Rumor: 3DS hardware redesign in the cards

@(Unverified)

BIG-LIPPED ALIGATOR MOMENT!

@(Unverified) I've never in a million years thought I would actually be angry with Nintendo, but I'm pissed right now. I bought the 3ds at $250 but I was ok with the price drop but this is f*cked up.

@MystcLazrDragon

You have to remember, that this is a rumor and, in my opinion, a BS rumor at that. It doesn't really make that much sense to do that.

@A Sandwich

If it is true then expect Mario games on the PS4 & XBOXIII. This is SEGA all over again with the Saturn-no-wait-dreamcast tale

@A Sandwich

Otherwise, 3DS is the new Virtual Boy...IF this was confirmed to be true and released in less than year, I wouldn't be concerned if this happened after 4 or 5 years of 3DS life.

@Trilancer
You mean, Genisis, no wait 32X, no wait Sega CD, no wait Saturn, no wait Dream Cast.

@Trilancer

This can't be Sega all over again. This is Nintendo! We all saw how badly Mario beat down Sonic, both in sales and the olympics. Ninty always bounce back. See Gamecube.

@A Sandwich

Agreed. If this is true and if this plan is put into motion it could quite literally kill all and any consumer confidence in Nintendo. If this is true, the 3DS will no longer be supported and no one will trust Nintendo. I actually hope this is the furthest thing from whats really going to happen.

@A Sandwich I thought a 3ds with no 3d and a second stick was called a Vita.

@A Sandwich

I don't want to sound like a douche, but Nintendo really should have paid closer attention to what Apple is doing in the mobile market. People have gotten used to "10 minutes of fun" and $1-$10 [digitally downloaded] games. The current model that Nintendo is using is far too traditional in today's market and major developers are seeing a lot of success releasing new/old games on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

At the end of the day, Nintendo is a traditionally run Japanese company. They don't understand (or at least seem to not understand) where the US handheld gaming industry is heading.

Now give me Xenoblade you bastards.

@The Aquacharger

The Genesis was Sega's cash cow.

@Captain Planet Planeteer Power

I know I'm in the minority here Cap but I'd rather spend the 40 dollars on a cohesive experience that last longer than 15 minutes.

But then again...I'm a gamer. Fans of casual gaming out number us by quite a large margin.

@Captain Planet Planeteer Power

Agreed. They need to chill the hell out on pricing for their older games. Sorry, Big N, I love your classic franchises, but NES and Gameboy games should only be worth $1 and SNES and GBA games should go for $2. Don't pace yourself with VC releases, go balls to the wall and release everything. Do ten a week. Take some of that Wii money and hire a team that only does that. Don't listen to your fans unless they're begging for software, then go ahead and do what they want. Then go splurge and purchase a few new studios with promising pedigrees. Buy motherf*cking Atlus. Pay Rockstar $100,000,000 for GTA V exclusivity. Hire some hot business chic to do Reggie's old job. And then call me, because that's just what you get for free.

@Captain Planet Planeteer Power

I echoed these exact same sentiments the other week on another article, but also included Vita into the mix. It will face just as hard of times when released as 3DS has.

I feel that the days of Gameboy/DS/PSP like portable devices are going by the wayside because of handheld computers a.k.a. smartphones. The cellphone companies are even poking fun at this fact in their latest commercials where some guy walks into a Verizon store with like 8 devices strapped to his waist with one of them being a PSP "for gaming" he says.

@Chibi Chaingun
Yes, but the 32x and the CD were it's sour milk.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

"it could quite literally kill all and any consumer confidence in Nintendo. If this is true, the 3DS will no longer be supported and no one will trust Nintendo"

Little bit of a stretch there. Nintendo's fanboy base is of the utmost loyal. They ain't goin anywhere.

I think people are misinterpreting this article. It says they are adding an analog stick in a redesign and not hyping up the 3D factor so much. It doesn't claim anything near abandoning the 3DS and starting over with a completely different device that, oh by the way, wont play your 3DS/DS games or something to that effect.

However, a change was needed for sure. I've purchased every Nintendo handheld day one except the 3DS (and DSi XXL Supa Size Edition) and that isn't a good sign for a blind Nintendo follower such as myself.

Battery life and ugly prototype hardware design doesn't help.

Just saw this. Thought it was relevant and interesting.


http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/08/nintendo-iphone-games/

@Co

If there is a second analogue stick how will games be interoperable on both systems? If they rebrand the 3DS but still have the same titles work from 3DS on the new system but not the other way around it's going to be a disaster.

As far as Sony goes I do think they see the writing on the wall to a certain extent. They have the Playstation Suite on the android platform and all playstation mini, PS1 and PSN titles (priced from $2-$15) will work on Vita from day one. In that respect I think they are going to have more affordable downloadable software than Nintendo has at launch. It also looks like their gonna have some really good first party content at launch.

@Co

"I feel that the days of Gameboy/DS/PSP like portable devices are going by the wayside because of handheld computers a.k.a. smartphones. The cellphone companies are even poking fun at this fact in their latest commercials where some guy walks into a Verizon store with like 8 devices strapped to his waist with one of them being a PSP "for gaming" he says. "
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Posted: Mar 30th 2011 3:16PM
Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

"At the end of the day the app store and sophistication of mobile phones allows for the same experience at a fraction of the cost. "

"Proprietary handheld gaming is dying because of cost of entry. Why spend the money on a new DS or PSP and $40 for the games when you get the same experience or better on your cell phone?"

"I think the market has shifted and cultural phenomenons like angry birds is a huge reason why."

@The Aquacharger

Yes, but you lumped the Genesis in the same carton of sour milk.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell Agreed. I don't mind being an early adopter or whatever (Though I really have no need of NES titles, and wish they could all be GBA titles), but this would seriously put me off as an early adopter of their products for good.

@The Aquacharger

Not to nitpick here but the SegaCD was released before the 32X. If you're going to hurl insults then you should at least do a little fact checking first.

@theBrayn
Like it matters if I mixed up the 32x or the Sega CD for the "no waits" the point was most developers weren't trusting of Sega because they released too many console upgrades at once. Developers didn't know if they could trust the Dreamcast simply due tot he fact of the Genisis, then 32X, then Cd, then Saturn, then Dreamcast. There happy?

@The Aquacharger
Note the "there happy" isn't about me correcting the list. It's simply about explaining the situation.

@theBrayn
And here if you still don't want to take what I said. Watch Game Makers. They had an episode about the Dreamcast how great it was and why it failed.

@NaeemTHM perhaps I just haven't had my coffee today, but saying that fans of casual gaming aren't gamers while holding yourself up as an example of a real "gamer" sure seems like a douchey statement

@A Sandwich

Nintendo is doing a capcom :D

Whats that? You only have the regular version? That's lame!!!! If you really want to be as cool as us and everyone else who is as cool as us, you'll buy the new version with the words "super" in front, we've changed and added new stuff that you can't get in the old version. Whats that? You only bought yours a week ago? LAME!! Buy the new one too, that makes us more money and it makes you more poor :D

@A Sandwich
Halo on 3DS confirmed !!! ZOMG!!!!!

@Spunky Monkey 190906

"Also, you thought we were adding just one more stick? No way, brah! (You guys like being called 'brah', right?) It's called the 3DS because we're gonna have 3 Dual Sliders! That's right, 6 motherf*cking sliders! You can play three first-person shooters at the same time! Isn't this what hardcore gamers want? No, seriously, I'm not sure we know anymore."

@Co Nintendo doesn't succeed with it's fanboys. Relying on just them got them the Gamecube's sales. Their handhelds have been mass market devices, they've never counted on Ninty fanboys for their success in that market.

Otherwise I agree.

@A Sandwich
01net also mentioned that the 3DS dev kits are being manufactured extremely slowly (300 units per month) and charged at a high price. I'm not entirely sure of the veracity of the site's "sources" though.

@A Sandwich

Sig'd.

@The Aquacharger

Thanks, but I owned a Dreamcast. I also owned a Genesis, SegaCD, and a 32x. I'm well acquainted with the good and bad on all of those systems.

@The Aquacharger
"And here if you still don't want to take what I said. Watch Game Makers. They had an episode about the Dreamcast how great it was and why it failed. "

I don't need to watch a show about the problems, I lived through and experienced them. Maybe you should re-read my response and realize I wasn't attacking what caused the Dreamcast to fail but I was commenting on the order of your console releases (because that is what you were doing and you are now trying to compensate for the fact that you were wrong).

@A Sandwich
It could be true, but also not happen, if it refers to something Nintendo are prototyping (so might never release). The '$10 peripheral' would mean it doesn't entirely ditch existing owners... but pretty much because it would be a right pain in the backside. Could they really make something like that for $10 retail without taking another loss? Doubt it. What port would it plug into exactly? *looks at 3DS* There's an IR port but that would mean it would need separate power...? Or maybe the power connector can do data...?

More fundamentally - does anyone actually think a key reason for 3DS doing badly is the lack of a second stick? Because if you do - you're wrong.

I actually think there's nothing wrong with 3DS hardware - I mean, battery life could be better, it could be a little slimmer... you can easily imagine a 3DS Lite. But other than that, it's fine. They've got the price right, now bring some games (quality games for 'gamer' types and they better get some licensed kid games as well).

Also, the 'random videos every week' feature is pretty cool. How about if they did a 'random game every week' feature? Where you get a new, different free game every week - just for having a 3DS. Something sort of slightly better than a WarioWare microgame, but not that much; 2 minutes of play, 15 if you obsess over getting high score. End of the week, game disappears, you get a different one. Leaderboard to show all your friends' scores from wifi. It shouldn't cost too much more than they're paying for videos and would fit in nicely with the strategy they've got for making you turn the thing on more often.

@Captain Planet Planeteer Power

It looks like nintendo has been following Apple since the GBA by redesigning and repacking the same shit over an over in a fancier model, This is exactly why I cancelled my 3ds pre order. I knew there would be a cheaper and better model coming out later

@Theneverendingsoda

Wrong. Are you counting the 2 1/2 years when the SNES wasn't yet released as Genesis dominance? I guess you'd have to in order to make those numbers work. So Genesis was on top for a year and a half? And then got its lunch eaten by the Super Nintendo? Yeah, that sounds about right.

@Apsac D Gamecube has been the only time they've been knocked down so.. who knows with Nintendo

@NaeemTHM

I'm with you. I want to pay more for a game worth playing longer than 10 minutes.

@theBrayn Clearly he was making the statement that Sega released too may consoles / addons / chunks of plastic in too short a space of time. The order, at least today, is irrelevant.

Agreed. This reeks of grade A bullshit.

@bigwhiteyeti

Who knows, maybe they didn't learn their lesson from Motion+?

@bigwhiteyeti

I think the point they're making is that they're planning an add-on peripheral to simulate the second stick in addition to the redesign.

If that were to happen, Ninty will be able to cater to both audiences. Just like the WiiMotionPlus add on for old controllers and built in to the new ones.

@Its The Rocketeer

Except for the fact that nobody really developed any games for Motion+, so the only ones that won out on that was Nintendo by selling the harware based on vague promises that it would actually be supported.

@Its The Rocketeer

And you saw how well that worked...

This is essentially a middle finger to every one who bought a 3DS, even after the price-drop.

@bigwhiteyeti the user base isn't that big, so they could just play the 3DS off as another revision of the DS (like the DSi, DS Lite, etc.).

I could totally see them doing this: the hype for the 3DS is still not at the critical levels that it should be, people aren't sold on the 3D part of it, and the game library sucks. Also, they're still trying to charge $40 for games that don't looks much better than similar $20 DS titles.

@baby sea tuna
This is because many developers found the WM+ to be harder towork with, and by then the Wii was basically considered dead to devs. I like the WM+, I just wish a lot of devs didn't drop support on it midway through the dev cycle.