most consumers only know about the retail games, nobody buys a system for its downloadable titles.  Much as I wish they did, they don't. they buy consoles for their Halos and Marios and Gran Turismos, not their Pixeljunks, Shadow Complexes, and Pushmos.  

If you were supposed to be talking about games people buy consoles for, why did you limit it to new IPs? You just said yourself people buy consoles for Halo, Mario, and Gran Turismo, three well-established franchises.

You could be even more specific: people buy consoles for new iterations of established franchises, not ports and remakes. And when it comes to new games in existing franchises, 3DS has Vita beat. 3D Land, Kart 7, Pokemon Rumble, Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Kid Icarus, RE Revelations, Mario Tennis, coming soon Kingdom Hearts, FF Theatrhythm, NSMB 2, Brain Training, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing...

Vita has Hot Shots Golf, Wipeout, Lumines, and Uncharted. Just about everything else is either digital only or a port/remake of a console game (or both).

Sperg, those are some of the most badass pictures I've seen in a long time, and I hang out with graphic-design artists.

CAPTAIN RAINBOW! That game is fantastic :"D You have not truly lived until you've played Captain Rainbow in all it's strange glory. Luckily I can read Japanese, so I haven't had to wait for the translation, but it's great. You don't even have to play it to see why it didn't get a western release though :P

Nintendo 3DS crosses six million in Japan!
http://kotaku.com/5912248/six-million-3ds-units-sold-in-japan

Close to a million in UK!
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-05-22-nintendo-3ds-close-to-1-million-milestone-in-uk?

Yeah, I'm trying to get my collection to include all that I have, but it's missing a few games still :P The thread title jogged my memory on Captain Rainbow. The graphics weren't spectacular,but the story was so strange it was absolutely hilarious, probably the funniest game I've ever played. From Famicom Soldiers playing Volleyball to Birdo being arrested because they're unsure of it's gender, it's just hilarious all the way through, I like funny things, so that made it for me. 

My 4th most anticipated game of all (maybe 3rd if Paper Mario continues to be "dead" for a while) got one incredible news today:

Sixty Hours Play Time for Bravely Default

Square Enix's 3DS RPG Bravely Default Flying Fairy delivers a healthy dose of classic-styled RPG gaming. And it's quite a big dose, it seems. The game's official Twitter revealed today a 60 to 70 hour play volume.

A later post clarified that this figure is the time it will take you to get to the credits. Fully completing the game may take longer.

Bravely Default's promotions have been heavily tied to its AR features. But this seems to be just a minor part of the game. AR-based content takes up around 1% of the game.

Other posts at the Twitter feed revealed that the game has summons with elaborate visualizations.

Also, the game will probably not get a special 3DS system (special systems are common for major Square Enix releases). The Twitter feed noted that the game's promotions, including demos, have focused on current 3DS owners.

I can't get the feeling this game is what a true Final Fantasy is supposed to be.
Medieval setting, SD-characters, Crystals, Jobs (white, black, red mages and more!),overworld, treasure chests... this is 4 heroes of light... only much better!

And that is great, cause 4HOL was amazing!

Offcial site, for anyone wanting to hear the amazing theme song and more

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/bdff/

Amazing news Professor Layton fans! Level-5 has registered a trademark for Miracle Mask in the U.S.!
http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=177700

^Expected, but amazing nonetheless! Now do the same for europe - but I guess that's even more expected