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Nikkei Trendy reports rumor that 3DS Lite is coming, thickness and runtime improved

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U

UncleSporky

Member
If true then this is basically just to get the "wait for revision" crowd out of the way.

They should honestly start doing revisions sooner because like 80% of GAF thinks that way.

"HAH LAUNCH BUYER SUCKERS, I waited 6 months and now I get the revision which is sparkle purple and has half an hour better battery life and 10% louder audio!!"
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
1-D_FTW said:
Things like this have inertia. They didn't know how sales were going to respond this fall. So it made sense to have a new model hitting as early as 2012 as possible. Yet, you don't want any info releasing before the holiday 2011 to fulfill some self-doom prophecy. So you keep everything under wraps until it's over. This isn't confirmed in the least, but smart money was always on a January reveal/leak, with launch by March. It was business 101 and visible from a mile away.
Click to expand...

Smart money was on a revision and two special editions of the old model releasing in the same month? Then I must be a fucking dumbass!
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
If the redesign is officially announced in the coming weeks it will be driven by the second-circle pad.

That would widen the design allowing the bigger battery. Nintendo seem to want to flat-out kill the Vita, and get all developers and games onboard.

With concerns about a shrinking market in the long-term, that's a common-sense strategy.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
Nikkei Trendy != Nikkei, so yeah, huge grain of salt for now. The combination of thinner + longer battery life makes little sense, unless there have been major breakthroughs in power consumption in the past year or so.
 
C

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
I look at the size of these "articles" at Nikkei Trendy and I think someone from the magazine wants to make fun.
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
BurntPork said:
Smart money was on a revision and two special editions of the old model releasing in the same month? Then I must be a fucking dumbass!
Click to expand...

I'll admit I haven't been following this special edition bit, but I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to use this to reintroduce a price hike.

Now that's it got some momentum, they can release the thinner, dual slider unit with a 20 or 30 dollar premium and not have it dampen sales. So there will be a place for the older models in the pricing structure (again, if true).

They can then keep the older models for a bit until they introduce the XL. Only then would the Lite replace the original as the base unit.

EDIT: Or maybe the Lite will be so popular at the new price, they can kill off the old model even before an XL model is brought out. Best of both worlds. Back to one production line and they erase some of that price cut previously needed to jump start sales.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
DECK'ARD said:
DS Lite was announced in January, it's the Nintendo way once Christmas sales have been had.

February/March release seems likely, before the end of their financial year.
Click to expand...

That's different. There were huge shortages, so it wasn't a difficult prediction. It was also over a year later, so it wasn't far off from Nintendo's usual revision schedule. This is just a scam, especially with two special editions of the old model releasing in March in Japan. Never buying Nintendo products on sale again.
 
C

clay_ghost

Member
To be frank , i just want Nintendo to released a larger battery pack for the 3ds. Make it last 8 to 10 hours and i will be happy. Around $30 ?

Just brought the Zelda 3ds(lol not local set , hate max soft and its markup price) and 5.5 hours from the ds lite 12 hours is :( (at least its about the same as my psp 1000)
 
.la1n

.la1n

Member
Just announce it already, we all know it's coming then I can go ahead and decide when I need to sell the current model.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
[Nintex];33985706 said:
NoE launched the Mario Kart DS pack almost at the same time as the DS Lite.
Click to expand...

It was just a different color, and I'm pretty sure Japan had that color earlier.

How much do you guys think I could get for my Zelda 3DS?
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
They think it'll be thinner? I have small hands and even I would like my DS Lite to be a little thicker for better grip. If I had no problem lugging the old brick Gameboy around, I wouldn't have much trouble lugging a slightly thicker 3DS around.
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
BurntPork said:
That's different. There were huge shortages, so it wasn't a difficult prediction. It was also over a year later, so it wasn't far off from Nintendo's usual revision schedule. This is just a scam, especially with two special editions of the old model releasing in March in Japan. Never buying Nintendo products on sale again.
Click to expand...

Everything about the 3DS is unprecedented.

It's Nintendo battening down the hatches, they need the 3DS to be solid going forward because the Wii-U is a much trickier proposition.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
As someone who can read the print...this isnt even a rumor. Its noting a "possibility". Pure speculation.

that being said, of course it is true.

春[3DS Lite]が登場か
３DSの普及を進めるために弱点である「厚み」や「騒動時間」を改良した軽量バージョンが出る可能性がある。
 
D

Des0lar

will learn eventually
Who ISN'T expecting a 3DS redesign? I mean, probably not in the near future but really. DS has gone trough 3 (4?) redesigns...

Why anyone would do a ban bet against a redesigned 3DS is beyond me.
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
@MUWANdo said:
Ambassador status copies over if you do a system transfer.
Click to expand...

yeah don't really care as long as I can transfer :p

But seriously Nintendo has to stop doing this to early hardware buyers

I had all versions on GBA until micro I said fuck this!

I had had my DS Phat and got a Lite

now I have an Ambassador 3DS Mugly

I could have put all that lost hardware money into your Software Nintendo!
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
Chris1964 said:
I look at the size of these "articles" at Nikkei Trendy and I think someone from the magazine wants to make fun.
Click to expand...

Appearances can be deceiving, etc., but this does not look like a particularly credible publication, I agree. These rumors seems to be just little blurbs mentioned offhandedly in a general spread on gaming.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
Des0lar said:
Who ISN'T expecting a 3DS redesign? I mean, probably not in the near future but really. DS has gone trough 3 (4?) redesigns...

Why anyone would do a ban bet against a redesigned 3DS is beyond me.
Click to expand...

I made it against it coming before March. -.- Of course I knew it was coming. What do you take me for?

I suppose I should at least be happy knowing that it'll be too thin for me to use anyway, plus I was right that it won't integrate Circle Pad Pro.
 
V

VOOK

We don't know why he keeps buying PAL, either.
January 6th 2003, Nintendo announced the GBA SP. January 26th, 2006 Nintendo announced the DS Lite. Surely…. no not another January update..
 
S

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
BurntPork said:
Smart money was on a revision and two special editions of the old model releasing in the same month? Then I must be a fucking dumbass!
Click to expand...
This is the Nintendo that's been releasing new colors and bundles for DSi and XL while they were desperately trying to improve 3DS adoption.

It definitely feels like one hand doesn't know what the other's doing over there sometimes.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Father_Brain said:
Nikkei Trendy != Nikkei, so yeah, huge grain of salt for now. The combination of thinner + longer battery life makes little sense, unless there have been major breakthroughs in power consumption in the past year or so.
Click to expand...

It usually is just a matter of using different build components. Smaller chips, different screen, etc. Lot of little changes add up to make a big difference.
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
BurntPork said:
That's different. There were huge shortages, so it wasn't a difficult prediction. It was also over a year later, so it wasn't far off from Nintendo's usual revision schedule. This is just a scam, especially with two special editions of the old model releasing in March in Japan. Never buying Nintendo products on sale again.
Click to expand...

Ratrat said:
As someone who can read the print...this isnt even a rumor. Its noting a "possibility". Pure speculation.
Click to expand...

For Christ's sake, BurntPork, you'd have thought you'd have learnt by now.
 
S

Spectrum128

Member
Not too bothered to be honest - I don't feel it's a fucking oem-styled monstrosity like the original DS was, just a little bit creaky. Can't really see how they can change it that radically when you look at the space used by the screens and buttons/keys - if anything it'll be wider to fit the extra stick. Would be nice if the shoulder buttons "felt" a little better - but that might just be a personal preference as i have pretty big hands.
 
K

Krauser Kat

Member
-Die Shrink to 28nm
-maybe a switch to LED screen
-More efficient battery (battery tech has improved since they were R&Ding the first device

hopefully second stick

Probably get 1 to 2/3rds more battery life.
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
Des0lar said:
Who ISN'T expecting a 3DS redesign? I mean, probably not in the near future but really. DS has gone trough 3 (4?) redesigns...

Why anyone would do a ban bet against a redesigned 3DS is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is a bit silly.

A redesign in a few months is only slightly earlier than the DS Lite. It will most likely render the circle-pad add-on incompatible, so that will be included. They were never going to keep that around for very long, it screamed stop-gap because of the games that were releasing already.

The circle-pad add-on was throwing a bone to developers to get them onboard, one of the other bones would be that it would be standard in a future revision.

And the change in the form-factor is what will allow for a bigger battery. We'll see how it pans out, but I'd be very surprised if it doesn't play out like this.
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
Neuromancer said:
Oh yeah good point, the camera on the 3DS is garbage.
Click to expand...

look how shitty this camera is IWATA!
7Dvto.png


LOOK!

yeah I hope he knows this
 
F

Freezie KO

Banned
XDaveyboyX said:
Not too bothered to be honest - I don't feel it's a fucking oem-styled monstrosity like the original DS was, just a little bit creaky. Can't really see how they can change it that radically when you look at the space used by the screens and buttons/keys - if anything it'll be wider to fit the extra stick. Would be nice if the shoulder buttons "felt" a little better - but that might just be a personal preference as i have pretty big hands.
Click to expand...

It wasn't even the form factor of the original DS that bothered me. The actual "light" part of the DS Lite made looking at the screen so much better.

Unless this gives a similar functional improvement for gaming (such as the potential for another stick becoming standardized), then I'm fine w/ the current 3DS.
 
S

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
BurntPork said:
I made it against it coming before March. -.- Of course I knew it was coming. What do you take me for?

I suppose I should at least be happy knowing that it'll be too thin for me to use anyway, plus I was right that it won't integrate Circle Pad Pro.
Click to expand...

You're not right on anything, there're no details, it's not confirmed. And supposedly it isn't even a rumour but speculation.

Calm down.
 
T

tuffy

Member
A redesign is always coming. But the sooner it arrives, the fewer functional changes it will have because engineering takes time - just like how the DS Lite was a largely cosmetic update to the original DS.

If a major software title releases a sequel a year later, everyone expects it'll be like an expansion pack with a reused engine and lots of old assets. Yet for some reason people believe a physical thing released in the same timeframe will be radically different to its predecessor.

Odds are it won't.
 
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