| Soundwave said:
Well they kinda had to show the New 3DS because it was launching in Japan for holiday 2014. If it was launch until spring 2015, I think they probably wouldn't have shown it until after the holidays. I suspect you will get a sneak peak at the new Nintendo portable at this E3, kinda like how they unveiled the Wii U over a year before launch. Maybe just the casing design. They've been working on it for a long time though I think, New 3DS is more of a side project thing for their R&D most likely, Miyamoto mentioned Nintendo's next portable like way back in 2012 (right when the 3DS XL was unveiled), that he had some ideas for it. Iwata also said last year that they had a "new definition of video games" (IMO this means the Fusion iPad-iPhone type concept) but it would take two years to come to market (or something to that effect). That was in spring 2014. Add two years to spring 2014 and (voila) you get spring 2016. They simply may not have anything else to give the New 3DS either. I mean really, they've thrown every one of their big IP at the 3DS, redesigned it several times ... it just isn't able to carry Nintendo's business going forward, I don't think 9 million 3DS' this fiscal year alone is making Nintendo very happy, 6-7 million would really hurt them. Kids are abandoning Nintendo's handhelds in droves for tablets/smartphones. If Nintendo was concerned enough about the PSP in 2004 to cut the GBA's lifecycle to only 3 years, they should probably be a hell of a lot more worried right now. |
When Iwata said that it would take two years, I'm very sure he was talking more in general terms. You do have a point about the software, though. They could release a Metroid and a new Pokemon, but that's basically it. I mean, there's F-Zero, but let's be realistic; there's no F-Zero. I'm suprised it's even getting another Fire Emblem. I'm sure we all were.
I used to also think that the handheld would come out in Spring of next year, but as more news came to light, it seemed like pushing that back a few months seemed like the more intelligent prediction. But now that I think about it again, I guess a late May/early June release can make a lot of sense.
I don't think the timetable to release the 3DS successor is as strict as it was to release the DS. The biggest thing is, again, the launch software. If their selling point is the unified platform this time around, they need compelling software to launch it with as well as something during the holiday to sell it with. Maybe they'll have the Gen 7 Pokemon game ready by then. They absolutely can not release that game on the 3DS like they did Gen 5 on the DS.
I don't care what anyone says, that absolutely stupid decision has to be one of the biggest reasons the 3DS didn't launch with a vengance. It was absolutely stupid to launch two games in your biggest franchise on older hardware. It's the sole reason I personally didn't upgrade, and I remember being frustrated that Nintendo forced me to play the newest Pokemon games on older hardware. I can imagine it was much the same for the other 10m+ people who bought those games. Either Pokemon takes 2016 off, or they release it on the successor that year. Releasing it on the 3DS would be the dumbest move they could make. They need those systems flying early.
