Iwata explains the reasons of 3DS's price cut; gives it 4 months to resurrect

Corto said:
I think that Sony is not sure if these are excellent news or horrible news for the launch of Vita.

Do the markets overlap? The person who buys Super Mario Land3D and Mario Kart 7 the same as Uncharted and Wipeout? I dunno.

The one thing Sony can take heed in is be wary on how they price software. Not everything needs to be a 40 dollar game. A strong push for sub 10 dollar games on PSN at Vita launch is as important as Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
 
Plinko said:
I'm sorry, but I think those in here thinking it won't help are absolutely out of their mind.

1. They're not lowering DSi prices, which will kill off the DS.
2. Price, which was the #1 factor in poor sales according to surveys, is fixed.
3. A new Mario Kart and a new Super Mario game (both HUGE system sellers) are releasing before the holiday season.
4. It will be priced $80 lower than the Vita.

The holiday season will be HUGE for the 3DS and it will have a large userbase before the Vita is released. That's what they need.


I don't know man. Vita honestly isn't Nintendo's competition.

Angry Birds and other portable 99 cent games are. And if that is indeed true, the industry has shifted, and price for hardware won't matter (as software is still -- in the public's eye -- 40X too much).

But we'll have to see. Interesting state of the industry right now to be sure.

**Pokemon is Nintendo's ace though. The masses are defenseless against it.
 
IOS may have taken a big chunk of the casual market, but with a 1 or 2 dollar price tag there simply are things that devs will never be able to do.

That's where the specific portable game devices have to shine, they need to 'step up their games' and in a sense I think PSVita has an edge to actually do this, and Nintendo just failed at it with the two first 'big' games being N64 remakes.
 
Overall, I feel that the worst thing that will happen is that we'll just get another Gamecube era. I'm ok with this.

Regardless, there's a bevy of awesome games coming out for it and I love my 3DS. Hopefully the sales pick up for them.

Also while people think things are bad for Nintendo, I can't imagine how bad things are going to be for Sony and Microsoft as well, when they throw their hats into the next generation. Launching a new platform in this debt-riddled economy is like suicide, and it's definitely understandable why Sony and MS are milking this gen for as long as they can. The smarter move for them is honestly to wait as long as they can.

Overall, I feel the positions of the current markets and economies are terrible for launching ANY system, and it will be interesting to see how things play out for everyone.

Also a majority of consumers don't care about 3DS vs Vita garbage. They'll buy what's cheap, and they'll buy what they know.
 
Mrbob said:
Do the markets overlap? The person who buys Super Mario Land3D and Mario Kart 7 the same as Uncharted and Wipeout? I dunno.

The one thing Sony can take heed in is be wary on how they price software. Not everything needs to be a 40 dollar game. A strong push for sub 10 dollar games on PSN at Vita launch is as important as Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

I honestly think that Nintendo under appreciated Apple's disruptive role in this space of on-the-go gaming. Sony needs to learn something from this. If Nintendo is struggling coming from such an hegemonic position, I would be very worried if I was Sony. If on the other hand Sony plays its cards well they can have something great on their hands. We'll see.
 
Corto said:
I honestly think that Nintendo under appreciated Apple's disruptive role in this space of on-the-go gaming. Sony needs to learn something from this. If Nintendo is struggling coming from such an hegemonic position, I would be very worried if I was Sony. If on the other hand Sony plays its cards well they can have something great on their hands. We'll see.

What does the Vita do right that the 3DS does wrong? (Other than not having 3D, which is a given.)
 
Vinci said:
Out of curiosity, what do you imagine is Vita's competition?

Vita's? Good call. That's not an easy question.

Dunno. Just speaking for myself and how I see it, it's as much smart phones as it is consoles. Smart phones on the "but this is cheaper" argument, and consoles on the "but I want COD in my living room."

I really wanted Vita to BE a portable console. Play it on the go, come home, HDMI out with PS3 controller support. Hybrid portable/console for the win.

Vita is going to be really interesting to watch...
 
Mrbob said:
Do the markets overlap? The person who buys Super Mario Land3D and Mario Kart 7 the same as Uncharted and Wipeout? I dunno.

The one thing Sony can take heed in is be wary on how they price software. Not everything needs to be a 40 dollar game. A strong push for sub 10 dollar games on PSN at Vita launch is as important as Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

Totally. This exactly.

That's why I just don't see this whole "3DS vs. Vita" thing. It's not "DS vs. PSP." People that buy Mario are the same people that buy Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, right?
 
Ulairi said:
For $170 you can get a 3DS and get full access to Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Nintendogs, classic games, etc etc etc. The App Store content is not superior.

Gamers should be cheering for both Nintendo and Sony to succeed inspite of Apple despite of peoples boners for Steve Jobs.

I *really* don´t get all these so-called gamers that welcome iPod/iPhone-gaming. If 3DS (and Vita) won´t sell as much as expected because people buy Apple-devices instead, that only means one thing: That the handheld market never was as big as we thought. Because people that are interested in real gaming (yes) wouldn´t be satisfied with button-less gaming devices. It certainly sucks that *our* market would be shrinking, but it´d still be the same, old, healthy handheld market as before.

Apple-fans can celebrate all day long, but a consumer that bought an iPod/iPhone instead of a 3DS/Vita is not a lost consumer to Nintendo/Sony. Those people were never interested in enthusiast gaming to begin with. Meanwhile Nintendo and Sony will continue to offer the two only real handheld gaming devices and there is no competition other than the one between those two experienced gaming companies.
 
Mark-Bozon said:
Dunno. Just speaking for myself and how I see it, it's as much smart phones as it is consoles. Smart phones on the "but this is cheaper" argument, and consoles on the "but I want COD in my living room."

Cool. I see it similarly. For what it's worth, I don't think this arrangement is positive for the system. But I like what Sony has done with it thus far. Sound Shapes looks great and the price isn't too hideous.

Mark-Bozon said:
Totally. This exactly.

That's why I just don't see this whole "3DS vs. Vita" thing. It's not "DS vs. PSP." People that buy Mario are the same people that buy Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, right?

I don't see either one of these opinions as 100% accurate. I definitely don't believe that people would ignore a new 2D-esque Mario game in order to keep playing Angry Birds if they liked NSMB before. They're really not similar.
 
But that's the thing: the Vita imo isn't defined by it's smartphone like features, but by it's games.

Similar to 3DS I'd say.
 
Tenck said:
This is the worst prediction I've read on Gaf today.
It's usually the bad predictions that come true. Or rather it's the ones that people remember if by some fluke they come true.
 
Mark-Bozon said:
Totally. This exactly.

That's why I just don't see this whole "3DS vs. Vita" thing. It's not "DS vs. PSP." People that buy Mario are the same people that buy Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, right?

What brought you to that notion?
 
I really don't think that, long term, phones and tablets will drastically affect Nintendo's handheld strategy. Nintendo has titles that will never appear on phones unless they change their strategy, and many games from Nintendo and 3rd parties on DS and 3DS have much more depth and value.

Angry Birds and the other .99 games are good games worth attention, but they are more distracting apps than big games.

Nintendo's franchises, as always, will be the key to their success, and Sony has done a tremendous job of crafting many 1st party franchises that are well respected, have wide appeal, and won't be appearing on iOS or Android.
 
Vinci said:
What does the Vita do right that the 3DS does wrong? (Other than not having 3D, which is a given.)

Strong online infrastructure *insert PSN outage joke here*, richer catalog of downloadable software, flexible pricing on software, Playstation Suite for Android gaming easy portability. But nothing of this will matter if Sony makes some kind of miss step with its launch...
 
Just imagine in Nintendo released the 3DS in November at $170 with Mario, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Mario Kart, Resident Evil, Star Fox, Street Fighter etc. People would have proclaimed it the greatest launch of all time.
 
Mark-Bozon said:
Totally. This exactly.

That's why I just don't see this whole "3DS vs. Vita" thing. It's not "DS vs. PSP." People that buy Mario are the same people that buy Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, right?
I'll be buying Mario and MarioKart and Uncharted. I'm not into Angry Birds and Cut the Rope at all.
 
Sennorin said:
I *really* don´t get all these so-called gamers that welcome iPod/iPhone-gaming. If 3DS (and Vita) won´t sell as much as expected because people buy Apple-devices instead, that only means one thing: That the handheld market never was as big as we thought. Because people that are interested in real gaming (yes) wouldn´t be satisfied with button-less gaming devices. It certainly sucks that *our* market would be shrinking, but it´d still be the same, old, healthy handheld market as before.

Apple-fans can celebrate all day long, but a consumer that bought an iPod/iPhone instead of a 3DS/Vita is not a lost consumer to Nintendo/Sony. Those people were never interested in enthusiast gaming to begin with. Meanwhile Nintendo and Sony will continue to offer the two only real handheld gaming devices and there is no competition other than the one between those two experienced gaming companies.
I am a Nintendo fan and I haven't bought a DS game in ages, partly because of my iPod Touch. There is quality software for the device that is cheap as hell or even free: deal with it.

Now I don't think there's a replacement for buttons but software designed with the device in mind can be awesome. And again, near free.

Please get out of here with that "real games" BS. I personally think Nintendo is the top developer in the world and love their big franchises but that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have quality games. Hell, I got fucking Phoenix Wright for $1.
 
Corto said:
Strong online infrastructure *insert PSN outage joke here*, richer catalog of downloadable software, flexible pricing on software, Playstation Suite for Android gaming easy portability. But nothing of this will matter if Sony makes some kind of miss step with its launch...

I'm talking about selling to the mainstream audience, not the folks who will go out of their way to know about PSN and all the online offerings.
 
UncleSporky said:
From a certain perspective it almost looks like they planned this.

This time around, Sony said "no way, we're not going to be seen as the overpriced competitor this time, we're going to push really hard and match them."

And what does Nintendo do? Go down as far as possible to selling at a slight loss, to a place where Sony absolutely cannot follow. They're already at a loss, a massive loss by some accounts.

And the price comparison is right back to where it was last generation. Ingenious, really.
I think it's been planned, or at least ready, for a few weeks.

It is the only reason I can think of that they scheduled Starfox the way they did.

And for it to get in the weekly ads by August 12th, it had to have been announced to retailers around early July.
 
I think people are overlooking the fact that the 3DS didn't just get a "N64 Remake" it's gotten a remake of "The Best-Rated Game Ever"

That shit should have been on the fucking box.
 
Vinci said:
I'm talking about selling to the mainstream audience, not the folks who will go out of their way to know about PSN and all the online offerings.

But that's the new trend now. Apple "created" a new kind of mainstream. A huge mass of users that are now learned on downloadable content, always connected devices, and impulse buying of software if the price is right.
 
Corto said:
But that's the new trend now. Apple "created" a new kind of mainstream. A huge mass of users that are now learned on downloadable content, always connected devices, and impulse buying of software if the price is right.

No. What they did was create a phone that everyone thought was awesome. Those people bought said phone and found out that it allowed them to download games for very low prices. I would wager the vast majority of people who download games and other programs from the iPhone were DD virgins up until that time. If the Vita itself, what they see in stores or in commercials, doesn't get them to buy it, it doesn't matter how nice its online is.
 
AbsoluteZero said:
I think people are overlooking the fact that the 3DS didn't just get a "N64 Remake" it's gotten a remake of "The Best-Rated Game Ever"

That shit should have been on the fucking box.

And here's my cue to say that nobody gives a shit about ratings anymore...
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
I am a Nintendo fan and I haven't bought a DS game in ages, partly because of my iPod Touch. There is quality software for the device that is cheap as hell or even free: deal with it.

Now I don't think there's a replacement for buttons but software designed with the device in mind can be awesome. And again, near free.

Please get out of here with that "real games" BS. I personally think Nintendo is the top developer in the world and love their big franchises but that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have quality games. Hell, I got fucking Phoenix Wright for $1.

I bought my iPhone back in November, and in my original excitement over the device I bought maybe a dozen games, but they're collecting digital dust these days because they're just so fucking frustrating to play.

Chu Chu Rocket, for example, is a pain to play on the iPhone because of the touch screen. The GBA release back in 2001 was more of a pleasure to play.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 and The Simpsons Arcade? Jesus Christ don't get me started on touch screen buttons.

The only games that play remotely well on the device are those that are entirely gyro-based. Super Monkey Ball played pretty well, for example.

The iPhone has some Okay games that are difficult to play surrounded by an ocean of terrible games. I can't even remember half of what I bought because it's so forgettable; so throwaway.

Mael said:
And here's my cue to say that nobody gives a shit about ratings anymore...

Seriously? I thought the industry was obsessed with metacritic these days.
 
Thoraxes said:
Overall, I feel that the worst thing that will happen is that we'll just get another Gamecube era. I'm ok with this.


For me every piece of hardware Nintendo produces is another Gamecube era.

edit: that's not entirely true now that I think about it. While its true of their consoles, I do buy a lot of third party stuff on their handhelds.
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
Please get out of here with that "real games" BS.

No, I won´t. Not in this case. Touchscreen-only devices can *not* offer the same depth that most of us enthusiast gamers demand from a video game. Those games *we* want need a certain amount of input-options. Apple-devices don´t offer these options and therefore render any attempt at gaming useless. Yes, some concepts can be built around the respective hardware, but that´s such a general statement that it really doesn´t mean much. Nobody is going to play epic 50 hours-RPGs on a touchscreen-only device. Or action-adventures. Or even platformers. There might be such games for Apple-devices, but they´re rather experiments than highly anticipated blockbuster-titles.

If you didn´t buy NDS-games because of your iPod touch, you had no interest in real gaming. Doesn´t matter if you call yourself a big Nintendo-fan, you had no interest in these real games. Games for Apple-devices are games that people play as pure timewasters in-between two events of relevance. Their gaming on these touchscreen-only devices is of no relevance. It´s being done because it doesn´t require a lot of focus, thought or invesment. Nintendo and Sony never did lose these people to some competition - the competition never had these people.
 
neptunes said:
Let me get this straight, Iwata is hoping people will buy the 3DS purely on the new pricepoint and not because of the software?

If the software was there the price wouldn't have been an issue.

I'm so glad I'm not a Japanese publishing exec right now.
 
AbsoluteZero said:
Seriously? I thought the industry was obsessed with metacritic these days.

I think there's enough compelling evidences to show that ratings are totally unrelated to performance in the market as far as Nintendo's market is concerned.
Heck I'd argue that it's been that case for nearly a decade now.
 
kame-sennin said:
In the United States alone. These sales make no sense if Apple is truly eroding the dedicated handheld market.

Absolute sales in a month will tell you nothing about the erosion of the market. You would need to compare those sales to something (say previous years sales in the same month) in order to determine if the market is changing or not.
 
Sennorin said:
No, I won´t. Not in this case. Touchscreen-only devices can *not* offer the same depth that most of us enthusiast gamers demand from a video game. Those games *we* want need a certain amount of input-options. Apple-devices don´t offer these options and therefore render any attempt at gaming useless. Yes, some concepts can be built around the respective hardware, but that´s such a general statement that it really doesn´t mean much. Nobody is going to play epic 50 hours-RPGs on a touchscreen-only device. Or action-adventures. Or even platformers. There might be such games for Apple-devices, but they´re rather experiments than highly anticipated blockbuster-titles.

If you didn´t buy NDS-games because of your iPod touch, you had no interest in real gaming. Doesn´t matter if you call yourself a big Nintendo-fan, you had no interest in these real games. Games for Apple-devices are games that people play as pure timewasters in-between two events of relevance. Their gaming on these touchscreen-only devices is of no relevance. It´s being done because it doesn´t require a lot of focus, thought or invesment. Nintendo and Sony never did lose these people to some competition - the competition never had these people.

sonic35260104.jpg


Not only do I have no context of where the buttons are (Have my fingers slipped off? I can't tell!) but when your thumbs are on those buttons, you're covering almost a quarter of the goddamn screen.
 
bigtroyjon said:
Absolute sales in a month will tell you nothing about the erosion of the market. You would need to compare those sales to something (say previous years sales in the same month) in order to determine if the market is changing or not.

But if you cut the context it's still BS. Might as well argue that global warming is caused by the eradication of pirates.
 
AbsoluteZero said:
sonic35260104.jpg


Not only do I have no context of where the buttons are (Have my fingers slipped off? I can't tell!) but when your thumbs are on those buttons, you're covering almost a quarter of the goddamn screen.

I absolutely hate on screen joysticks and stuff like that. You don't have any feedback of when you're missing the stick/button and makes things pretty much unplayable for me.
 
There's probably a general trend toward people who would normally be handheld buyers using smartphones exclusively.

The thing is

1) We don't have nearly enough data to say this for sure, whether it's permanent, and who makes money off it and who loses money.

2) The data we do have is mostly anecdotal if this thread is anything to go by.

3) Even if we agree to the hypothesis that handheld audiences of days past are being completely enraptured by smartphones, that does not mean the death of handhelds itself. It would then be up to the industry to move those users upstream to more involved content.

We probably won't know how this shakes out for another few years. Anyone who tells you with certainty the way this will end is likely choosing one of two binary choices (smartphones > handhelds, handhelds > smartphones) and will gloat about how they got a 50% odds choice right years from now. Ignore those people.

Will smartphones take over handhelds? Will there be room for both? As the industry struggles to figure this out, there are going to be major casualties, but I don't think anything in our industry that was once as big as handhelds can die forever, even if they do eventually take a different form.
 
love this loss leading shit. Consumers++

I ain't even mad I got a 3DS. Some good GBA games for my troubles. It could be worse.

my system could have permanent scratches on the screens due to a design flaw of the 3DS or something hahahaha--





--oh wai
 
Vinci said:
No. What they did was create a phone that everyone thought was awesome. Those people bought said phone and found out that it allowed them to download games for very low prices. I would wager the vast majority of people who download games and other programs from the iPhone were DD virgins up until that time. If the Vita itself, what they see in stores or in commercials, doesn't get them to buy it, it doesn't matter how nice its online is.

I also completely agree with this. And that doesn't invalidate my previous statement. People now expect more from a dedicated portable gaming console than to just simply run first party renowned games or exclusives from celebrated developers. As contradictory as it may seem, they were "trained" to expect more from such a device. Sony will need to deliver the goods on different fronts. I for one am excited to see if they can deliver.
 
AbsoluteZero said:
sonic35260104.jpg


Not only do I have no context of where the buttons are (Have my fingers slipped off? I can't tell!) but when your thumbs are on those buttons, you're covering almost a quarter of the goddamn screen.


Just wait until you get to experience the joy of playing ps one games on a tablet screen!

ps-suite-android-pic-1.jpg


Doesn't that look like fun???? :D
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
I absolutely hate on screen joysticks and stuff like that. You don't have any feedback of when you're missing the stick/button and makes things pretty much unplayable for me.

I have friends that have these phones loaded up with ROMs, but they never play the games because the controls are terrible.

And then I pull out my 3DS and they all want to play Street Fighter :)
 
Mael said:
I apologize in advance if it's a double post but I think this deserve its own post :
http://www.1101.com/iwata/
I found the precursor to Iwata's Ask I think and they're still as relevant now as they were then.
Seriously it's enlightening, if game design is ever meant to be a science that must be a starting point
hmm I see Iwata's weakness here. I noticed it before actually, he's a programmer he likes to look at things in a 'logic' seemingly '1+1' way. He tries to connect and understand for him there's always some sort of underlying science, theory or logic that makes or breaks something which is one of the reasons why he didn't understand the appeal of Wario Ware when Sakamoto showed it to him.

The competitors who he is dealing with now like Apple and Microsoft defy that logic. Apple is burning Nintendo's house down from the sidelines, trying to make them 'irrelevant' while Microsoft research that comes up with Kinect and the likes is a different ball game. There was a video a while back and they showed what could be a next-gen gaming machine with a projector and stuff. Throw data from one device to the other, replace your actual window with a virtual one that sort of 'out there' Microsoft tech. When they asked the inventor: "So what are you going to do with this? How can this be put to good use?" he said: "I dunno, it doesn't matter it's cool right!". That collides with Nintendo's line of thinking because they prototype everything for years and won't release anything without a clear purpose or goal in mind. Take the Mii's, they worked on that since I believe the NES days but weren't able to find a suitable environment or a game to put them in so they never used them before. From creating something like Wii Speak instead of a regular headset to not releasing the Vitality Sensor because it's only working for 80% of the consumers, they're 'overthinking' pretty much everything.
 
But seriously good for Iwata on being honest. This is the way to handle situations like this, Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is known for their hubris but this is the way to be humble. It's always great when big companies got humbled because they come out the other end as better companies. Sony was humbled with PS3 and as a result their first/second party output has improved exponentially.
 
Amir0x said:
But seriously good for Iwata on being honest. This is the way to handle situations like this, Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is known for their hubris but this is the way to be humble. It's always great when big companies got humbled because they come out the other end as better companies. Sony was humbled with PS3 and as a result their first/second party output has improved exponentially.

It's definitely a way to get better as a company. I like how the execs actually take the blame.
 
I'm not so surprised at the path Nintendo took, but I am surprised at how quickly they took it.
I still think they could have easily ridden out the holiday, but Iwata saw it from a completely different angle.

Also, Nintendo NEEDS to expand their development studios. Start buying the Next Levels and Headstrongs and Monster Games.
 
Amir0x said:
But seriously good for Iwata on being honest. This is the way to handle situations like this, Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is known for their hubris but this is the way to be humble. It's always great when big companies got humbled because they come out the other end as better companies. Sony was humbled with PS3 and as a result their first/second party output has improved exponentially.
The thing that keeps following Iwata though is that he's always like: "Yeah, the N64/GameCube/Wii/3DS software situation was a problem that will totally not happen with the GameCube/Wii/3DS/Wii U!" or admitting that he figured he could get away with the $250 3DS because of E3 hype probably got him some awkward stares at the latest shareholder meeting.
 
Amir0x said:
But seriously good for Iwata on being honest. This is the way to handle situations like this, Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is known for their hubris but this is the way to be humble. It's always great when big companies got humbled because they come out the other end as better companies. Sony was humbled with PS3 and as a result their first/second party output has improved exponentially.
Truer words have never been spoken. Sony really did a 180°. As a day one PS3 owner and seeing how that went, I have no doubt Nintendo will follow the same path with similar results.
 
outunderthestars said:
Just wait until you get to experience the joy of playing ps one games on a tablet screen!

ps-suite-android-pic-1.jpg


Doesn't that look like fun???? :D
That's much better actually because of black bars.

But it's only good for stuff like Final Fantasy
 
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