Official 3DS Discussion Thread

[Hero_of_Darkness]

How incredibly lame. I was all excited for a "Donkey Kong 3D" too.

Nintendo/Retro Studios better make a DK3D anyway.

Since Retro has at least two teams and 3DS desperately needs IPs that will sell in the west, yes they should. As 3DS stands right now, it's going to sell like poop for a good portion of the year outside of Japan. Kid Icarus is probably going to flop due to bad word of mouth about the controls, so unless Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are going hit this summer, it's going to fall back to near where it was before the price drop.

Hey, Nintendo, Japan isn't the only country on Earth, you know!

[Nayrman]

Since Retro has at least two teams and 3DS desperately needs IPs that will sell in the west, yes they should. As 3DS stands right now, it's going to sell like poop for a good portion of the year outside of Japan. Kid Icarus is probably going to flop due to bad word of mouth about the controls, so unless Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are going hit this summer, it's going to fall back to near where it was before the price drop.

Hey, Nintendo, Japan isn't the only country on Earth, you know!

(First off, I don't think Icarus will flop, just it won't be the massive seller Nintendo I think hopes it to be)

Of course it's not the only country on earth. In fact, we're a bigger market due to there being multiple times over Japan's population. Do they care? Not really. A lot of Japanese companies seem content to just give up on America and focus on winning Japan. Why? Mostly I think it has to do with two things. 1. Changing tastes of American gamers. Yeah, there is a section of us that will always be interested in our traditional games, or the weird Japanese stuff, but when the highest sellers are First Person Shooters (Which Japan notoriously seems to hate) and our RPG's like Skyrim are way more western in style than theirs, so it's hard to cater to both regions. The other is simply put there is a whole lot of competition from the west in terms of developers now. And I think they just don't want to compete with them. Easier to stick to Japan where they know the market much better than try making games for the west that aren't likely to sell in their home region. That is in addition to the fact that while not strictly true, American/western games tend to not do well in Japan, so the competition is far less fierce from outside your own country than it is here.

So yeah, while Nintendo, SEGA and a few with worldwide franchises will survive, the days of getting a good chunk of the Japanese releases is long gone, much to the detriment of the companies in my opinion. It's why I have the sneaky suspicion that sometime in the next 10-15 years Nintendo is either gonna have to release consoles only in Japan and stick to that region or finally have to go third party as these worldwide tech giants make systems so developers can release them wherever they want.

Anyway, feel free to talk back which I'm sure others will. @_@:;

[Hero_of_Darkness]

(First off, I don't think Icarus will flop, just it won't be the massive seller Nintendo I think hopes it to be)

Of course it's not the only country on earth. In fact, we're a bigger market due to there being multiple times over Japan's population. Do they care? Not really. A lot of Japanese companies seem content to just give up on America and focus on winning Japan. Why? Mostly I think it has to do with two things. 1. Changing tastes of American gamers. Yeah, there is a section of us that will always be interested in our traditional games, or the weird Japanese stuff, but when the highest sellers are First Person Shooters (Which Japan notoriously seems to hate) and our RPG's like Skyrim are way more western in style than theirs, so it's hard to cater to both regions. The other is simply put there is a whole lot of competition from the west in terms of developers now. And I think they just don't want to compete with them. Easier to stick to Japan where they know the market much better than try making games for the west that aren't likely to sell in their home region. That is in addition to the fact that while not strictly true, American/western games tend to not do well in Japan, so the competition is far less fierce from outside your own country than it is here.

So yeah, while Nintendo, SEGA and a few with worldwide franchises will survive, the days of getting a good chunk of the Japanese releases is long gone, much to the detriment of the companies in my opinion. It's why I have the sneaky suspicion that sometime in the next 10-15 years Nintendo is either gonna have to release consoles only in Japan and stick to that region or finally have to go third party as these worldwide tech giants make systems so developers can release them wherever they want.

Anyway, feel free to talk back which I'm sure others will. @_@:;

Actully, I think the "why" is simply that handhelds dominate Japan, while at the same time western third-parties don't support handhelds with anything substantial. The thing is that Nintendo has to try to get those Japanese games to come to the west faster and more frequently than they currently do.

And the vast majority of Nintendo's revenue comes from the west (which is why the strong yen is hurting them so much), so there's no chance that they'll abandon the west unless they plan to sell off like 70% of the company, and at that point they might as well just go third-party.

[Nayrman]

Actully, I think the "why" is simply that handhelds dominate Japan, while at the same time western third-parties don't support handhelds with anything substantial. The thing is that Nintendo has to try to get those Japanese games to come to the west faster and more frequently than they currently do.

And the vast majority of Nintendo's revenue comes from the west (which is why the strong yen is hurting them so much), so there's no chance that they'll abandon the west unless they plan to sell off like 70% of the company, and at that point they might as well just go third-party.

I still say they'll put less and less effort into the west over time at the very least. Even if the majority of their revenue comes from the west, their actions show how little they seem to care.

As far as handhelds go, I get how they're more popular overall there, but at the same time, Nintendo is still making consoles. If handhelds are so much bigger and where all the money is being made, why make a console at all? I still say it's also partially a competition issue. Was the 90's SNES/GEN war "hard fought"? Yeah, but at the same time you only had one other console to really worry about (No real competition from PC as that was an entirely different beast back then), and all the software competition wasn't as high. Few American developers were making anything of value for consoles. But with the internet making word of mouth more important, far more developers, PC/Steam gaming having more direct competition, I just think Nintendo wants no part of this, and would rather just deal with Japan except for the few sure fire bets like Mario and company.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

I still say they'll put less and less effort into the west over time at the very least. Even if the majority of their revenue comes from the west, their actions show how little they seem to care.

As far as handhelds go, I get how they're more popular overall there, but at the same time, Nintendo is still making consoles. If handhelds are so much bigger and where all the money is being made, why make a console at all? I still say it's also partially a competition issue. Was the 90's SNES/GEN war "hard fought"? Yeah, but at the same time you only had one other console to really worry about (No real competition from PC as that was an entirely different beast back then), and all the software competition wasn't as high. Few American developers were making anything of value for consoles. But with the internet making word of mouth more important, far more developers, PC/Steam gaming having more direct competition, I just think Nintendo wants no part of this, and would rather just deal with Japan except for the few sure fire bets like Mario and company.

To be fair, it's mostly NoA that gets screwed and even then it's not really to any extreme. Saying that we only get sure fire bets is an exaggeration. I was mostly talking about them getting Japanese third-parties to get their games over here. With 3DS, the only Nintendo game with any question over whether or not it's coming to the US is Fire Emblem. Wii has been an issue with a number of games this generation, but beyond the few games that were missed saying that they might as well ditch consoles and stick to Japan is blowing it out of proportion. At least wait to see what they've got going with Wii U before making comments like that.

[Nayrman]

Don't do only sure fire bets? I dunno, have you seen the insane amounts of Mario we've been getting the last number of years, and even then a few of the other games have been in the exact same style? (DKCR and Return to Dreamland are 2D multiplayer rehashes of what's already been done). So yeah, I'd say Nintendo has been very "sure fire bets" lately.

Fire Emblem is what I'm worried about. If we get it, I think we have reason to hope for a while. If it doesn't, I think we'll be getting the same old stuff from Nintendo after a while. The Wii was a massive predictor of what I'm talking about. Why must it take a year plus of fans demanding games to get anything for a completely dry console to appear? Yes, the WiiU is a major reason for that but at the same time, complete disregard for a lot of possible international releases really worries me about the future.

I wouldn't say blowing out of proportion. The Wii had a great start then completely fell apart at the halfway point or so. The WiiU will be the ultimate factor in this yes, but at the same time, they're beyond far behind in a lot of things they're saying they are going to do. And to be honest, with past experience with things such as memory, online interactions, ports/3rd party involvement (That isn't skin deep) and so on I can't really side with Nintendo on this one until they prove they can actually do things.

[Kayo]

Since Retro has at least two teams and 3DS desperately needs IPs that will sell in the west, yes they should. As 3DS stands right now, it's going to sell like poop for a good portion of the year outside of Japan. Kid Icarus is probably going to flop due to bad word of mouth about the controls, so unless Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are going hit this summer, it's going to fall back to near where it was before the price drop.

Hey, Nintendo, Japan isn't the only country on Earth, you know!

I still don't think Kid Icarus will flop, even though I hear a lot of whining and whining about the controls, especially from left-handed people who claim to be unable to play it completely.

Which, to me, seems like a lot of unnecessary whining. There is no way in hell that it'll be impossible for left-handers, and if they're so upset about it they can just get a Circle Pad Pro.

But seriously, I've heard whining like "If you can't make the controls work for both, don't release the game at all." What people need to realize is that left-handedness is first of all a minority. Second, the 3DS is asymmetrical; the circle pad is only on the left, and ABXY is only on the right. That shouldn't have to be different. You honestly can't expect anyone to not want to work with the controls the way they are just to please the remaining 10% of the population.

Seriously, though, I'm strongly right-handed, but I could easily get used to playing something using my left as the dominant hand. It's a handheld video game, nothing's going to be that difficult, control-wise.



The only reason it could theoretically not do so well is all the whining. If people would just suck it up and keep their mouths shut, it would do perfectly fine.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

Don't do only sure fire bets? I dunno, have you seen the insane amounts of Mario we've been getting the last number of years, and even then a few of the other games have been in the exact same style? (DKCR and Return to Dreamland are 2D multiplayer rehashes of what's already been done). So yeah, I'd say Nintendo has been very "sure fire bets" lately.

Fire Emblem is what I'm worried about. If we get it, I think we have reason to hope for a while. If it doesn't, I think we'll be getting the same old stuff from Nintendo after a while. The Wii was a massive predictor of what I'm talking about. Why must it take a year plus of fans demanding games to get anything for a completely dry console to appear? Yes, the WiiU is a major reason for that but at the same time, complete disregard for a lot of possible international releases really worries me about the future.

I wouldn't say blowing out of proportion. The Wii had a great start then completely fell apart at the halfway point or so. The WiiU will be the ultimate factor in this yes, but at the same time, they're beyond far behind in a lot of things they're saying they are going to do. And to be honest, with past experience with things such as memory, online interactions, ports/3rd party involvement (That isn't skin deep) and so on I can't really side with Nintendo on this one until they prove they can actually do things.

If you can name me a company that doesn't put out mostly games that they know will sell, I'll eat a sweaty sock. :/ That's how this business works. They either have huge games that are sure sellers, or small games made for a quick buck.

As for Fire Emblem, it has at least already been confirmed for Europe. (BTW, I noticed that you seem to be treating "international" as synonymous with North America. WTF?) I'm not too worried about it getting an NA release, though. The only reason there's any doubt about it coming is due to the fact that the FE3 remake didn't come here. If something like Spirit Camera can get a US release, however, FE is practically a sure thing.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

*is having fun tearing through rooms in Find Mii 2*

*enters bright room right after losing black shirt Mii due to a miss*

......................................................................


ha

haha


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*shoots 3DS, then shoots self in head*

[Neerb]

*is having fun tearing through rooms in Find Mii 2*

*enters bright room right after losing black shirt Mii due to a miss*

......................................................................


ha

haha


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*shoots 3DS, then shoots self in head*

[DededeCloneChris]

*is having fun tearing through rooms in Find Mii 2*

*enters bright room right after losing black shirt Mii due to a miss*

......................................................................


ha

haha


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*shoots 3DS, then shoots self in head*

*Shows off StreetPass Black Mii*

[Hero_of_Darkness]

*Shows off StreetPass Black Mii*

I bought a black one to darken the room already.

But if this happens again, some kid in Africa is going to get a Zelda Edition 3DS.

[DededeCloneChris]

We're getting Theathrythm after all! *Cheers*

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/22/theatrhythm-final-fantasy-announced-for-summer-release-in-useu/

[Neerb]

The only FF I've played is VII, which I own on PS3 and have barely even started since I bought it two or three years ago, so I suppose I'm not terribly interested. Still, [3]DS rhythm titles are awesome, and FF has good music, so it looks humorously fun. Also, it gives me hope for Fire Emblem Awakening and Monster Hunter 4.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

The only FF I've played is VII, which I own on PS3 and have barely even started since I bought it two or three years ago, so I suppose I'm not terribly interested. Still, [3]DS rhythm titles are awesome, and FF has good music, so it looks humorously fun. Also, it gives me hope for Fire Emblem Awakening and Monster Hunter 4.

You are aware of the fact that each of those games are made by different companies, right? The only thing they have in common is their system, so it really doesn't make sense to link them like that. They're not even the same genre. :/