Man gone a month a 3DS goes to hell in a hens basket, what all did I miss?

[Erik Aston]

What a fascinating thread.

Having actually watched the history of Wii and DS like I hadn't watched previous systems, and having seen the current Nintendo decline coming, maybe not as early as some, but certainly quite awhile ago, and having learned some of the previous history of gaming and how Wii and DS fits in... This thread is fascinating.

People who didn't see this coming either due to lack of foresight or just apathy (which is fine), are now trying to figure things out after the fact, and having a tricky time it seems. It helps to just, simply, look at the games. Whether Nintendo is abandoning their customers will be evident just by looking at the games they made for DS vs. what they are making for 3DS.

VGC lists 52 Nintendo-published games that sold 1 million copies on DS. I will put them into some loose groups:

Nintendogs
Brain Age
Brain Age 2
Animal Crossing
Big Brain Academy
Flash Focus
Tomodachi Collection
English Training
Clubhouse Games
Personal Trainer:Cooking
Rhythm Heaven
Tetris DS
Style Savvy
WarioWare
Art Academy
Personal Trainer: Math
Common Sense Training

This is one third of the Nintendo-published million sellers on DS. The themes here are short burst playing, daily playing, and social and real-life integration. Many of these were commonly called "non-games" at the time they were coming out one after another. On 3DS, people were underwhelmed by the Nintendogs sequel, and we don't yet know about the presumed Brain Age and Animal Crossing sequels, but the greater issue is whether there is a major attempt to cater to these customers, as a matter of the DIRECTION for the 3DS. Let's look at another group of games:

Pokemon
Pokemon
Pokemon
Pokemon
Pokemon Dungeon
Pokemon Dungeon
Pokemon Dungeon
Pokemon Ranger
Pokemon Ranger
Pokemon Ranger
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
Mario & Luigi
Mario & Luigi

Obviously I do not know the difference between all these games, and obviously the database has issues with which DQ games were Nintendo published or not. But the point is, there were 10 hit Pokemon games on DS, and those made up only a fraction of the RPGs on DS. Once again, this is not part of the corporate direction for 3DS so far. Obviously there will be Pokemon games in the future, but the larger question is whether RPG fans are being catered to on 3DS like they were on DS. Answer yourself. Let's look at a third group of games:

NSMB
Yoshi's Island DS
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Kirby Squeak Squad
Super Princess Peach

Once again, is this any part of the direction of 3DS? Do these customers have games to play on 3DS? Let's keep going with a little catch-all category of puzzle-ish games:

Layton
Layton
Layton
Mario vs. DK
Mario vs. DK
Mystery Case Files

Okay. Layton was at launch and the Mario vs. DK and MCF franchises seem active at the moment. But I don't think this is a major pillar for either console. How about sports and racing:

Mario Kart
Diddy Kong Racing
Mario and Sonic
Mario and Sonic
Mario Hoops

Certainly, this is part of 3DS' direction, with MK and M&S both coming. But this is not a pillar of the DS, just kind of a supplement to those pillars. And lastly, 3D action/adventure games.

Super Mario 64 DS
Zelda
Zelda

How about these customers? To me, this is very clearly the direction of 3DS, with Pilotwings, Ocarina, 3D Mario, Kid Icarus, Star Fox and Luigi's Mansion being many of the main games announced or released for the system.

Now you can decide for yourself. Are the DS customers abandoning Nintendo, or is Nintendo abandoning them? Yes, there is Nintendogs, and Brain Age, Animal Crossing, NSMB and Pokemon are all presumed to be coming. But what is the direction of 3DS; who is Nintendo really catering to with a full slate of games beyond the obvious mega-hits?

Run some similar exercises with the lineups of all Nintendo systems. Align what you find with what you already know about how those systems sold. I believe you will gain a new appreciation for the hubris and stupidity of Nintendo through the years, and find that they have only themselves to blame for their up-and-down history. I say this as a great fan of the company: I hope it collapses as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.