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[Always-honest]

4 months isn't that long.

Are they thinking of discontinuing it after that? Cause that wouldl be my guess.

 

[Londa]

Should have released a pokemon during the first year to seal the deal. But then it takes time to make pokemon.

 

[Jinfash]

It all comes down to new marketing. Apparently in the new marketing they are all but screaming about the fact that it's a new system.

First thing Nintendo needs to do is send a rep to every retail store chain and make sure they separate the 3DS stuff from the DS stuff. My Best Buy still puts them in same rack and mixes 3DS and DS games. No wonder there is market confusion.

Yeah, a new aggressive campaign that hammers the differences and new price point of the 3DS must be rolled out asap (the new ads are a step in the right direction)

I also agree with everyone that having the DS models retain their prices will only work in the 3DS favor and convert sales, but that's not nearly enough. You can trust every customer who enters a store with the intention of buying a DS to make the educated decision of picking a 3DS over it, that's an unreliable strategy, what they to do is insure that a lot of those potential customers make that decision and distiction before making it to the store and that's where the aforementioned marketing comes in.

 

[Tobor]

Not true at all.

I think it's safe to say they're not as interested as they used to be.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

It's been really strange to see Nintendo -- who knocked it out of the park two times in a row with how it handled the DS and the Wii -- completely bungle, muddle, and half-ass their messaging on those systems' successors. They had crystal clear, laser-like precision with how they positioned and marketed the magical dual-screen touchscreen handheld (Brain Age! Nintendogs!) and the revolutionary motion-controlled console (Wii Sports! Wii Fit!), but the 3DS as of yet has no real identity of its own, or at least one that you can sum up quick and clear -- it fails the elevator pitch test. And granted, WiiU is still a ways off, but their confusing, awkward E3 reveal left more questions than answers.

I can't really grasp why they're dropping the ball in terms of marketing these products. Software quality questions aside ... though honestly, I think a large part of it is because there is no singular piece of software that acts as a proof of concept for why people need to buy the 3DS, and acts as a guiding light for their marketing. Nintendo indicated that they thought the AR Games and Face Raiders would do that, but if they sincerely believed that (and weren't just using that as a stall and deflect answer), then I fear they're really losing their way.

It's a sum of mistakes, while ignoring the signals that some things were not going the right way. The bad thing is that the current situation is their own fault. I could find a semi-excuse only regarding the casual shift to the world of Farmville and Angry Birds only because it was incredibly fast. I was the first to be very skeptical about that at the very beginning. But online, DLC, Steam.....this is all quite old and Nintendo ignore all of that for long time. And they still keep underestimating these factors! Sum this to the price, the lacking line-up, etc and you have a full picture.

The good thing is that they realized that and they decided to act. The other good thing is that Nintendo has so much money they can both fund more 2-3 systems (10-15 billions$) and at the same time buy their own shares to prevent a price, let's say, below 9000Yen (GC era level).

Nintendo thus is nowhere near bankruptcy, because they are a so-called high capitalization company. And with that I would like to answer to the crazy statements of Burntpork while hinting him to shut the fuck up at the same time.

UBS failed because their shares took a dive and they were unable to find capitals to make their business run further. Of course being a bank, they need that two-fold.
Nintendo can convert short investments securities fast back to fresh capitals to pay whatever is needed. High cash funds also prevents them to change yen to dollars or to euros back and forth. Nintendo is well organized on that level. And indeed if you look at this Q1 fiscal report, you'll notice that the losses of the exchange currency are reduced to almost zero.
Sure, this doesn't help the fact that make profits from EU and States is getting a nightmare for every Japanese (and Swiss!) company.

 

[Jokeropia]

Consumers aren't confused, they are just not interested in buying a dedicated handheld anymore.

The DS sold 386k in June NPD.

 

[Brazil]

Consumers aren't confused, they are just not interested in buying a dedicated handheld anymore.

... Oh Christ.

Go take a peek at the current DS sales in the US and the PSP sales in Japan and then come back.

 

[Futureman]

I think when NES VC are released to consumers, they need to price them from $1-3. It's such an obvious ace in the sleeve to combat iOS games that are free or $1. GB VC should be price cut as well, they should all be $1-2 less. IMO, NES games are generally WAY better than the crap that releases for $1 on iOS. Nintendo can have value AND quality here.

do NOT trickle shit out. They need to combat the app store. There are already thousands of free or $1 titles on the iOS App Store. They can't trickle shit out anymore.

Let's Golf 3D just came out on 3DSWare yesterday. GO AFTER iOS developers and get their cheap games on 3DSWare.

Drop 1st party software, or at least arcadey titles, to $30. OOT3D is fine at $40. I just traded for Steeldiver with someone on GAF, and while I love arcade type games and I'm really enjoying my playthrough of SD, it absolutely should have released at $30.

NOA needs to release something very similar to that European commercial posted earlier. Mercenaries in that clip looked like a damn 360 game. Do a 20 second montage of the best graphical games coming to the system, and then just leave "$169.99" in big bold letters w/ the system for 10 seconds.

Announce new Pokemon game is coming and release some new colors.

 

[Bboy AJ]

This is bullshit. These guys would have commit seppuku in the old days. Now, you guys are praising them for taking a pay cut instead of seppuku.

Anyway, I bet Nintendo is still going to make a profit off the hardware, even with the price cut. Goes to show just how greedy they were being with the initial price. And WTF at the game prices. I'm glad iOS gaming is changing the market and creating a new market.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Nobody knows that DS games look worse on the 3DS. Hell, this is the first I heard of it and I post on a gaming board. My experience with Shantae was perfectly fine.

I thought the resolution stretching had been pretty widely reported on about the 3DS.

They may look perfectly fine to some people, but DS games either do not look as good as on the DS at full screen or they are too small if you shrink it to native resolution.

The DS backwards compatibility is one of the biggest negatives I have with the 3DS. Thankfully I kept my DS lite. It's night and day when you compare a DS gaming running on both systems.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

And wasn't the whole 3D display thing Miyamoto's pet project?

Technically it was Hideki Konno and the Luigi Mansion's team who started the R&D of it during Luigi's Mansion. I'm sure Miyamoto poked his head in and smiled. For whatever that is worth. But Miyamoto being a board of director has him making suggestions on everything.

 

[[Nintex]]

This is exactly one of the points I' have been meaning to mention. Much of the lackluster 3DS performance should be attributed to the man who managed the scheduling and production for Steel Diver, Nintendogs+Cats. Hi Miyamoto! Remember how the Steel Diver director wanted to make Steel Diver an actual game full of content? But Mr. Miyamoto thought we would love to pay $39.99 for Steel Diver as is.

Miyamoto and Iwata certainly form a great team but sometimes I feel that Iwata puts so much trust into Miyamoto and to a lesser extend Genyo Takeda that he's blind to even their most obvious mistakes.

Kinda like how we put our faith in the producer of Other M because he designed Super Metroid and yeah....

 

[K' Dash]

after this I expect a >$300 Wii u, hope they learned their lesson, 3DS was WAY overpriced and lacks identity, it just looks like another DS iteration instead of a new platform.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

I read the part of the article where Iwata says give it four months to give judgement. That doesn't really mean he's giving it four months before it totally bombs and is discontinued, right? At least that's what I got from it.

You are concluding that. Iwata did not. We are neither!

 

[ShockingAlberto]

$40 is a rough price, but I do wonder if the poor game sales will eventually correct that back down to $30 - $35.

People saying Nintendo needs to set the trend seem not to realize that it is also a sure way to keep third parties from developing for the system. No one will buy, say, Crush3D at $40 if even Pilotwings is $30, but third parties are not going to want to give up that price. It is the same reason they pressured Microsoft in to giving up their $50 game prices for first-party titles, like they promised at the beginning of the generation, and gave up by the time Gears of War came out. Fracture is not going to sell well at $60 if Gears is sitting next to it, both brand new, at $10 cheaper.

It's one of the problems with handheld development getting out of the 90s. Games cost more to make, more money, more time, more resources than a publisher is used to providing for a handheld system. They want that price bump to compensate for that.

That said, if $40 really is the psychological barrier for handheld games, Nintendo does have to step up and correct it until the market finds a palatable price. It is absolutely going to mean a few years of pared down games, faster dev cycles, and barren third party support, but it might be necessary.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

I think it's safe to say they're not as interested as they used to be.

Well that's because we have PSP that has been around for many years, and DS/3DS shambles where 3DS hasn't been marketed well as new hardware, so there is general fatigue for those platforms - there are still millions of these systems being sold around the world. There is demand, there always will be demand for those type of handheld offerings.

 

[Barrett2]

This is bullshit. These guys would have commit seppuku in the old days. Now, you guys are praising them for taking a pay cut instead of seppuku.

Anyway, I bet Nintendo is still going to make a profit off the hardware, even with the price cut. Goes to show just how greedy they were being with the initial price. And WTF at the game prices. I'm glad iOS gaming is changing the market and creating a new market.

Like others have pointed out, Steel Diver and Monkey Ball are laughable value propositions at $40. If nothing else, the iOS and Facebook gaming phenomena has taught most consumers that many games are really only "worth" a few bucks.

 

[jvm]

Back in April I wrote that Nintendo would give the DS one more holiday and then kill it, dropping the price of the 3DS in the process. I try not to make too many predictions (speaking specifically about the killing the DS part), but I felt that one made good sense, and it seems more likely every day ... especially since the price of the 3DS has already been dropped earlier than I expected.

Of course, it's possible that Nintendo will drop the DSi XL to $130 and eliminate the other models, or something similar. But, really, what's the point when every million people who buy the DSi-based systems are a million who won't be buying lots of new 3DS software?

 

[Majine]

I wonder what happens if the sales don't catch up during these upcoming 4 months...


99 DOLLAR 3DS! IWATA WORKS FOR FREE AND YAMAUCHI SELLS ALL HIS PROPERTY!

 

[Ninja Scooter]

so 4 months til 3DS Lite? I'll wait.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Miyamoto and Iwata certainly form a great team but sometimes I feel that Iwata puts so much trust into Miyamoto and to a lesser extend Genyo Takeda that he's blind to even their most obvious mistakes.

Kinda like how we put our faith in the producer of Other M because he designed Super Metroid and yeah....

Leave Sakamoto alone. Metroid: Other M was controversial. But Wii Music and Steel Diver were JUST PATHETIC. But Miyamoto is linked to several decisions that have hurt Nintendo in the past. Perhaps he is just echoing the will of the entire board of directors, or he is really just stubborn and narrow-minded when acknowledging certain parts of the market.

 

[Souldriver]

so 4 months til 3DS Lite? I'll wait.

Great reading skills.

 

[Spike]

I'm sorry, but I think those in here thinking it won't help are absolutely out of their mind.

1. They're not lowering DSi prices, which will kill off the DS.
2. Price, which was the #1 factor in poor sales according to surveys, is fixed.
3. A new Mario Kart and a new Super Mario game (both HUGE system sellers) are releasing before the holiday season.
4. It will be priced $80 lower than the Vita.

The holiday season will be HUGE for the 3DS and it will have a large userbase before the Vita is released. That's what they need.

Exactly. It is going to sell like gangbusters during the holidays.

 

[TheRagnCajun]

Yeah, perhaps people are actually overestimating (or is it underestimating) the thought process of the average consumer.

There's 2 possible ways of thinking about this:

• Nintendo needs to market the 3DS as the next progression of the DS line. Just let all the DS owning people know that there's a new one that they'll need to play the latest games. Relying on brand loyalty and similarity with the DS might be a good thing.
  
• Nintendo needs to market the 3DS as something completely new, different from the DS. The similarities with the DS confuses consumers into thinking they don't need it to play the new games, or they aren't even aware of it being a new console. They had better made the name and form factor of the handheld different.

Recently, the sales numbers seem to validate the second thought process, but I'm not sure if there's actually a causation relationship between the two. I can see a hypothetical scenario with a Gameboy2 release that doesn't fare well, and all of gaf claiming Nintendo are idiots for dropping the DS brand and form factor. Hindsight analysis...

I see your point. Unlike a lot of other consumer devices though, the DS went through a series of revisions. It makes it easier for people to confuse the 3DS with that now, rather than a new generation product.

I think now in the current market, with all the different skus coming out, branding and consumer education is vital. When you introduce a new-gen product to market it has to be very clear. Sony isn't going to release a PS3D. They're going to call it PS4. MS will do likewise. Nintendo may get away with Wii U since there aren't as many skus to confuse consumers, but I think it would be smarter to just call it Wii 2.

 

[Kayo-kun]

There's 0 3DS games out that interests me. If they don't release far more quality games, it looks like I'll skip it. Nintendo did an awful job with 3DS, especially after what they accomplished with DS. Guess they thought more people would buy it only due to the the 3D fad.

The price will most likely go down again in a year or so and I'll buy it when a bomba deal comes out.

 

[Noirulus]

I don't know.. i'd rather buy a Vita with all that it has to offer. I'm not much of a Nintendo guy though do I love Mario.

 

[Saint Gregory]

I can never keep up with these threads while I'm at work anymore but based on my skimming I have to ask a question.

To those people say "the handheld business is dead" are you crazy? (well I know some of you are crazy)
The handheld business right now has a hell of a lot more growth potential than the home console business but Nintendo (and Sony's) problem is that they're thinking about the business from a '90s perspective. They got their philosphy right with the Wii as they modeled the remote after something everyone would be familiar and comfortable with - a TV remote. They need to apply that thinking to their handheld business and redesign the 3DS to appear to be something more inline with a modern handheld device.

That was really their biggest blunder with the 3DS, more than the price and the relative lack of compelling software. The handheld isn't ugly by any means but it just doesn't look like something modern or cutting edge. They don't need to go the full smartphone route but dump the asymmetrical screens and clamshell design and give people something that they'd actually want to carry around in their pocket. I assume that they're woking on something like this right now and maybe this massive price cut is to help clear their inventories before the reveal.

 

[TheBaldEmperor]

Consumers aren't confused, they are just not interested in buying a dedicated handheld anymore.

Yes they are. Someone who works in retail selling games could tell you that for sure. I had an employee at Wal Mart ask me if I actually had a 3ds system to play the game I was buying. The reason she asked was because so many people had been buying 3ds games without knowing they needed the actual 3ds system to play it on. It's not happening at just that one Wal Mart.

 

[orioto]

Also known as innovation. Given its an innovation that appeals to a wide swatch of people, it allows them to price the system far higher than its component costs and make a sizable amount of profit on it. It's also something they have tried to do with each system in some form or another.

Yeah i agree they made profit a bunch of time with "inovations" that were basically just excuses to make profit. Hell, even the whole "cartridge is better for you" was a money decision to sell royalties and avoid piracy. I'm just a little tired of the hypocrisy that consist in making their business decision look like gaming salvation, when there is clearly other ways, and yes, you can innovate without hardware, and many eople here will be glad to point you to lots of innovative games on PS3 and 360 in recent years...

Now, Nintendo made money, glad for hem, but what i'm saying is that it doesn't work anymore, clearly, so they should change that strategy.

And it's a matter of point of view, but i think wii posrt isn't innovative. The wii is innovative, and wii sport is a demonstration of the tech, with a really classical game deisgn.

 

[Vinci]

Actually, I would not be at all shocked if Nintendo brings out a 3DS Lite sometime within the next year that strays in numerous ways from the original's DS-like design. I mean, yes, it will have two screens, one will sadly be 3D, and the whole bit - but I think the aesthetic design of it will be moved away from it for the sake of greater distinction within the line.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

So basically:

"We dun goofed, but look we are taking a pay cut so you guys aren't so mad at us...."

Nintendo Fan boys:
"OMG, look at what a BOSS Iwata is, taking responsibility and all that shit....I'm going to go buy 5 now!"

Handheld market is dead people, they can give the damn thing away for free, when you have virtually no games and the games you do have are 40 bucks it's hard to compete with a pocket computer that has a basically unlimited number of cheap or free games.

If Nintendo wants to be in hardware, they need to totally focus on the next Wii, rename it something that is not hideous, and make sure it's a true next gen system that is leaps and bounds better than the 360/PS3 with an amazing online component. If they don't, we will be having another one of these threads in about 2 years.

Now tell us how you really feel.

 

[Seik]

Just saw that, I loled XD

I think Christmas will put Nintendo back on track, the price drop, all the new games coming out during holidays. Kids will kill each other and beg their parents for a 3DS.

Kid: 'I WANT MAH 3DS DADDY!'
Dad: 'You know, son, I can't afford 250$ right now, even if its Christmas.. I'll buy it when the price will drop.'
Kid: 'No! Look! *Shows an ad with the price drop*
Dad: 'Shit...=_='

Well...maybe I'm too positive about this whole situation, but that's my version of what will happen.

 

[Mechanized]

If the 3DS doesn't recover and they decided to abandon it.. could that mean the resurrection of the GameBoy?

 

[Cygnus X-1]

$40 is a rough price, but I do wonder if the poor game sales will eventually correct that back down to $30 - $35.

People saying Nintendo needs to set the trend seem not to realize that it is also a sure way to keep third parties from developing for the system. No one will buy, say, Crush3D at $40 if even Pilotwings is $30, but third parties are not going to want to give up that price. It is the same reason they pressured Microsoft in to giving up their $50 game prices for first-party titles, like they promised at the beginning of the generation, and gave up by the time Gears of War came out. Fracture is not going to sell well at $60 if Gears is sitting next to it, both brand new, at $10 cheaper.

It's one of the problems with handheld development getting out of the 90s. Games cost more to make, more money, more time, more resources than a publisher is used to providing for a handheld system. They want that price bump to compensate for that.

That said, if $40 really is the psychological barrier for handheld games, Nintendo does have to step up and correct it until the market finds a palatable price. It is absolutely going to mean a few years of pared down games, faster dev cycles, and barren third party support, but it might be necessary.

It will be very hard. I think this is quite near the limit of profitability and even with all the pressure coming from the low costs apps, the structure of development on a handheld dedicated platform prevent to cut the price here. Either you keep a system 250$ with 30$ for each game or 150$ and 40$ respectively. You can't have both, outside if you have some magic wand to lower costs even further.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

He's asking people to wait until the holiday season before judging it's future success. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Kintaro]

I can't help but wonder that if Nintendo is having trouble with the 3DS now, how will they handle the Wii U? The two end up very similar. They're named closely to the hardware before them and their success is to closely tied to the software they can make for it. Can Nintendo even support both now? It hasn't been able to support the DS and Wii for the past year. Obviously, 3rd parties aren't going to do so (and even if they do, its competing against the well established 360 and PS3).

This is very, very weird.

 

[Plinko]

There's 0 3DS games out that interests me. If they don't release far more quality games, it looks like I'll skip it. Nintendo did an awful job with 3DS, especially after what they accomplished with DS. Guess they thought more people would buy it only due to the the 3D fad.

The price will most likely go down again in a year or so and I'll buy it when a bomba deal comes out.

Thanks for letting us know!

 

[jett]

If the 3DS qualifies as failing in the market then at the very least, so does the GCN.

You could make that argument, but I wouldn't. The GC was never sold at a loss and Nintendo's got several multi-million sellers on the system. It ended up in third place but I'm sure it was financially successful.

 

[gofreak]

Actually, I would not be at all shocked if Nintendo brings out a 3DS Lite sometime within the next year that strays in numerous ways from the original's DS-like design. I mean, yes, it will have two screens, one will sadly be 3D, and the whole bit - but I think the aesthetic design of it will be moved away from it for the sake of greater distinction within the line.

I'd be curious to see a slate design. Wouldn't have to have a larger vertical profile than a iPod. Something like that would definitely look pretty unique and completely different from a DS. Could look more gameboy-esque actually.

 

[Mael]

Leave Sakamoto alone. Metroid: Other M was controversial. But Wii Music and Steel Diver were JUST PATHETIC. But Miyamoto is linked to several decisions that have hurt Nintendo in the past. Perhaps he is just echoing the will of the entire board of directors, or he is really just stubborn and narrow-minded when acknowledging certain parts of the market.

:lol Other M is controversial BUT WiiMusic is pathetic? Seriously at least WiiMusic sold enough to not kill the brand it was based on.
What makes OtherM controversial and WiiMusic pathetic? because the market reaction was better for WiiMusic.
For that matter shoudln't you leave Miyamoto out of the loop since he's the primary reason behind WiiSports and WiiFit and both are the reasons Nintendo had their success with the Wii (that Miyamoto also helped design).
I won't go into Steel Diver I don't comment on things I have no info on.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Kid: 'I WANT MAH 3DS DADDY!'
Dad: 'You know, son, I can't afford 250$ right now, even if its Christmas.. I'll buy it when the price will drop.'
Kid: 'No! Look! *Shows an ad with the price drop*
Dad: 'Shit...=_='

Well...maybe I'm too positive about this whole situation, but that's my version of what will happen.

More like

Dad: 'You know, son, I can't afford 250$ right now, even if its Christmas.. I'll buy it when the price will drop.'
Kid: 'No! Look! *Shows an ad with the price drop*
*Dad slaps the kid*
Dad: GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Kid: Wahhhhhhhhhh!

 

[Vinci]

Yeah i agree they made profit a bunch of time with "inovations" that were basically just excuses to make profit.

That is the worst way you could possibly take 'innovation.' Innovation is a significant and wonderful thing, and it should never be treated as a bad thing. It's one major reason why some cultures are wealthy and others are not.

I'm just a little tired of the hypocrisy that consist in making their business decision look like gaming salvation, when there is clearly other ways...

Of course there are other ways, but this is the one that they have found the most consistent success with. The fact that they've lasted in the industry longer than anyone reflects that.

... and yes, you can innovate without hardware, and many eople here will be glad to point you to lots of innovative games on PS3 and 360 in recent years...

Give me some examples. I would wager that many of them are more iterative of PC processes or utilize the internet in some fashion. The internet, BTW, is an innovation - and a very good one.

Now, Nintendo made money, glad for hem, but what i'm saying is that it doesn't work anymore, clearly, so they should change that strategy.

On what data do you base the comment that it doesn't work anymore and 'clearly' at that?

And it's a matter of point of view, but i think wii posrt isn't innovative. The wii is innovative, and wii sport is a demonstration of the tech, with a really classical game deisgn.

The two go hand-in-hand. If they'd have made a traditional game to illustrate what the Wii could do, it wouldn't have mattered and the mainstream market would have ignored it.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

If the 3DS doesn't recover and they decided to abandon it.. could that mean the resurrection of the GameBoy?

I think that Nintendo should strongly consider to try making games for iOS. I'm sure a Super Mario for such systems would outsold any other game every brought to these platforms. And yes: more than Angry birds or Farmville. Much more.

Point is that it's a move that implies a lot of changes within Nintendo. I don't think we'll every saw such a move. At least till Yamauchi is alive, we'll not for sure.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

No, what I'm saying is: "What the fuck do Western 3rd parties know? They've missed out on the two biggest systems this generation." So yes, I take their opinions on where things are headed or how the industry will shift less seriously than farnham's at this point.

Well, maybe not that badly. But still, they're lowly ranked in my favored list of prognosticators.

Don´t only blame third party publishers. Nintendo gets most of the blame here.

 

[Theonik]

iOS & Android are eating faster into the handheld market than Nintendo anticipated. Even Sony knows this.

At least Sony has a life-raft in the form of their own android devices and PS Suite.

 

[[Nintex]]

Leave Sakamoto alone. Metroid: Other M was controversial. But Wii Music and Steel Diver were JUST PATHETIC. But Miyamoto is linked to several decisions that have hurt Nintendo in the past. Perhaps he is just echoing the will of the entire board of directors, or he is really just stubborn and narrow-minded when acknowledging certain parts of the market.

It's just an example of a game designer allowed to do stuff unchallenged because he made something cool in the past. In every Iwata Asks the topic is always Miyamoto even when he's not around, they're talking about Miyamoto. The guy is a legend obviously but he's still just a man who can make mistakes from time to time but when no one dares to say: "Hey Miyamoto this here idea isn't your best maybe we should do something else" it all goes down the drain pretty fast.

 

[loosus]

Not sure why Nintendo doesn't slowly move handheld development to Android and/or iOS devices, especially if they collaborated with some hardware manufacturers to create some Xperia Play-ish devices with actual traditional gaming controls. They'd still have quite a bit of control.

And they could have a transitional period where they support both the 3DS and the Android hardware using middleware solutions. That way, 3DS purchasers don't feel like they got screwed.

I don't really see a good way for this to happen in the console market, though. Consoles have too many licensing issues from Sony and Microsoft, and PCs are just not simple enough (whereas Android devices are simple enough). Here, they will probably continue having to make their own television-based devices if they wish to continue making them.

Hopefully, Nintendo sees the light and slowly starts moving away from its own proprietary hardware formats. It'd be great for them to join the fold that practically all other software developers have.

Leave Sakamoto alone. Metroid: Other M was controversial.

If by "controversial" you mean "one of the trashiest, least fun games Nintendo has recently been involved with," then I fully agree.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

... Oh Christ.

Go take a peek at the current DS sales in the US and the PSP sales in Japan and then come back.

Oh you mean the numbers that have shown over the last 3 years sales of software and hardware for handhelds continue to fall flat as smartphone growth has exploded. Those numbers?

 

[Father_Brain]

You could make that argument, but I wouldn't. The GC was never sold at a loss and Nintendo's got several multi-million sellers on the system. It ended up in third place but I'm sure it was financially successful.

Actually, I believe GC was sold at a loss for a period following the 2003 drop to $99. I've also heard that it was briefly unprofitable at launch, but I'm not sure about that one.

 

[BurntPork]

You could make that argument, but I wouldn't. The GC was never sold at a loss and Nintendo's got several multi-million sellers on the system. It ended up in third place but I'm sure it was financially successful.

It was for a little while when the price was dropped to $99.