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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Looking back, 3rd party support on the 3DS wasn't that great

I liked the 3DS library, it had a long library of JRPGs, plus a couple of other weird experiments. Plus it had DS backwards compatibility, which was nice. The thing I could never understand was the lack of a DS VC library, when the hardware was capable of playing them.



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Others have already stated it, then 3DS had nearly no major Western support because all the major Western publishers focused on PC and mobile titles. It was very much a machine for those that love Japanese centric gaming such as RPGs and a few indies (mainly platformers) that were able to sneak onto the eshop due to low specs. All that being said it still has some of the best handheld games in gaming history and itself is still one of Nintendo's better handheld devices.

If we had to choose the overall quality is only second to the DS and that is due to volume plus variety.



3rd party support took a hit from the DS era, but honestly, 3rd party support was always shit for Nintendo handhelds. Even in the Game Boy era, it was mostly shovelware outside of Japan 3rd parties. That didn't change until the DS, but even in the DS era 3rd party non-shovelware was limited. Western developers always had a bias for home consoles and barely supported Sony's handhelds too.

3DS had great support from Level 5, getting Monster Hunter exclusive was a huge deal on Capcom's part and cannot be downplayed, it got a great temporarily exclusive Resident Evil from Capcom as well, and some Resident Evil ports. Square Enix gave it plenty of ports, as well as a temporarily exclusive Kingdom Hearts, and two entries in the Bravely series, a new IP, and Final Fantasy Explorers, a new spinoff. Sega gave it all the Sonic games and a Super Monkey Ball game. Atlus gave it everything that wasn't Persona, and even gave it Persona Q. Konami gave it a Castlevania game, a Metal Gear port, some soccer games, and their fair share of shovelware. Namco Bandai gave tons of support of Japanese games and anime games, several of which made it west. Warner Bros. gave it all the Lego games and Scribblenauts. Marvelous gave it Harvest Moon and Rune Factory and Story of Seasons. Ubisoft gave it several Rayman games and two Tom Clancy games, as well as some shovelware. Activision gave it Skylanders, and also some shovelware. Even EA gave it several FIFA games and a Madden game. And all this is only retail games, before delving into the digital only library. It had plenty of 3rd party support, for a Nintendo handheld, just nothing on the level of the DS and nothing on the level of western developer's support of home consoles.



I'd say it was somewhat middling.

The GBA didn't have much good third party support. Looking at VGChartz numbers show many of the biggest 3rd party titles are either licensed games (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Harry Potter,and SpongeBob) or retro ports (Namco Museum, Final Fantasy). Sure, you had some well-liked original third party titles like Sonic Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but these were generally exceptions.

Let's try comparing the 3DS's third party support with that for the DS, PSP, and Vita.

  DS PSP 3DS Vita
Big Western Publishers (Overall) Support was meh, but there are a few success stories. Guitar Hero's spinoffs were genuine attempts from Activision, MySims was a success for EA, WB started a franchise with Scribblenauts, and Ubisoft released shovelware. Very strong early on, with big games from series like Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, Assassin's Creed, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty. After 2007, these became much rarer, though EA continued released their annual sports games. Bad. With companies like EA and Ubisoft calling quits by the end of 2011, the only really successful games from big western publishers were LEGO games. As with the PSP, there was a strong start, with some of the Vita's best sellers being 2012 Western releases. Afterwards, things fell harder than the PSP, with even EA giving up on FIFA after 2014.
Japanese RPG's Strong. Squenix had dozens of DS games, including games (largely spinoffs and remakes) representing most of their mainstay series, new franchises, and a main series Dragon Quest. Atlus released the Etrian Odyssey trilogy, Radiant Historia, and a few SMT games. Other companies like Konami, Namco, and Sega also released JRPG's. Roughly on par with DS support of the time. Square Enix released both new games like Birth by Sleep and Crisis Core and updated versions of classic games, Sega released Phantasy Star and Valkyria Chronicles games, and Namco had a couple of Tales games. Still strong. Square Enix released a lot less compared to the DS, but still released new games like Bravely Default and Dragon Quest.  Atlus apparently adored the 3DS, as shown by all the SMT and Etrian Odyssey. Other companies have largely been overshadowed by those two and Nintendo. Oh, and Monster Hunter is here! A fairly diverse group of companies made Vita JRPG's. Squenix and Atlus titles are to be expected, but there was also games from Falcom, Gust, and Namco.
Casual Stuff This is the DS's specialty. Cooking Mama, MySims, Professor Layton, and various other series appealed to a wide audience, some of which also managed to be decent. Mind you, this meant we had 38 Imagine games from Ubisoft. Not the PSP's strong suit, despite the occassional attempt from Sony or another company. Lumines was cool. The lot of the shovelware was absent this time around, but so were many of the casual experiences. The only outstanding examples are Mario & Sonic 2012, Harvest Moon, and Disney Magical Castle. MINECRAFT
3D Games Largely a bust. The few 3D games on DS mostly serve to make you see why the PSP was the better choice. Much of the early major Western support was this, but Japanese developers kept this going throughout the system's life. Besides Action RPG's like Monster Hunter, games like Peace Walker Somewhere between DS and PSP levels. Monster Hunter made an easy transition to 3DS, and other big games like Resident Evil did well enough in 3D, but there still seems to be more 2D love. By default.
Retro and Remakes Significantly scaled down from the GBA era. Square Enix remade and ported plenty of SNES era titles, and Capcom ported Ace Atorney to DS, but the trend was towards new games. Some older games appear, like Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Mega Man Maverick Hunter, and the Namco Museum Battle Collection. The star is PS1 Classics, Mostly absent. Squenix's remake of Dragon Quest VII is the most notable example, along with a few lazy or disappointing ports like with Rayman 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3D. The 3DS Virtual Console petered out fairly early. Plenty of older games have been ported to Vita (often with an accompanying PS3 or PS4 remake), and you can still download PS1 games.
Indie Games
The DS was designed in part to allow for developers to make odd games with small budgets, but the lack of a digital store before the DSi hindered it. (I don't know actually...) The best in Nintendo's history, especially once the eShop got momentum. Both exclusives and multiplat indie games have done well on 3DS. The heart of the system's library. Possibly the best in handheld gaming.
MVP?
Square Enix: Dragon Quest IX was a big hit, even by series standards. Squenix also had another ten games break a million sales, evenly divided into remakes of games like Final Fantasy III and new spinoffs such as Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Capcom/EA: Capcom deserves a lot of credit for the Monster Hunter series, which provided the PSP with big games across its lifetime, including two of its four best sellers, but they otherwise did little to support the PSP. EA released a couple of big sellers annually from 2005 to 2007, notably Medal of Honor and Need for Speed games, and their annual sports releases sold fairly well for the PSP's entire life.
Capcom: A lot of this is due to Monster Hunter, which has been doing better in the West. Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil: Revelations were some of the first big games for the 3DS, and Ace Attorney has been a constant presence. Mojang: Because Minecraft. Not only is it the best-selling Vita game, it has worldwide appeal, unlike many other big Vita games.

 

 



Love and tolerate.

TheMisterManGuy said:
Mar1217 said:
3rd Party Japanese games were plenty on the console though ;) Also, I could just buy DS games to play since retrocompatibility is available, if I wanted (which I did)

 

JRPGfan said:

It had it the place where it was needed, in terms of RPGs :)

 

Look at what Atlus did for the 3DS:
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl (remake)
Etrian Odyssey II: Untold: The Fafnir Knight (remake)
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth

Etrian Mystery Dungeon I
Etrian Mystery Dungeon II

 

Plenty of 3rd party put in effort to help the 3DS.

 

HoangNhatAnh said:

Tbf, Atlus have 6 SMT games, 7 Etrian Odyssey games, Radiant Historia remake. Not to mention, the first time we have Persona game on Nin system with PQ1 & 2 though just spin off but still canon to the story, that is way more than DS, not really a step back. Level 5 support for it also is way better than DS. In 8 gen, Western support focus on smartphones, 3ds and vita only have some Western games at several first years and then, Japan games only for both and some indie games from the West. Named Octopath, you shouldn't ignore Bravely Default/Bravely Second. I agree that 3ds have 3rd party support worse than GBA/DS but not all are step back, it is a JRPG heaven

There were good third party games on 3DS, and yes a small few companies increased support. But for every Level 5 or Atlus, there were at least three Sega's or Ubisoft's who never took the console seriously for the most part. 3DS is much closer to the GameCube and Wii in that regard. Okay third party support, but not reliable enough for Nintendo fall back on, thus forcing them to produce much of the big titles themselves. 

Same case for Vita here, mostly niche small games, third party are focus more on smartphone



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At some point I just stopped playing my 3DS at all. I was carrying it and my Vita and the time but never turning them on. I think I had a pretty diverse library before that happened but I really can't remember. It was a step down from the DS as far as variety goes, though.



TheMisterManGuy said:
Rogerioandrade said:

That´s only true ..... if you just look to Western Developers. Activison (Skylanders) and Warner (Lego and Scribblenauts series) seem to be the few ones who kept supporting it regularly. EA launched a couple of FIFA games too.

On the other side , Japanese developers like Capcom, Atlus, Level 5, Square Enix, Sega, Namco etc. launched many games for the 3ds. Most of them exclusives.

Series like Monster Hunter, Professor Layton, Dragon Quest, Yokai Watch got very good sales, as well as some stand-alone releases, like Fantasy Life, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Megaten games, Etrian Odyssey etc. The system was a paradise for Jrpgs. Overall, it had great 3rd party support. Not exceptional, but great.

Even Japan support was lackluster. Capcom just released nothing but Monster Hunter with the occasional AA games after Resident Evil Revelations released. Square Enix just had mostly Dragon Quest remakes and the Bravely games. Atlus and Level 5 were 2 of the only companies who gave the 3DS consistent and varied support, rather than sticking to the same 2-3 franchises. Compared to the DS where Square Enix put out all sorts of games from Final Fantasy, to Mana, to The World Ends With You. 

There were great third party games on the 3DS, but It's hard to say it had great third party support in general since it was so limited in terms of variety. 

Capcom: 9 Ace Attorney games, 2 Resident Evil games, 5 Monster Hunter games, E.X.Troopers, Gaist Crusher 1 & 2, Super Street Fighter 3D, Megami Meguri, Megaman Legacy Collection. Not better than DS but not lackluster that much.  Square: 11 Dragon Quest games, more than DS for sure. 3 Final Fantasy games (1 main and 2 spin-off, worse than DS sadly), 3 Theatrhythm games, Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter, Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur, 1 Kingdom Hearts games (at least better story and characters than Re:Coded), yeah, a bit lackluster compared to DS but still not too bad



xxbrothawizxx63 said:

It was absolute garbage after 2 years for anyone that didn't care about MH or turn based RPGs.

MH and 1P kept me engaged. 4 ultimate was my last 3P purchase. Explorers is the only other late gen 3P action game that comes to mind and I felt satisfied enough with MH as a party action game. 

Those first 2 years were really nice though. A pretty direct continuation of the PSP in many ways. 

I blame the Western support issues on hardware. Mobile GPUs were quickly a gen ahead even if they couldn't produce the same visuals and engines had moved on to support that hardware. Nintendo actively pushed these developers to mobile. Gameloft was a heavy supporter of the DS, but IOS had much better openGL support and was generally a much more exciting platform. This was the period when there was an article every other minute saying mobile was the end of portables (though these articles were definitely more prevalent because of the initial missteps of the 3DS itself).

It was somewhat surprising that even the more prolific Wii 3P supporters didn't attempt to create experiences using those engines as a base. The first year did have a number of (OK to bad) Wii ports to round out the lineup. Then even that was done. 

The paltry software ratio is proof of a weak library. 

Not even Vita with 6 times stronger hardware and a lot newer GPU can change the situation much



Pemalite said:

The 3DS is probably my least played platform that I have owned over the last 30+ years... I think the subpar displays and visuals play a big part of that. (I am a resolution snob.)
I mostly grabbed it for the Nintendo 64 ports. Aka. Nostalgia. Ocarina of time, Lylat wars etc' are amazing.

Same here, in terms of being my least played platform. I don't know that it had much to do with anything other than changes in my life style though. I went through it. From the time I was about 20, in 2000, to roughly 2010, where handheld gaming was just much more convenient for me. But, by the time 3 DS came around, I was pretty much back to console gaming. I had more money, had a better entertainment setup in my home, and I just had a lifestyle that allowed for the more immersive experiences found on console.

Mr Puggsly said:
Compared to GBA and DS, 3DS was severely lacking in 3rd party support. I think what happened is those resources were moved to mobile devices like phones and tablets.

I have no regrets buying a 3DS, but I didn't play any JRPGs and I probably completed like 10 games at most. I spent more time with the Vita.

Agreed. The lifespan of the 3 DS pretty much completely coincides with the rise in Mobile gaming. And, the reality is that the install base for smartphones is infinitely higher than that of the 3 DS

 

d21lewis said:
At some point I just stopped playing my 3DS at all. I was carrying it and my Vita and the time but never turning them on. I think I had a pretty diverse library before that happened but I really can't remember. It was a step down from the DS as far as variety goes, though.

Same for me. I own a 3 DS since somewhere near launch. But, it just never really became a part of my gaming life. I played a few games on it early on, but it just dropped off my mental map shortly thereafter.

 

 

One point that no one seems to have raised here, with regards to the lack of third-party support, is the very slow start that 3 DS had sales-wise. These AAA Publishers that everyone has mentioned have extremely long lead times on their games. So, if Hardware launches with slow sales, even if it turns around a year or two later, it would be a few years before those companies can get big titles made toward the system.

 

These are mostly big companies, with publicly traded ownership. They have an obligation to maximize returns to shareholders. They have to Work with the data available to them, and for a while that data showed that the 3DS was a flop. So, they focused their resources elsewhere.



Salnax said:

I'd say it was somewhat middling.

The GBA didn't have much good third party support. Looking at VGChartz numbers show many of the biggest 3rd party titles are either licensed games (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Harry Potter,and SpongeBob) or retro ports (Namco Museum, Final Fantasy). Sure, you had some well-liked original third party titles like Sonic Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but these were generally exceptions.

Let's try comparing the 3DS's third party support with that for the DS, PSP, and Vita.

  DS PSP 3DS Vita
Big Western Publishers (Overall) Support was meh, but there are a few success stories. Guitar Hero's spinoffs were genuine attempts from Activision, MySims was a success for EA, WB started a franchise with Scribblenauts, and Ubisoft released shovelware. Very strong early on, with big games from series like Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, Assassin's Creed, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty. After 2007, these became much rarer, though EA continued released their annual sports games. Bad. With companies like EA and Ubisoft calling quits by the end of 2011, the only really successful games from big western publishers were LEGO games. As with the PSP, there was a strong start, with some of the Vita's best sellers being 2012 Western releases. Afterwards, things fell harder than the PSP, with even EA giving up on FIFA after 2014.
Japanese RPG's Strong. Squenix had dozens of DS games, including games (largely spinoffs and remakes) representing most of their mainstay series, new franchises, and a main series Dragon Quest. Atlus released the Etrian Odyssey trilogy, Radiant Historia, and a few SMT games. Other companies like Konami, Namco, and Sega also released JRPG's. Roughly on par with DS support of the time. Square Enix released both new games like Birth by Sleep and Crisis Core and updated versions of classic games, Sega released Phantasy Star and Valkyria Chronicles games, and Namco had a couple of Tales games. Still strong. Square Enix released a lot less compared to the DS, but still released new games like Bravely Default and Dragon Quest.  Atlus apparently adored the 3DS, as shown by all the SMT and Etrian Odyssey. Other companies have largely been overshadowed by those two and Nintendo. Oh, and Monster Hunter is here! A fairly diverse group of companies made Vita JRPG's. Squenix and Atlus titles are to be expected, but there was also games from Falcom, Gust, and Namco.
Casual Stuff This is the DS's specialty. Cooking Mama, MySims, Professor Layton, and various other series appealed to a wide audience, some of which also managed to be decent. Mind you, this meant we had 38 Imagine games from Ubisoft. Not the PSP's strong suit, despite the occassional attempt from Sony or another company. Lumines was cool. The lot of the shovelware was absent this time around, but so were many of the casual experiences. The only outstanding examples are Mario & Sonic 2012, Harvest Moon, and Disney Magical Castle. MINECRAFT
3D Games Largely a bust. The few 3D games on DS mostly serve to make you see why the PSP was the better choice. Much of the early major Western support was this, but Japanese developers kept this going throughout the system's life. Besides Action RPG's like Monster Hunter, games like Peace Walker Somewhere between DS and PSP levels. Monster Hunter made an easy transition to 3DS, and other big games like Resident Evil did well enough in 3D, but there still seems to be more 2D love. By default.
Retro and Remakes Significantly scaled down from the GBA era. Square Enix remade and ported plenty of SNES era titles, and Capcom ported Ace Atorney to DS, but the trend was towards new games. Some older games appear, like Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Mega Man Maverick Hunter, and the Namco Museum Battle Collection. The star is PS1 Classics, Mostly absent. Squenix's remake of Dragon Quest VII is the most notable example, along with a few lazy or disappointing ports like with Rayman 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3D. The 3DS Virtual Console petered out fairly early. Plenty of older games have been ported to Vita (often with an accompanying PS3 or PS4 remake), and you can still download PS1 games.
Indie Games
The DS was designed in part to allow for developers to make odd games with small budgets, but the lack of a digital store before the DSi hindered it. (I don't know actually...) The best in Nintendo's history, especially once the eShop got momentum. Both exclusives and multiplat indie games have done well on 3DS. The heart of the system's library. Possibly the best in handheld gaming.
MVP?
Square Enix: Dragon Quest IX was a big hit, even by series standards. Squenix also had another ten games break a million sales, evenly divided into remakes of games like Final Fantasy III and new spinoffs such as Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Capcom/EA: Capcom deserves a lot of credit for the Monster Hunter series, which provided the PSP with big games across its lifetime, including two of its four best sellers, but they otherwise did little to support the PSP. EA released a couple of big sellers annually from 2005 to 2007, notably Medal of Honor and Need for Speed games, and their annual sports releases sold fairly well for the PSP's entire life.
Capcom: A lot of this is due to Monster Hunter, which has been doing better in the West. Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil: Revelations were some of the first big games for the 3DS, and Ace Attorney has been a constant presence. Mojang: Because Minecraft. Not only is it the best-selling Vita game, it has worldwide appeal, unlike many other big Vita games.

 

 

Not a bad breakdown at all. My two cents in this conversation is that DS and PSP had vastly better libraries than 3DS and Vita. Don't think it was very close, regardless of what tiny indie titles you could buy on eShop.



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