garretslarrity said:
I disagree with your design philosophy. What makes handhelds, specifically Nintendo handhelds, successful is that they are cheap. You could say the same about consoles, but to a lesser extent than handhelds.
1. Way too high. Even with their handheld screens getting larger, that kind of resolution is not necessary. It would look nice, but come at the cost of 1. more powerful components to run the system at that resolution 2. a more expensive screen and 3. lower battery life due to #1. They could include a larger battery, but this just further increases the costs on top of what #1 and #2 already have. Low resolutions are the way to go with handhelds.
2. This I agree with. We saw with the 3DS how it was limited by the amount of RAM (with games such as Smash and Monster Hunter 4 having to disable the web browser and Miiverse to play the game), and unlike with having a more powerful CPU, having more RAM does not consume more power and lead to decreases in battery life.
3. I don't know exactly how powerful those CPUs are, but just keep in mind what I mentioned earlier, how adding a more powerful CPU not only increases costs due to the CPU itself, but by the additional power it requires.
4. This I agree with you on 100%. It increases the costs, requires more resources (which therefore increases costs again) and consumes battery for both the aforementioned reasons.
5. Of course.
6. Absolutely. Just realize you can't have this if you want an HD screen (or two of them for that matter) and a powerful CPU. It's one or the other, and I think the reasonable price tag is by far the better option for Nintendo and its customers. |
Nintendo handhelds are losing popularity, they're really only "massively" successful in Japan, the erosion of their marketshare in the US and Europe is bordering on a full-on collapse if you study their actual hardware shipments in these regions and look at what even the GBA and GBC sold here (if you want to discount the DS).
What's happened is the smartphone/tablet thing wasn't a "one time" thing. Imagine being kicked in the balls. Now imagine being kicked in the balls like four times in a row. That's more like what's happening to Nintendo with portables, smartphones was the first kick in the balls, then came the iPad (tablet), and then the huge kick in the balls .... cheap Android tablets. Kids can now get tablets for $99 that play tons of games (if it had just stayed at the iPad for $500 a pop, Nintendo might have been OK).
This is also why the first half of the 3DS' life cycle was relatively OK, they were still insulated from phones and tablets. No 10 year old was going to have their own iPad, it was a luxury item at first only for a select audience when it first came out. The iOS shop really didn't even gain traction until 2010, there were no cheapo tablets until about 2012/2013. But we've seen since about 2013 that 3DS sales have nose-dived like crazy even despite the introduction of big games like Pokemon X/Y and the 2DS.
Ask yourself if "cheap" is the be-all, end-all for Nintendo portables why is the most expensive 3DS model, by far the best selling one?
The actual market for 3DS these days are actually adults, not kids (outside of Japan). If it was kids, the 2DS should be the best selling model as its basically Nintendo painfully marketed "for kids 3DS model" right down to the cheap Fisher Price plastic design. Nintendo's adult fans are the ones saving their ass right now, not kids. Those 30-year-old grown men buying Princess Peach Amiibos? Those guys are the ones saving Nintendo's ass right now, not little Johnny, little Johnny is more impressed with the PS4 and trying to trick his mom into buying him GTA4.
