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HappySqurriel on 15 February 2011
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puffy said:
KylieDog said:

The steps thing is so mundane they may as well just let you play the things for nothing.


Its not about walking around with your 3DS to gain coins but having the coins to persuade you to take the system with you. It helps get people to see the system in the wild and also helps with streetpass because the more people out with there 3DS the more interaction that can occur.

This then makes people want to take their system out more often amd thus the circle continues and Nintendo profits. It's actually quite ingenious.

This is what I was thinking ... There are several obvious uses for a service like this

1) Encourage people to take their system with them when they go out.

2) Work as a defence when people claim videogames make children/teens fat ... Effectively, Nintendo can claim that through these game coins Nintendo is encouraging these children/teens to be more active. On top of this, people are legitimately worried about obesity, and they might be more willing to buy a videogame system for their child which encourages some level of activity.

3) Familiarize downloadable content to 'the masses'. If you start creating services that encourage people to connect to your online store and download 'free' games, it probably will make it easier to convert these same gamers into people who connect to your online store and buy games that cost real money.

4) Test experimental game concepts "in the wild" ... If you're planning on focusing on Augmented Reality 5 years from now, you have to develop the knowledge of what works today to be successful then. Over the next 5 (or so) years, Nintendo can produce small game-play/technical demos and then see how people react to them.

and ...

5) Nintendo is looking for ways to make their products significantly different than their competition in ways other than hardware. Even if Apple/Sony thought this was a brilliant idea worth copying, it is unlikely that they would have a similar service in place for at least a year (and probably not for 2 or more years) which means that the 3DS is a little more unique in the marketplace.