Hey, Nintendo: this whole 3DS launch thing may be the talk of the town this week, but when you peel back the hype of a new handheld whatâs left beneath isnât all high fives and back slaps.
No, beneath the new things and smell of fresh plastic there are gripes. And here are my biggest gripes with the 3DSâ launch to date:
At $249, the price of the 3DS is too damn high. People can console themselves with âoh, Nintendo can charge what they wantâ, or âoh, Nintendo has to make a profit on hardwareâ, but thatâs garbage. This is the same price Nintendoâs last home console launched at. Itâs priced at $249 because Nintendo believes that, after five years of almost constant audience-building success, it can get away with pricing it at $249. Itâs eerily reminiscent of Sonyâs $599! pricetag at the debut of the PS3, and we all know how well that went down.
Iâm not saying the 3DSâ launch will be a failure because of this, but itâll certainly deter some of even the companyâs most loyal fans, especially since theyâll be the most likely to realise next year thereâll be a smaller, cheaper 3DS Lite.
Itâs launching too early. There are many features of the 3DS, like web browsing and the downloading of games, that wonât be there for the handheldâs launch. There are many big games â Ocarina of Time especially â that people would have expected to be there at launch that are not. Stock will be severely limited. Why? I donât think the 3DS was ever meant to launch in March.
Instead, given the rapid decline in sales of both the Wii and DS over 2010, it seems as though Nintendoâs head office panicked, and rather than allow their flagship products to stagnate into 2011 â which would spook investors â decided to rush the 3DS out before the end of the companyâs fiscal year on March 31. Four million new handhelds sold will give Nintendoâs bottom line a big boost it would otherwise have been without.
Thatâs great for Nintendoâs top brass, as well as the companyâs investors, but it feels like weâre getting a partial launch as a result of the rush. Thatâs why the 3DSâ reveal was a rushed press release in the dead of night. Thatâs why Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime was quick to point out heâs counting the 3DSâ launch window as running until June. That could be why weâre not getting web browsing, game downloads, DSiWare game transfers or 3D movie functionality at launch. Because I donât think the 3DS was meant to be out until the middle of the year (at the earliest).
https://lastchance.cc/nintendo-announces-new-hardware-the-nintendo-3ds-5499697%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe7IUMaOGT0
Region locking is the devilâs work. Weâll be bringing you more on the 3DSâ region locking measures later, but suffice to say that any region locking on a handheld is something to be frowned upon. One of the joys of the Nintendo DS was the ability to sample games from other regions that we otherwise wouldnât have had a chance to enjoy. Like Ouendan. Locking the 3DS away behind iron curtains wonât stop piracy, as Nintendo obviously believes it will. Nor do I think it has anything to do with another explanation given, that age ratings differ across territories. Pirates will always find a way, so all this measure will do is annoy hardcore consumers who want to play games they otherwise wouldnât be able to play.
Failure To Launch. OK, so hardware launches are rarely the time for all-time classic games to be released. And the DSâ roster was one of the worst of all time. But at least it had Super Mario 64 DS, which while a remake, was at least a remake of an all-time classic. That was enough to get the Nintendo faithful by while they waited for more substantial offerings. The 3DSâ launch lineup looks dull all over. The usual suspects from EA and Ubisoft, a Nintendogs game that now has cats and a bunch of castaways from the Japanese launch. Thereâs no standout game there, meaning thereâs less motivation for people to buy at launch other than the hardware itself. Which, at $249, isnât the greatest deal on the planet.
