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3DS: Hit or Flop?

Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Location
Ireland
The 3DS has been on sale for quiet a while now, but there are many figures that show that the DSi is still outselling the 3DS. I'm going to buy it for Ocarina of Time, but do far the performance of the 3DS had disspointed me, and alot of the gaming world. What are you're views?
 

Unlucky Monkey

The Great King of Apes
Joined
May 17, 2011
Location
NRW, Germany
C'mon. The 3DS is available for only 2 month. The full potential of the system has yet to be reached. The 3DS capable of great things. But Nintendo messed up a few things at the start (which Iwata tried to prevent). Anyways. The 3DS will become a succes and the successor of the DS.
 

amaterasu

Writer
Joined
May 21, 2011
Location
FL, USA
Gender
Female
I don't think teh 3D was teh best of ideas. Some people such as myself get headaches if they view in 3D too long, and people with stigmatizums can't view 3D at all.
 

Unlucky Monkey

The Great King of Apes
Joined
May 17, 2011
Location
NRW, Germany
I don't think teh 3D was teh best of ideas. Some people such as myself get headaches if they view in 3D too long, and people with stigmatizums can't view 3D at all.

Nintendo stated that the 3D effect will always be an optional feature. So, the effect won't be a necessarily feature.
 

HappyMaskSlsman

Smilus Creepus
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Location
It's a Secret to Everybody
My opinions on the 3DS are mixxed. Firstly, I will proudly state that I purchased it immediately upon release. The 3D affect is truely stunning, though far from the reason I bought the system. I spent the first few days with it playing the various AR games, creating Miis, and blasting away the faces of those that I know. However, these features eventually grew tiresome, and I wished to try out the street pass feature. This, of course, was impossible, as the 3DS is not highly distributed throughout the world yet. I did not purchase any games at lauch for obvious reasons.
Firstly, I must say the 3D effect is stunning, and I see much potential for it in future games. The menu is easily navigated, and everything flows quite well. The Dpad is a nice addition that will satisfy many a gamer. The graphical capabilities are quite impressive, especially in games that have yet to be released. Overall, the 3DS is a great system.
However, the initial "failure" of the system is for multiple reasons. Firstly, in the several months since its announcement, I've only seen one commercial for it. This greatly limited its potential audience to those who happened to pass a demo, see a poster, or was already within the "Nintendo grapevine". Yes, many people have pointed out that it has higher sales than the Wii, but remember, when the Wii was initially released, they were nearly impossible to get, as each store was only given a limited amount to sell. Secondly, the Nintendo eShop and Internet Browser promised upon lauch was delayed, making anyone who didn't have a game find the system to be virtually useless. Lastly, and most importantly, its launch titles were quite simply "meh". There was no launch title that seemed to appeal, and many of them seemed no better than a DS game with 3D tacked on. The popular titles such as Zelda and Kid Icarus promised to us at E3 were absent- not being released until the summer or later.
Despite all this, I feel that, once these titles are released, 3DS sales will pick up.
 

Sarianae

Infinite Dreamer
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Location
Storybrooke, Maine
Okay, hold your horses. Just step back for a moment. First of all, there's been a misconception going around that the 3DS has failed simply because you can find it still sitting on store shelves; this needs to be debunked. Yes, it didn't sell out, but that is not due to lack of demand; rather, Nintendo went out of their way beforehand to make certain that there would not be any shortages by providing an extremely large supply in advance. This was Nintendo's intent to begin with! It does not mean that the 3DS hasn't been selling well.

And how exactly has the 3DS faired?
Across Europe it sold 303,000 in only the first two days, and in Australia it was actually surpassing how the Wii had sold at launch; the 3DS saw 31,000 sales in only four days, as opposed to the 32,000 that took a week to sell with the Wii. Sales really dropped off in Japan after launch on the other hand, but that's understandable because of the Earthquake--they certainly had more important things to be focusing on!

What's more? Nintendo reported their fiscal earnings for the year ending on March 31st, declaring that the 3DS had sold 3.61 million units worldwide. That's almost 4 million sold after the 3DS had been out for how long...a month? It took the DS SIX MONTHS to sell 5 million. Yet, we know how well the DS did after that. Honestly, you are trying to judge the 3DS too early into it's lifespan. You can't actually expect max results immediately; in fact, it's actually impressive that the 3DS sold as much as it has already, especially if you consider that it has sold that much not only during an off-season, but without killer app games! Remember, people buy the system for compelling software. Just wait until all the Grade A games start filing in and see if the system won't start flying off the shelves. Ocarina is going to be the first strike of many that's going to start bringing in a steady flow of buyers, as there's plenty coming after that (Lets see.....Kid Icarus Uprising, Starfox 3DS, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Super Mario 3DS, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Animal Crossing, Tales of the Abyss to name a few among others). Is the 3DS a Hit or a Flop? I'd say wait to ask that question until at least the end of the year!
 

Unlucky Monkey

The Great King of Apes
Joined
May 17, 2011
Location
NRW, Germany
@Sarianae

Your comment is perfect. My english is not good enough to find such words you're saying, but that's exactly my opinion too. I'm glad another person shares this thoughts.
 

SinkingBadges

The Quiet Man
Let's also remember that most of what you can do on 3ds can already be done on other systems at the moment. Who would buy Super Street Fither IV when it already sold like crazy on Xbox360 and PS3? That Ridge Racer game is also more of a collection of features from other games in the series, too.
I was about to get into the killer game subject but that was already talked before so I'll leave it at that.
 
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Location
Ireland
Nintendo stated that the 3D effect will always be an optional feature. So, the effect won't be a necessarily feature.

But wasn't the whole point of the 3DS to introduce 3D gaming to the world. Surely your not playing it right if you don't have the 3D on? Just a thought.

Thank you for that reply. Brill ! :)
 

Michael Heide

The 8th Wise Man
Joined
Oct 15, 2010
Location
Cologne, Germany
But wasn't the whole point of the 3DS to introduce 3D gaming to the world. Surely your not playing it right if you don't have the 3D on? Just a thought.
The whole point of the 3DS was to introduce a new generation of handheld gaming. The 3DS relates to the DS like the Gameboy Advance related to the Gameboy. That the promotion is pushing the 3D aspect of the graphics is just because the 3D is the first superficial difference you notice. Besides, a marketing campaign based solely on the slide pad wouldn't have been as effective. But that doesn't change the fact that 3D is just the icing on the cake. The 3DS is a much more powerful hardware than the DS or DSi. Switch the 3D off, and you'll see that the graphics of Super Street Fighter IV, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles or the Ocarina of Time remake would never have been possible on the DS.

With that being said, expect a small boost in 3DS sales once the system update hits in a couple of hours (unlocking promised features like the eshop, the inbuilt browser or the 3D video player), a much bigger boost once Ocarina of Time 3D is available later this month and an even bigger boost once more must-have titles (like Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, Mario Kart or Professor Layton 5) have been released.

Was the 3DS launch a failure? Sort of. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it will have risen to the top of the handheld hardware charts by 2012.
 
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
Location
Folsense
The 3DS just started, and I'd wish if you'd at least give it a little longer before we can discuss this. As far as the future, I'm no soothsayer, but I see bright lights for the 3DS ahead. Sure, their launch titles may have sucked, but the launch isn't everything, just ask the Wii. If you look at the lineup for future 3DS games, and even the ones at E3, you'll see massive potential for this handheld. Ocarina of Time 3D? Yes, please. Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, MGS: Snake Eater 3D, Mario Kart 3D, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Prof. Layton 3D, Animal Crossing 3D, Paper Mario 3D, just to name a few. I wouldn't write off the system that fast, because the 3DS certainly has a LOT of potential in the handheld market.
 

jugglaj91

I am me....
Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Location
NY
Can't call it a flop. It is very successful. It is just that most people are waiting for that must have game. I wasn't going to buy a ps3 until God of War 3 came. Took me almost a year later but I got one. Its just a waiting game. A lot of people are also waiting on a price drop. 250 USD is a lot to just pay outright if youre on a budget. But once OoT 3D comes out, as well as Mario, Mario Kart, KH3D and Kid Icarus it will be a major hit.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2010
Give it some time. To be fair, it's only been out for a few months, the launch titles were (in my opinion) a tad lacking, and it was pretty expensive.

Wait til Christmas. The price will go down, and sales will skyrocket because it's Christmas.
 

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