| Joelcool7 said: Well Mr.Downer I gotta say I disagree. If anyone can pull off an expensive handheld its Nintendo, Nintendo has always dominated the handheld industry its not even a contest when Sony , Sega or NeoGeo came into the fray. GameBoy and now DS are sinanymous with quality. People trust Nintendo as a handheld manufacturer and that trust isn't going to just disolve due to higher cost and better visuals. Now think your power statement through. You mention Nintendo64 as Red Ocean and that Nintendo stopped expanding the market and focusing rather on power. Sure the 3DS is more powerful then the DS but it is by know means a extremely powerful handheld, the PSP2 is bound to pack a bigger whallop for a bigger price. The 3DS is inbetween X-Box and Wii from my knowledge and that is the natural progression, its not like Nintendo decided to go for graphics and power and made it a portable PS3 they went with the same progression they have always had. They had to progress and they knew that if they didn't offer consumers a revolutionary new feature casuals and DS owners would not be in any rush to upgrade if ever. So I think its actually going to work out in Nintendo's favour. Rather then simply releasing a DS2 with slightly improved graphics Nintendo went the extra mile to target the Blue Ocean casual gamers. Disagree? Look at one of the launch window titles Nintendogs Cats can they really do much more to target the casual consumer? I think the 3DS will meet Nintendo's expectations this fiscal year selling over 4-million units. I think over the next year it will sell around 25-million more units. I expect lifetime sales of about 130-million similiar to what the DS has today or as high as 160-million units if Nintendo manages to get the hardcore market back. If Nintendo manages to lower the price over the years it could even perform better. I also suspect most of those casuals who owned DS will upgrade to 3DS naturally when they see their favorite casual titles move over. Infact the Nintendo is simply re-investing in the hardcore market, the hardcore market buys more games then the casual and while they don't move as much hardware they are very important to Nintendo's infastructure. But of course take my predictions with a grain of salt as the console hasn't even launched yet, but I bet the 3DS will be the same price if not cheaper then PSP2 like DS was cheaper then PSP. In the end I think this is the rematch of the century and Nintendo will come out victorious yet again! |
For the record, I don't think the 3DS will be a failure by any means, I just think it'll be a step down as it thus far seems to limit its appeal somewhat by having mostly core games and having a higher cost. I still think it'll crush the PSP2 (unless Sony releases a PSP smartphone but then you couldn't really count it anyway since it would be a very different device serving a different purpose).
Yes there is Nintentendogs but that is merely a sequel to an already established franchise, which is appealing to current gamers (people who bought the first Nintendogs).
What Nintendo needs is a new hook and new software that appeals to NEW audiences and ex gamers. I don't really see how the 3D alone would get people interested in games that wouldn't play anything else, but I suppose Nintendo could release some games that surprise people.. The Vitality Sensor for instance is a great example of appealing to new markets, though that is on the Wii and considering the lack of news about it lately it's not even certain that the thing will come out. Games like Nintendogs will sell very well, but like WSR, I don't think it'll move much hardware because it is a sequel to an already established franchise appealing to already existing consumers.
I guess what I'm saying is it will be a highly respected "gamers" handheld but will have more of a limited appeal than the DS, at least initially.
