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A Nintendo community for the fans, by the fans!
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Is the 3DS doomed to be a First-Party machine again? [roundtable] |
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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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Posted: 06/21/11, 22:42:26 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 22:46:44 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 22:50:07 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 22:50:33 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 22:51:21 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:00:07 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:00:28 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:01:54 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:09:35 |
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The third parties will go where the install base is and right now everything just feels like a repeat of the DS vs. PSP story to me. It's definitely not a sure thing, but my money is on the 3DS to collect the 3rd party gold.
Sony may be a little hungrier this time - and the price point isn't so bad as before - but their M.O. is still the same. They're still bringing their big franchises to the Vita in an attempt to bring cinematic console games to a handheld. I suppose what I'd ask is whether the owners of PSPs felt that Sony got it right last time. Did they enjoy playing those games on their handhelds more than the potential experiences on the DS? If they did, then the Vita might have legs and the 3rd parties might take notice and eventually follow Sony. But Nintendo is making a pretty obvious effort to attract 3rd parties, too. Plus there's their long history of success with handhelds. Plus production costs, etc. 3rd party developers always seem pretty conservative to me and that would mean Nintendo surely has to be the favorite, here. IMHO.
Sidenote: I think the real reason the 3DS has been a slow starter, apart from the obvious lack of games, is that Nintendo overdid it with the different iterations of the DS (and, to a lesser degree, GBA). There are a lot of people who want a 3DS who don't want to be conned into buying the "crappy" Phat version just because they couldn't wait a year for the inevitable Lite/i/XL/WTF. If the 3DS stalls, leaving an opening for the Vita, surely the multiple iteration problem is partly to blame. Classic Boy Who Cried Wolf.
EDIT: Oh, and you forgot Kid Icarus: Uprising. |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:14:44 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 23:15:57 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:15:04 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 23:19:47 |
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Again? The third party support on the DS was/is a lot better than the Wii. Granted, Mario Kart DS continues to sell to this day. NSMB as well as the Brain Age series and Nintendogs also sold exorbitant amounts. The DS still had great titles that did well for themselves. GTA Chinatown Wars come to mind. Over a million units sold. Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy IV and those are all big AAA franchises, especially Dragon Quest since it had a numbered sequel on a handheld. Then we have plenty of big franchises that had multiple iterations on the console like Castlevania. Even though they sold around the 300k mark, the games must have been on some level successful, otherwise they wouldn't have made two more games. We mustn't forget Professor Layton is really a third party franchise. Although I think Nintendo has the publishing rights outside Japan. Then we have Scribblenauts, Okamiden, Phoenix Wright, etc. I went off on a tangent there. Anyway, the 3DS will pick up steam, don't worry. The DS didn't have many games during its first year. |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:16:35 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 23:20:14 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:20:19 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:21:31 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:26:02 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:30:23 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 23:32:25 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:33:01 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:37:19 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:38:30 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:42:37 |
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kriswright said:@deathly_hallows Am I right in assuming you think the PSP failed because it didn't have two analog sticks? That's one big reason, it didn't have parity with what consoles could deliver in terms of controls and features, making practically every game on the system much worse than the console equivalent. The combo of the relatively massive OLED screen, dual analog, the multitouch inputs, motion controls, cameras, and full-featured online make the Vita just as capable as the PS3, and in some ways moreso. I think it's foolish to write it off under the banner "the PSP proves gamers don't want console like experiences on a handheld", we don't know if that's the case because the PSP didn't deliver on what Sony originally promised. It was never a portable PS2, it had the graphics, but that's about it. |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:44:15 |
- Edited by |
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on: 06/21/11, 23:48:00 |
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Posted: 06/21/11, 23:51:13 |
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