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Rumor: 3DS to get right analog stick dongle, relaunch 2012 w/ new name [Updated]

StevieP

Banned
Cosmonaut X said:
(speculating here in the case of MGS3)
I understand the strict "well, there's nothing official to say this is more than a simple peripheral" line, but I think it would be obtuse not to look at this announcement, the delay of certain titles, the apparently-solid rumours (on this at least) from 01Net and see that this will likely be more significant than that.

We are all speculating at this point. We only know these facts from Famitsu:
It is *currently* a peripheral for monster hunter. Much as with other plastic addons it may be used for other games, or it may not be. Monster Hunter will be playable without it. You can play Xenoblade with the classic controller, and it ships with one - but it plays perfectly fine with the default Wiimote+Nunchuck combo as well. I'll gladly eat my crow if Nintendo announces next week that the 3DS is being abandoned in favour of the 3DDAS XL. I just think this is overreaction on most people's parts.
 
Sennorin said:
If Nintendo has no plans for a 2nd analog pad-revision, they *really* have to address this matter at their upcoming press conference. On Neogaf alone, dozens of people have now entered the waiting-mode, because they´re fully expecting such revision in the near future. Once the news about the Monster Hunter-upgrade spreads to the mainstream, it could seriously hurt the system.

Yup - if this really is a peripheral that won't be incorporated into the base unit in a redesign (and as above, I doubt it) then they have to be clear on that ASAP. After making effort to bring the price down, refocus advertising and offering an olive branch to wounded early adopters they simply can't let this drift on into the holiday season. Every early adopter will suspect they have been stiffed on an early redesign as well as an early pricecut, everyone on the fence will simply hold off reasoning that they can still get the great holiday titles when the redesign appears and new buyers at Christmas will be royally pissed if an improved model surfaces in the New Year.

Uncertainty will do more damage here than anything else, I think.

EDIT:

StevieP - agree to disagree here, but we should both know soon enough. As I said, they can't afford to let this uncertainty take root - why undo the good work of the DQX and Tri G announcements, or the apparently-successful pricecut?
 
Sennorin said:
If Nintendo has no plans for a 2nd analog pad-revision, they *really* have to address this matter at their upcoming press conference. On Neogaf alone, dozens of people have now entered the waiting-mode, because they´re fully expecting such revision in the near future. Once the news about the Monster Hunter-upgrade spreads to the mainstream, it could seriously hurt the system.

They'd have to very specific about ruling this out entirely, followed by heavy bowing.
Saying 'we have no plans' isn't going to... well it'll convince a lot of people but it doesn't mean anything, so that might happen.
 

Ocaso

Member
Benjamin1981 said:
Makes no sense.

Makes perfect sense. As has been said before, an XL version of the 3DS makes far more logic than just another small 3DS with a second analog. It the XL has a second analog then fantastic, it doesn't need the extension. All the small 3DSs would still have access to the XL's functionality through the analog cradle. Two years from now the original 3DS would then be phased out as a small model with the second analog stick is introduced.
 
Ocaso said:
Makes perfect sense. As has been said before, an XL version of the 3DS makes far more logic than just another small 3DS with a second analog. It the XL has a second analog then fantastic, it doesn't need the extension. All the small 3DSs would still have access to the XL's functionality through the analog cradle. Two years from now the original 3DS would then be phased out as a small model with the second analog stick is introduced.

...and as noted, the larger casing of a 3DSXL would allow for a larger battery and lots of room for the necessary innards. The only issue I have with it is whether the larger screens would have a reasonable sweetspot (ISTR some talk of large screens having issues with the autostereoscopic effect) and whether the larger screens would mean more drain on the battery, going some way to negating the benefit of the larger battery.
 

StevieP

Banned
Fair enough, Cosmonaut X. I'm not going to bet my dick on it, but on the surface it just looks like a peripheral to me.
 

FoneBone

Member
Sennorin said:
If Nintendo has no plans for a 2nd analog pad-revision, they *really* have to address this matter at their upcoming press conference. On Neogaf alone, dozens of people have now entered the waiting-mode, because they´re fully expecting such revision in the near future. Once the news about the Monster Hunter-upgrade spreads to the mainstream, it could seriously hurt the system.
It's pointless to address it, because there's pretty much nothing they could say that would get any of those people to believe them. The damage is done in that regard.
 
FoneBone said:
It's pointless to address it, because there's pretty much nothing they could say that would get any of those people to believe them. The damage is done in that regard.

I wouldn't go that far. It'd convince at least a few of those people, anyway.
 

Sennorin

Banned
FoneBone said:
It's pointless to address it, because there's pretty much nothing they could say that would get any of those people to believe them. The damage is done in that regard.

It´s pretty easy for Nintendo to say "there might be a revision down the line, BUT we won´t change the core of the sytem, meaning we won´t add more analog pads or buttons". *IF* that is the situation then Nintendo should absolutely address it.

Notice: I´m not demanding something silly like a promise that there´ll never be a revision. There most likely will be, it´s natural. But no revision of the NDS introduced changes to the core of the system (well, the DSi got a gimmicky camera).
 
Sennorin said:
On Neogaf alone, dozens of people have now entered the waiting-mode, because they´re fully expecting such revision in the near future.
Count me as part of the dozens.

It took some serious willpower not to buy the 3DS day one, but I committed to not buying one until the motherlode of games (Kid Icarus, Mario3DLand, Animal Crossing) started to trickle out. The thought of missing out on a redesign didn't bother me that much.

Now, I'm not buying one until a new version is released. I'm not saying anything new here, but this attachment is clearly a stop-gap before a new, possibly radically different design.
 
Sennorin said:
Notice: I´m not demanding something silly like a promise that there´ll never be a revision. There most likely will be, it´s natural. But no revision of the NDS introduced changes to the core of the system (well, the DSi got a gimmicky camera).

The DSi got a whole online software range which couldn't be played on earlier models, in some ways it was a new platform, just not exploited very well as one.
 

Ocaso

Member
Sennorin said:
It´s pretty easy for Nintendo to say "there might be a revision down the line, BUT we won´t change the core of the sytem, meaning we won´t add more analog pads or buttons". *IF* that is the situation then Nintendo should absolutely address it.

Notice: I´m not demanding something silly like a promise that there´ll never be a revision. There most likely will be, it´s natural. But no revision of the NDS introduced changes to the core of the system (well, the DSi got a gimmicky camera).

Seriously, is there anything they could say to address it that would convince waiters to buy the 3DS now? I sincerely doubt it. Nintendo releases revisions to their handhelds every 18 months, so it was always obvious we'd get one next year. Whether or not it incorporates a second analog stick or wether it's an 3DSXL or rebranded 3DS+ is pointless, really, since any revision was doubtlessly going to incorporate improvements (e.g. Better cameras, better battery life, larger screen, etc. ). The best reason to buy a 3DS is to enjoy playing it right now, not in 10-16 months, and that won't change with any announcement.

Edit: And Nintendo clearly will not leave current users unable to play future software with a revision. At worst the new software will simply require the bulky cradle. I suspect not even that will happen and most titles will have multiple control schemes.
 

BurntPork

Banned
Graphics Horse said:
They'd have to very specific about ruling this out entirely, followed by heavy bowing.
Saying 'we have no plans' isn't going to... well it'll convince a lot of people but it doesn't mean anything, so that might happen.
They should just say that it won't happen within 12 months. Most people were expecting a revision in late 2012 before it even launched, so the people willing to wait until October 2012 were probably going to wait no matter what.

Though here's what should be said:

"During development, we originally intended to include two slide pads directly on the unit. However, we found that doing so would not be possible without significantly increasing the size of the unit. The market for a larger unit exists, as shown by the DSi LL, but it is much smaller than the market for a pocketable unit. As a result, the Expansion Slide Pad was our only option to get the 3DS out at a reasonable size while still allowing there to be a second slide pad.

However, since that market does exist, we are proud to announce the 3DS LL! It includes larger screens, an bigger battery, and the second pad built-in. It will release in October and will include an add-on for triggers.

Going back a bit, the expansion also has the benefit of allowing 3DS to function near flawlessly as a controller for our upcoming console, which is now called..."
 

StevieP

Banned
BurntPork said:
Going back a bit, the expansion also has the benefit of allowing 3DS to function near flawlessly as a controller for our upcoming console, which is now called..."

Over standard wifi? You're dreaming. Same arguments were made for Vita->PS3(PS4) but it can't be done in the same way and cannot function as a UPad replacement.
 
Hejibits comic of this week:

2011-09-12-nintendont.png
 

Futureman

Member
Computer said:
Hejibits comic of this week:

I bet Miyamoto was the dude who needed the most convincing to actually go forward with this.

and the 3DS ver.2 will be the worst revision EVER if they don't include the 2nd analog built in.
 
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