DarkTemplar said:
I have to disagree. 3D is not fine at all, it increases the hardware cost, the development cost and keep children away of the console. The release of the 2DS is essentially Nintendo recognizing its own mistake because they knew they were losing a lot potential sales. There are many other unnecessary features on the 3DS hardware that are hurting its sales like, for instance, the analog stick that only makes the interface of the games more complex.
3DS and Vita are "fine" from a hardcore gamer perspective, but hardcore gamers are the vocal minority barely relevant in the current game market. Both are expensive, games are also more expensive, batteries are crap and software support is not even close to the DS/PSP level.
The iOS/Android game Angry Birds was released on 2009, that same year the DS sold more than 27.5 million unities. There is space both on the market and if Nintendo had kept the DS philosophy in the current generation I am sure their handheld would have sold a lot more than the 3DS.
If children are currently growing playing Angry Birds and Candy crush instead of Mario and Kirby is it Nintendo’s fault. Nintendo had that market but failed to provide compelling software to them , hence people had to move to something else. Notice that the transition DS-3DS was horrible killing the momentum they had. Nintendo's mistakes are clear and we cannot deny them.
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If I'm a parent, why should I pay even $120 for a handheld device and $40 for a game, when I can just hand my kid the family iPad and let them play Angry Birds?
And here's one thing that might be a shocker ... a lot of kids simply prefer tablets. The screen is larger, touching/reaching for things is the most intuitive thing for most kids so a touch only interface makes perfect sense to them. A tablet not only plays games but can only have video (cartoons) too easily loaded onto it. And quite frankly kids want to use what mommy/daddy is using, they see mommy using it, they want to use it too. They don't want the 3DS or Vita.
I always see a huge row of kids around the iPad/Apple section in many stores, whereas the 3DS/Vita demo units have no one around them. At an airport I see dozens of kids happily playing away on their parents iPhone/iPad/Android tablet, and maybe one family of kids who have a 3DS. When I go to family outings, I'm always a little suprised that kids as young as 3 are already able to play on their mom/dad's phone or something. This is happening people, hardcore gamers just have stuck their head in the sand and tried to deny it, but now the truth is becoming irrevoicable.
Angry Birds only came out in December of 2009 btw and iOS app store only opened in the summer of 2009. Maybe its coincidence but the traditional handheld market has declined every year since 2009, hitting a new low this year despite Nintendo throwing several huge titles at the market (including the biggest gun, Pokemon X/Y) and offering a new, cheaper model in the 2DS.
Nintendo's made mistakes sure, but fact is its pretty damn hard to compete with a platform that offers hundreds, even thousands of FREE games.
And the "b, bu, but buttons!" arguement doesn't fly anymore, Nintendo opened Pandora's box with the whole touch/motion button free interfaces, the fact is iOS/Android simply took that idea to its natural extreme and offers a price for games that no one can argue with. Nintendo has thrown plenty of high quality games at the 3DS (Mario, Kirby, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Brain Training, Nintendogs, Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem, Mario Kart ... and honestly the 3DS versions of these games in many cases are better than the DS equivalents).
