But it's not the fastest selling mobile device. Not even close.
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Apple and Google Are Killing Nintendo's 3DS
- Thread starter Poetic.Injustice
- Start date
But it's not the fastest selling mobile device. Not even close.
Not sure what you mean by again, but here's my response. Do you really consider the 3DS graphics at the same level, or only marginally better, than the PSP? RE: Revelations for example looks leagues ahead of the best on PSP. Not to mention the graphics features available on the 3DS are simply not possible on the PSP whether that be lighting models to bump mapping, DOF, and even normal mapping. So I consider comments like that completely baseless.
I have no issue keeping it at the proper angle to get the full 3D effect, no more so than keeping any other TN LCD based hand held at the right angle so the picture is not washed out due to the screen technology. The hinge is great on the original 3DS, I actually dislike the one on the XL as it makes that cracking/popping sound when it sets to where it needs to be.
I agree that they should have added a second analogue slider, and to be honest that is my only complaint with the system. The OS/Firmware works fine, not sure what you mean by it being tragic. It never hangs, or crashes, works using the home button in every game. The use of 3D in games is of course a subjective thing, if you don't like it that's fine but since enabling the 3D slider at the least will double the horizontal resolution and at least assist in your complaint in the low res I don't see why you wouldn't use it.
Saint Gregory
Member
I actually meant to flesh out that post more but I lost my train of thought halfway through lol.
I think that Nintendo has understood for a while that in terms of handheld gaming they're not the only "game" in town anymore. The DS itself was a direct response to the PSP before the mobile threat even became a thing. But the odd thing is that although the DS was released around the same time as the smartphone craze began and the iOS store flourished during some of the DS's best years for some reason when it became time for Nintendo to develop a successor system instead of working on a true follow-up to the DS or even a device to compete against phones they chose to instead develop a successor to the PSP.
That's really what the 3DS is. It plays the same types of games and the PSP and has successfully stolen away the market space the PSP used to occupy and even raised game and hardware price points to match everything the PSP used to do. The answer to why they chose to do this is both kind of sad and obvious at the same time, they didn't want to yield premium prices to smart devices by getting into a game price/royalties war with Apple and Google.
Lets hope that doesn't turn out to be one of those market altering mistakes that so many companies never recover from.
And yet people say that Iwata doesn't know what he's talking about...
Well most of the time lately he doesn't but he did understand what was at stake back then and I remember a lot of people laughing at him and taking it as a slight against MS and Sony.
Because the eShop is so successful and features a lot of content?
If it was, I'm sure Nintendo would've released a lot more figures.
It features hundreds of download-only games and many of them are extremely successful (Gunman Clive has sold 200k copies on the eShop versus 50k on all other platforms COMBINED). As much as you want to cover your ears and pretend it isn't true, the eShop has been very successful and contributes to a healthy portion of 3DS gamers' software purchases.
Its not like they could've stopped the growth on mobile just because it looked like a potential threat.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
And DQ VIII is like 20
This week is the monthly Nintendo is dead week.
GhostTrick
Banned
It's a port, those are still paid apps.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.square_enix.android_googleplay.dq8j
And it's not selling so fantastically.
Of course, these are just Android numbers, but looking at other Square efforts on mobile numbers, it should be at max around 100-110k on iOS. Something like 150k between iOS and Android, and it launched over a month ago.
No but fewer people care about playing controller based games - the money follows the players. Mobile will win. I'm disappointed but being a person who has been playing games for 30 years its not the first transition and it won't be the last.
jts
...hate me...
Mobile will not "win". Mobile/touchscreen based gaming will have its space. Traditional controlled gaming will have its space too (think 30 year backlog + PC-based gaming that will continue to exist).
McDonald's and fast food didn't kill traditional restaurants, cars didn't kill walking, yoga didn't kill lifting and so forth. Things have a way of co-existing.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
IF there's a large enough market for it.
We've already seen what can happen with arcades in America. Once the tech started to create a "close enough" approximation we saw a huge shift from arcades to home consoles. It culminated in the arcade industry barely existing. Now consoles are up against another wall. Against a rapidly technically improving competitor with a more convenient way to play as its tail wind. Will GTAVI release on tablets and phones for $20 alongside the PC version? And then 250 million people buy it changing the shape of a specific "core" gamer subset.
I see a very real scenario where consoles are still manufactured, but such a niche market that most development dollars are focused elsewhere.
jts
...hate me...
Well, I see very exciting times ahead. For now we have what we have... and no one holds the exact truth of what will happen, regarding both Nintendo and the industry. I can't wait to see what the future brings.
Sword Of Doom
Member
Game prices are gonna be tough to compete with. iOS and android developers have a huge install base so they can afford to sell games cheap in massive volumes.
Dedicated handhelds are dying shockingly fast.
The DS sold 154 million units, the 3DS might get to 50% of that
The PSP sold 76 million units, the Vita might get to 20-25% of that
(And software sales are down too.)
We're seeing, in one generation, the total handheld market go from around 230 million units to likely under 100 million. It's a huge market contraction. I don't think there's any reason to believe some core handheld market will remain.
The DS sold 154 million units, the 3DS might get to 50% of that
The PSP sold 76 million units, the Vita might get to 20-25% of that
(And software sales are down too.)
We're seeing, in one generation, the total handheld market go from around 230 million units to likely under 100 million. It's a huge market contraction. I don't think there's any reason to believe some core handheld market will remain.
Saint Gregory
Member
Can they though? I keep reading about how great mobile gaming is doing but I'm not seeing detailed numbers on how well individual developers are doing. I know that there are a lot of success stories but what's the average publisher bringing in?
If you look at what really happened though Nintendo essentially chose to move up into the PSP's market share and completely abandoned the lower end of the market to mobile (hence the huge contraction). They really didn't need to do that as both probably could have coexisted.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
When a disruptive technology change affects a market things happen fast.
Home consoles becoming powerful killed the arcades in one generation.
Mobile gaming is doing the same to portable gaming.
It's happened before, it'll happen again.
Agreed.
Just because you're gaming on a small screen doesn't make these things comparable (mobile/3DS/Vita). IMO, the Vita is failing, like the PSP before it, because they're targeting a market that doesn't actually exist (people that want their full-bore console experience on the go). The Vita actually targets a different audience than either mobile or the 3DS. Three different devices, three different markets.
People here that say they've "switched" to mobile, and are playing all their console/handheld games on their phone are in the EXTREME minority. You are NOT the ones being targeted by Zynga for their next big multi-billion-dollar shit hit. You are not affecting the market at all, either of them.
The funny part about this is that I personally don't really give a shit if Nintendo fails or not. I have a 3DS, and I barely play it. I haven't bought another Nintendo console in more than a decade. I'm not defending them. But I will call out the BS that they're "doomed" because of completely unrelated bullshit like mobile gaming.
I think the only games selling like that are the f2p games that force you to buy crap in game and stuff like Minecraft.
jts
...hate me...
Differentiation by better control options. Hi-fi gaming if you can call it that. Most markets, especially media related ones have an high-quality upscale niche, larger or smaller, be it movie watching, photography, computing, music listening, etc... can't imagine why would it be different regarding gaming. Actually gaming has the potential to have this niche larger than any other media.
Why? Because what's happening to it right now would be somewhat equivalent to bringing a more convenient way of watching movies but you could only watch shitty Michael Bay ones. Yes a lot of people would jump on that, but not nearly everyone.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
There is a whole universe of varied gaming options on mobile, reducing it to just Zynga and the like is daft, the indie scene on it is awesome, and the niches being filled are astounding.
Dismissing mobile gaming as just social/facebook gaming is as shortsighted as thinking Nintendo is just "another Mario lol" or Xbox is "Dudebro lol", all these are equally retarded opinions.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
It's funny I let the optimist in me decide what my projections are for the end of the generation unit tallies All the while the cynic is doomsaying.
The optimist thinks 3DS will be down from DS, but only by 40-50 million units. The PS4 will sell 100 million units more than the PS3 for a tally of at least 180 million units. XboxOne will hold steady or slightly fall from 360 70-80 million units. WiiU at 15 million units, Vita at 13-14 million units. Both take six to seven years to get there. 400 million units of dedicated gaming hardware sold down from close to 500 million the generation prior.
The cynic thinks that's really dumb. Vita's max is 10 million units. WiiU's is the same. 3DS is a max 90 million, PS4 is a max 90 million, XboxOne is a max 50 million. Leading the entire dedicated videogame market shrinking by 240 million units. It really depends on what has happened to the casual market. They've always been fickle. One generation choosing one manufacturer sticking with them for a time, and then choosing another, the next another and then half way through dropping them completely.
If they aren't willing to drop the money on a dedicated system things will get hairy very fast. And so far they've chose none. We won't know until at least the midpoint of the year where PS4/One fall yet, but so far we're at three out of five balls and no real hits. One piddling along going into beast mode in 2013 in America... to the tune of 3.8 million units. Wii sold that in a single December.
So I'm scared, and psychotically optimistic.
Tax accounting is different from financial accounting. You seem to forget that nasty little secret.Depending on where you go, sales of Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras are down 40% year over year OR they are up 15% or even 900% in some markets.GoPro camera/camcorder sales are up. New markets are rising in places like China, Russia, the Middle East, the coastlines of Africa, and the emerging South American market.
But that's not really too important to the issue because sales are not an end sum game. The sale of a RED camera isn't affected by the sale of a Kindle Fire. A person looking for a GoPro camera isn't deterred by their phone having a camera. Unless there is some sort of global recession where you have a ton of people losing purchase power at a rapid rate through job loss, inflationary currency bubbles, and regressive monetary policies. (I'm hoping there isn't one of those.)
These are all ascending or descending markets. There is no such thing as a limited profit umbrella when it comes to electronics. A person who buys an Amazon Kindle is not more or less likely to buy a Sony TV. Because those are not the same market. They are similar in that you can watch Netflix or Hulu Plus on both of those item; but different in that they cater to a slightly different audience. The Motley Fool is confusing the mobile market with the dedicated handheld market.
Mobile market = Mobile phones and mobile store device devices (iOS/Play)
Dedicated Handheld market = Sony Vita, Nintendo 3DS, NVidia Shield, Leapfrog devices, Apple iPod Touch
Tablet market = Amazon Kindle, Samsung/Google/Sony tablets, Apple iPad
Of course, these markets have features that bleed into each other. If you want to watch Netflix, there is an application for every one of those markets. If you want to play 99 cent games, all of those devices have them. Although Nintendo eShop titles usually start at $1.99 with sales of some games going as low as 99 cents. Think of that extra dollar as an "It has buttons, Bitch!" tax. (Yes, the Nintendo eShop has frequent sales and hundreds of games for under $2. They also have demos, downloadable content, free to play micro-transactions, and a dedicated social media network that is heavily moderated for a lot of the games.)
Ahem.
My opinion on the article is that it is intended to draw hits and controversy. Because consumers have a "team" mentality and want the items they purchase to "win" all of the "market" in their mind. An item that still sells well enough to sustain a company is a good item. An item that does not sell enough is a loss and -guess what- those are okay to have in a company. The problems right now are these:Sony is bleeding money in their cameras/TVs/tablets. Nintendo is bleeding money on the Wii U. Apple is bleeding money on their personal computer and laptop models. Microsoft is bleeding money on their operating systems. Google is bleeding money through extensive (and expensive) R&D that has produced incredibly few products that are ready for mass market. Those are all problems but none of them are big enough to kill those companies off.
Here's a nasty little secret about company P&L reports. A net loss can be "held" for a certain number of years on corporate taxes and rolled over to the next year to reduce taxable profit. Let's say you have a year where you have a net loss of $35,000 in a business. The next year, you made a net profit of $75,000 in your business. You can deduct that $35,000 loss from the previous year and cut down your taxable net profit to $40,000. There is also depreciation on business assets. That's a little weirder actually. Example: All of your equipment is an asset. If you purchased a $6,000 server for your company, that is both a loss and an asset depending on what you are using it for.
Nintendo actually needs to take a few more quarterly losses since they now need to buy more online infrastructure and hire more personnel to operate/maintain that infrastructure. Nintendo is the last of the video game companies to seriously invest in those areas. All of the other ones (Microsoft/Apple/Sony) have already gotten past the initially high losses associated with updating their infrastructure. So, I was surprised they expected to make so much money this year.
Here are the quotes for people to take away from the mountains of text.
Mobile phones hurt dedicated handhelds in the same way that new/used car ownership has killed off taxis, buses, and car rentals. Or vice versa.
Nintendo has to sustain net losses to build assets and infrastructure. They will continue these net losses until at least the end of the first quarter in 2015. You can roll your net losses into the next year for tax credits/relief.
What you report to your shareholders has little bearing on what you report to the tax authorities. This is why Google can zero out many of its overseas taxes via the use of preferential tax treaties and schemes like the Double Irish, despite reporting record profits to shareholders, most of Google's European subsidiaries are reporting losses or limited profit to their tax authorities. It's akin to telling friends you make $100k, but how your actual taxable income you report to the tax authorities is probably substantially less due to use of deductions, credits, etc.
Manmademan
Member
The same reason Nintendo didn't partner with Sony or Philips when they really, really should have for a CD platform.
Nintendo like Apple is very attached to a business model that lets them collect absurd royalties and does not like sharing this arrangement.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
TBF Mobile gaming is heavily, heavily, f2p based. Even the revenue figures from a company with IP like SE, isn't making all that much revenue, from paid apps. It's going to become more f2p based as we go on.
This means ultimately anyone not all that thrilled by f2p games will feel alienated by the market e.g this very board.
How big this market will be in the future no one knows, but I feel there is still potential if the quality was high enough and the entry price not too high.
enanogrande
Member
Fucking christ, it's as if you were in my head as I was reading through this thread. Agree 100% on the future of the Vita.
tehrik-e-insaaf
Member
This is a horrible article by some hack pretending to understand the market. It's even worse than Forbes Contributor garbage that pretends to be journalism.
That said the handheld sector is in trouble right now - because people don't want to pay big bucks for software on their devices. That's the source of most of Nintendo's profits. And that's what matters - regardless of whether there are 50 or 150 million 3DS units out there in the long-run.
Peoples' consumption patterns are changing - in the past they would buy an extra game or two in-between tent pole titles - now they are just playing tent pole titles and the C- to B+ low-budget stuff they'd normally buy on a DS for example gets substituted for mobile games that they download for free. That means selling 66 million games on 43 million devices in a banner year with three huge IPs (Animal Crossing, Zelda, Pokemon) is a failure. Those games cost 2X to 3X what DS games cost to make and market - and the revenue isn't all that different on a per SKU basis (or less - as I saw deep discount of 3DS games during Christmas) relative to the DS.
The second part of it is obviously hardware. Nintendo is already struggling to make money on the hardware side of the portable business - and that's because there is no piracy. Again the problem comes down to price of software. With the DS there were 30-50 million people buying the device (with Nintendo earning a nice profit on those sales) because they could just pirate all the games (although they might have bought one or two games). All those pirates moved onto the iPad which Apple makes a nice profit on - and they spend their time with F2P games. They don't mind paying $500 for an Apple device not because of its multi-purpose functionality - but they get lots of free software.
Hence the solution for Nintendo will be to scale back on packaged games for the 3DS and increase the perceived value of the device to people who have never paid much for software. That means they will have to introduce a variety of high-quality F2P games on the 3DS that compliment their full-price packaged games like Smash Brothers, and then build a new revenue stream by offering services to their user base like subscription to VC or something that can generate annual revenue (PokeBank is the first effort towards this).
I know it isn't what GAF wants to hear but this is what you are going to see from Nintendo over the next twelve months. Less full games, more attempts at getting people to utilize their device more often and hoping they can sustain higher margins on their hardware and cross-sell a few tentpole titles to the DS pirates who buy back in to the ecosystem.
Iwata in particular has really tried to avoid going the route of devaluing software and has done everything to stop F2P in its tracks - he wants to keep games a complete single purchase affair - but the masses have spoken - video games should be free or super cheap. There are a lot of free entertainment options out there like browsing Facebook or watching YouTube if games are going to cost $30 or $40. The tent pole games may pay the bills and keep the lights on - but they aren't going to bring the company back to profitability.
I personally believe Nintendo should erect a third pillar tablet device that is potentially compatible with the DS family but targeted specifically to the F2P crowd with multi-purpose functionality (and higher-res display).
Assuming they don't want to do that and want to try and monetize the 3DS user base further in its current form - then a mix of F2P and packaged games is the only path forward for Nintendo if they want to survive without ripping their teams apart and firing tons of employees the way Sega did. With the Wii U struggling to make money on either hardware or software - the next 24 months might be the last AAA HD console games Nintendo could possibly ever produce - the silver lining is that rather than continue to struggle with console development - the 100 people making a single Wii U game could work on 4 or 5 great 3DS games - both F2P and complete games.
Oh, and it isn't just the handheld market that's screwed. Even if Sony sells 80 million PS4s - there is no guarantee that their tie-in ratios are going to be sustained. A lot of parents that bought consoles for their kids and a few high-priced games a year to go with it - are going to be able to stream their 300 gigaflop tablets to their televisions in about 12 months with tons of F2P content. That will be the real test - to see if either Microsoft or Sony can get the non-enthusiast segment back that made up the bulk of software and hardware sales last gen. If Sony and Microsoft only sell 40-50 million consoles each to people who buy 10-12 games each over the next five years, I don't see a very bright future for the space - Sony will probably go bankrupt and Microsoft will probably try to take an XONE SOC and move it into a Surface product and once again, try to take on the iPad (and lose).
That said the handheld sector is in trouble right now - because people don't want to pay big bucks for software on their devices. That's the source of most of Nintendo's profits. And that's what matters - regardless of whether there are 50 or 150 million 3DS units out there in the long-run.
Peoples' consumption patterns are changing - in the past they would buy an extra game or two in-between tent pole titles - now they are just playing tent pole titles and the C- to B+ low-budget stuff they'd normally buy on a DS for example gets substituted for mobile games that they download for free. That means selling 66 million games on 43 million devices in a banner year with three huge IPs (Animal Crossing, Zelda, Pokemon) is a failure. Those games cost 2X to 3X what DS games cost to make and market - and the revenue isn't all that different on a per SKU basis (or less - as I saw deep discount of 3DS games during Christmas) relative to the DS.
The second part of it is obviously hardware. Nintendo is already struggling to make money on the hardware side of the portable business - and that's because there is no piracy. Again the problem comes down to price of software. With the DS there were 30-50 million people buying the device (with Nintendo earning a nice profit on those sales) because they could just pirate all the games (although they might have bought one or two games). All those pirates moved onto the iPad which Apple makes a nice profit on - and they spend their time with F2P games. They don't mind paying $500 for an Apple device not because of its multi-purpose functionality - but they get lots of free software.
Hence the solution for Nintendo will be to scale back on packaged games for the 3DS and increase the perceived value of the device to people who have never paid much for software. That means they will have to introduce a variety of high-quality F2P games on the 3DS that compliment their full-price packaged games like Smash Brothers, and then build a new revenue stream by offering services to their user base like subscription to VC or something that can generate annual revenue (PokeBank is the first effort towards this).
I know it isn't what GAF wants to hear but this is what you are going to see from Nintendo over the next twelve months. Less full games, more attempts at getting people to utilize their device more often and hoping they can sustain higher margins on their hardware and cross-sell a few tentpole titles to the DS pirates who buy back in to the ecosystem.
Iwata in particular has really tried to avoid going the route of devaluing software and has done everything to stop F2P in its tracks - he wants to keep games a complete single purchase affair - but the masses have spoken - video games should be free or super cheap. There are a lot of free entertainment options out there like browsing Facebook or watching YouTube if games are going to cost $30 or $40. The tent pole games may pay the bills and keep the lights on - but they aren't going to bring the company back to profitability.
I personally believe Nintendo should erect a third pillar tablet device that is potentially compatible with the DS family but targeted specifically to the F2P crowd with multi-purpose functionality (and higher-res display).
Assuming they don't want to do that and want to try and monetize the 3DS user base further in its current form - then a mix of F2P and packaged games is the only path forward for Nintendo if they want to survive without ripping their teams apart and firing tons of employees the way Sega did. With the Wii U struggling to make money on either hardware or software - the next 24 months might be the last AAA HD console games Nintendo could possibly ever produce - the silver lining is that rather than continue to struggle with console development - the 100 people making a single Wii U game could work on 4 or 5 great 3DS games - both F2P and complete games.
Oh, and it isn't just the handheld market that's screwed. Even if Sony sells 80 million PS4s - there is no guarantee that their tie-in ratios are going to be sustained. A lot of parents that bought consoles for their kids and a few high-priced games a year to go with it - are going to be able to stream their 300 gigaflop tablets to their televisions in about 12 months with tons of F2P content. That will be the real test - to see if either Microsoft or Sony can get the non-enthusiast segment back that made up the bulk of software and hardware sales last gen. If Sony and Microsoft only sell 40-50 million consoles each to people who buy 10-12 games each over the next five years, I don't see a very bright future for the space - Sony will probably go bankrupt and Microsoft will probably try to take an XONE SOC and move it into a Surface product and once again, try to take on the iPad (and lose).
jts
...hate me...
what a nice post.
what a forsight.
still i hope, nintendo is not going to throw away their stuff, to keep their fans pleased.
its sad to hear, that nintendo is struggling.
nintendo is the only company, which has one field they are targeting: gamers.
while ms, sony, apple and google have various fields where they can earn their cash.
i hope, the traditional gaming wont die out... but the mass market seems to be more apple...
googleplex
Member
I went to this Woman I know house for the first time and got to spend some time with her two daughters. Ages 10 and 2. Both daughters has inexpensive Android tablets that they loved to play their games on. Not a DS in sight.
Sigh.. for better or worst, the Market has spoken.
Sigh.. for better or worst, the Market has spoken.
Sword Of Doom
Member
Yeah I'm sure a very small percentage of games get to that level of sales. My point was as a platform it must be difficult to compete when your competition has games at such low prices.
Petrae
Member
I don't think it'll be a "mobile or bust" scenario as you're painting, but I do see contraction continuing and dedicated handhelds trending more niche & less mainstream than they've been. Nintendo will keep at it, as the dedicated handheld market is its main core of success. Sales expectations in this new era of mobile and handheld games co-existing need to be cut down, but some success can still be had-- and it's not like the 3DS Family is tanking.
CountAntonius
Member
My niece and nephew play games on their nexus 7 and iphone way more than they do on thier 3DS nowadays. They are big animal crossing/mario fans but they seemed to have just lost interest for most things nintendo. I think it's really just the fact that they don't need to carry a dedicatee piece of hardware around with them just for gaming and can still get gaming in in bursts.
I know I was never big on portable game consoles but I have been all over monile apps sinxe I bought my tablet.
I know I was never big on portable game consoles but I have been all over monile apps sinxe I bought my tablet.
Petrae
Member
My nieces are the same. My sister just sold off her family 3DS because the girls no longer player it once they started splitting time on a Kindle Fire. She used some of the cash to buy Google Play cards to buy games for the girls if they want them.
I think there are anecdotal stories on both sides. Some still prefer the DS/3DS while others no longer care for it thanks to mobile gaming.
I'm having a ton of fun with my 3DSXL. I bought it back in October. I've sunk hundreds of hours into it and spent over $200 on software already.
If this is considered a failure because it hasn't sold as much as the DS, the second best selling console of all time, then I just don't know how to respond. What a disgusting way to view the world.
If this is considered a failure because it hasn't sold as much as the DS, the second best selling console of all time, then I just don't know how to respond. What a disgusting way to view the world.
I almost don't think there's currently a 1:1 valid comparison between a dedicated handheld like the 3DS that plays handheld games (not console-lite experiences like the Vita) and Android/iPhones.
The 3DS just feels so damn cheap and worthless. I've played mobile games with comparable graphics to the 3DS. There's no second analog stick. Money that could've been better spent making the system specs higher was wasted on 3D. The bottom screen isn't even the same size as the top one. The 3DS might've been able to better hold its ground against mobile if it wasn't such an insufficient effort.
The 3DS just feels so damn cheap and worthless. I've played mobile games with comparable graphics to the 3DS. There's no second analog stick. Money that could've been better spent making the system specs higher was wasted on 3D. The bottom screen isn't even the same size as the top one. The 3DS might've been able to better hold its ground against mobile if it wasn't such an insufficient effort.
Some data - at least some part of the hobby/hardcore gamer segment has embraced mobile gaming, and is spending money on mobile gaming.
kobashi100
Banned
yeah because it sure worked for the vita right??
better hardware would have made no difference.
Handhelds are very much a young kids domain. Not in the sense that the games or hardware are 'only for kids' or anything like that, but in the sense that parents buying the hardware and games for young children is a big part of the business. When I worked game retail (back in the days of the DS and PSP) I was astounded by how much handheld traffic was young kids, or more specifically, their parents.
With this last generation of handhelds, launching at 249-299 is a much harder sell and worse value proposition when you've got tablets and ipods that can do so many different functions along with gaming. And neither the parents or kids are all that picky about getting specific titles or franchises at that age.
Personally I think there really is room for both, but it's going to come at a cost for traditional handhelds. Honestly for Nintendo any smaller 3DS numbers wouldn't be as big a deal if it weren't for the fact they are also trying to cope with Wii U numbers as well.
With this last generation of handhelds, launching at 249-299 is a much harder sell and worse value proposition when you've got tablets and ipods that can do so many different functions along with gaming. And neither the parents or kids are all that picky about getting specific titles or franchises at that age.
Personally I think there really is room for both, but it's going to come at a cost for traditional handhelds. Honestly for Nintendo any smaller 3DS numbers wouldn't be as big a deal if it weren't for the fact they are also trying to cope with Wii U numbers as well.
Wiktor
Member
Well..consoles never came even remotely close to the sales of computers, did it kill consoles?
Wiktor
Member
The problem is, the games those people enjoy on handhelds don't really happen on mobile most of the time. And the rare case when they do it's almost always a port of older handheld game and those will obviously stop if handhelds die out. Bassicaly if handhelds die, the mid-tier japanese development dies. All that will be left is much cheaper F2P development
Absolutely, totally and completely agree.
I actually tend to agree that Nintendo needs some F2P games in their handheld lineup. I tend to go one step further though, and advocate that Nintendo also create a number of low budget popcorn games, somewhat similar in scope and price to paid mobile titles.
For example. Lets say I wanted Classic Tetris on my 3DS. The only option as far as I can tell, is Tetris Axis, a title that doesn't appear to be available digitally, and MSRP's for thirty dollars. In the age of cheap mobile titles, that is a horrible product, and a huge oversight. Nintendo should have several puzzle games, akin to Tetris, available digitally at the sort of prices you'd see on a mobile phone.
Would Nintendo make huge profits off this, no, but it'd be getting people buying things digitally on Nintendo's eShop, and would give consumers more reasons to actively use the 3DS as a primary gaming platform. Both of these results, would be of immense worth to Nintendo in the long term.
Also, I feel it's worth pointing out, that there is no reason why cheap or free to play titles would have to dominate the 3DS digital store. The problem with mobile, is that it currently suffers from a goldrush mentality. Developers large and small have flocked there, and shoveled a deluge of cheap rapidly developed titles onto these platforms, because they're attracted by the large audience and cheap development costs. The net result, is that while there are some real gems on mobile, it's outnumbered by cheap shovel ware.
This would be far less of a problem on the 3DS, for two reasons. The first is because, larger scale titles are already established as being profitable on the platform.
Second, while Nintendo does not always exercise it, they do have some power over what gets published on the 3DS, especially when it comes to their digital store. No matter how popular cheap mobile-like titles became on the 3DS, Nintendo would likely curtail the worst of it by default. I mean, just to put this into context, there are easily more iOS games published per year, then there are games on Nintendo's entire eStore. Nintendo could multiply the current number of games they approve for digital distribution by ten, and you still wouldn't see as many junk titles as you'd see on the iOS.
But, really, what it comes down to is that Nintendo needs to diversify, and offer many different kinds of products then the 30-40 dollar premium titles we're currently seeing.
iam not able to understand these statistics.
a bit of explaination?
what makes the difference between non payers and payers?
like how much?
what kind of measure? spent money on IAP? DLC? Fees such as XBL/PSN?
and whats the difference between phone and tablet? they have the same games? both are portables?
WAT
NoPiece
Member
In another EEDAR presentation, they defined non-payers as people who spend $0 a month on average on mobile games. Payers spend $.01-$9.99 a month on average, and whales $10 or more.
You guys can hate on f2p games all you want. Mobile doesn't have only f2p games
On top of that, mobile have a lot more educational apps than 3ds, why wouldn't a parent want to get a touch or Android tablet to a child before a 3ds?
As for the small niche of adult gamers who play portable games, I don't get how, if you have a stable full time job, you have time to play portable game. I much rather spend that time to play home console game, or just use my smartphone to go online. Both activities are much more interesting to me than playing portable "real game".
On top of that, mobile have a lot more educational apps than 3ds, why wouldn't a parent want to get a touch or Android tablet to a child before a 3ds?
As for the small niche of adult gamers who play portable games, I don't get how, if you have a stable full time job, you have time to play portable game. I much rather spend that time to play home console game, or just use my smartphone to go online. Both activities are much more interesting to me than playing portable "real game".
jts
...hate me...
I bolded the key words.
I'm an adult with a full time job and my most played game by far is Animal Crossing on the 3DS. This is not unusual. I have a PS3, Wii U. No interest in getting a PS4/XBO yet (and not for a long time it seems).
It's just so easy and nice to pick up and play a great game on the 3DS, be it on the shitter or bed.