Comments on: Nintendo will lead innovation again; just not with the 3DS

By: PC Easy

PC Easy — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:13:47 +0000

Say goodbye to the DS. iDevices will put this out of business. If Nintendo is smart, they should be working on something that will compete with the next iOS TV device that Apple releases. Or perhaps Nintendo should create its own tablet.

By: Howie

Howie — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:05:43 +0000

I bought nintendo 3ds and for me it lasted about 6 hours with 3d on, but as you mentioned its not many games for it, when super mario and mario kart gets released to it the sales might raise enormous.

By: majora999

majora999 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:01:41 +0000

I don’t think the terrible sales have as much to do with phone and tablet gaming as you seem to think. They released 3DS with nothing good to play, no eShop, no Internet, horrible battery life when using 3D, and a few other major problems. Those are more of the reasons people aren’t buying it I think. THE reason I wouldn’t buy one right now is the terrible battery life. The large majority of phone and tablet games are total casual crap. They have their place, but are not really the same market.
I agree Nintendo has more competition for people’s money, but they really placed themselves in a terrible position with how they released it. I think they will end up doing fine. Nintendo always has something up their sleeves.

By: Lava

Lava — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:13:13 +0000

Except that the iPod touch is only $229. And if Apple introduces the next generation iPod touch at $199 or lower in September, you can kiss the 3DS goodbye.

Here’s the thing: iPod touch doesn’t have a competitor.

Actually, it goes have a competitor. All the traditional handhelds like the Gameboy and PSP. The only problem is for Nintendo and Sony is, they still think it’s the 1990s and operating on a multi-year hardware cycle, whereas Apple took the touch and is revving it annually.

The 3DS will fail because it’s business model was predicated on the anticipation that it would sell many more millions at the $250 price level and Nintendo would be able to recover the development costs over several years.

That’s not going to happen now that sales are much lower than anticipated and they had to cut the price so much so soon. The 3DS isn’t selling enough for developers to risk trying to sell $50 game cartridges for it when they see day to day that they are making money selling iOS games with faster payback and reduced risk.

By: Lindsworth Horatio Deer

Lindsworth Horatio Deer — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:19:52 +0000

Finally, the Nintendo 3DS at prices mere mortals can afford. Apparently the 3D pizazz was not “wow”ing the enthusiastic hardcore gaming crowd. Too Bad cloud is the eventual future of Premium Gaming!

http://www.geezam.com/console-gaming-downfall-future-is-up-in-the-clouds/

This as Freemium Gaming model on smartphones means that handhelds will go extinct as smartphone’s proliferate.

http://www.geezam.com/smartphones-and-apps-freemium-games-are-no-1/

Nintendo fan, give me time to run, please….

By: Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:28:14 +0000

@David – agreed, there’s room for innovation still in the gaming hardware market, and if there’s anyone that can still find “white space” here, it’s Nintendo.

By: Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:26:46 +0000

@Jill – The pricing move was necessary, and it will certainly goose demand (as I said, there’s still a significant market for this device). But even with the price cut, the 3DS won’t touch the unit sales the DS did. There are too many alternatives for discretionary purchases for the 3DS target market as compared when the DS came out.

By: David

David — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:50:12 +0000

I think Nintendo could be in a lot of trouble unless it innovates fast. The 3DS was too expensive, especially now that its become a +1 device as people want a smartphone first.

Ultimately smartphone / tablet gaming is limited because it doesn’t provide the precision or control that a dedicated joypad does. Nintendo needs to figure out how to take advantage of this. Although some DS games like Professor Layton would be great on a phone/tablet, and I’m sure Level-5 are thinking about it.

By: Werner Egipsy Souza

Werner Egipsy Souza — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:47:45 +0000

I agree. The main innovation now, will be around the business models where the focus is more on building the community of gamers, with cheaper software and using the analytics for targeting other markets.

By: Adam Haworth

Adam Haworth — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:27:04 +0000

I don’t think Nintendo will die out, they need a really fresh product that brings great innovation to the table. The market has changed so much over the last few years its flipped the tables on what is standard. When Apple first released the iPad I didn’t think it would be that popular, and allot of people thought the same, but look at it now. Old ladies and 3 year old children enjoy them and happily use them for hundreds of different tasks.

The DS was quite similar but it was restricted to games and usually younger people. The DS can bring so much more and it will be really interesting what Nintendo do next.