Nintendo 3DS Launch Info and hardware trailer

[Julius Seeker]

Launch 3DS Game software trailer


• US launch is March 27, EU is the 25th
• 30+ 3DS games available for launch window - March to E3
• Virtual Console launches with GB and GBC titles
• Price is $249 USD; lower than the $300 that people were saying it would cost earlier.
• Game prices $40-50
• 3D Video content will be available
• Revamped online contacts system: only one Universal list (as opposed to new contact lists for each game on Wii). Pins now only need to be entered once fixing the Wii's biggest online complaint.



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[Lox]

I'm working on getting one at launch.

[M'k'n'zy]

Mine is already paid off ^_^

[Flip]

While im with Sine and dont give two shits about 3D, this looks like an impressive piece of hardware. Nintendo outdid themselves.

[Don]

Didn't people swear it's not going to be more than $200 when we had this conversation a while back?

[Shrinweck]

No, it was just Sine and Zeus talking about how handheld devices don't tend to sell if they're above $200. The lowest actual estimation in the thread was $230

[Don]

So wouldn't Zeus say there's no way it's going to sell for less than $200? The price doesn't look unreasonable, but I recall someone saying Nintendo will never sell a system for more than $200 or at a loss, and looking at the technology that sounded like a technical impossibility.

[Zeus]

Didn't people swear it's not going to be more than $200 when we had this conversation a while back?

I said that they shouldn't sell it under $200 as I feel it's a mistake, especially since it'll be cheaper than the Wii. And it's true that the Wii is the only Nintendo system to ever debut at more than $200, which is widely considered the sweet spot for system pricing (don't think for a second the Xbox 360 Arcade wasn't priced strategically based on that very fact). I do think it's a bit of a mistake, always have. You will get your crazies who'll pay anything for it (looks in Seek's direction) but there's always been an enormous difference between $200 and $250 in the minds of the masses. It'll have to go down to that price point sooner rather than later.

But I figured it would go for around $250 and that price was set as soon as Japan rang in at nearly $300 (systems - and games - are actually cheaper here). I'm gonna get one, wait 2 days, and sell it for a handsome profit. Personally, my current DS Lite is fine, I can wait a bit for this one

[Kupek]

I like my DSi. I'll probably eventually upgrade to a 3DS, but I'll probably wait until the second hardware iteration - I can't tell for sure, but this looks a bit bulkier than a DSi.

[Julius Seeker]

So wouldn't Zeus say there's no way it's going to sell for less than $200? The price doesn't look unreasonable, but I recall someone saying Nintendo will never sell a system for more than $200 or at a loss, and looking at the technology that sounded like a technical impossibility.

Handheld devices have become much more popular in the past few years. The current iPod Touch models cost $230 to $400 depending on the tier. While generally more expensive, currently lack the same level of gaming incentives and glasses free 3D tech available in the 3DS; but are still one of the hottest items on the market. Before the rise of Smartphones and iPod Touch, $250 would be a mistake; but now it feels like a cheap price for what is in store. 3DS also has the backing of a strong brand in Nintendo (Nintendo has surpassed 230 million videogame consoles sold this gen; Over 145 million of those being the DS which continues to be the strongest selling system currently in the market).

At $250, demand will outstrip supply for at least a year. It will be, by far, the top selling system next Christmas.

[SineSwiper]

Buy it and keep it sealed, kids. This will be the last handheld gaming platform ever produced.

[Zeus]

I like my DSi. I'll probably eventually upgrade to a 3DS, but I'll probably wait until the second hardware iteration - I can't tell for sure, but this looks a bit bulkier than a DSi.

It's nearly the exact size of a DSi. Did a quick search and the Gamefaqs boards had someone who did a comparison:

3DS: 5.3" wide, 2.9" long, 0.8" tall, ~8 ounces
DSLite: 5.2" wide, 2.9" long, 0.84" tall, ~7.6 ounces
DSi: 5.39" wide, 2.9" long, 0.75" tall, ~7.5 ounces
DSi XL: 6.3" wide, 3.59" long, 0.83" tall, ~11 ounces

[Zeus]

Buy it and keep it sealed, kids. This will be the last handheld gaming platform ever produced.

Even if it fails miserably, no chance this will be Nintendo's last kick at the can. The PSP2 will be a phone as much as anything but you can rest assured Nintendo will not let their cash cow die without a fight

[Julius Seeker]

Buy it and keep it sealed, kids. This will be the last handheld gaming platform ever produced.

The marketing trends are proving the exact opposite. The DS is the top selling system of the current gen both softwarewise and hardwarewise. This is the first time this has ever occurred. The 3DS promises to surpass the DS success with far greater developer investment than any handheld platform has ever seen.

At over 145 million sales, the DS is now the alltime top selling gaming platform. If anything, the handheld gaming market will emerge as the overall most important market by the time the 3DS's successor launches. The 3DS is already looking like the overall dominant gaming platform.


Wither way, I am aiming to get around 20-25 units at launch for resale.

[SineSwiper]

Seeker, most of the DS sales are from Japan, where the penetration rates are excessively high. (Seriously, something like 75-80% of Japan's population owns a DS.) In the rest of the world, it is much lower. In the US, I think it's something like 34 million units, which is pretty damn good for a gaming console, but it's still only 10% of the population.

Yeah, 10% of the population seems like a lot, but consider this: Currently, about 25% of mobile phones in the US are smartphones, and the US mobile phone penetration is 91%. Therefore, 23% of the US population owns a smartphone. That's 70 million smartphones in the US alone.

Why continue to develop for a gaming platform alone, when you can just use a phone that already has a built-in gaming platform? The pieces are almost coming together for phone/gaming platforms, but so far, Nintendo has yet to figure out how to go the other way: turn the DS into a phone.

That short-sightedness will ultimately be their downfall.

[Julius Seeker]

While DS the top selling system in Japanese history; it is already up there in North America and Europe as well. The DS sales stand at 54 million US, 32.5 million Japan, and 59 million in EMEA.
Source

There are a few interesting market trends in Japan though: while the DS was massively successful there, the PSP was very successful there too. Japan has sold 52 million DS and PSP units. DS and PSP sales alone this generation have sold more units than all of the consoles sold in any prior generation; handheld systems dominate in Japan.

More interesting though is the mobile market in Japan. Japan is the world's most advanced mobile phones market (link). The worldwide mobile games market worldwide was 4.7 billion in 2009 (expected to be 5.6 billion for 2010); while on the rise, only 540 million of those sales were from the US (link). Most of that revenue was from Japan. DeNA, the top mobile gaming company in Japan alone made 517 million dollars (link); almost the equivalent of the entire US mobile gaming market.

So if anything; Japan is an example of how a much more advanced mobile market has thrived while the handheld gaming market has also thrived at the same time. This is part of the reason why, in my earlier post, that I feel the rise in mobile gaming on mainstream cell phones has and will actually benefit the acceptance and expansion of the handheld gaming market.

The major point of where the separation occurs is with the hardware. Are you going to talk to people holding a DS-like device up to your head? Probably not ever. The input on a gaming handheld requires a different shape and buttons to that of a cell phone; Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone provider (holding over 40% of the worldwide mobile phones hardware market), was unable to successfully launch such a device in the NA and EMEA markets; although, gaming phones have seen success in Japan - it looks like this is one market trend that is staying in the land of the rising sun.

Feature sets: An example of how a common tech between the two is used differently - Now with 3DS, the bluetooth and wiFi connectivity is being used specifically for gaming applications; while the pioneering began on the DS, it was linked to specific software (ie. Dragon Quest 9's tag mode, which allows unlockables and data exchange when two devices running DQ9 come into contact. The 3DS has taken this feature and made it universal; so such content exchanges can occur for all games owned at all times. The feature set in handheld gaming systems will ensure that they remain a separate market.

The market for mobile phones and handheld gaming consoles are not going to interfere much. The first and most obvious reason is that handheld gaming consoles do a lot of things that mobile phones will never do. We have seen a parallel here before in the form of PCs and Home gaming consoles.

[Zeus]

Seeker, most of the DS sales are from Japan, where the penetration rates are excessively high. (Seriously, something like 75-80% of Japan's population owns a DS.) In the rest of the world, it is much lower. In the US, I think it's something like 34 million units, which is pretty damn good for a gaming console, but it's still only 10% of the population.

Yeah, 10% of the population seems like a lot, but consider this: Currently, about 25% of mobile phones in the US are smartphones, and the US mobile phone penetration is 91%. Therefore, 23% of the US population owns a smartphone. That's 70 million smartphones in the US alone.

Why continue to develop for a gaming platform alone, when you can just use a phone that already has a built-in gaming platform? The pieces are almost coming together for phone/gaming platforms, but so far, Nintendo has yet to figure out how to go the other way: turn the DS into a phone.

That short-sightedness will ultimately be their downfall.

Sine, I've said these things a million times:

1) Don't let your personal bias get in the way of fact when it comes to facts

Your likes/dislikes are not always representative of what's actually going on. Just because you've become a Nintendo-basher doesn't mean that what they're doing is wrong. And if you'd like to have an argument about the merits of games on cellphones, start another thread and I will gladly have that discussion with you. There's a lot we can say about the mobile vs handheld gaming debate that goes far beyond the broad-strokes numbers that you gave which really don't say much about the portable gaming market at all. But let's not highjack this thread for that.

2) Spend 8 seconds doing research just to see if there's a possibility you're wrong

You were barely 60% of the way there as an 8-second search like the one below would reveal. They DS is actually currently at $54m in the US (about a third of the worldwide total) and is still outselling everything else all year like it has since launch

http://vgchartz.com/#Americas%20Totals

3) Don't argue with a Seek, people might not know the difference

Thankfully I don't see his posts anymore but you're not going to get anywhere arguing with someone's who's far more biased than you just in an opposite manner

[SineSwiper]

2) Spend 8 seconds doing research just to see if there's a possibility you're wrong

You were barely 60% of the way there as an 8-second search like the one below would reveal. They DS is actually currently at $54m in the US (about a third of the worldwide total) and is still outselling everything else all year like it has since launch

http://vgchartz.com/#Americas%20Totals

Meh. Forgot the web site name. I did a search on Google and I guess the news article was too old.

[Julius Seeker]

A few interesting features are active even while the device is in sleep mode.

• Street Pass - Essentially the same deal as tag mode in Dragon Quest 9; except on a much larger scale. When two people who have a DS are in proximity to one and other, there will be data interaction. Mii info is exchanged. The 3DS will also take data saved from up to 12 selected games, currently, and that data will interact as well. The difference with DQ9 is that only the save file has to exist in the system, not the game itself. So if you have 12 games saves, they are all ready to interact at any given point. All of this in sleep mode.

• Spot Pass allows the 3DS to interact and update online as the user passes WiFi hotspots. This all occurs in sleep mode.

• Coins - while the 3DS is in sleep mode, and these two features are active, there is the added incentive of coins. As the user walks with the 3DS, coins are awarded. The coins can then be exchanged for prizes (I am guessing downloadable software; perhaps on the virtual console).