| rocketpig said: I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I thought the 3DS would do okay for itself in the long run. "Shattering handheld records" isn't exactly impressive and is akin to being awarded a silver medal at the Special Olympics. What's it going against? The DS had entirely mediocre sales until the Lite released and it missed the first holiday season in Europe and Australia due to its staggered launch. The market was much smaller in the Game Boy era, which last launched over a decade ago. The PSP spent most of its first year wandering around like a crazy homeless person. And these "records" came after Nintendo had to lop a whopping $80 off the damned thing just three months after launch. Like I said, I think the 3DS will be okay but Nintendo can't be thrilled about how things have shaken out for the device thus far. I doubt they forcast slicing $80 off every device just to get the things moving off store shelves when they plotted out the lifecycle of the unit. You can go ahead and bash my "market analysis" but I'm looking forward, not backward. The 3DS has been propped up by a massively premature price cut and when a handheld typically gets swept by the casual market (12-36 months after launch, if at all), I don't see the 3DS catching a sales wave anywhere near the level of the DS, especially since Nintendo has already used their "price cut boost" card and won't be able to prop up the device with a nice price cut after the typical 12-18 months. You may think it's too early to call the fate of the Vita but from my perspective, that thing looked stillborn the moment it was announced as the NGP. It's too expensive, the games are going to be too expensive to develop compared to potential ROI, and there are other devices out there that do more and play games well enough (iOS, Android) or devices that offer a truly different experience for dedicated gamers (3DS). I don't see people giving a shit about the device and unless Sony starts forking out cash to developers (which they are hardly in a position to do at this point), I don't see third parties doing much with the device outside of porting whatever 360/PS3 game they think they can get running on the thing. |
Oh come now, you've been on this site for years. You know well enough that a price cut only offers major boosts for a month or MAYBE two unless there's serious long-term consumer interest. The 3DS's sales spike is certainly partially related to the price falling into "mass market" range, but it's also obviously experiencing wide appeal and adoption. Also considering handhelds are generally far more profitable and successful than consoles, I would say shattering handheld records is a bigger feat than console ones. Better to be the next DS than the next Wii. The $70 price cut was hardly positive, but the sales after it have beaten even Nintendo's predictions, and in Japan it's soaring to greater heights than the DS ever did.
