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Nintendo 3DS sells 4.5 million in first year on sale in America

D

Dave Long

Banned
Frankly, it's been a great first year. I still play the 3DS probably five out of seven days a week and I don't think I can say that for any other system I own right now. It bums me out when I forget to bring it with me somewhere I could've been playing (like today...), and the library is definitely good enough for hours of entertainment.

If they hadn't given me all the GBA and NES games I might've been a little more disappointed in the quick price drop, but overall even that doesn't bug me. I've had a system since day one and I really dig it, especially the 3D!
 
E

Effect

Member
A 3DSLite isn't going to happen for the simple reason there is no way they can make the hardware any smaller. The Lite came about in part to improve sales and because the original DS was a rushed design as the system was rushed to market. The physical design of the 3DS (quality of certain parts being a different discussion) wasn't rushed. It's how they wanted it to look as it's a continuation of the DS design. The only direction they can go outside of doing a completely different design (which isn't likely) is to make the unit bigger ala the DSi XL. That will be how they raise the price to make more money off the hardware. This has been said before but I don't get why people don't understand this.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
plagiarize said:
Boggle.

That doesn't logically follow from anything I said. Not even remotely. Reeks of a strawman infact.

If the Wii isn't the best example of underpricing from recent history i'd love to hear what you think underpricing means.

Similarly, if the stalling sales of the 3ds being undone by a price drop isn't direct confirmation that pre price drop the system was overpriced then I'd like to know what is.

We can all have our own personal opinions on the relative values of anything, but the sales figures (and prices in the secondary markets) show that the Wii was underpriced at launch and that the 3DS was overpriced at launch.

It isn't opinion anymore. I thought they could have gone more expensive with the 3DS at launch. Obviously i was woefully wrong in that prediction.

The Wii was sold out for two years at $250 and was sold for more than that on eBay for that entire stretch. Demand vastly outstripped supply and people were regularly paying more than rrp for the system to get one.

underpriced. Factually.
Click to expand...
I think it simply says a lot about people's value equation for handheld systems versus home consoles. The home console is worth more regardless of what its pieces and parts add up to simply because it's "bigger". I think a handheld doesn't have the same value just based on the idea that the physical product is smaller. That's where 3DS ended up looking overpriced.

Ultimately I agree with you here. Wii should've been sold for $300 at least with Wii Sports in the box. $250 was ridiculous value to consumers. Arguably that helped prolong the sales though because of the desire to get one and the lack of systems available.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
hatchx said:
The only thing I don't understand is the 100 titles available.


Is counting every VC release really a fair assessment?
Click to expand...

Have you ever been in a Gamestop and seen their 3DS section? There's far more 3DS titles than I would have ever guessed at, even if a lot of them are the same kind of shovelware crap you saw on the DS. 100 may not be much of an exaggeration if we're going strictly by retail releases.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
Ridley327 said:
Have you ever been in a Gamestop and seen their 3DS section? There's far more 3DS titles than I would have ever guessed at, even if a lot of them are the same kind of shovelware crap you saw on the DS. 100 may not be much of an exaggeration if we're going strictly by retail releases.
Click to expand...
There are a lot, but I don't think there are 100 unless you take into account the downloadable stuff including the 3D remakes of old games, Pushmo, etc.
 
F

FreeMufasa

Junior Member
Effect said:
A 3DSLite isn't going to happen for the simple reason there is no way they can make the hardware any smaller. The Lite came about in part to improve sales and because the original DS was a rushed designed as the system was rushed to market. The physical design of the 3DS (quality of certain parts being a different discussion) wasn't rushed. It's how they wanted it to look as it's a continuation of the DS design. The only direction they can go outside of doing a completely different design (which isn't likely) is to make the unit bigger ala the DSi XL. That will be how they raise the price to make more money off the hardware. This has been said before but I don't get why people don't understand this.
Click to expand...

If they do redisgn it, I hope it's something like GBA to the SP, something completely different.
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Not sure if this kind of question is gaf sanctioned, but is there a chance any future 3ds flag carts will allow for play of other region games?
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
Ridley327 said:
Have you ever been in a Gamestop and seen their 3DS section? There's far more 3DS titles than I would have ever guessed at, even if a lot of them are the same kind of shovelware crap you saw on the DS. 100 may not be much of an exaggeration if we're going strictly by retail releases.
Click to expand...
If this link works for other people, hopefully they can see what I see: 68 new game titles for 3DS that ship in 24 hours.
http://www.gamestop.com/browse/games/nintendo-3ds?nav=131a2-6-4f-ffff2418

I guess there could be out-of-stock and back-ordered games.

Edit: If you remove the "ships in 24 hours" then it goes up over 100, of which about 13 are unreleased?
 
O

Orayn

Member
Gianni Merryman said:
But then they would have to provide magnifying glasses, screens are already very tiny.
Click to expand...

I was speaking more of slimming it down while maintaining screen size, like the DS Lite.

frankie_baby said:
The revision when it does inevitably happen wont have the second stick and extra buttons
Click to expand...

It might if it was some sort of 3DS XL. Again, revising with the same or smaller form factor and adding the contents of the Circle Pad Pro are mutually exclusive.
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
ScreenSplitter said:
Why on earth would you want to make the 3DS smaller?!

That's just a GBA Micro "cos we could" kind of revision.
Click to expand...

Personally i doubt any revision will be any smaller, i'm thinking a revision about the same size but perhaps styled differently and also an xl model at some point, both will have 1 stick
 
R

Ridley327

Member
jvm said:
If this link works for other people, hopefully they can see what I see: 68 new game titles for 3DS that ship in 24 hours.
http://www.gamestop.com/browse/games/nintendo-3ds?nav=131a2-6-4f-ffff2418

I guess there could be out-of-stock and back-ordered games.
Click to expand...

It still blows my mind a bit. I work at a Best Buy, and our MO regarding handheld games this day is to stock only the big titles. My surprise walking into a Gamestop and seeing three times the selection was palpable.

Granted, a lot of those games are going to be rotting on their shelves, but still.
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Orayn said:
It might if it was some sort of3DS XL. Again, revising to the same or smaller form factor and adding the contents of the Circle Pad Pro are mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...

Even in an xl i can see it being far too technically complicated to integrate the frankenstick into the hardware, it will remain an add on
 
B

Byakuya769

Member
plagiarize said:
Boggle.

That doesn't logically follow from anything I said. Not even remotely. Reeks of a strawman infact.

If the Wii isn't the best example of underpricing from recent history i'd love to hear what you think underpricing means.

Similarly, if the stalling sales of the 3ds being undone by a price drop isn't direct confirmation that pre price drop the system was overpriced then I'd like to know what is.

We can all have our own personal opinions on the relative values of anything, but the sales figures (and prices in the secondary markets) show that the Wii was underpriced at launch and that the 3DS was overpriced at launch.

It isn't opinion anymore. I thought they could have gone more expensive with the 3DS at launch. Obviously i was woefully wrong in that prediction.

The Wii was sold out for two years at $250 and was sold for more than that on eBay for that entire stretch. Demand vastly outstripped supply and people were regularly paying more than rrp for the system to get one.

underpriced. Factually.
Click to expand...

3DS is a great example of Nintendo listening to the freshman economists on the wii and pricing it in a way that ignored competition and the desire to sell SOFTWARE.

Why anyone would think they are coming to a profound conclusion that higher prices equals lower demand is beyond me. What's further beyond me is how said people fail to understand that simple demand curves ignore all other factors and assume them away. Factors like fierce competition, nascent recession, and a untested controller interface. When you're not the first console of your gen to launch, you enter the market with a "price high, lower later" mindset at your own peril.

People want to armchair quarterback the great success of the wii by pointing at irrelevant things like, "ha, if price was higher demand would have come to equilibrium!" No shit!?! How about if the console was launched at a higher price demand wouldn't have been there in the first place! i.e. the 3DS.
 
C

Castor Krieg

Banned
liger05 said:
Yes it will. The CPP is is a stopgap until then.
Click to expand...

It won't, because very little games utilize CPP, and by the time revision comes the system will alraedy have an established library. People will buy 3DS for stuff like Layton and Brain Age, neither of which will use CPP.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
frankie_baby said:
Even in an xl i can see it being far too technically complicated to integrate the frankenstick into the hardware, it will remain an add on
Click to expand...

I think the opposite. Either the refresh will be the same size, shape and layout, and work with the current frankenstick or it will have that stuff built in and be a different size and shape, other wise Nintendo have to have two different frankenstick skus which is far from desireable.
 
O

Orayn

Member
frankie_baby said:
Even in an xl i can see it being far too technically complicated to integrate the frankenstick into the hardware, it will remain an add on
Click to expand...

Yeah, double shoulder buttons on a handheld is a bit of a stretch. I don't even blame Sony for not doing that on the Vita.
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
plagiarize said:
I think the opposite. Either the refresh will be the same size, shape and layout, and work with the current frankenstick or it will have that stuff built in and be a different size and shape, other wise Nintendo have to have two different frankenstick skus which is far from desireable.
Click to expand...

I cant see nintendo having a problem with 2 (even 3) different models of frankenstick its a peripheral for the hardcore not the masses, they even did 2 different versions of the ram expansion for the ds web browser
 
O

Orayn

Member
frankie_baby said:
I cant see nintendo having a problem with 2 (even 3) different models of frankenstick its a peripheral for the hardcore not the masses, they even did 2 different versions of the ram expansion for the ds web browser
Click to expand...

Wasn't the DS Phat RAM cartridge only available online outside of Japan? Same for the non-Phat rumble pack, if I recall.
 
P

Pociask

Member
Byakuya769 said:
3DS is a great example of Nintendo listening to the freshman economists on the wii and pricing it in a way that ignored competition a d the desire to sell SOFTWARE.

Why anyone would think they are coming to a profound conclusion that higher prices equals lower demand is beyond me. What's further beyond me is how said people fail to understand that simple demand curves ignore all other factors and assume them away. Factors like fierce competition, nascent recession, and a untested controller interface. When you're not the first console of your gen to launch, you enter the market with a "price high, lower later" mindset at your own peril.

People want to armchair quarterback the great success of the wii by pointing at irrelevant things like, "ha, if price was higher demand would have come to equilibrium!" No shit!?! How about if the console was launched at a higher price demand wouldn't have been there in the first place! i.e. the 3DS.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is saying the Wii should have launched at a demand killing price - say, $599. However, I think it's pretty clear Nintendo could have continued selling out Wii's at say, twenty more dollars a box. Because Nintendo underpriced the console, they lost millions of dollars.

I think the more interesting question now is Nintendo's pricing for the Wii U. In a world economy still recovering from recession/depression, do they dare try to charge a premium(the 3DS launch?) Do they take a loss, to maximize user base and drive software salese(3DS price drop?) Or do they release relatively underpowered hardware so they can hit a low price point(the Wii?) They've released hints that it's going to be another premium experience, but after the 3ds launch, I wonder how much their strategic thinking has changed.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Are all those doom and gloom writers now going to retract those articles and admit that a setback does not kill nintendo.
Click to expand...
I'm so glad they were wrong. I was genuinely concerned that mobile phone games would kill off the dedicated handheld market and I'm relieved that it has not come to pass.

mugurumakensei said:
playing the vita at gamestop, i'm the opposite. The face buttons on vita are too small. The analog sticks feel uncomfortable. It caused some hand-cramps in only a few minutes of play. A larger screen would be nice, but vita's current form is not the shining example of what I want.
Click to expand...
I dunno, to me, it feels like holding an actual controller rather than a handheld system. My hands wrap nicely around the system.

The buttons are virtually the same size as the 3DS and the d-pad is much better (and larger). Analog sticks work well but they are not as comfortable as the circle pad, I have to admit (I prefer concave to convex).

I think you have to spend more time with a unit that isn't tethered before passing judgement. I've owned a 3DS since launch as well as a Vita so I've used them both a LOT. The 3DS just isn't comfortable for me to use and the poor viewing angles require a very specific distance and angle. I'm hoping they massively improve the design of the system soon.
 
J

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Zeer0id said:
Yeah, they did say "100+" right?
Click to expand...
They're not counting eShop games. The IGN article explicitly mentions more than 100 retail titles and more than 500 (!) games on the eShop, which is actually a significantly more puzzling figure (are, like, they counting trailers/demos and multiple region SKUs there? no way in hell there are 500+ games in there).
 
Z

zroid

Banned
Somnid said:
The eShop has over 500 titles.
Click to expand...

We're talking about games that were released by Nintendo for the eShop since the 3DS launch, here. Probably not DSiWare, and certainly not DSiWare released prior to March 2011.

Total number of SW titles released in first 12 months 100+
Click to expand...

If you look purely at original eShop titles, how many are there, 15? 20, perhaps? Including Virtual Console, I guess that number increases by another 15-20 or so. Added to the 87 listed by GameStop, "100+" seems a pretty reasonable estimate to me.
 
A

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
Yes, less than 200 in January.
It could (just could) be between 125 and 150 if I remember correctly.
So 250K for February could be a good increase.
 
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