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Degausser on 16 September 2011
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padib said:
Degausser said:
I'd like to believe that the Vita's superior tech, online, media features etc will ultimately set it apart from the 3DS in the long run. I don't know where the smart phone / android type market exactly stands in Japan but I still don't see 3DS having much longevity in the future against all that.

I just really struggle with the 3DS in general though, feels to me like the only leg it has to stand on is it's games and I'm not totally convinced about them yet either.

Could you be a little more specific? You do realize that this industry is kind of all about the games. PSP soared on MH and of course was supported by other smaller games, but it's all about the games, not "the only leg it has to stand".

I do realize the social networking tools on Vita are vastly superior than those on the 3DS, but then againa new model and software update can easily bring the 3DS up to par. They can always release a 3G version in the future if they think it's necessary, but it doesn't look like it given the added subscription costs which Nintendo doesn't like. I can understand you might not want smash hits but maybe a greater flow of nice niche or A games rather than like 3 AAA games, but the thing is that it's the 3 AAA games that encourage the development of those smaller A games. It kind of goes hand in hand.

 It's hard to explain what i mean but i think we're getting to an era where consoles have to sort of be in-sync with all entertainment technology. Handheld type devices are moving so quick and evolving so fast, every phone now has that big touch screen design, online features, social stuff etc and it's becoming common place. To me the 3DS sort of just feels so, archaic in design already that I just struggle to see it's place in a few years time. The idea of a handheld device having such a weak presense in the online / digital distribution space just doesn't make sense to me.

 That's why we're seeing the Wii get it's successor before the other consoles, because it was behind other technologies. Everyone has a HD TV now, online gaming hit mainstream, more people use the media features on consoles etc. That's my biggest concern for the 3DS I guess but I do a pretty bad job at expressing in words what i exactly mean. 

 So that sort of to me means the only thing people will now buy it for is the games, which can be great and will sell consoles no doubt, but we've seen in the past Nintendo consoles go out of fasion and sort of be shunned in this way. They were the N64 and Gamecube, which despite having Mario, Zelda, Pokemon etc were second and third in overall hardware sales. In selling consoles, good games are an important piece of the jigsaw, but they're one piece of a very complex puzzle. I don't think Mario, MH and POkemon are enough to carry the console if the other pieces are missing.