Nintendo 3DS: The Failed Launch

[Alby_da_Wolf]

Resident_Hazard said:

loves2splooge said:

Ok my response is TL;DR so I'm just going to hit home the most important point in one sentence: The biggest mistake of the 3DS is that it's called a 3DS.

Tizona said:
Can you give me a source on the "not minority" who can't see Steroscopic 3D or have eyestrain?  I just like facts is why.

Dude. Don't question my "hardcore" card. I'm a Nintendo guy yes, but I'm also an adult. I full well know Nintendo can fuck up, and that they have in the past. 3DS may not sell as well as DS. But you can't have the argument both ways that PSP is not a failure cause it sold alot, even if not as much as the DS, but if 3DS does not outsell DS, it is a fail. It's silly.

As for GBA selling more than Gamecube, First, handhelds have historically always outsold console for multiple reasons, not the least of them being general affordability. Second, Gamecube was not a great success, nor was it a great system, I agree. But do you honeslty want all the systems on the market to cater the "mass market" Isn't ok for one company to cater to a demographic, while another one caters to something different. I don't want your FPS' and WRPGS and race sims in my platformers and party games. If Nintendo went for the mass market, they would fail. Expecting a company to willfully go for a market they know they cannot dominate is not a well though out expectation.

3DS may or may not fail. I'm just asking you to let it do what it's gonna do, and try to enjoy if you want.

BTW: I think this has just popped my "Video Game Forum Argument" cherry. Thanks!

Something like 12% of adults in the UK (Brits may have shittier teeth than most people but eyes?) can't even see stereoscopic 3D properly. http://kotaku.com/5584737/12-of-british-people-cant-see-3d-properly That's a pretty big minority that you're alienating. That doesn't include the people that get eyestrain/headaches/ill from the 3D. It's not Nintendo's style (unless you count Virtual Boy) to be so "exclusive". I understand this is why Nintendo put in the 3D slider. But then the people that don't want the 3D (for one or more various reasons) will have to pay $250 for a 3D device when they're not even going to use the 3D. That is poor value. And for people that are fine with 3D, glasses-free 3D gaming on the go isn't exactly very convenient and the conditions aren't very ideal. I can't imagine that stereoscopic 3D would be very convenient while playing on a bus or in the passenger seat of a car for eg. And a lot of people have complained that glasses-free 3D on the small screen isnt quite like watching 3D with the glasses on a 3DTV/monitor or a theatre. Oh and once again, the "no children under 7 should be playing with 3D" warnings on the box are going to scare parents away from buying that stuff for their kids.

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To be fair, 12% of the population isn't very big, and I don't think Nintendo is alienating some mass number of people that want to play it and simply won't get the same enjoyment out of it.  Seriously, only about 16% of the US population seems to have purchased a DS in some form, and many of them bought more than one (I have two Lites myself).  So the number of people who can't play the system is arguably going to be about the same number as those that buy it.  And what's 12% of 16%?  That's not very many people.  

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Current gen handhelds will end roughly with DS at 66% and PSP at 33%.

Let's imagine that NGS be, in the new gen, not much more appealing than PSP in the old, the best 3DS can hope: 3DS would give anyway away for free its 2/3 of 12% alienated possible users, that is 8%. End result, Sony is given for free 41% instead of 33% of next gen handheld market, Ninty drops to 59%. Obviously, if next gen grows more than 12% compared to the current, ending one, 3DS would outsell DS anyway, but losing market share. And this is the best case, if those are the only users lost and NGP isn't anything special compared to PSP, for their respective times, but then we have bad battery life made more annoying by long recharging times, price and region lock. Games will come, I'm sure, and with its exclusives 3DS should still keep the leadership, but Ninty is offering Sony for free too many opportunities to grow in the portable market at its expenses.