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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - NPD: 3DS Sales Lowest Since July 2011. About to Fall Behind PSP.

darkknightkryta on 12 September 2014
Seece said:
So that's 23k a week in the US, and likely on par in Europe, and around 30k in Japan, yet we constantly have 100k+ WW.

3DS numbers have been way off but no one wants to say anything.  Believe it or not, Nntendo marginally outshipped the Vita in their last quarter.



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hated_individual on 12 September 2014
BraLoD said:
hated_individual said:
BraLoD said:
That PSV line is so so sad to see =/


I dont know if to laugh or cry... >_>  ;-<

Why would you laugh about it? :o


*looking at 3DS sales then PSV*

*ohhh the horror*



aikohualda on 12 September 2014

the vita line is depressing....

if nintendo sells psp level... that is a decent success.



 

hated_individual on 12 September 2014
aikohualda said:
the vita line is depressing....

if nintendo sells psp level... that is a decent success.


Which is basicaly GBA in long term.



aikohualda on 12 September 2014
hated_individual said:
aikohualda said:
the vita line is depressing....

if nintendo sells psp level... that is a decent success.


Which is basicaly GBA in long term.

nintendo can live with that... so basically advance + gc will be wii u + 3ds level



 

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Soundwave on 12 September 2014

GBA sold the bulk of its hardware within 3-4 years though, and it was selling great those years before handing the baton off to the DS. So consequently Nintendo made a ton of money during the GBA + GCN years.

The GBA probably could've sold 120 million or so had it not had its lifecycle cut short.

It would be the equivalent of Nintendo releasing a new handheld this fall (2014), the 3DS would probably finish at around 55-57 million LTD. 



Vena on 12 September 2014
Soundwave said:

I tend to think the Fusion platform will something seperate though, something more in the $199.99-$249.99 price range. 


Speaking of fusing their hardware already.

The recent software based connection of the 3DS (old, even) to the WiiU as a controller may be a sign of things to come, I suspect they have only just started getting this to work cross system and the 3DS Smash may be the testing ground. The Pad (great and under appreciated as it is) is, in and of itself, probably ~100$ worth of the WiiU's pricetag in the cutting edge tech buried inside, but dropping it with the caveat that you need the 3DS to replace it and selling the WiiU+Pro bundle for <200$ would still run at a profit and possibly tap the 3DS market by removing a 100$ worth of entry barrier. You'd need either the (N)3DS or the Pad to play certain games or to have off-TV play but many games can run fine with the Pro-Controller.

Then sell the Pad at 100$ stand-alone. The only issue I see is that the 3DS (new or old) does not have the same hardware to accomodate long-range off-TV play or even accomodate it at all. The Pad uses a high-end 5GHz transceiver and that's never going to fit/work in a handheld. I wonder if the WiiU can run off-TV play without the 5GHz... obviously it can run off the 3DS inputs somehow. Standard controllers work off of Bluetooth, the Pad off the 5GHz, and the 3DS will likely also be over the wifi.



Dunban67 on 12 September 2014
oniyide said:
Dunban67 said:
Seece said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Makes sense considering the n3ds announcement... I expect it to get a bump during Smash Bros but not to sell as high as it could have been


Not the reason, that was announced late August when this sales period was closing.

The New 3DS announcement could not have come at a stranger time IMO-  they are about to release a potential 3DS system seller with Smaah Bros and are getting close to the holiday sales season but they announce a new version that will surely cause many potential 3DS purchasers to hesitate or put off all together getting a 3DS until the "New 3DS" is available at an unspecified time in the future.....

.....unless they think they have pretty well tapped the existing market and now need to sell multiple 3DS s to its existing ownership base 

this is EXACTLY what they think

Either you are correct (I think you are) or they made a big mistake in the timing of the announcement which I don t see them doing 



hated_individual on 12 September 2014
Dunban67 said:
oniyide said:
Dunban67 said:
Seece said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Makes sense considering the n3ds announcement... I expect it to get a bump during Smash Bros but not to sell as high as it could have been


Not the reason, that was announced late August when this sales period was closing.

The New 3DS announcement could not have come at a stranger time IMO-  they are about to release a potential 3DS system seller with Smaah Bros and are getting close to the holiday sales season but they announce a new version that will surely cause many potential 3DS purchasers to hesitate or put off all together getting a 3DS until the "New 3DS" is available at an unspecified time in the future.....

.....unless they think they have pretty well tapped the existing market and now need to sell multiple 3DS s to its existing ownership base 

this is EXACTLY what they think

Either you are correct (I think you are) or they made a big mistake in the timing of the announcement which I don t see them doing 


DSi...



Soundwave on 12 September 2014


It depends I guess Nintendo could get a GPU like the PowerVR 6430 (this is the same chip in the iPad mini retina) for dirt cheap. Throw the 3DS GPU in there (even cheaper) + a ARM Cortex A9 and you have probably a very cheap setup that can run all DS/3DS/VC games and all Android stuff too. 

It's not so much the chipset that makes things expensive, it's the LCD display, battery, and any type of custom component (like say a 3D screen) that will drive your costs up. If you stick to widely highly mass produced parts that are more than a tech cycle old you can get components for cheap. 

To be honest, I have to wonder if your basic idea might not be a better play than the "New 3DS followed by a Fusion platform circa 2016" roadmap. Nintendo is absorbing huge losses on the portable battlefield, waiting for 2016 to send in the cavalry probably only allows more damage to be done. 

A tablet that could play hundreds of DS, 3DS, NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, TG16 games on top of Android games and have enough grunt power to draw Wii games in 1280x720 resolution with fancier lighting effects ... I dunno. Maybe waiting for 2016 is too long. Nintendo could release a pretty kick ass handheld for cheap next year if they really wanted to. 


I`ll trust you for the tech stuff, because i really have no clue about that! :D
I guess a 3D screen wouldn`t be needed. Nintendo would be the first to say it wouldn`t be good for kids and then it would be 3DS all over again.
And of course, Nintendo could get other consoles for the tablet VC, if you will.

It`s not just a question of going this way or that way. Fusion strategy or tablet strategy.
I believe there`s a market for both things. Not to mention that in terms of games, Nintendo would take a step back in terms of what HW would allow them to do or how big could their games get. As far as i know, tablets don`t really have GBs and GBs of space to handle several games. Consoles can handle it because you can get the games in a store or have a external disk next to your console.

In terms of timing... i really don´t have a good idea on what the best time, but releasing every piece of hardware at the same time (specially the consoles) would be a way to push people to adopt more than one or at least, even in regards to marketing, would be best to show the exosystem right at the start.

This is basically what I came up with on a cost basis ...

Nintendo Budget Tablet (Nintendo Touch)

- 3DS GPU + ARM Cortex 9 (dual core) CPU + PowerVR G6430, basically a 3DS + an iPhone 5s chip customized for gaming performance. 1.5GB RAM. 

- 6.3 inch LCD, 1280x720 single screen, no 3D. Not the greatest screen quality but far better than the Wii U controller or 3DS screens. 

- Runs custom version of Android per Nintendo's specs. Main menu has Miiverse plaza when you boot it up. Nintendo controls which Android games are allowed and also charges a Nintendo "tax" on games so they get their cut of the action. So $2.49 for the standard Android game, maybe $9.99 for things like Minecraft and Final Fantasy III. Nintendo pockets money on each download. Facebook, Instagram, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Twitter, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and many more apps can all be free however. 

- Full Virtual Console support (NES-N64, GB-GBA, DS) and also 3DS support. Requires a control cradle to play games in vertical (DS/3DS) mode, but many 3DS/DS games could be reworked quickly to be able to play in horizontal mode. $2 for NES games, $4 for SNES, $6 for N64, $15-$25 for DS, $25-35 for 3DS. 

- Ships with "Nintendo Learn" software. Basically a mashup of Brain Training, Art Academy, and Louvre Museum. Point of this is to make it seem like more of an "edutainment" tablet that kids can sucker their parents into buying (way cheaper than a iPad too), lol. 

- Price: $179.99, spring 2015 launch Japan, summer 2015 NA/EU. 

That's actually pretty powerful too, a good deal past the Vita. It would be able to run something like Xenoblade in HD without much fuss.