Saturday Soapbox: 3DS Six Months On

By Johnny Minkley Published 1 October, 2011

Charting a troubled launch.

In hindsight, I should have listened to my mum. You see, mum loves Nintendo handhelds, and has owned every single major new model since the original Game Boy.

So she was as excited to see 3DS as I was to show her when I took one back to my parents' house with a bunch of games just before it launched in the UK in March.

And, for the first time ever, she was utterly underwhelmed. "The 3D is annoying. What's the point of it? And I don't like any of these games". More damningly, she said it felt like a "backward step" from her beloved DSi XL (her platform of choice because of the screen size).

At the time, this was the first unequivocally negative reaction I'd encountered. The pre-launch hype from all quarters (including myself) was overwhelmingly positive: Nintendo was the company to single-handedly popularise stereoscopic 3D with its glasses-free revolution.

In the UK, Nintendo was reporting record pre-orders and the trade (again, myself included) fully expected it to smash the PSP's sales record to become another instant smash-hit for the company. And then it launched.

The first sign something wasn't quite right was how long it took Nintendo to announce launch sales. The press release announcing sales of 113,000 in the UK didn't come until the end of the following week - and tucked away in the small print was the line: "Sales figures source: Nintendo UK internal Sell-thru Panel w/e 26th March 2011".

The reason why that was interesting is because it is, shall we say, highly unusual not to use data from Chart-Track, the official body that collates hardware and software sales in the UK.

Chart-Track issued its own figure to subscribers earlier that week (which can't be reported, but you can assume it was lower), and Nintendo decided to issue its own. Curious.

To be clear: in no sense is 113,000 consoles sold in two days a "bad" launch or a "low" figure - it was, after all, one of the best console launches ever. No, what surprised industry watchers was that it wasn't bigger.

'Saturday Soapbox: 3DS Six Months On' Screenshot 1

Super Mario 3D Land looks to give the handheld a boost, though some would argue that it should have launched sooner.

After all, Nintendo had trumpeted pre-orders of 140,000 in the UK - which apparently and strangely did not convert directly into sales. More telling, though, were the software sales figures. Lego Star Wars made it to No.2 in the all-formats countdown, with Super Street Fighter IV the top 3DS exclusive at No.4. But that only paints half a picture.

Again, I'm not allowed to share the numbers, but the total figure for the top ten 3DS games added together was fewer than Crysis 2 sold to top the chart that week.

As many, many people have since observed, there were some very good games in the launch line-up, but no obvious, system-selling 'killer app'. No Mario, no Zelda, no Pokémon. And that's because Nintendo actually treated 3D as the killer app. And that proved a serious mistake.

"3D TECHNOLOGY EMBRACED THROUGH NINTENDO 3DS", screamed the post-launch press release. All the messaging, all the TV ads were focused on 3D. Then all that awkward '3DS causes headaches' business started in the press and sales began to tail off.

Few, least of all Nintendo, had expected this and suddenly the company found itself with an expensive new handheld console whose sales were going south, and a dearth of exciting software to fire it back into action.

Nothing showed more clearly where things had gone wrong than the launch of the Ocarina Of Time remake - a game well over a decade old, but one of sufficient stature to bring 3DS owners out in force and make it by some distance the system's fastest-selling game.

But then what? Very little, as it turned out. And with sales still flagging Nintendo - to its credit - responded with a drastic and unprecedentedly early price cut, with the console plummeting to a far more attractive £115 at some retailers.

Just as critical, the advertising campaign around the price cut marked a dramatic change of tack. "The next-generation is here"; "amazing graphics"; "This is not DS, this is 3DS" - a tacit admission that these were the things Nintendo should have focused on in the first place. And not a single mention (other than in the small print) of 3D.

As hard as Nintendo, Sony, Sky and movie companies flog it, stereoscopic 3D still lacks any sense of irresistible momentum. Nintendo's focus on this feature - and to be fair, I doubt any marketing team would have done it much differently - obscured the vital fact that 3DS is far more powerful than DS. But the messaging - and even the name of the console itself - failed to communicate this.

This effective relaunch was good, positive stuff and console sales almost tripled in the immediate wake of the price cut. But without any massive games to back it up, sales soon dropped off again. Nintendo's biggest recent release, the 3D remake of Star Fox, did not do anywhere near Zelda's numbers, charting at No.9 in a slow week.

The sudden appearance of the bizarre Circle Pad extension further complicated matters. On the one hand it meant an exclusive Monster Hunter title for the platform (a huge, huge deal in Japan); but on the other it served to highlight a fundamental limitation of the original design and suggest to would-be buyers that a full revision may be on the horizon.

It's been a tougher first six months for 3DS than anyone expected. Irrespective of any missteps Nintendo may have made, iOS has in the meantime continued to explode in popularity as a portable gaming platform, offering pick-up-and-play fun often at a fraction of the price of handheld console games.

'Saturday Soapbox: 3DS Six Months On' Screenshot 2

Starfox 64 3D underwhelmed at launch, only reaching number 9 on a relatively slow week in the UK charts.

Both Sony, whose Vita launches next year, and Nintendo should be worried about the price pressure Apple's success is putting on their full-whack portable products. To argue about the relative depth of content is to miss the point.

For Nintendo, it is at last about the games. And as 3DS's first Christmas approaches, hope comes in the shape of its greatest asset, with Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 both imminent.

In other words, exactly the games that should have been there from day one. Games that will define the system with exclusive, fresh content to set it apart from rival platforms. You know, they type of games Nintendo has always made.

It seems so obvious in hindsight, but Nintendo's success has always been driven by a focus on amazing, surprising gaming experiences facilitated by great tech. Even with Wii, the technology was never an end in itself, and it would not have been the breakaway success it was had it not come packaged with its definitive experience: Wii Sports.

The reason 3DS has struggled to capture the imagination so far, then, is because it's been too much about the technology, with too little in the way of games to show us why we should care.

So my mum was right: it's all about the games. When they come, she may well learn to love 3DS, too. But for Nintendo as well as existing 3DS owners, they really can't come soon enough.

Picture of Johnny.

About Johnny Minkley

Eurogamer TV's Johnny Minkley is a veteran journalist with a lifelong passion for games and the games industry. He uses Twitter more than most people use air.

Read more articles from Johnny by visiting the Johnny Minkley archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Gambit1977 #1 5 months ago

    Bit harsh to point out the games added together sold less than an extremely hyped multiple format title. But quite enlightening. 3D is still somewhat of a techno gadget. How long did HD take to make it into most houses after all?

    That said, I traded mine in. It wasn't a huge leap, and 3D alone isn't enough to sell games to me.

  • 5lectro #2 5 months ago

    Nothing to see here... the DS had no killer apps until Nintendogs and Mario Kart more than 6 months in.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #3 5 months ago

    The thing is, the 3DS is never going to have a software catalogue like the DS's. The DS hit a sweet spot - it tapped into a desire for more accessible games, at a time when there was basically nothing serving that market. That era is past now. However much the self-styled "hardcore" whine on about "real" controls and Angry Birds, the fact is that smartphones/iOS devices now own the vast majority of the audience that the DS sold to.

    You always had to be hugely lucky to have a profitable hit on the DS, and you have to be hugely lucky to manage it on iOS too. But with hundreds of millions of users, amazing impulse-buy price points and a super-easy "store" experience - get any game you want in seconds, rather than trying to find it in the tiny selection in GAME or waiting days for an online supplier to send it in the post - coupled with incredibly low barriers to entry from a development perspective, you can have dozens of attempts before you go bust rather than one.

    Mario 3D Land and MK7 will of course sell barrowloads. But not THAT many - the Super Mario Galaxy games didn't do spectacular business by Nintendo standards despite coming out for a platform with a staggeringly massive userbase. And even if they boost the 3DS for a bit, it'll be very temporary. They certainly won't do anything to make the 3DS more attractive to third-party devs, and that's what's going to kill the format.

  • captainrentboy #4 5 months ago

    I had mine for free and still don't bother with the thing.
    Currently it just gets borrowed from any mate that wants to have a blast for a week or so.
    I thought games like the new Mario/Kart might've made me want to give it another go, but after trying those two a few weeks back, it was simply a case of 'same old, same old'.
    I'm not saying there won't be some fantastic games for it in the future, but at the moment it, and its software, does nowt for me.

  • Rodney #5 5 months ago

    'super mario, mariokart 7'...'exclusive fresh content'?

  • munki83 #6 5 months ago

    I'll stick with the 3ds because for some reason I still love Nintendo and they make some fantastic games. I just hope it doesn't become like my wii and becomes a place to store dust between big releases

  • jonsaan #7 5 months ago

    For once I agree with the Rev. It's a lovely bit of kit though. It's so frustrating though. Nintendo could offer a subscription based service to all their old games and they could have my money. We need to get away from this drip fed content bollocks. It's just daft. That said I really enjoy the 3DS. It does seem like a missed opportunity. Sadly I have little confidence that Nintendo will wake up before they are dead.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/11 @ 08:59

  • handsonhips101 #8 5 months ago

    It's the fact that nintendo pushes out the same franchises with little changes (or just plain remakes) again and again. That's what puts me off.

    I've got an n64 still, I can play these games on a 50" telly (with huge blurred textures!) So why would I buy a 3ds? I can buy games for 99p on eBay....

    Plus pilotwings 64 is better than the 3ds version by a long shot!
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/11 @ 09:34

  • Shabbaranks #9 5 months ago

    Nintendo should quite making consoles/hanhelds and make their games multiplatform, pretty much like sega.

    The snes was their finest hour, wii sold well but how many still get used often?

  • Gearskin #10 5 months ago

    The extension is a pointless exercise imo, especially when you see all how cool the touch controls are for Monster Hunter.

    I don't regret buying the 3DS at launch. May not have a ton of games on it but it does have some great ones and the device itself is fun. Its also BC with the entire DS catalogue, which I still own.

    I happen to think Mario Land 3D will be one of the best games of 2011.

  • BonzoBanana #11 5 months ago

    "It seems so obvious in hindsight, but Nintendo's success has always been driven by a focus on amazing, surprising gaming experiences facilitated by great tech."

    Don't see how the article can say always, after the gamecube Nintendo has gone seriously low tech. The super nes, N64 and Gamecube were technically excellent for their time but since then Nintendo have been selling low tech hardware at inflated prices. The DS was a mere fraction of the peformance of PSP and the 3DS is a mere fraction of what the Vita is capable of. The wii was inferior to the then obsolete original xbox and didn't even start to compare to 360 and PS3. The original PSP is still competitive with the 3DS overall yet 6 years seperate them. I'd love to get back to the days when Nintendo were competitive with regards technology.

    Nintendo's focus seems to be purely on what shareholders want rather than what gamers want nowadays.

  • JinTypeNoir #12 5 months ago

    It would be interesting to see how journalists backpedal if and when it starts selling like no tomorrow. Unfortunately, gaming writers are way more predictable than sales trends are, so it won't be interesting at all.

  • Mister-Wario #13 5 months ago

    The problems for me with the 3DS are the inevitable hardware revisions and the selection of games coming out, including the first party releases. The circle pad peripheral says to me that the original design was flawed and this is a ridiculous attempt to repair what we now perceive as should have been there to begin with, if that makes sense. If they had just stuck with one analogue, and said "okay, this is the 3DS control scheme" then that would have been fine and I would probably have picked this up a lot sooner. But now this is basically saying "we messed up with the design" and I'm waiting for the inevitable twin-sticked version.

    The other problem is that the first-party lineup, and I realise I've said this before, is made entirely of sequels, with the only arguably fresh entry Kid Icarus. I mean, Mario Kart and Super Mario will be solid, enjoyable games, but fresh? Super Mario 3D Land's biggest feature is the raccoon suit, with Mario Kart 7's the ability to fly and travel underwater. And that's fine, but the PSV is going above and beyond this with both sequels to established franchises AND new original titles like Little Deviants and Sound Shapes. Not to mention games like Modnation Racers, where you can make and download hundreds of new tracks. And, you know, I would want these new experiences to be placed more to the forefront of the 3DS' promotion. After all, Sony seems to be demonstrating familiar experiences don't have to exist to the detriment of new ones.

    The point is, for me Nintendo seem to have really messed up their launch. They'll almost definitely recover, but at this stage in the game the console isn't doing much for me. And it'll take them so long to really fix the mistakes the PSV will have built up a heck of a lot of steam, and potentially become a serious competitor for my money.

  • Raiko101 #14 5 months ago

    There is still a lack of physical games worth owning, but i've got a ton of downloads. I think they should focus on advertising the eShop a little more and push some games out faster too.

  • geox30 #15 5 months ago

    To me the the high point of the system is its graphic capabilities.It has more power than psp,less than vita.But it is Nintendo and I love games like paper Mario or Super Mario Land on the go.3D is an added bonus.When these games come,I will be more satisfied with it.If only it could catch the attention of good third party developers..

  • RawNinjaKid #16 5 months ago

    Mum NOT liking the 3DS is just the point and maybe quite a good point for many of us. I suspect mum will hate the Vita; which is exactly the reaction Sony wants!!

    The small but growing 3DS current install base is mostly older males at the moment. I hope this trend continues....

    It be interesting where Nintendo takes it from here. They say they want to be for everyone, but I am not sure that's possible without a strong bias towards the core gamer demo.
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/11 @ 10:03

  • GamesConnoisseur #17 5 months ago

    As hard as Nintendo, Sony, Sky and movie companies flog it, stereoscopic 3D still lacks any sense of irresistible momentum.

    This... when 3DS was flogged with just one killer app, 3D, touchscreen, dual screen etc all been seen before. Nintendo was too rushed, regretted didn't include second circle stick and lack of system seller games are all because they were actually afraid of Vita!

    But by rushing, they shot themselves in foot. As higher specs alone is worth it, if you look at what it can do with ugh coughing, Zelda and Star Fox and imagine the types of higher resolution N64 games with online connection.

    3DS is still worth to hold onto, for the handful of the great games out and coming out, Paper Mario, etc, but it will be a runner up to Vita. But how bad a runner up? We ll see.

  • Raiko101 #18 5 months ago

    I think Nintendo should be putting more effort into highlighting the eShop and get behind it more. It's definitely a highlight for the system. Maybe more so than the 3D. I have 23 games on my 3DS and 20 of them are downloads. Granted most of them are Virtual Console games, but i've enjoyed everything i've played so far, with the exception of Ice Climbers. I think these downloadable games will have a great appeal to the more casual audiences. Especially considering how easy they are to jump in and out of. It's the reason i'm still playing my 3DS after having finished Ocarina of Time.

  • Raiko101 #19 5 months ago

    @Rev.StuartCampbell

    I think the DS has the strongest games library of any console in the past 10 years. There are so many games i've yet to play that I really want. If the 3DS library was only a quarter of the strength, it would be worth owning.

  • TonyHarrison #20 5 months ago

    On other websites, where the people who frequent them have a more than passing interest in sales, there's a launch aligned comparison between the first year of the DS and the first year of the 3DS. So far, the DS had been ahead, partly because of the poor start of the 3DS, and partly because the DS had a Christmas launch, which of course the 3DS did not. But since the price cut, the 3DS has been closing the gap, and it'll move ahead within the next month. And then it'll have its Christmas season. The 3DS is therefore going to end up beating the first year of the DS by a sizeable amount. It makes me wonder what all the fuss is about.

  • Monsieur_Blade #21 5 months ago

    I think you're spot on in pointing out that Nintendo made a big mistake in hyping the 3D and not actually making clear that the 3DS was a completely new handheld console and much more powerful than the DS.

    I think to a lot of people (myself included to a certain extent) 3D is still a bit of a gimmick. I love my 3DS but it's the more powerful graphics and the superior hardware that I love, not so much the 3D effect.

    I think if Nintendo had promoted the 3DS as a completely new console, showed the improved graphics and features, had an RRP of £150 to start with and shipped the console with MarioLand 3D it would have been a roaring success!

    The next few months really are the most important for the 3DS in my opinion. If the release of Mario 3DS, Mario Kart 3DS and Sonic Generations doesn't really improve sales figures then the system might be in some serious trouble.

  • Mr.Spo #22 5 months ago

    The idea the 3DS is still struggling is highly misleading--on a global level (going by VGChartz, which I know is not always accurate but is a good indication of sales) it has been the top-selling system every week since the price cut. Sales appear to have stabilised at around 200k per week, which is more than twice the pre-price cut sales level, and this is before the big hitting Mario titles have launched. Plus, Nintendo will get the end of year sales boost starting this month--and I wouldn't rule out Zelda/Nintendogs bundles being announced this month.

    There's no doubt the 3DS launch was badly mismanaged--the article does mention all the major problems, such as price, poor marketing, brand confusion, tabloid scare stories. All of this has been dealt with, and in the short-term, the 3DS is fine. It has a strong upcoming release list to sell to long-time gamers, with mass-market hits like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing complimented by Luigi's Mansion 2, Kid Icarus, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Monster Hunter, Paper Mario, Mario Tennis, Fire Emblem and more. No 'core' Pokemon game has been announced yet--which would of course sell millions of systems. Professor Layton is yet to hit the system in the West. The message is clear--Nintendo still have plenty of cards to play, and as Sony proved with PS3, the life-span of a console is a marathon, not a sprint.

    The biggest problem I see Nintendo having in the long-term is software pricing--3DS games going for up to £40 is a massive error, especially now the price of the hardware is so much lower. Like wise, AppStore games selling for up to 5 times the price on eShop is a big mistake, too. Hopefully Nintendo are watching Sony's moves with Vita closely--attracting the better iOS and Android games onto eShop, as well as rejigging the pricing models and increasing the frequency of releases would do wonders for the system as a whole, increasing the attractiveness of the 3DS not just to consumers but to developers too. The retail prices need to come down--Nintendo's success after 2006 led to them abandoning the staggered software pricing they were going to adopt--Brain Training initially came out at £15-£20, and it was always easy to find new DS releases for £20-£25 on the day of release.

    Now I'm struggling to find Mario Kart and Land for under £30. With so much competition for consumers' money, Nintendo's pricing on 3DS software doesn't make any sense. Charging amounts that fall just short of home console games will hamper the system seriously in the long-term. Nintendo's biggest games will sell for this amount--Zelda testifies to that--but Nintendo's smaller titles (StarFox, Pilotwings) and third party titles will struggle at these price points. In the long-term, that would be disastrous for 3DS. The Wii has lost its immense momentum because software releases and third party sales never kept up with the rate of hardware adoption, and 3DS doesn't have the big start Wii had--a couple of years of highly priced software not selling could kill the system.

    So for long-term success, Nintendo's best bet is to lower the price of software, both digital and retail. They have a great upcoming library of games, and Nintendo's first party brands have never been more popular. Rev.Campbell may cite the Galaxy games as not selling spectacularly (how many companies would kill to have a 3D platformer sell 5 million plus??), but 9 million or more for Galaxy 1 and more than 6 million for Galaxy 2 is no bad result. If Mario Land 3D does that well, I doubt Nintendo will be concerned--on the sales side, it should fall somewhere between the first Galaxy and NSMB on DS, which has sold over 20 million copies. The bigger game (sales wise) is of course Mario Kart--Mario Kart DS sold over 20 million, and Mario Kart Wii is approaching the 30 million sales milestone. So long as Nintendo have these evergreen blockbusters and churn out the smaller titles, the 3DS will do very well--for the next 18 months at least.

    The longer term future of the system and traditional handheld gaming as a whole is still up in the air. Hopefully Vita and 3DS will thrive, and attract some of the market playing iOS and Android games into the fold of traditional gaming. But to do that, Nintendo and Sony have their work cut out for them. I hope they're both up to the task.

  • jonbwfc #23 5 months ago

    'It's been a tougher first six months for 3DS than anyone expected.'
    Tougher than you expected. Plenty of us said that the 3D was a gimmick and that it would struggle until it got some real 'must have' software which, other than Monster Hunter in Japan, it still hasn't got. Remakes of 10 year old games, no matter how good they were, do not a console seller make.

    Jon

  • jhs8swd #24 5 months ago

    Also, not to mention that the Virtual Console, which whilst it has stagnated on the Wii still has an extraordinary catalogue of quality games, is pretty terrible on the 3DS. Asking people to pay more than nothing for a copy of Qix (the ROM for which measures up at a staggering 39Kb, a lot less memory than this webpage takes up) is just a total sham, especially when you do have people buying some reasonably high quality iPhone games for the same amount. If they were to reduce the cost of the Virtual Console items to about 50p a download, I think they'd have a lot more downloads and give themselves a much better name - they've already made the money off of these games 20 years ago anyway. Grumble.

  • The_Weird #25 5 months ago

    I was a day-1 3DS buyer, but I just decided to get rid of it, probably go back to a DSiXL, since I've played more DS games on the 3DS than 3DS titles, and there are still loads of DS RPGs that I have never played. Having seen the upcoming titles, I just dont fancy any of them enough to pay 30 quid for them. Even Ocarina got old quickly, nice nostalgia hit, but it's the same game that Nintendo have been iterating for years, and ultimately felt stale. I passed over Starfox for that reason, ansd I suspect the same of the upcoming Mario games. I was looking forward to the Resident Evil title (the real one, not the old bonus content cynically repackaged as a full-price release), but I have concluded that this will, in fact, just be more of the same old Resi, but in 3D. No sale.

    The nintendo app store looks like a rip off especially if you already have an ipod/iphone/android device. I don't mind so much about the original Nintendo titles, but the multi-platform ganes such as 'Cut the rope' selling for 4-5 times the price as on other formats (and in an inferior form) is just ridiculous. Not to mention that the number of actual 3DS-specific releases is feeble, and what is there are quick 3D updates of NES games, which are pretty much proof positive that 3D adds nothing at all to the gameplay.

    I accept that there was an error in pushing the 3D aspect over and above the other improvements in the hardware, but let's face it - it's not *that* much more powerful. It's not more powerful enough to offer anything especially new in terms of game types. The motion control aspect is completely at odds with the 3D display - movement of the console destroys the 3D effect, so it's one or the other. The analogue nub offers more potential and they cocked it by only including one.

    This is probably just me - an age thing - but I just cant get on with the 3DS screen size. Too damn small these days, and the 3D effect makes everything look even tinier. No problem with 3D, just too small when compared to either PSP or phone gaming.

  • Serebii #26 5 months ago

    I think it's negligent to not note that week on week, since the price drop, the 3DS has been outselling every console worldwide. You're painting it to be as if the price drop only spurred sales for a week, when it has been consistently high every week since. The 3DS is becoming a success. Deal with it.
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/11 @ 15:46

  • captainCandy #27 5 months ago

    OMG that Super Mario 3DS looks ... crap.

  • captainCandy #28 5 months ago

    If you forget the 3D effect, hardwarewise 3DS is ancient. What, a sub 500MHz CPU? Miserable screen size(s), and a totally weak GPU...

  • FenderMaster #29 5 months ago

    to agree with Rodney, fresh content is the issue. They've gone from being this company who makes a variety of franchises to the Mario company, where they think the core gamers will be satisfied by Mario after Mario ad infinitum. Whats Super Mario 3D Lands big new feature? Like Mister Wario said, the raccoon suit, first seen back in 1988.

    What new franchises have Nintendo tried to launch? Steel Diver? A game that they admitted was originally supposed to be DSiware, and which they deliberately decided to make short and content lite.

    Have Nintendo considered that that people may just be suffering from Mario fatigue? His games are still mostly great of course, but going down the Activision route of releasing one every year, while it may make investors happy, is not the route to long term success.

  • RawNinjaKid #30 5 months ago

    About cheap games : I say this, I'd pay £50 for one quality title, rather than £50 for 500 crap ones!

    The 3DS VC store just shows how much quality old Game Boy games had, compared to DSiware/Wiiware or Playstation minis!

  • spotter5 #31 5 months ago

    I bought my 3DS when the price came down for £120 just so I can get the (proper adventuring) 3D pokemon game when they finally get around to making one.

  • redcrayon #32 5 months ago

    I still don't understand how, considering the vastly increased competition in the mobile sector plus the bottom dropping out of the economy, the 3DS is in trouble for selling similar amounts to the DS that had much easier market conditions?

    That backwards compatibility with the DS library is a big thing for kids too, as the games can be picked up for a few pounds, and don't require a credit card. That's why they've started adding that onto the marketing material in the UK.

    Agree that the games are the thing though. By the time the Vita launches, I don't think the 3DS library is going to reflect the year's head start it had, you know you're in trouble when you launch your new console early and expect Ubisoft to fill in the gaps where Ninty first party stuff should be.

  • SlackMaster #33 5 months ago

    One of the other problems is that RRP of many games like StarFox being £39.99... I haven't picked up StarFox yet as I'll not pay £34-39 for a handheld game so have held off buying it. When I see it cheaper online I'll pick it up.

  • DrStrangelove #34 5 months ago

    Again, I'm not allowed to share the numbers, but the total figure for the top ten 3DS games added together was fewer than Crysis 2 sold to top the chart that week.

    To be fair, how many Playstations and XBoxes are there? Around 100 million shipped, if I remember right. On top of that there's still a large base of gaming PCs to steal, uhm, buy Crysis 2 for. Even if the 3DS sold twice or thrice as many units, that would be hard to compete with so early on, wouldn't it?

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #35 5 months ago

    "I think the DS has the strongest games library of any console in the past 10 years. There are so many games i've yet to play that I really want. If the 3DS library was only a quarter of the strength, it would be worth owning."

    I'd pretty much agree with your first assertion. But the 3DS library won't be anything like a quarter as strong, for the reasons I outlined.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #36 5 months ago

    "Rev.Campbell may cite the Galaxy games as not selling spectacularly (how many companies would kill to have a 3D platformer sell 5 million plus??), but 9 million or more for Galaxy 1 and more than 6 million for Galaxy 2 is no bad result."

    I didn't say they'd sold badly. But Galaxy 2 has sold fewer in its entire life than Modern Warfare 2 did in its first week, despite being an almost infinitely superior game running on the format with the biggest userbase on the planet. If Mario 3D Land gets the same attach rate as SMG1 has, it won't sell 9m or even 6m, it'll shift 400,000. I wish things were otherwise, but Mario just isn't the box-office he used to be.

  • 32768Colours #37 5 months ago

    If I'm not alone thinking the 3DS is a white elephant, (and I bet I'm not) in spite of being a Nintendo fan for 20 years, imagine what Bloggs the DS owner would think when they look at the 3DS. They're gonna think "Well, I've already got Nintendogs, Mario Kart and Mario on my DS. Its a dear do buying them again just to play them in 3D, so I'll probably leave it."

    Nintendo are potentially stuck between a rock and a hard place with 3DS. Casual DS owners may have moved onto Android or iOS devices, may have "grown out of" gaming, or may have only bought the DS for their kids in the first place and see no value in upgrading. In fact, the child demographic is very important because kids are extremely fickle, and if 3DS isn't the must-have item this Christmas, Nintendo are in trouble. Its not as though a £100+ handheld is a stocking-filler after all...

    On the "hardcore" side of things I think there are a multitude of factors that stack against 3DS. There's the lack of multi-region, battery life, the daft circle pad hardware fix, the price fiasco, question marks over hardware revisions, online capabilities and pricing of digital content... and that's before we even think about the lack of games.

    Sony are taking a far more broad approach to Vita's software support with everything from console standard games like Uncharted to Android compatibility hinting at dirt-cheap games and maybe even apps. Nintendo's most direct competitor in the handheld games market is releasing a system that looks every bit as attractive an option to gamers as the iPhone 4 does to those DS owners who only ever bought Brain Training and Mario Kart anyway, and can't wait for their current phone contract to end so they can get Angry Birds.

    You see, that's the problem: For us, its all about the games. For the Farmville / Angry Bird fanatics, its all about the games. They're just very different types of games catering to very different types of gamer. What Nintendo fail to see is that with 3DS they aren't serving either group very well at all.

  • RawNinjaKid #38 5 months ago

    To be fair to N: they did try to bring mature "core" games in the Gamecube era, the last time people said they were in some trouble.
    They brought the Resident Evil franchise to the table with great success, Killer 7, a MGS game, a excellent mature title in Eternal Darkness and they sanctioned a excellent "core" F-Zero and Metriod Prime series of games. Together with Zelda/Mario, Gamecube should have done excellent. But instead of people praising N for this move and their excellent control pad; it got slated for looking "like a toy" and got boycotting pretty bad!! Really undeserved, I think.

    So after that failure: they choose the "casual" route with the DS/wii.

    Looking at the upcoming 3DS line up and their plans for the wii U; it looks N are going to mixing with "core" gaming franchises with their traditional quality offerings again. But somehow you get the feeling that the"core" will find some excuses to stick with Playstation/Xbox.




  • redcrayon #39 5 months ago

    Mario 3D Land and MK7 will of course sell barrowloads. But not THAT many - the Super Mario Galaxy games didn't do spectacular business by Nintendo standards despite coming out for a platform with a staggeringly massive userbase. And even if they boost the 3DS for a bit, it'll be very temporary.

    @Rev Stu
    I take your point on the relative attach rates for Mario games, but aren't SMB/Mario Kart usually fairly evergreen titles rather than temporary boosts?

    Mario Kart DS/Wii sold well for years, is it unreasonable to think that, evenif they start off fairly slow due to it being a new system with a relatively small user base, the constant console sales will mean constant new buyers for the 3DS versions, keeping them selling strongly over time like their predecessors rather than the usual 3-month window for most other console games?
    Edited by 4 at 02/10/11 @ 09:35

  • malforian #40 5 months ago

    How are Mario Kart 7 + Mario land 3DS "fresh Content"?

    there basically ANOTHER remake of a snes game ..... for a change

  • SG #41 5 months ago

    The 3DS got unpopular when Nintendo announced its high price point and even went as far as saying that it was that high due to its (at the time) popularity, shortly after E3 (I think).
    Edited by 2 at 02/10/11 @ 20:32

  • globalisateur #42 5 months ago

    When mario 64 first launched, it was graphically superior to its competitors.

    It was not only in advance gameplay speaking, but technically also. The same for Ocarina of Time, which even with low resolution appeared more realistic (real) than 3d PC games.

    Nintendo completely ignored those facts with nearly all their next titles. For instance, the childish super mario sunshine with added blur, and wind waker also. All those games had the nintendo gameplay, but technically they were behind their competitors.
    Remember the SNES Yoshis's Island and Zelda Link to the past? they were not only Nintendo games but also crisp, beautiful and detailed games for their time.

    Nintendo now focus exclusively on gameplay but they forgot (or choose to forget) that (realistic) technical aspects of the games add to the overall quality of the games, too.

    Of course the causes of that are obvious. 2 categories of causes: The hardware part (hard to make technically advanced games on a wii for instance) and also the designing part. The designer have to WANT to make their game realistically advanced. There is also the designers of the hardware, too who maybe CANT (due to economical reasons) make what they want... There are reasons why some videogame companies stopped doing hardware.

    Edited by 3 at 02/10/11 @ 14:38

  • Kamata #43 5 months ago

    "The reason 3DS has struggled to capture the imagination so far, then, is because it's been too much about the technology, with too little in the way of games to show us why we should care"

    I think its likely down to the new 3D technology simply not appealing to the casual gamer, alot of people dont get on with 3D, often stating it causes nausea when played for prolonged periods. Look past that, the 3DS is technically a refurbished DS minus killer titles , it starts to paint an obvious picture. The 3Ds will never be widely accepted or become as popular as it's predecessors.

  • vampiricdragon_ #44 5 months ago

    This article is beyond stupid, as well as most of the comments

    Facts

    1) The 3ds has more games than the ds did at the same point in time, with more developer support

    2) The 3ds has been number 1 worldwide for 2 months, number 1 in japan for almost 5 months, and number 1 in europe for about 2 months

    3) The 6 month sales are on track with what the ds did. And set to surpass fiscally what the ds did

    4) IOS has NOT EFFECTED ANY SALES OF ANYTHING. Thats also a fact

    Doom and Gloom doesnt work if theres no facts behind it. And the article doesnt have facts. Neither do these comments
    Edited by 3 at 02/10/11 @ 16:57

  • TonyHarrison #45 5 months ago

    @Rev.StuartCampbell "If Mario 3D Land gets the same attach rate as SMG1 has, it won't sell 9m or even 6m, it'll shift 400,000. I wish things were otherwise, but Mario just isn't the box-office he used to be."

    You're ignoring the rather large elephant in the room that is the two NSMB games and the last two Mario Kart games shifting about 100million units between them, and that's with minimal bundling.

  • Ahskay #46 5 months ago

    Wauw, it took 46 posts untill a fanboy woke up. 3DS must be out of love for sure.

  • NeoTechni #47 5 months ago

    "You know, they type of games Nintendo has always made. "

    *the, not they.

    I'm glad 3DS is failing, despite being the best system Nintendo's made since the Gamecube.
    They deserve it after how crappy DS/Wii were. And this will only serve to force them to improve themselves, something they've refused to do for over a decade.

    PS3 went through the same thing, and it's better because of it.

    "4) IOS has NOT EFFECTED ANY SALES OF ANYTHING."

    False.
    Edited by 1 at 02/10/11 @ 22:11

  • smelly #48 5 months ago

    YAAAAY!! Fanboy fodder articles rock!

  • getittoomebaby #49 5 months ago

    Well I think Facebook, Android and iOS pads have had a significant affect on the sales too. Casual gamers have moved whether Nintendo wish to admit that or not. There was a press release earlier in the year "complaining" about how that market is trampling on their sales.

    Certainly correct at least in Japan hardware sales of the 3DS have improved dramatically. Think you will find Xbox 360 outsold all platforms in the US in August 2011.

    Although I think its harsh to give Nintendo a hard wrap for pushing 3D. I think what they did underestimate is the level of intelligence of the consumer. Marketing was maybe aimed at a more sophisticated audience. Dumbing it down helps but go back to my first point. Some how I think its not going to be as easy this time. WHo knows time will tell whetehr they get teh sales. You know killing off (or limiting supply) DSi and DSI Xl will do that too ;).

  • Keresky #50 5 months ago

    @vampiricdragon_

    "2) The 3ds has been number 1 worldwide for 2 months, number 1 in japan for almost 5 months, and number 1 in europe for about 2 months"

    Quit lying. I read the Japanese hardware figures religiously on a weekly basis, and the 3DS was getting its rosy, overpriced butt spanked by the PSP until the second week of August when the great 3DS firesale began. And you have the gall to whine that "the article doesnt have facts"? Give me a break. I've owned every major Nintendo handheld - bought the original Gameboy when it first came out - and even to me it's obvious that Nintendo overplayed its hand with the 3DS. The fact that their idea of "killer app" is a premium-priced update of a decade-old game is just adding insult to injury.

  • darc #51 5 months ago

    Bought mine week 1 at retail price. It's still sitting bedside collecting dust. Ocarina is a nice release, but it wasn't enough to draw me in. I'm not sure I can fault the 3DS itself; it may be that portable gaming just isn't for me anymore. I don't sit on a bus playing video games, and when I'm at home I'd just as soon do it right, i.e. with a good controller and a big TV.

    Maybe the upcoming Paper Mario will change my mind, something designed with the 3DS form-factor in mind. Ocarina of Time just felt out of place, too familiar and - to quote the article - "a step backwards" having already played Twilight Princess on GameCube.