Nintendo made their strategy pretty clear RE: the 3DS. Make some room for third-parties at launch, let them get some sales and bring in a new audience, etc. I'm not sure that Nintendogs underwhelming performance was a part of that strategy, but STILL...

Thing is, I'm not sure that it worked. At all. Street Fighter sold alright. LEGO Star Wars probably did okay. Everything else? Maybe not so much. And Nintendo is firing the big guns this holiday season. BLAM! Super Mario 3DS. BLAM BLAM!! Mario Kart 3DS. In addition to, without belaboring the gun metaphor, Ocarina, Star Fox 64, and Luigi's Mansion 2. So, seeya, third-parties, I guess?

I mean, MK3DS is going to be sold at basically a 1:1 ratio with the system from now on. SM3DS won't be as ubiquitous as NSMB on the DS, but it'll be significant. And as much as it pains me, Ocarina and Star Fox 64 will probably be nostalgia-fueled system-sellers. And it's not like Nintendo is going to stop releasing games after that. Have third-parties squandered their chance? Did they ever have one to begin with?

Or am I being too pessimistic? I mean, it was pretty much the same story on the DS, and that had pretty good third-party support. But will that support remain in the Vita/iPhone era?

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@gencid

Don't get an iPhone 4, man. Don't do it.

Such buyer's remorse...

@gencid
The 3DS did have a fairly disappointing third-party showing (TGS?), but I thought the Nintendo-published stuff looked outstanding.

@Guillaume

Should I go with Android instead? I have been eying the Motorola Atrix 4G for a while now.

@Anand

Super Mario 3DS looked fantastic and so did Star Fox & Kid Icarus. But I felt that there was too much reliance on Mario titles and spinoffs and not much on the 3rd party front besides RE: Revelations which remains a sure bet. I guess I expected more from this E3 than what I got.

I can see that. We knew about most of the first-party titles, anyway. I just thought they looked more crazy and fun than I had expected. Mario Kart and Super Mario 3DS, particularly. I agree that the third-party showing was disappointing. Actually, more baffling than disappointing, because what the hell happened to that huge list from last year?

Maybe we'll find out at TGS (if it hasn't all been shifted to Vita). There wasn't too much Japanese presence at E3.

@gencid

Don't know, no experience with other smartphones. I just see most apps as pointless save for the GPS and facebook features. Also, I miss keys. To make calls, or type text.

Posted form my iPhone.