3DS does have two analog sticks, the other stick is in the hole on the back!

 

[Xmas]

Really ? I hated using my psp2000 and keeping it in a jacket pocket it took up way to much room. Also i only use a jacket for about 4 months of the year. So I'd need a bag for the PSP the rest of the year. Even my 3DS fits fine in my front pocket

I still don't get what jacket your wearing. A kindle would be to wide to fit into a jacket pocket of mine.

I don't have a PSP, but I have a DS Lite (gathering dust) and I'm not comfortable carrying it in my front pocket. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Kindle 3 is about 3cm wider than my wallet, but due to its slim shape it fits in any pocket that is just as wide, while I struggle to pull my wallet out of a pocket that's less than 2cm wider. In fact my wallet is both thicker and wider than an NGP, though usually lighter.

 

[Teasy]

I see the 3ds is off to a bad start in japan, already outsold by the psp last week & theres no supply issues. Though as japan tastes are very different to the rest of the west we'll see whether or not its a worldwide thing, one benefit though I suppose ninentdo can now ship some excess stock from japan to other countries

Not for long, its only due to a large temporary spike in PSP sales from a new FF game.

PSP/Go: 51,095 (last week - 23,511)
3DS: 50,710 (last week - 61,394)

3DS will be back on top next week, however I don't expect it to blitz PSP every week until some new games come out.

 

[eastmen]

I don't have a PSP, but I have a DS Lite (gathering dust) and I'm not comfortable carrying it in my front pocket. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Kindle 3 is about 3cm wider than my wallet, but due to its slim shape it fits in any pocket that is just as wide, while I struggle to pull my wallet out of a pocket that's less than 2cm wider. In fact my wallet is both thicker and wider than an NGP, though usually lighter.

I dunno , how tall are you ? I'm 6'4 and wear baggy jeans so mabye thats why i'm able to fit it in my front pocket more easily than you ?

Anyway i don't have a kindle but i went to targe and tried to see if it would fit in my jacket pocket and after some looks and questions from the target staff we came to the conclusion that it wouldn't fit in my pockets. Mabye a diffrent jacket though .

I don't use a wallet just a money clip so i dunno about that

 

[Sigfried1977]

Oh, but 3DS does have two analog sticks, the other stick is in the hole on the back!

Which happens to be just about the one place hardest to access on the whole system I might add.

I like the system, but it does give away the impression of someone hammering a rectangular puzzle piece into a triangular hole. Layout-wise it's kind of a mess. Almost seems like Nintendo did it on purpose to sell me a 3ds Lite/i a couple of years down the road.

I have similar hopes for the 3ds as I did for the PSP back then (which were thoroughly crushed by the way): the system isn't powerful enough to handle the monster budget lowest common denominator crap that is all the rage on the 360 and PS3, but it could be a nice home for some of the more quirky niche games that were so plentiful on the PS2. All without ruining the development studio in case something goes belly-up. Hopefully.

 

[zed]

Not for long, its only due to a large temporary spike in PSP sales from a new FF game.

PSP/Go: 51,095 (last week - 23,511)
3DS: 50,710 (last week - 61,394)

3DS will be back on top next week, however I don't expect it to blitz PSP every week until some new games come out.

looks like you might have to wait another week

PSP 58075
3DS 42979

Though You cant read too much into the west as japan plays out completely different than here (eg look at how handhelds dominate there where here they dont, well the ds sells well, but not software wise).
IMO Though this failure so far of the 3DS to set things alight doesnt bode well for the psp2

 

[ShadowRunner]

What was the DS selling like before? Has 3DS has cannibalized sales there substantially?

 

[zed]

no, the DS seems to be selling roughly what it was before the 3DS ~20k. though 20k is a down a lot from its sales a year/two ago, well thats chiefly the reason they released the 3DS in the first place
Also 20k a week means theres not much to cannibalize anyway, i.e. even if the ds sold 0 & the 3ds sold an extra 20k its still quite a lot less than they would of hoped

 

[Nesh]

looks like you might have to wait another week
IMO Though this failure so far of the 3DS to set things alight doesnt bode well for the psp2

It depends what the reasons are.
Is it the price? If its the price the NGP will have the same problem
Is it because the library isnt large enough compared to the DS? Same as above.
Is it because the consumer apart from the 3D screen they see another DS? Will the NGP face the same fate or are the new additions enough to pull more interest if thats the case?

 

[ShadowRunner]

Had my girlfriend randomly bring up that she heard 3DS makes you sick and damages your eyes, she was going to buy one for me but decided against it . I put her fears to rest though so hopefully ill be getting one afterall . Nintendo really needs to stop all the FUD spreading its quite damaging. It was even mentioned on watchdog tonight.

 

[zed]

It depends what the reasons are.

Youre missing perhaps the biggest reason.

5 years ago (or whenever the ds & psp come out) smartphones/tablets werent the force they are today.
i.e. I wouldnt be surprised if the main reason why the 3DS is not selling so good is ppl are deciding that their phone is a 'good enuf' gaming device, its a fact it has hurt sales, the question is how much?
I wouldnt be suprised if the 3ds & psp2 sell less than half what the ds&psp sold (still that will be around 100million so not to be sniffed at)

hence my reasoning if mobile phone gaming is hurting the 3DS it will most likely also hurt the psp2

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

There should be a automatic ''why phone ''gaming'' doesn't really impact handheld gaming'' post in this topic...

 

[Rangers]

Youre missing perhaps the biggest reason.

5 years ago (or whenever the ds & psp come out) smartphones/tablets werent the force they are today.
i.e. I wouldnt be surprised if the main reason why the 3DS is not selling so good is ppl are deciding that their phone is a 'good enuf' gaming device, its a fact it has hurt sales, the question is how much?
I wouldnt be suprised if the 3ds & psp2 sell less than half what the ds&psp sold (still that will be around 100million so not to be sniffed at)

hence my reasoning if mobile phone gaming is hurting the 3DS it will most likely also hurt the psp2

I agree. With 3DS doing less than expected, I think NGP will probably as well. We'll see I guess.

There's really a lot of doom and gloom surrounding both Nintendo and the 3DS at this point. For an example, Nintendo stock has been nothing but down since 3DS launched. The whole "it hurts your eyes!" debacle is a part too. Then of course these sales showing PSP beating 3DS in Japan just a few weeks after launch. It's all going pretty bad for 3DS so far imo, at least compared to expectations.

Part of it for me is I still think 3DS is underpowered. Maybe I'm not asking for NGP levels, but something halfway. SSF4 looks nice, but I cant help feel that 3DS graphics looks a bit dated, and the problem is handhelds are expected to have such a long life cycle, it's terrible to think we are presumably stuck with this dated hardware for years and years.

But that gets into a whole nother thorny debate, and I could be totally wrong. But I have to wonder as Nintendo seems to slip a little if they dont need to start thinking about becoming respectable again in sheer graphics ability.

 

[AlphaWolf]

There should be a automatic ''why phone ''gaming'' doesn't really impact handheld gaming'' post in this topic...

Can stick it right in with the "why bees can't fly" post.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

and agreed. Just because there will always be atleast some demand for high end mobile games don't mean that the ever developing gaming on mobile phones is not a huge threat to these dedicated gaming devices.

Imo high precision controls aren't what the majority of people are looking for in mobile gaming anyway.

 

[ShadowRunner]

We will need more evidence to suggest mobile gaming is greatly effecting the portable console market. DS has been selling huge numbers still all of this past year, PSP is selling as well as ever in japan (with the entire portable console market doing extremely well over there as a whole also), which is probably the only decent evidence we have, and actually presents a case for portable consoles being a very healthy market. There could be a whole host of reasons the 3DS isnt doing as well as expected, atleast provide some evidence that the cause is the mobile gaming.

 

[Rangers]

DS sales in the USA have been down quite a lot year over year in the USA I think. It sells well, but like half what it used to. That has enabled 360 to even beat DS many times recently.

Similarly, total Japan consoles sales tend to be down year over year, so if PSP and DS are doing so well in Japan, you wouldn't expect that.

For example, Neogaf has this:

PSP YTD 642,660 Last YTD 717,805
DS YTD 330,943 Last YTD 687,380


Although too be fair, once you throw 3DS in (835,933 YTD and of course, 0 last YTD), you have more handhelds sold this year to date than last. That seems surely a temporary blip caused by 3DS launch.

Looking over my NPD numbers, DS is indeed down quite a bit YoY, though we dont even always get DS numbers in the new system! For example December 2009 was ~3.3m DS vs ~2.5m Dec 2010. PSP drops would be even worse.

 

[Entropy]

We will need more evidence to suggest mobile gaming is greatly effecting the portable console market. DS has been selling huge numbers still all of this past year, PSP is selling as well as ever in japan (with the entire portable console market doing extremely well over there as a whole also), which is probably the only decent evidence we have, and actually presents a case for portable consoles being a very healthy market. There could be a whole host of reasons the 3DS isnt doing as well as expected, atleast provide some evidence that the cause is the mobile gaming.

Well, what would you consider to be evidence? I can't see that what you're asking for is possible, how can you know exactly why a console sells in a particular number?
What we can do, is suggest mechanisms that can be in play, and speculate as to their significance.

The only piece of data we're ever likely to have (and even that won't be completely solid) is total sales volume.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

DS sales in the USA have been down quite a lot year over year in the USA I think. It sells well, but like half what it used to. That has enabled 360 to even beat DS many times recently.

Similarly, total Japan consoles sales tend to be down year over year, so if PSP and DS are doing so well in Japan, you wouldn't expect that.

For example, Neogaf has this:

PSP YTD 642,660 Last YTD 717,805
DS YTD 330,943 Last YTD 687,380


Although too be fair, once you throw 3DS in (835,933 YTD and of course, 0 last YTD), you have more handhelds sold this year to date than last. That seems surely a temporary blip caused by 3DS launch.

Looking over my NPD numbers, DS is indeed down quite a bit YoY, though we dont even always get DS numbers in the new system! For example December 2009 was ~3.3m DS vs ~2.5m Dec 2010. PSP drops would be even worse.

That is just because of market saturation. With over a 100 million DS sold there are just not that much people you can sell a new one to. Especially since the DS launched at a mass market while the ps360 started out high that is why now they start selling more and more as the consoles are getting cheap.

As for the people who still believe mobile phone gaming is a threat for handheld gaming, could you please give me some good arguments/facts? We've had this discussion a dozen of times already but I never hear any good reason why mobile phone gaming is/will be a threat for handhelds.

Certainly there are plenty of reasons/facts why mobile phone gaming won't be a threat.

Expensive. Basically you need atleast a 300 euro phone to have angry birds run decent. And Angry birds looks like something that could be done on GBA. For anything half decent you need a high end phone.

Lifecycle. A phone will last you 2 years at best. Buying a handheld you know you will get games for 6 years.

Quality. Can anybody name me 10 games on mobile phones that rival the top games on DS/psp? The fact just is that mobile phone games are way below handhelds as far as the amount of quality titles go.

Gameplay. Your not going to play mario with a touch screen only device. Your not going to play FF with a touch screen only device. Your not going to play GT with a touch screen only device. And that is exactly why there is also a lack of quality games. Anybody serious about gaming wants to play those type of games with decent controls. Not some gimped touchscreen controls that make you lose half the screen size just because it's needed for buttons. Not to mention that is just doesn't work anywhere near as well as buttons.

Demographic. Kids/teenagers can't afford expensive phones. Than there still is the group of people who don't care about having a expensive phone. Though this will change as tech gets cheaper.