What do you want from the next Nintendo Handheld?

[DanneSandin]

RolStoppable said:

DanneSandin said:

1) Iwata also said that Wii U was for the hard cores - which it obviously wasn't. Iwata says a lot of things because he has to. Some of the best selling games on the DS used touch screen to its advantages; Brain Age (and we have discussed THAT game in length ;)). Good games that utilizes the HW sell VERY well (Wii Sports).

2) Smartphones are as simple as they come when it comes to gaming, and if/when they use haptic feedback you will be able to play Mario to your satisfaction (probably). So that's as easy and simple as it ever's gonna get.

3) The GamePad is one example of adding too much. How about every other innovation I mentioned? Analog stick, d-pad,  touch screen etc?

4) But why would people want to pay for an extra piece of hard ware that only does gaming even if it has the eShop and cheap games on it, when you can buy games for your phone, without buying new hardware just to game? Explain that one to me. Handhelds will fast become a niche product with your way of thinking, Rol. Can't you see that? Making the console "simple" and adding cheap (old) games on the eSHop doesn't mean people will buy it, because it only does gaming. People will need another incentive to buy a gaming-only-device; cheap, simple HW and cheap(, simple) SW doesn't cut it. How is the 2DS selling? It hasn't bolstered the samles of the 3DS...

EDIT: It's weird, because I can really relate to and agree with a great many things of what you express here on VGC, but we can never seem to agree on which way Nintendo should move forward....

1) The result (failure) doesn't render the intent void. Neither in the case of the 3DS or Wii U.

Some of the best-selling games on the DS don't use the touchscreen in any significant ways, the same goes for the Wii and motion controls. The point I am trying to make here is that the hardware-software synergy is not a requirement, so it's wrong to assume that some sort of new input method must be integrated, no matter what.

2) Having my thumbs cover up the screen isn't sufficient quality; and due to their nature, the screens of smartphones will always be as big as their surface allows. It's really not anything to worry about.

3) All those other innovations you mentioned are already part of the 3DS? If you add more, you basically have a Wii U Gamepad which you conceded is too much.

4) The answer is exclusive games and Nintendo's job is to make games that people want to pay for. I'd say that Nintendo didn't position the 2DS well; they called it a product for young kids and that reduces the addressable demographics a lot. They basically put an inferiority stamp on the 2DS, that could have been handled much better. Then again, the same goes for the 3DS and if that system hadn't been such a mess, then the 2DS would have not existed in the first place.

But something else:

So far we've looked at the future from the perspective of how can Nintendo compete against smartphones, but let's turn this around: How can smartphones compete with Nintendo? The answer is that they don't even try. Instead they focus on doing what flash and browser games on the PC are.

A somewhat late reply...

Im trying to argue that with the fierce competition from smartphones, Nintendo really needs to do something special with next handheld. Making great games just isnt going to cut it this time around (as is obvious with the 3DS), or else hh will become niche and probably rely heavily on Nintendos 1st party games.

I agree that smartphones suck to game on. I tried to illustrate that thats gaming when its as simple as it gets...

the point of the innovations I mentioned wasnt that they were all a part of the 3DS and Wii U, but that innovation usually adds some thing to the current standard.

smartphones and nintendo dont offer games thats anything alike, but they do compete over the same audience: people, and people seem to prefer cheap games over great games. That is why I think Nintendo should do something new, something we hsvent seen yet, with their next hh. I feel like novelty is what will sell portables as long as theyre competing with smartphones. Perhaps they would be better of going full out as a sort of mid tier gaming platform, like you mentioned in another thread. A $100-150 platform with $20-40 games.