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What's up with the 3DS?

Cromat

Member
Freezie KO said:
Actually, I never said that.

You said that smartphone games were more "affordable," and that was a check in the column for smartphones. I'm working with your premise. If you want to say that smartphone gaming loses its "affordability" advantage, then, sure, let's go ahead and see if $40 games can sell on the AppStore.

As to your other points:

I agree Nintendo and Sony's next devices will likely have phone models.

But nothing inherent to the "ecosystem" precludes Nintendo or Sony from leveraging DLC or in-game advertising, as much as I personally hate both of those things.

It's affordable in that you already own and carry one most likely. Besides, since the retail market is cut from the equation, games would never actually cost $40, and quality titles and heavy-hitters would end up in the $20-$25 range.

Would you not buy Pokemon or Mario Kart on a smartphone for $20? I would.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Don't worry guys! With the second CPU core being unlocked it will have enough power to run imports.

Oh and give it some time, too early to judge and all that.

Edit: To the poster above, I paid 15 for Chaos Rings, well worth my money.
 

Takao

Banned
Cromat said:
It's affordable in that you already own and carry one most likely. Besides, since the retail market is cut from the equation, games would never actually cost $40, and quality titles and heavy-hitters would end up in the $20-$25 range.

Would you not buy Pokemon or Mario Kart on a smartphone for $20? I would.

If it has only touch controls or using shitty phone keys? No.
 

Gravijah

Member
Cromat said:
Would you not buy Pokemon or Mario Kart on a smartphone for $20? I would.

I prefer dedicated devices without being tethered to a monthly bill, which is why I'll be picking up an iPod touch in the upcoming years and not an iPhone. That and I quite like my cheap 45 dollar a month phone plan.
 
Sennorin said:
Whenever people state that smartphones are making dedicated handhelds obsolete, I always wonder if they are okay with that or if it´s really a neutral prediction.

I played a lot of SSF4 on the 3DS and also my iphone.

To me, the iphone version is *way* more fun to play and controls a whole lot better. It just feels natural, whereas the 3DS version always seemed like I was contorting my hands to pull off anything other than the simplest commands.

So yeah, I sold my $60 (AU) 3DS version and kept my $0.99 iphone version. So where does that leave us?
 

Cromat

Member
Takao said:
If it has only touch controls or using shitty phone keys? No.

Pokemon would be perfectly fine using only touch controls.

While I do agree touch controls are not optimal in the least for many types of games, I think this issue is overblown.
Besides, I never said gaming on smartphones had to be on touch-screen only devices. Like I said, I think Nintendo and Sony will release devices with smartphone functionality. These devices could and should have buttons, like the Xperia Play.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
abstract alien said:
That has to be a first...
It isn't, iirc some guy went on and on how the iPhone version looked better than the 3DS version when SSF4 3D was revealed :p
 

Jokeropia

Member
Lord Error said:
Welp, I've finally got to try 3DS. I have to say that the 3D aspect of the handheld was a lot, lot more finicky than I ever thought it would be. First thing I noticed was how I felt like I was watching one of those cross-eyed stereograms when the depth slider was pushed all the way up, like i literally had to cross my eyes a bit to see picture clearly. This was remedied by moving the slider half way down, but the depth effect lessened thanks to that, of course.

Worse was how perfectly straight I had to hold the screen towards my eyes to get the best possible image. I really thought this was not an issue with 3DS, but it sure as hell is. Even the tiniest tilt left or right was enough to cause the image to lose brightness at first, and just slightly more was enough to make the image go completely haywire and screw with my brain, literally. I thought this was something that in the heat of the moment could get you killed in the game as if you push the buttons quickly the handheld can pivot a bit in your hands. Of course, putting it back to original straight position brings image back, but the thing is, people tend to overcompensate when something freaky like this happens so I shifted it too much to the other side at first, which made the brain confusion even worse... Funnily enough I remembered Amirox saying his brother died in the game precisely for this reason. I thought he was exaggerating back then, but now I can honestly see something like that happening very easily. I felt like I had to be like some perfectly still robot to play this, but people are usually not like that when they play games.

Bottomline is, I have to wonder how many people tried the 3DS and after the initial seconds of enthusiasm, experienced everything I did, and left feeling a bit bummed about it.
I had the complete opposite experience. I feel I have to consciously move my hands a lot to lose the sweet spot and with the slider I just put it on max and have left it there since.
 
Even considering it's slow start the 3DS is probably at what, 3million worldwide so far?

With the big guns coming this holiday I would guess there is still a chance of a 10m head start over Vita if Sony don't get it out worldwide this year?
 
JosephManderley said:
Even considering it's slow start the 3DS is probably at what, 3million worldwide so far?

With the big guns coming this holiday I would guess there is still a chance of a 10m head start over Vita if Sony don't get it out worldwide this year?
3 million isn't good in any way (prob 4 mill by now).
 

miksar

Member
Ruud_Luiten said:
3 million isn't good in any way (prob 4 mill by now).
It is just over 1 mln in Japan and it is still under 1 mln in the USA, so it is highly likely it is not even 3 mln worldwide.
 

Effect

Member
SmokyDave said:
Is this your introduction to 'preferences'?

They're awesome. You can have a bunch too!

Having fun with the iPhone version is one thing. That's a personal preference and it is what it is. That it controls better is the thing that stands out as crazy.
 
Effect said:
Having fun with the iPhone version is one thing. That's a personal preference and it is what it is. That it controls better is the thing that stands out as crazy.

Yep I stand by it. Have you played both versions? The control schemes are actually quite different. I much prefer the iphone one. I'm not surprised people are surprised as it is surprising.

Easy_D said:
It isn't, iirc some guy went on and on how the iPhone version looked better than the 3DS version when SSF4 3D was revealed :p

Doesn't look better, just more fun to me play. Similarly a game like mortal kombat on the iphone is a train wreck.

Point is, it's not really about the interface to me. Buttons or not, it is all in the implementation. MGS on the PSP is a good example. It has plenty of buttons but I find it completely unplayable due to the placement of the analog stick and the size of my hands *shrug*

Having said that, my 3 year old daughter loves the 3DS and nintendogs. After watching her play for a bit, I decided to take it off her and turn the 3D on as a 'magic trick'. When I gave it back she said it looked funny, reached for the slider (seriously, when did she work that out?) and turned it off. Then went back to shopping for dog collars.

Sharing something like that is worth the price of the console alone.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Controls are different on iOS for sure.

One is pretty much real SFIV, and the other is like a baby version. Very simplistic.
 

Mr_Brit

Banned
Wow at Ubisoft's treatment of 3DS, no confidence there at all.

Ubisoft said:
Assassin's Creed 3DS is cancelled as was said by the lead writer, decision was made back in Sep 2010. Titles like Imagine and Petz are coming.

What makes this doubly shocking is that Ubisoft are meant to be the biggest third party on Nintendo systems and they have said that Nintendo is important to them.
 
Dedicated games handhelds will have a tough battle in the west. I dont think vita or 3ds will come even close to its predecessors.

Smartphones are simply more portable and better suited for cheap pick up and play games.

I think 3ds will do better in the west than vita thou. Vita will do ok with tech geeks the first year or so, after that it looks grim. 3ds on the other will be very successful with kids under 12 like all previous nintendo handheld. It wont however get the casuals, the older gamers.

In japan though i suspect vita will be crushing completely.
 
Sennorin said:
Whenever people state that smartphones are making dedicated handhelds obsolete, I always wonder if they are okay with that or if it´s really a neutral prediction.

For me it's neutral, I like the feel of tactile buttons, but when you look at the market as a whole, from a business perspective...The model that Apple has in place will win over time.

.99 for Angry Birds, vs. 39.99 for Zelda OOT.

The hardcore gamer will buy Zelda without even batting an eyelash. But the handheld market has always been primarily driven by kids as the main demographic...Especially for Nintendo going back to Gameboy.

And when a Mom has an iphone where she can download 40 games for the price of 1 3DS cart, in this economy, it's a no-brainer.

I'm not saying that Nintendo won't make money off of the 3ds, but until they can come up wtih something to truly compete with Apple and the Apps marketplace, then they will be behind. IMO
 
I have one and like it, but it seems a bit ill-conceived overall for a system that's supposed to see big sales these days. First of all, it seems to do nothing to appeal to people who swear by smartphone games and apps. Second, the sacrifice of graphics fanciness and display resolution in favor of 3D pretty much guarantees that Western developers won't ever take the system seriously. Third, overall it seems to be sort of weird to base the successor to a system that was designed to not rely on spectacular visuals on what ultimately boils down to graphics. Oh well, I still hope sales will pick up eventually.
 
Is there really that much of a crossover between dedicated handhelds and cell phone gaming? Other than anecdotes blown up to industry wide doom and gloom, of course.

It just seems like Snake and company finally finding a valid platform doesn't really equate to the newly blooming industry having longevity or profitability after the newness rubs off. I think it just means people have found that Snake and company are actually pretty fun once you have a cell phone where you can play and buy them in a superior manner.

I think the Nintendo handhelds have always been aiming away from the Snake folks, except for maybe the original Game Boy.

dsmoke1986 said:
I'm not saying that Nintendo won't make money off of the 3ds, but until they can come up wtih something to truly compete with Apple and the Apps marketplace, then they will be behind. IMO

Kids ask for a Game Boy, they get a Tiger handheld football game. Price has never been the defining factor there. (Well, when we're talking about devices in the $200 range, maybe, but how many gadgets are already flying around the average household?)

But my issue with this mindset is that everyone seems to be filling this space so quickly. You have dozens of devices that can play games like these, what good would Nintendo do to get in there? Especially when they don't have a phone to offer?
 

liger05

Member
I played street fighter 4 on the iphone and I thought it was awful. I don't know how anyone can play streetfighter on an iphone. There is no way it's better than the 3DS version!!

Smartphones have had an impact but not for me. The only game I play on my droid is scrabble, i just can't take it seriously as a gaming device.
 

kinggroin

Banned
toddhunter said:
I played a lot of SSF4 on the 3DS and also my iphone.

To me, the iphone version is *way* more fun to play and controls a whole lot better. It just feels natural, whereas the 3DS version always seemed like I was contorting my hands to pull off anything other than the simplest commands.

So yeah, I sold my $60 (AU) 3DS version and kept my $0.99 iphone version. So where does that leave us?


You're teaching him a lesson on opinions and such, right? You're just kidding right?


Hahaha, nice one. Almost had me there. Lesson learned, lesson learned.

*goes in for the fist bump
 
Sennorin said:
Whenever people state that smartphones are making dedicated handhelds obsolete, I always wonder if they are okay with that or if it´s really a neutral prediction.

Monthly plans will continue to be a barrier to entry in the marketplace until they lower the cost.
 

evangd007

Member
Ghost_Protocol said:
Why do people buy systems before any games come out, and then complain about no games coming out? Wait for god's sake.

One of my friends bought a 3DS at launch, solely on potential, without any games. He still has not purchased any games but is satisfied with both playing Pokemon Black on it and doing the StreetPass games. He was actually ecstatic when I visited him this past weekend and gave him a puzzle that he didn't have.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
It's mainly a Netflix streaming device for me right now, but I'll play SSFIV whenever the wife has control of the HDTV. I've never been a big handheld gamer though. And I'll probably only own Super Mario, Mario Kart, and whatever 3DS-exclusive Zelda that comes out.

I don't regret buying a 3DS because I know Nintendo will deliver the games (like always).


liger05 said:
I played street fighter 4 on the iphone and I thought it was awful. I don't know how anyone can play streetfighter on an iphone. There is no way it's better than the 3DS version!!.

It's crazyness.
 
Shadow of the BEAST said:
Dedicated games handhelds will have a tough battle in the west. I dont think vita or 3ds will come even close to its predecessors.

Smartphones are simply more portable and better suited for cheap pick up and play games.

I think 3ds will do better in the west than vita thou. Vita will do ok with tech geeks the first year or so, after that it looks grim. 3ds on the other will be very successful with kids under 12 like all previous nintendo handheld. It wont however get the casuals, the older gamers.

In japan though i suspect vita will be crushing completely.
Just curious, but where exactly do you derive the idea that 3DS will only be popular with children and not with "older gamers" (does this mean 13+..? Or 30+..?) Was the DS only popular with children?
 

Alchemy

Member
Ocarina of Time was my reason for picking this up and I'll probably snag the Starfox remake in September. Its pretty light on games currently, but the upcoming holiday season looks crowded with a bunch of Nintendo releases, which is what I usually end up using my handhelds for only. Hell, the only games I really played much of on my DS were Pokemon games.

Maybe I'm strange, but I don't see how people can't have games to play. I have a huge backlog of titles on my PC and consoles I need to burn through, so I'm not really worried about the 3DS lacking titles for the moment.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Cromat said:
Besides, I never said gaming on smartphones had to be on touch-screen only devices. Like I said, I think Nintendo and Sony will release devices with smartphone functionality. These devices could and should have buttons, like the Xperia Play.
Aside that your $20 estimate is very generous and untenable given the kind of budgets and development times some of these games you're thinking of would need, I think you're hugely optimistic thinking that there's enough Android phone users ready to pay 20+ dollars for their games. The reality is that vast majority there won't even consider a game if it's not completely free. I have a feeling that smartphone users, and cheaper android phones users in particular, have probably developed thinking that since they already pay an exorbitant amount of money every month just to use the phone, why would they pay even more to use phone's apps and games. It's a race to the bottom with the smartphone apps, the expectations are different, and that's why the games priced that much have actual hope of selling on dedicated machines.

Besides, vita already is more like a dedicated gaming tablet than anything. Would it really matter that much if it was running Android or something dedicated? I'm sure you'll get some decent webkit based web browser on it which is enough to cover 90% of typical tablet use anyway.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
Literally 5 times the price of a used ds lite in my area.
3d which I hate even on gigantic screens.
No games I have even a passing interest in.
From what I've seen of my roommates the case actually scratches a line in the screen.
Only one analog...pad and it's rather mediocre.
The polygonal graphics are much much better than the ds but not good enough for me to want to ever play a polygonal game on it instead of on my giant tv.

I'm honestly shocked it's even selling the meager numbers it is.

If I ever got back into handheld gaming I'd just buy a ds lite again and play literally 100 times as many worthwhile games at this point.
 
LuchaShaq said:
Literally 5 times the price of a used ds lite in my area.
3d which I hate even on gigantic screens.
No games I have even a passing interest in.
From what I've seen of my roommates the case actually scratches a line in the screen.
Only one analog...pad and it's rather mediocre.
The polygonal graphics are much much better than the ds but not good enough for me to want to ever play a polygonal game on it instead of on my giant tv.

I'm honestly shocked it's even selling the meager numbers it is.

If I ever got back into handheld gaming I'd just buy a ds lite again and play literally 100 times as many worthwhile games at this point.


Welcome to... every single system generation ever.
"Why would I buy the hip new thing when I can get the old thing for a fraction of the cost!"
 

watershed

Banned
AceBandage said:
Welcome to... every single system generation ever.
"Why would I buy the hip new thing when I can get the old thing for a fraction of the cost!"
Retro gaming is pretty sick though. I've been burning up my gamecube with pikmin 2 and windwaker lately. Now if only I could find a copy of the gamecube version of TP...
 
DownLikeBCPowder said:
Just curious, but where exactly do you derive the idea that 3DS will only be popular with children and not with "older gamers" (does this mean 13+..? Or 30+..?) Was the DS only popular with children?

Im talking major trends here. On the individual level im sure there are exeptions. But when you look at the big picture the older gamers and the casuals that nintendo won with ds has moved on to smartphones.

Handhelds in the west has always been abit of a "my first gamesystem". I think this will be even more true going forward.
 

plufim

Member
I know it is cool to say "the 3DS is doooooomed", but is it doing demonstratably worse than the first 6 months of the original DS launch? In terms of software the original DS was dismal, and IIRC sales didn't pick up until almost a year in.
 
plufim said:
I know it is cool to say "the 3DS is doooooomed", but is it doing demonstratably worse than the first 6 months of the original DS launch? In terms of software the original DS was dismal, and IIRC sales didn't pick up until almost a year in.

No, the problem is GAF has the attention span and the memory of a 4 year old.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
AceBandage said:
Welcome to... every single system generation ever.
"Why would I buy the hip new thing when I can get the old thing for a fraction of the cost!"

The point is the "hip new" parts of the 3ds...aren't particularly good.
 
LuchaShaq said:
The point is the "hip new" parts of the 3ds...aren't particularly good.


Neither was the DS compared to the GBA when it came out.

"Who the fuck wants two screens?! I'll just buy a new GBASP and play all the hundreds of awesome games on it!"
 

Zee-Row

Banned
The DS and 3DS both had their first year growing pains but the main difference is the original DS didn't have good games getting cancelled left and right like whats happening with the 3DS. Its very disheartening to say the least.
 
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