archbrix said:
@First bolded: I agree that the Vita is poised for great third party support... right now. However if Vita sales have a hard time keeping up due to the fact that the 3DS will have an incredible holiday season with no competition whatsoever from Vita anywhere except Japan, you can bet that over time those 3rd parties will flock to the more successful system. Therefore, saying that 3DS will NEVER get better support is a bit premature at this point, as we simply don't know how the Vita will perform yet. @Second bolded: Here I completely disagree... it does matter. Coupled with the cheaper price, a Mario game (albiet 3D), and Mario Kart 7, this holiday will see 3DS flying off the shelves due to Nintendo's first party titles. And honestly, it's hard to imagine any of the announced Vita games' sales power put together equaling what 2D Mario and Pokemon alone are going to do for the sales of 3DS. Don't misunderstand me; I hope Vita does really well. I love the fact that it has dual analogue control and the announcement of a Bioshock game is likely enough to get me to buy one right there. But look at what the price drop has already done for the 3DS, and that's still with just one game out that people really care about. Point being that if over time the 3DS has a much better installed base, it'll garner more support from 3rd parties, even if they're less "console" type experiences and more "hand-held" experiences. |
Having good software sales out of the gate is really what matters as it sets up momentum provided sales of said titles are good. This is why 3DS lost momentum is software sales are lacking and lots of studios aren't sure if it's worth the investment, games are cancelled etc. If publishers are waiting to see how successful 3DS will be then you have 18 month to 2 years after it is deemed a success before the software actually hits which may very well be too little too late. I'm pretty sure even at the new pricepoint the DS will probably still outsell the 3DS with the exception of maybe Japan(and after price cut hardware sales stabalizes there I doubt it unless love plus is a way larger seller than I thought).
Super Mario 3D land wont do much for 3DS hardware sales. 3D mario just doesn't sell like that. The DS had 3d Mario at launch and got beat by the PSP with the same price difference to boot. Mario Kart doesn't dig systems out of a slump. It sure didn't with the N64 or GC. It also doesn't matter if PSV titles don't equal 2D mario or Pokemon as 3ds doesn't have either and wont for 18 months to 2 years either(probably longer given the time between pokemon iterations and Grey will be a DS game). In japan the only place where there will be competition between the two this holiday PSV has MH and we know how much Japan loves some Monster Hunter. In that region it's about as big as Pokemon.
Has the price drop done much for anyones software but Nintendo's? If not that's not really reason for 3rd parties to hop on board after trepidation. You saw what it took to get them on the Wii after initial worries despite the overwhelming success of the system(they never really did despite some minor successes). 3rd parties are very sketchy when it comes to Nintendo systems.
