Nintendo announces the "New 3DS"

[Eric]

- 4.88 inch screen 3DS LL
- 3.88 inch screen 3DS OG
- ABXY Buttons color coded
- A new stick like button (like a small slide pad stick)
- No need for circle pad pro
- Wider 3D sweetspot?
-NFC embedded in device
- HTML5 Support
- Faster CPU for faster downloads and browsing
-Removable battery?
- MicroSD Card support
- Customisable with skins

[Julius Seeker]

And Xenoblade is coming to it!

[Eric]

And Xenoblade is coming to it!

Which leads to my bitching part, that I'm irritated they're splitting their playerbase for a very small revision. =/ Xenoblade won't be playable on old 3DS Hardware.

[Julius Seeker]

The new interface options, such as the embedded NFC, shoulder buttons, and c-stick, along with the CPU upgrade made this inevitable. It was the exact same deal with the DSi, although this update does more than the DSi did in comparison on the DS Lite, since I found the DSi didn't repair the annoyances with the DS Lite, but this new 3DS most certainly does.

[Eric]

Yes but the DSi didn't have any games that didn't work on the DS. -_-

[Julius Seeker]

Except these:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ ... plications
http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo-dsi-e ... 774/games/

Gameboy color also had games that didn't play on the older Gameboy pocket and Gameboy fat.

I am getting the new 3DS XL anyway, so none of this really concerns me =P

[bovine]

As Seek mentions - the DSi had access to the DSi ware shop that had smaller games that you couldn't play on the regular DS or DS lite. That, and the gameboy/gameboy pocket and gameboy color example are cases that Nintendo has, indeed, done this before on some of its handhelds.

It seems like they are not learning from their Wii -> Wii U mistake here. At least there was an incremental name change there, but releasing an update to your system that has exclusive content not only seems foolish, but it seems like it could be confusing to customers on a level that will probably lead to litigation. Nintendo's just pulling old moves here, but I cannot believe that they are not releasing this updated 3DS without changing the name. It looks like Nintendo is seeing the extremely rapid pace of graphical advancement (smartphones especially), and they know that it is far too early to release a proper new generation of hardware, so they are putting out this half-step. This is totally fine. I think that Xenosaga could use a couple more people playing it, especially before the new one comes out on the Wii U. I just think that where they are seeming to be moving in the right direction one way, they are TOTALLY failing on how they are not changing the name of this new device. Not bringing out a new name means that people who are oblivious to the market will OBVIOUSLY NOT KNOW that there is anything new about this device. Want to create some consumer demand for your exciting new product? Make sure that they know that it is something new!

Although, I can definitely see that there is nothing at all new or exciting on this new 3DS that will create any sort of demand from the general audience. There were an extremely low number of games that used the circle pad pro (Seek, please tell me that you have one of these!), and adding two new buttons on the back? I cannot imagine that more than a handful of games will ever use these buttons. Splitting the user base is not going to attract enough content developers to make enough quality games for this new device to make me want it. I remember that a second circle pad was predicted in the 3DS XL reveal, and this little 90s laptop mouse nub was not exactly what I was hoping for.

[Zeus]

Fuck them on this one. They should have included the second analog stick with the "XL" model to begin with. Why they're including it now is a mystery but one thing is for sure: no one is gonna use it. It's useless, same with the extra shoulder buttons, even with the GameCube re-releases that are obviously coming now. Now you can play Resident Evil: Revelations without buying an adaptor, congrats. Nothing else will use it.

Now they're gonna release some titles that'll only work on this thing but not the others? What's gonna happen here is we're gonna get 5-8 titles from Nintendo themselves which are like that and that's it. What 3rd party would make a game that the other 30M+ 3DS owners (and counting) can't play? Silly, ain't gonna happen aside from some weird releases. Xenoblade will be the first and one of the last games of its kind.

[Julius Seeker]

As Seek mentions - the DSi had access to the DSi ware shop that had smaller games that you couldn't play on the regular DS or DS lite. That, and the gameboy/gameboy pocket and gameboy color example are cases that Nintendo has, indeed, done this before on some of its handhelds.

It seems like they are not learning from their Wii -> Wii U mistake here. At least there was an incremental name change there, but releasing an update to your system that has exclusive content not only seems foolish, but it seems like it could be confusing to customers on a level that will probably lead to litigation. Nintendo's just pulling old moves here, but I cannot believe that they are not releasing this updated 3DS without changing the name. It looks like Nintendo is seeing the extremely rapid pace of graphical advancement (smartphones especially), and they know that it is far too early to release a proper new generation of hardware, so they are putting out this half-step. This is totally fine. I think that Xenosaga could use a couple more people playing it, especially before the new one comes out on the Wii U. I just think that where they are seeming to be moving in the right direction one way, they are TOTALLY failing on how they are not changing the name of this new device. Not bringing out a new name means that people who are oblivious to the market will OBVIOUSLY NOT KNOW that there is anything new about this device. Want to create some consumer demand for your exciting new product? Make sure that they know that it is something new!

Although, I can definitely see that there is nothing at all new or exciting on this new 3DS that will create any sort of demand from the general audience. There were an extremely low number of games that used the circle pad pro (Seek, please tell me that you have one of these!), and adding two new buttons on the back? I cannot imagine that more than a handful of games will ever use these buttons. Splitting the user base is not going to attract enough content developers to make enough quality games for this new device to make me want it. I remember that a second circle pad was predicted in the 3DS XL reveal, and this little 90s laptop mouse nub was not exactly what I was hoping for.

I do have the Circle pad pro =)
But I barely used it, there weren't any games on 3DS I regularly played which required it. I had Monster Hunter 3, and played that a great deal, but I preferred to just use the single analog control method.

I do not think people oblivious to the gaming market are going to be the consumers of a more complex and expensive version of the 3DS, or a port of a relatively obscure game; when you consider Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Sonic, etc... I don't really see this as being an issue. There had been rumours and speculation among the gaming press that people would mistake Wii U for Wii, and 3DS for DS, but none of this actually occurred in reality. People can read, especially when making purchases in excess of $150 give them more credit.

Mostly, I am super excited that they're releasing Xenoblade to handheld, and if I am going to buy a Vita to play a handful of PSX RPGs on a handhely - particularly Xenogears - then it's a given that I am certainly going to buy a 3DSi for Xenoblade... Plus my old 3DS XL is starting to get a little junky, the casing has scuffs and scratches on it, and one of the hinges is smashed; but unlike the DS Lite, smashed hinges on a 3DS still function normally.

It wasn't announced specifically, but I am really hoping that the system gets SDXC support as well, I am worried about the increasing size of 3DS games, and how much more my 32GB can hold.

[Julius Seeker]

If there's anything that disappoints me about this release, it's that it isn't a handheld that can sync up with the Wii U and behave as an additional controller.

I would really like to see if the "Fusion DS" rumour comes into fruition at some point, even if false, it seemed like a really awesome idea. It would allow the Wii U vision to be fully realized with companion handheld applications, and multi-gamepad gameplay options.


However, I am still incredibly excited about this release.

1. A handheld that Xenoblade can play on, coming now.
2. No add ons needed to advance the interface: get Amiibo functionality to feature with Smash, and a full range of controls for upcoming games I want like Monster Hunter 4.
3. Fixing a few really irritating issues, such as the side volume and wifi sliders, which I hit far too often. Also I sometimes have trouble playing action games while sitting up as it will screw up the 3D, now no more worries about 3D range.
4. The addition of the SD-XC card support, confirmed - http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... -announced. These cards go up to 2 Terabytes.

I think that Nintendo's motivation for the release of this is to compliment their new direction without the need of add-ons, the Amiibo functionality in particular. This is an important new revenue stream for them. I am also wondering if their vaguely discussed QoL platform will also be integrated in some way with this?

[M'k'n'zy]

To me the biggest deal is the facial tracking for the 3d effect where it will adjust the paralax filter to help you keep the 3d effect at different angles. I play laying down on my XL a lot, and that makes it tricky to keep the 3d in focus, so I end up turning it off more often than not, with this I shouldn't have to do that.