I've thought about it and while it makes sense for Nintendo to do this, it only re-enforces my feelings of them lately and how most decisions they make are driving me further away from them as a company. So let the ranting begin -
- Their last two systems (3DS & Wii U) have featured price cuts in less than a year along with long droughts in software. A reason not to buy one of their systems at launch but to instead take a wait and see approach.
- Nintendo has been in the process of cutting functionality from systems rather than adding to. Ex. GC-Compnent Video/Wii-WiFi/3DS-3D. I know this is done to reduce price, but it ends up making the system less appealing imo.
- If they were going to cut functionality and rebrand a system, why in the hell would you do it to your system that is successful and not the one that's having trouble? They should have cut the gamepad from the Wii U and rebranded it as WiiHD, Wii 2 or Super Wii instead. The could have marketed it as fully compatible with the gamepad which could be sold separately at cost. This would have allowed them to drop the price of Wii U without taking a loss and would have given them a chance to rebrand the Wii U and stop the clusterf*ck they've been in since day one. Instead, they are potentially causing confusion and introducing new problems with their successful system rather of fixing the one that is having trouble.
- Nintendo had a chance to finally make an ergonomically correct handheld and they completely miss the opportunity. It seems the days of Nintendo actually caring about controls and comfort are gone and they are more focused on forcing gimmicks into their controllers. Controls in general have gleaned me away from Nintendo's last two consoles and their handhelds have become increasingly more cramped and uncomfortable to play.
- A personal opinion here, but I really hate dual screen gaming whether it be on handheld or console. The design of the 2DS and cost of the Wii U makes how ridiculous the idea is even more apparent. The only place I can see a benefit of it is with consoles and even then it would have to be an addition, not a requirement. Ex. NSMBU uses the idea better than Pikmin 3 imo. In cases like NSMBU, the additional screens features unique gameplay that assists and adds to the game, but it can still be fully played without it. In Pikmin 3, it is clearly an afterthought and adds nothing to the gameplay itself. In fact, I think it hurts it. So I'm of the opinion that having a new functionality like touch or 3D that adds to the actual gameplay would have been better than two screens for a handheld. I would much rather have had that and I think it would have given them more design options.
I feel Nintendo is so out of touch with what gamers want, they are on the verge of losing even more fans/customers. These are only a small fraction of the problems I've had with Nintendo as of late, but I feel they are big ones and that the 2DS and Wii U price drop are huge indicators of the larger problems in the company. Iwata imo, should have been removed from his position and placed in one more suited to his attributes. The recent announcements are in a long line of ones that have plagued Nintendo and their asinine decisions lately. It's not too far of a stretch to imagine the reason behind 3DS -> 2DS redesign is an attempt to spur sales to make up for the even larger losses that Wii U is having. If you put the pieces together it makes sense and I don't think it's a coincidence that both were announced at the same time. The problem is that this all could have been avoided or even fixed had different steps been taken. As bad as it sounds and as much as I don't like it, Nintendo deserves to be struggling and in the position they are in. They have done it to themselves./Rant