Jubenhimer
Member
Now, before everyone starts pulling out their pitchforks and knives, hear me out. I love the Nintendo 3DS, I personally think it's one of Nintendo's best consoles in terms of first party support, and even the hardware itself. Right up there with the SNES in my book. That being said, I feel Nintendo made a lot of very bad decisions with it that held it back. I know we all loved to rag on the fuck ups Nintendo made with the Wii U, but it's easy to forget that things weren't all peachy with the 3DS either, even after the huge ass price cut. Seeing as how we're nearing the end of the 3DS' life, I though I might run through some of the fundamental mistakes Nintendo made with the 3DS, in terms of hardware, marketing, and software.
* It was designed for a pre-smartphone world - The Nintendo DS came out and completely revolutionized mobile gaming, thanks to it's touch screen interface and groundbreaking software like Nintendogs, Brain Age, among other games that used it's unique feature-set. Fast-foward to 2011, Nintendo hopes lighting will strike twice with the 3DS, which sports the same types of games, except with the power of stereoscopic 3D. There's just one problem, this was 2011. By this point, iPhones, app stores, and capacitive touch screens had become pretty standard by this point. Back in 2006 a $30 package of Brain Teasers made sense, as the gaming industry hadn't really seen anything like it before, now? You can do this stuff for free, on your phone. So the idea of another, more expensive product coming out makes little sense. Why buy a 3DS for puzzle games, when there's thousands of them available for free on your phone? The 3DS arrived to a changed gaming environment and suffered because of it.
* It struggled with an identity crisis - Another reason the 3DS struggled against the smartphone market, was because it never made itself clear, either to consumers, or developers, why, or how it was different from a phone. 3D wasn't a game changer (more on that later), dual screens had been done already and by this point, had overstayed their welcome, and buttons weren't enough of a difference. Again, why buy a dedicated, handheld gaming system with more expensive games, that kinda-sorta resembled what you'd find on home consoles when you can just buy an actual home console, or again, get games on your phone, often times for free. The 3DS was a console that lacked a cohesive identity throughout much of it's life. And much like the Wii U, Nintendo never exactly knew what they wanted it to be.
* 3D wasn't the game-changer Nintendo had hoped - Back in the early 2010s, 3D was big. Avatar came out and broke box office records, 3D TV's started popping up, and it seemed every movie couldn't be released, without an accompanying 3D screening as well. Nintendo had toyed around with 3D before, with the Famicom 3D system, as well as the infamous Virtual Boy. But the Nintendo 3DS was the company's first serious foray into the format. The hook here, was that the 3DS could let you see 3D images, without the need for glasses. Let me just say, that I enjoy the 3DS' 3D myself, and there were some great games that utilized it. However, the 3DS' main gimmick, also became it's main weakness. By around 2011-2012, people were starting to get sick of 3D. 3D TV sales plummeted, and films with 3D screenings became less and less frequent. The limitations of the 3DS' parallax barrier technology also didn't help, as it required users to stay within the sweet spot to see it properly. By the time the New 3DS came about to work around this limitation, it was too little, too late. 3D was dead, VR was the new hotness. Shame too, Super Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus Uprising, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon all showed the potential of what 3D could do for gaming. But the 3DS was subjected to bad timing, and I feel Nintendo bet it's money on the wrong horse with it. Now, we're see most of Nintendo's newer games for the system ditch 3D altogether, with Nintendo of Europe even phasing out the n3DS XL, the last 3DS with 3D support.
* Lack of third party support - Now for a home console, Nintendo lacking third party support is nothing new for them. But the 3DS suffered from relatively weak third party support. As in, unusually weak for Nintendo handheld. For the Wii U, I was used to it by that point, but it was actually very shocking for the 3DS since that's almost never the case with handhelds, but this was an exception. While not as bad as the Wii U, the 3DS suffered from a lack of reliable support for much of its life. Things got off to a promising start, that potential quickly disappeared a few years after launch. First off, western developers were practically non-existent. I know some of you will spin some revisionist BS about how western developers supposedly never supported handhelds, but the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS both had pretty good western third party support, so it was sad to see the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Activision, etc pretty much drop it like a brick 2 years after launch. While Japanese support was decent from the likes of Square Enix, Capcom, and Atlus, it too paled in comparison to it's predecessors. Indie support wasn't much better, the 3DS' hardware, combined with the aforementioned popularity of Smartphones and tablets, lead to many indies skipping the console, save for a handful of the popular titles and exclusives. It's kind of sad how even the Wii U and Vita received better indie support than the 3DS. Nintendo's first party offerings were great, some of the best Nintendo has put out yet. But third party developers just weren't there to carry the console, forcing Nintendo to step in.
* It was difficult to develop for - Part of the main reason why the 3DS was lacking in third party support, was because for a Nintendo platform, it was unusually difficult to develop for for most developers, particularly in this day and age. In an era where most developers rely on third party engines and middleware to create games, the 3DS' dated and obtuse hardware wasn't going to cut it, as it was too under-powered and complex to run many of today's engines. Hell, it took an entirely new console revision to get it to run Unity, something the Wii U had since 2014, that's pretty bad. This is surprising again, since with a few exceptions, Nintendo consoles are typically easy to develop for. Again, the 3DS was designed with a pre-smartphone mentality, and it suffered because of it.
* Launching too expensive with no must-have games - Ah yes, we can't talk about 3DS failures without talking about the console's unfortunate growing pains. At launch, the 3DS was $250, which was very expensive for a Nintendo handheld, and especially so seeing as how the PlayStation Vita would be launching, at exactly the same price. On top of that, at launch, there really was no must have games available at launch. Even if a console has a weak launch line-up, there's usually at least one killer app that can carry the console until the games start coming. Not here, the best title we got at launch, was a downsized port of a fighting game people had already played on consoles, because Nintendo's launch titles were uncharacteristically lackluster. We had to wait until June, to get a killer app from Nintendo, and even then, it was yet another older title. Hell, the 3DS didn't even have the eShop ready for launch. I know the Switch's launch line-up wasn't anything spectacular either, but it wasn't... this. This is what held the 3DS back a lot, combined with all the other factors, forced Nintendo to take drastic measures to keep it afloat, even if they had to take 3 years of losses on it.
So yeah, while not as bad as the Wii U, I feel Nintendo made a lot of mistakes with the 3DS that kept it from being as successful as it should be. Nintendo would eventually learn from these mistakes with the 3DS' successor, the Nintendo Switch which conceptually, is a way better system, especially for developers. Again, I mean no disrespect to the 3DS, I own one, I love it. But I consider it to be a much less severe Wii U. A console with an identity crisis that had tons of great first party games, a handful of decent third party titles, but little else outside that.
* It was designed for a pre-smartphone world - The Nintendo DS came out and completely revolutionized mobile gaming, thanks to it's touch screen interface and groundbreaking software like Nintendogs, Brain Age, among other games that used it's unique feature-set. Fast-foward to 2011, Nintendo hopes lighting will strike twice with the 3DS, which sports the same types of games, except with the power of stereoscopic 3D. There's just one problem, this was 2011. By this point, iPhones, app stores, and capacitive touch screens had become pretty standard by this point. Back in 2006 a $30 package of Brain Teasers made sense, as the gaming industry hadn't really seen anything like it before, now? You can do this stuff for free, on your phone. So the idea of another, more expensive product coming out makes little sense. Why buy a 3DS for puzzle games, when there's thousands of them available for free on your phone? The 3DS arrived to a changed gaming environment and suffered because of it.
* It struggled with an identity crisis - Another reason the 3DS struggled against the smartphone market, was because it never made itself clear, either to consumers, or developers, why, or how it was different from a phone. 3D wasn't a game changer (more on that later), dual screens had been done already and by this point, had overstayed their welcome, and buttons weren't enough of a difference. Again, why buy a dedicated, handheld gaming system with more expensive games, that kinda-sorta resembled what you'd find on home consoles when you can just buy an actual home console, or again, get games on your phone, often times for free. The 3DS was a console that lacked a cohesive identity throughout much of it's life. And much like the Wii U, Nintendo never exactly knew what they wanted it to be.
* 3D wasn't the game-changer Nintendo had hoped - Back in the early 2010s, 3D was big. Avatar came out and broke box office records, 3D TV's started popping up, and it seemed every movie couldn't be released, without an accompanying 3D screening as well. Nintendo had toyed around with 3D before, with the Famicom 3D system, as well as the infamous Virtual Boy. But the Nintendo 3DS was the company's first serious foray into the format. The hook here, was that the 3DS could let you see 3D images, without the need for glasses. Let me just say, that I enjoy the 3DS' 3D myself, and there were some great games that utilized it. However, the 3DS' main gimmick, also became it's main weakness. By around 2011-2012, people were starting to get sick of 3D. 3D TV sales plummeted, and films with 3D screenings became less and less frequent. The limitations of the 3DS' parallax barrier technology also didn't help, as it required users to stay within the sweet spot to see it properly. By the time the New 3DS came about to work around this limitation, it was too little, too late. 3D was dead, VR was the new hotness. Shame too, Super Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus Uprising, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon all showed the potential of what 3D could do for gaming. But the 3DS was subjected to bad timing, and I feel Nintendo bet it's money on the wrong horse with it. Now, we're see most of Nintendo's newer games for the system ditch 3D altogether, with Nintendo of Europe even phasing out the n3DS XL, the last 3DS with 3D support.
* Lack of third party support - Now for a home console, Nintendo lacking third party support is nothing new for them. But the 3DS suffered from relatively weak third party support. As in, unusually weak for Nintendo handheld. For the Wii U, I was used to it by that point, but it was actually very shocking for the 3DS since that's almost never the case with handhelds, but this was an exception. While not as bad as the Wii U, the 3DS suffered from a lack of reliable support for much of its life. Things got off to a promising start, that potential quickly disappeared a few years after launch. First off, western developers were practically non-existent. I know some of you will spin some revisionist BS about how western developers supposedly never supported handhelds, but the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS both had pretty good western third party support, so it was sad to see the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Activision, etc pretty much drop it like a brick 2 years after launch. While Japanese support was decent from the likes of Square Enix, Capcom, and Atlus, it too paled in comparison to it's predecessors. Indie support wasn't much better, the 3DS' hardware, combined with the aforementioned popularity of Smartphones and tablets, lead to many indies skipping the console, save for a handful of the popular titles and exclusives. It's kind of sad how even the Wii U and Vita received better indie support than the 3DS. Nintendo's first party offerings were great, some of the best Nintendo has put out yet. But third party developers just weren't there to carry the console, forcing Nintendo to step in.
* It was difficult to develop for - Part of the main reason why the 3DS was lacking in third party support, was because for a Nintendo platform, it was unusually difficult to develop for for most developers, particularly in this day and age. In an era where most developers rely on third party engines and middleware to create games, the 3DS' dated and obtuse hardware wasn't going to cut it, as it was too under-powered and complex to run many of today's engines. Hell, it took an entirely new console revision to get it to run Unity, something the Wii U had since 2014, that's pretty bad. This is surprising again, since with a few exceptions, Nintendo consoles are typically easy to develop for. Again, the 3DS was designed with a pre-smartphone mentality, and it suffered because of it.
* Launching too expensive with no must-have games - Ah yes, we can't talk about 3DS failures without talking about the console's unfortunate growing pains. At launch, the 3DS was $250, which was very expensive for a Nintendo handheld, and especially so seeing as how the PlayStation Vita would be launching, at exactly the same price. On top of that, at launch, there really was no must have games available at launch. Even if a console has a weak launch line-up, there's usually at least one killer app that can carry the console until the games start coming. Not here, the best title we got at launch, was a downsized port of a fighting game people had already played on consoles, because Nintendo's launch titles were uncharacteristically lackluster. We had to wait until June, to get a killer app from Nintendo, and even then, it was yet another older title. Hell, the 3DS didn't even have the eShop ready for launch. I know the Switch's launch line-up wasn't anything spectacular either, but it wasn't... this. This is what held the 3DS back a lot, combined with all the other factors, forced Nintendo to take drastic measures to keep it afloat, even if they had to take 3 years of losses on it.
So yeah, while not as bad as the Wii U, I feel Nintendo made a lot of mistakes with the 3DS that kept it from being as successful as it should be. Nintendo would eventually learn from these mistakes with the 3DS' successor, the Nintendo Switch which conceptually, is a way better system, especially for developers. Again, I mean no disrespect to the 3DS, I own one, I love it. But I consider it to be a much less severe Wii U. A console with an identity crisis that had tons of great first party games, a handful of decent third party titles, but little else outside that.
