I was listening to our friend Guillaume's podcast this week and they were discussing how Nintendo can boost sales of New 3DS and set it apart from regular 3DS and 3DSXL. I was surprised to hear that all four panelists agreed that they need to make more exclusive games than just Xenoblade and that they seemed to agree that they should be paving their way to a future where more and more games were exclusive to New 3DS.

I found this kind of puzzling, because I feel like the New 3DS can sell on its own merits. People like new tech and there's enough things here to justify upgrading from 3DSXL and especially from the original 3DS that the carrot of exclusive games shouldn't be necessary to get sales going. As far as I'm concerned, as long as they keep releasing desirable games for 3DS, they can expect New 3DS to sell in the same way that DS Lite and 3DS XL sold well even though they didn't have exclusive games. And although the DSi did have a big exclusive library thanks to DSiWare, I don't think it was much of a force behind sales because I imagine the mainstream audience didn't take much advantage of it.

I realize some people see the upgrade from 3DS to New 3DS as more like that from Gameboy to Gameboy Color, but the Gameboy had been out for close to a decade when that came out. 3DS has only been out for about 5 years and people aren't going to be as happy about big Nintendo handheld games not being available for the hardware they shelled out for not too long ago. And of course there's the age old idea of splitting the userbase, where Nintendo isn't going to be able to take full advantage of the many millions of 3DSes already in homes.

Now, I'm going to be upgrading to New 3DS as soon as possible because I still have the monstrosity that is the original 3DS and it's got some issues, so it won't personally affect me if games are exclusive, but I still would empathize with people who would be understandably upset at noteworthy exclusive titles for 3DS, especially if they already upgraded to a 3DSXL this generation. Xenoblade is one thing, as its available on Wii already, but if the new F-Zero was New 3DS exclusive (as Guillaume suggested), that would be a bitter pill to swallow.

Do you guys agree with me? What's in Nintendo's best interest? What's in your best interest? I'm open to hear that I'm wrong and that New 3DS exclusives are good for everyone, but I just don't see it.

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If Nintendo releases more exclusives for it they can spin it as more than just a simple hardware revision and more as a stop gap between this gen and the next. Plus we get more games and they can make more and more people upgrade to the new console so they have more memory to work on games.

If a game could potentially come out for it (i.e. Xenoblade) which wouldn't be possible for the normal 3DS but it can on the new one due to it's power... then why not? I'm more than okay with that. I'm still not quite sold on buying a new one myself but I don't see why Nintendo should not make sure games (as long as they are backwards compatible with the 3DS after the 'new' one).

I think games with enhanced features if played on the New 3DS would be better to do than simply releasing exclusives on it. It's odd to split the userbase. I also still think it should have released this year because with how many people will be getting the 3DS for a gift and having this new system come out a few months later has got to be annoying.

I'm all for taking advantage of the power of the new system. Let's see what the New 3DS is capable of without being shackled to the Old 3DS. The only thing I don't like about the New 3DS is that it's not out yet.

I'm against the idea of exclusives for it. It's not a huge jump in specs to warrant being treated like the successor.

As a launch 3DS owner with no plans to ever upgrade, I'd rather not miss out on any exclusives.

Personally, I have no problems with issues for the NEW system. I do see it like the Gameboy Color and the DSi. I didn't have trouble with those, either.

I do empathize with those that choose not to upgrade...but if those people decide not to get the new hardware to play new games, that's...

"Not my problem."

@GameDadGrant

It's not really new hardware though, Reg. As others mentioned, it's more of a stopgap like the DSi (which I also skipped and have no regrets). I'd rather just hold out until 2016 or 2017 for the 3DS's successor than buy a new $200 system solely to play a few exclusive games when my backlog is already pretty pudged out...

If the successor was able to play these 'new 3DS' games, I'd be more okay with not upgrading now. I'm not entirely sold on it and I definitely haven't seen what games are going to come out and make me want to upgrade.

I'm with @DrFinkelstein. I skipped the DSi, but I can play DSiWare games on my 3DS. So long as Nintendo's next system lets me play those games, I'm okay with not upgrading. Heck, we don't know when we'll get it in North America anyway...

I want exclusive games that make the most of the new hardware capabilities.

@VofEscaflowne
It's not a split user-base situation, it's simply a new console, sort of like the Game Boy Color was to the original Game Boy. You either buy the New 3DS and the new games or you don't.

Yeah, I see it as a Game Boy Color situation: some games straddled the fence and had special color patterns for the GBC, but were still GB compatible. Other games, including classics like Wario Land 3, were GBC only.

Xenoblade Chronicles will be New 3DS only. It only makes sense to think other games will follow.

I'm curious as to what New 3DS features you think will make it sell, Jargon. They're largely fluff, and only people like us would want to get a new 3DS just for shorter load times for SOME optimized games.

I wasn't kidding when I said the camera was the big selling point of the DSi for most people: tablets weren't around and there were no cheaper digital cameras for kids. They loved that feature.

New 3DS doesn't have that kind of killer app.

There was a time when I'd buy a piece of hardware just because it was new. But with this new 3DS I am not going to buy one until I see exclusive software that interests me.

@nate38 you are completely insane, the launch 3DS is a piece of crap.

The new 3DS can't come soon enough

@pokepal148 Sure, but I paid $250+ for that piece of crap. It would take a ludicrously amazing exclusive to justify spending another $200 for what is basically the exact same system.

I'm against New 3DS exclusives even though I am definitely going to buy one to replace my broken 3DS. I just don't think it is a good message to send to Nintendo hardware owners that maybe you get a few good years and then bam, the market is split on you.

I suspect almost all future 3ds games will have some perk for New 3DS owners even if it's as simple as slightly cleaner graphics.

I haven't listened to this week's NFR yet, but I'm all for exclusives, as many as possible, this thing seems considerably more powerful and I'd like to see some games that take advantage of that. Whether or not that's in Nintendo's best interest I don't know, I can't see parents being too happy about having to buy new systems, especially if they opted for the 2DS as a cheap point of entry. But are kids still playing Nintendo handhelds in massive numbers? I seriously don't know. On the subway I only see kids playing games on phones and tablets, the vast majority of the time I see someone playing a 3DS it's teenagers or adults.

I'm also not holding my breath for a new Nintendo handheld any time soon, as much as I'd like to see one, I think the 3DS "family" is here to stay.

Like the DSi, I don't think the hardware upgrade is enough to do anything worthwhile that couldn't be done on the normal 3DS. The extra power seems to be more intended to be able to run the OS during certain games, like how Smash 3DS needs it in order to access Miiverse during the game. I think some of the extra processing power also goes towards the improved 3D.

I don't have strong feelings one way or another, but my preference would be no exclusive games. I understand Xenoblade because that was a massive Wii game and the normal 3DS doesn't have enough juice to run it properly; if they wanted to release more console ports as NEW 3DS exclusives then I wouldn't care about that either. I already have Xenoblade on Wii and I'd either already have or could get whatever other ports they'd release.

I think that instead of exclusives, there will just be games that have extra support with NEW 3DS, like how Smash has Miiverse and the C-stick, and MH4 uses the extra controls also. If that's the case it'd be fine by me.

If there are exclusive games, I wouldn't want this to happen, but I could make my peace with that as long as the 3DS successor could still play them, like how the 3DS plays DSiWare. I don't usually buy games near release anyway, so I wouldn't care that much about waiting that long to play the exclusives.

deathly_hallows said:

But are kids still playing Nintendo handhelds in massive numbers?

A ton of my elementary students are.