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[SmokyDave]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

 

[metalslimer]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

Agreed, but to be fair no handheld is going to have a screen even close to that size. Resolution is important though especially with how crunched everything can get in a small resolution. The 3DS's resolution is probably the biggest issue with the device as I wish Nintendo didn't go with that resolution because of 3D.

overpriced underperforming Nintendo handhelds

Nintendo is losing money on the system. What would be a good price for it?

 

[Culex]

Great debut! I wonder if we'll ever see years like 2006 where the DS sold over 8 million, or 2007 where it was just over 7 million?

3DS will have to maintain over 200k a week from now until December to hit 6.5 million.

 

[Kenka]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

Yeah, when I see that, I wish the XL sported a beefier hardware for AA and a screen with higher resolution.

 

[Seik]

Iwata: 'Laughs'

Great news, I didn't expect it to sell so much at launch!

 

[metalslimer]

Great debut! I wonder if we'll ever see years like 2006 where the DS sold over 8 million, or 2007 where it was just over 7 million?

3DS will have to maintain over 200k a week from now until December to hit 6.5 million.

No way this produces the same kind of effect. THe Lite was so much of an improvement over the original and there was no stock in store for months.

Yeah, when I see that, I wish the XL sported a beefier hardware for AA and a screen with higher resolution.

There's a reason dedicated gaming handheld screen resolutions don't change during its lifecyvle. Too many issues for developers to deal with.

 

[mugurumakensei]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

That doesn't really show the advantages of a higher resolution screen. It says games with high internal resolution look great on a high resolution device and games with poor internal resolution will look poor on a high resolution device.

 

[gamergirly]

Finally some sale numbers. Lookin good

 

[Stealth20k]

i think this qualifies as a great debut, and mine is still preordered

 

[michaelius]

Nintendo is losing money on the system. What would be a good price for it?

If they could they would still be selling it for 250$.

 

[Rich!]

No way this produces the same kind of effect. THe Lite was so much of an improvement over the original and there was no stock in store for months.

My 3DS XL is as much of an improvement over the original as the lite was over the phat ds, if not more so.

 

[DCharlie]

Probably - especially with the new commercials for MH Tri G, game will have sold 1.5 million this week.

plus it seems to be marked down to 3980 in a lot of places, so i'd imagine a few people to jump on it.


Online download/in store codes : in store codes are more expensive than the retail version. Bit of a stinker on that one i guess? The cards do look deliciously collectable though - surely the Wii U ones will be NFC cards? wooo

 

[metalslimer]

If they could they would still be selling it for 250$.

What does this have to do with anything? And if the market actually bought it at that price it would not be overpriced. We live in capitalist societies remember?

 

[frankie_baby]

Great numbers I'd assume its likely Mario will have given the regular sized 3ds a bump too, very looking forward to huge numbers tomorrow

 

[DrWong]

Yeah, when I see that, I wish the XL sported a beefier hardware for AA and a screen with higher resolution.

And a higher price (when everybody is complaining about handheld pricing) and it also would be like a new system (new hd spec') and not a revision.

 

[frankie_baby]

Agreed, but to be fair no handheld is going to have a screen even close to that size. Resolution is important though especially with how crunched everything can get in a small resolution. The 3DS's resolution is probably the biggest issue with the device as I wish Nintendo didn't go with that resolution because of 3D.


Nintendo is losing money on the system. What would be a good price for it?

Nintendo aren't losing money on it any more

 

[Aostia]

Contrast this with the west where Nintendo looks like they are barely trying.

Well, Japanese landscape and Western landscape are very different.
Nintendo is putting its own titles on the shelves both in Jap and elsewhere, and if there are titles that are selling well in the West on handhelds are the Nintendo titles.
The main difference is for third party efforts; no western TP is pushing the support into 3DS neither into Vita, and a lot of Japan-oriented titles are not yet localized nor distributed.
Perception (from both big companies and market) of portable device in the West is very different than in Japan, and the two aspects (no big TP putting their effort into the portable market and market not so interested into the portable side of things) are obviously strictly related one to each other.
Probably Nintendo should try to get more western developers love, but it's both more difficult to get titles because publisher don't see the portable market as so strong and more difficult to understand which titles they should "moneyhat" because usual traditional western third party efforts are not so tailor made for portable market.

 

[Grampasso]

Wow, outstanding for both No hints on demon training sales?

 

[DynamicG]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

Ghost Trick's statement was pretty hyperbolic. Extra resolution is usually good. But Nintendo obviously went for a mass market price (not at first!) that met their threshold for cost / performance and I think it's paying off for them.

Side point not related to Minsc's image, which clearly proves the point that resolution matters:

It's pretty interesting that even in a sales thread there are still people who compartmentalize cost and pretend that it doesn't factor into success or that it isn't important to design based on a company's margins. Even when the "all the tech but the kitchen-sink" gaming handheld that is currently on the market is performing incredibly poorly. People frequently also ignore that cell phones are subsidized and like to make direct comparisons between the devices.

I get it, some people really want more tech no matter the cost. But it's really boring talking about an individual's personal preference on a board like this. I'd love a higher resolution 3DS screen too. It ain't happening, compartmentalize your butthurt instead of factors that may actually lead to sales and success.

More on topic: Good numbers for the 3DSLL! I'm wondering what kind of legs Mario will have, but it's off to a good start.

 

[Ken Masters]

Remember :


Digital sales might be very high !

wow, I would love the US to have digital cards for games at retailers like Best Buy

 

[VICI0US]

We know that the 3DS hardware will become profitable for Nintendo in a month or two but does that include XL as well?

the XL is/will be profitable from day 1 in all regions.

 

[metalslimer]

Nintendo aren't losing money on it any more

Yes they are gamasutra misreported they weren't. They will profit in a month or two though

 

[Kouriozan]

Yes, 3DS will be profitable in september, 3DS XL already is day one.

 

[test_account]

Oh no I was mainly going off one of his posts in a MC thread where he called 3DS software sales terrible. ANd Nintendo was aggressive because they had their own internal shipment they were failing to meet. They had all these games coming to their system long before Vita's price was even announced so Vita barely played a factor if it did.

I see. I havnt seen that post.

Yeah, that is true, but if the 3DS had no competition, i wouldnt be surprised if they delayed a pricedrop. I think that Nintendo made it key to do the pricedrop before the Vita came out.

 

[BishopLamont]

Its funny that the 3DS being the underpowered handheld took longer to be profitable, while the Vita being the powerful handheld was profitable much earlier. Really drives the point home that system specs doesn't mean much when it comes to the video games market.

The 3DS is just killing Japan, now we just wait for the software ecosystem to mature and we have a mini PS2 on our hands. Nintendo gambled with the price drop its payed off in a major way. The Vita is practically still-born.

I see. I havnt seen that post.

Yeah, that is true, but if the 3DS had no competition, i wouldnt be surprised if they delayed a pricedrop. I think that Nintendo made it key to do the pricedrop before the Vita came out.

The price drop was more for the whole video game market, Nintendo needed it to guarantee the 3DS the top spot in Japan, Vita was merely a prick in the plan. With or without the Vita, Nintendo needed the price drop to show third party devs that the system would not slow down in any shape or form and that they were serious about the handheld and would do anything to cement its rightful place on top.

 

[Alrus]

I see. I havnt seen that post.

Yeah, that is true, but if the 3DS had no competition, i wouldnt be surprised if they delayed a pricedrop. I think that Nintendo made it key to do the pricedrop before the Vita came out.

The price drop happened months before the Vita released though...

 

[Onesimos]

The sale figures are what I expect and especially the 3DS LL numbers. Now, we need to know about the Demon Training numbers.

 

[VICI0US]

The gap in the west is much more narrow, but the 3DS is still much more healthy even in the west. In America, 3DS is doing ~1.5-2x vita each month. Same goes for the UK. In other European countries, the gap between the 3DS and vita is wider.

the DS line of hardware is also still very very strong here in the US, which seems to be slowing the adoption rate of the 3DS. I think DS sales were only 40k~ below 3DS sales in the latest NPD which is pretty darn crazy.

 

[test_account]

The price drop was more for the whole video game market, Nintendo needed it to guarantee the 3DS the top spot in Japan, Vita was merely a prick in the plan. With or without the Vita, Nintendo needed the price drop to show third party devs that the system would not slow down in any shape or form.

The price drop happened months before the Vita released though...

The earlier, the better Trying to make people choose their product way before the competition came out. But that said, i think that the biggest factor was the weak 3DS sales in itself and they didnt want to wait too long.

 

[Wiz]

Great start for the XL and NSMB2 is that one game that will sell at a consistent pace for months and years to come. Things are looking good right now for Nintendo's portable market.

 

[Culex]

Yes they are gamasutra misreported they weren't. They will profit in a month or two though

gamesindustry.biz says otherwise, and they are a huge industry-driven site:

UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed that as of July 25, 2012, the 3DS will no longer be sold below cost price.

 

[Projectjustice]

Good for Nintendo! 3DS XL is a fine piece of hardware, cant wait to get mine.

 

[Huff]

Lol at people freaking out over Dave.

And expecting eshop sales to be anything but minimal

 

[DynamicG]

Lol at people freaking out over Dave.

And expecting eshop sales to be anything but minimal

If only you had appeared earlier in the thread to warn us about Dave's soft trolling and to give us the eshop numbers that you obviously have. Your lateness has cost us so much!

 

[watershed]

Really curious about demon training and download numbers. I always imagine Nintendo consumers to be least interested in digital downloads and I think Nintendo's own numbers have supported this.

 

[beje]

Lol at people freaking out over Dave.

And expecting eshop sales to be anything but minimal

Taking into account their servers got hammered and suffered an outage for 2 hours, that remains to be seen

Source: http://andriasang.com/con22s/nintendo_server_trouble/

 

[BowieZ]

A good "tech guy" would build something akin to 3DS/XL, in other words, being cognizant of your market position and designing for a successful future. Anybody with a throwaway budget can just accumulate the best parts and put them in a sleek but cumbersome shell.

Dave should marvel at the effectiveness of the 3DS line.

 

[DragonSworne]

Did Nintendo say how and when they will share download sale numbers?

I know that they stated they will, but I don't know any details around it.

 

[KillerMan91]

Well Japanese love new revisions. PS3 Slim also did something like 150k first week back in 2009 and PSP2000 did over 250k back in 2007. Will be interesting to watch how much the even slimmer PS3 will do first week.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I highly doubt the download totals matter at all.

 

[Alexios]

I'll just leave this here, and not side track the debate further than that... as there's pretty much no more discussion about the disadvantages to not having higher resolutions left after that anyway, imo.

Shouldn't both images be reduced to the physical size of the (in this case PSP) screen for a more proper comparison though? And of course there can be disadvantages as the new iPad shows when games like Nova 3 have to reduce their visual settings to run decently on it. If you'd isolate resolution as its own thing that doesn't affect and isn't affected by other factors, yeah, more is better every single time, but it's hard to do that when it can affect things enough to reinforce coming failures. Any gamer would rather have the most powerful and most successful system ensuring a healthy library for a long time, but when you have to choose one the latter works for most.

Anyway, the 3DS ppi is pretty decent (akin to iPad2 and other similarly modern gadgets iirc?), going for the LL or not is up to one's preference and convenience, options are rarely, if ever, bad anyway. Speaking of the iPad2 I guess an even better and proper comparison would be to view the same 3D scene rendered on an iPad2 in its native resolution and then on the new iPad in its own native resolution. A scene that isn't taxing enough to cause the new iPad's version to need downgrading at least.

 

[Like the hat?]

431 thousand units in one country in two days is bad?

 

[Gradivus]

431 thousand units in one country in two days is bad?

Not to mention, if the download cards are counted into the figures or not. It's pretty much doing as well as the other Mario games. Pity we couldn't have 4 days worth of sales instead of 2, just to stop people getting worked up about this.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Re: NSMB2 numbers

If cards aren't counted: great!
If cards are counted: ehhh

 

[muu]

Funny how people consistently claim 10 to 25 percent dl sales on psn or vita items, then go to basically say the same is impossible on a nintendo system. If anything I'd bet the retail presence of game dl codes helped to significantly drive digital sales.

 

[Snowden's Secret]

Shouldn't both images be reduced to the physical size of the (in this case PSP) screen for a more proper comparison though? And of course there can be disadvantages as the new iPad shows when games like Nova 3 have to reduce their visual settings to run decently on it. If you'd isolate resolution as its own thing that doesn't affect and isn't affected by other factors, yeah, more is better every single time, but it's hard to do that when it can affect things enough to help with coming failures. Any gamer would rather have the most powerful and most successful system ensuring a healthy library for a long time, but when you have to choose one the latter works for most.

Anyway, the 3DS ppi is pretty decent (akin to iPad2 and other similarly modern gadgets iirc?), going for the LL or not is up to one's preference and convenience, options are rarely, if ever, bad anyway. Speaking of the iPad2 I guess an even better and proper comparison would be to view the same 3D scene rendered on an iPad2 in its native resolution and then on the new iPad in its own native resolution. A scene that isn't taxing enough to cause the new iPad's version to need downgrading at least.

While the comparison is striking when the size of my monitor, I can't tell which is which when they are this small (I think the one on the left is the higher rez one?)

 

[BassForever]

431 thousand units in one country in two days is bad?

If the budget for your game was like 60 billion dollars or you shipped 10 million units to that one country it would be

 

[marc^o^]

Nintendo since the vita release have been ultra aggressive and have basically made sure the Vita will not be able to gain any traction in Japan.

At this stage I expect the exact same situation to happen with Wii U. It will launch with a one year headstart and become the main HD console, playing both Nintendo and 3rd party games. Just like Vita, PS4 could arrive too late on the market and become a niche platform. This scenario is far more likely to happen than the one where Wii U fails to win over Japan.

 

[Cipherr]

At this stage I expect the exact same situation to happen with Wii U. It will launch with a one year headstart and become the main HD console, playing both Nintendo and 3rd party games. Just like Vita, PS4 could arrive too late on the market and become a niche platform. This scenario is far more likely to happen than the one where Wii U fails to win over Japan.

Heh, I dont see that at all for the WiiU. I predict itll have a life more similar to the Gamecube than anything resembling the 3DS/DS or Wii. I don't see them dying or anything, but I dont think itll set anything on fire at all.

 

[wrowa]

Regarding the resolution discussion, many of you are actually ignoring the most important aspect of it: You can display more information on a high resolution screen. It's pretty notable when you compare Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance.

Dream Drop Distance:

Only 2 visible commands, camera is rather close to the character (too prevent the characters from pixelating too much).

Birth by Sleep:

3 commands visible instead of 2, camera is not as close to the character as in DDD. As a result, BbS is (at least visually) more comfortable to play.