A new dedicated handheld?

[PortisheadBiscuit]

zorg1000 said:

PortisheadBiscuit said:

Still, youre $300 in the hole before you can play any of those games. While a budget gamer can pick up a $79 2DS with a top tier 1st party title already installed. It's a market Nintendo could continue to tap into should they choose.

 

I just dont really get what you are proposing.

You are saying they should release a budget system to fill the gap but there is no gap, 2DS is their budget system. Its $79 and has a huge catalog of low cost titles. They will just keep it on the market for young kids and price sensitive consumers until Switch can get its price & form factor small enough to replace it in a few years.

I just cant wrap my head around why Nintendo would release a $99-129 device slightly more powerful than 3DS, it just makes zero sense.

Well clearly, a newer system will increase interest in the segment. At press time 3DS/2DS hardware is moving units, however software is stagnant. A new low cost system with new software will pique interest again. I'm kinda looking at the transition from GB to GBA for comparison. They kept GBA relatively low cost with new software, some of which were ports (Super Mario Advance) and it did insanely well.

 

Not saying a new dedicated will do GBA numbers, but a smaller scale development budget with a handful of proven titles would be a low risk investment to keep a still thriving (albeit shrunken) handheld market going.

 

Again, all of this is purely hypothetical