It's not on fire yet, but it's definitely very warm. Slightly uncomfortable, even. Behold. I shall prove my case with the best kind of evidence ...anecdotal.

My StreetPass frequency has really jumped recently. Since launch, Chicago has been a surprisingly terrible place to get StreetPass hits. I've hung out at elementary schools, malls, playgrounds... no dice! And I got arrested twice!

But I've been getting one almost every day now, rather than once every week or two. And the system really seems to be coming into its own, software-wise. There's been a nice, steady stream of high-quality retail and downloadable titles, and Luigi's Mansion definitely has some strong buzz, both online and off. The sales clerk at Target and I were chatting about games for a while, and he was, like, GAGGING for Luigi's Mansion. And I realized that I've been gagging for it, as well! Then there's Fire Emblem, Monster Hunter Tri, Castlevania, Animal Crossing...

All of this is compounded by the frequent discounts on 3DS hardware. I feel like the manufacturing cost of the 3DS hardware must have plummeted, because US retailers are incentivizing the hell out of that thing. (I think the XL is $160 at Target next week.) And the library has become mature enough to support demon consumers, which will open the system up to a whole new audience of cheap bastards like myself.

But can the stream of software continue? Will the 3DS ever get a decent amount of Western support? We'll see.

All I can say for right now is that the 3DS is dancing on the Wii U's grave.

This roundtable was sponsored by Grant.

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Anand what have you done! You're going to kill Stache!!!

Yeah I have noticed the 3DS has been getting really massive lately and yeah I think it can continue. The question however is if it will outsell the DS.

The Gameboy Advance really helped keep Nintendo in the black during the Gamecube days... hopefully 3DS can do the same for Wii U.

I just know that when I go to any of my son's or daughter's extra-curricular functions, every single little kid has a DS or a 3DS on them. Every single one of them.

Pokefreak911 said:

The question however is if it will outsell the DS.

Hell to the nooooo. I was thinking about this the other day. Mobile games really have stolen a lot of the casual turf that the DS used to own. Almost every big expanded audience DS franchise from Nintendo has been cloned to hell and back. To the point where even when Nintendo releases a higher-quality version of the same, nobody cares. (Kinect might have done something similar to the Wii U.)

But that's alright. The 3DS can forge its own path. Its basically taking over Japan, which should at least guarantee us some solid Eastern support.

That's good, since Nintendo might soon focus its first/second-party effort on Wii U Triage.

Yep, this is the year of the 3DS.

@Anand@Hinph
So much doom and gloom for Wii U! Let it have its first full year.

And, I predict Nintendo is working on a "big picture mode" for 3DS where you can connect to a Wii U and play on the TV.

Eh. I'm expecting, as a Nintendo fan, to be fully satisfied with the Wii U first-party software lineup in the end, which is all that really matters... but I've been worried about how well it will do in the market since the second they revealed it. I think they made a lot of bad calls and I'm not at all surprised by the weak sales. Hopefully they have some strong software planned before and around the launch of the other two consoles.

Hinph said:

The Gameboy Advance really helped keep Nintendo in the black during the Gamecube days... hopefully 3DS can do the same for Wii U.

The Gamecube was profitable though. It wasn't relying on the GBA to keep it afloat at all.

@Shadowlink

Yeah? I remember hearing that somewhere a long time ago, but it could have been shit of bull.

I do believe that Nintendo can do just perfectly fine in third place. A business has to be profitable to stick around, and they are pretty good at that... having the best selling games and biggest franchises helps.

3DS getting more popular is a problem for Wii U, the 3DS can already do a lot of the things the gamepad can. Wii U is Wii 2 and it will eventually have to start acting like it by giving the spotlight back to the god damn wiimote. The gamepad is a marginal system selling feature even though every console should have one from now on. Like how 3D went for the 3DS.

Anand said:

This roundtable was sponsored by Grant.

I went to Target today to pick up Fire Emblem during their buy 2 get 1 free sale... sold out. I'm sort of amazed at how popular this game is on 3DS. I mean, I know that they probably didn't ship a whole bunch, but it's clear that the demand has far outstripped the supply in this case, and it was reported that this is the fastest selling Fire Emblem yet in North America by a pretty wide margin.

I don't know what this says about much else, just pointing out that a game I didn't expect to sell this well is selling this well.

3DS and Wiiu just need games, Now that 3DS is getting them it is taking off. Wiiu we are still waiting. The problem is hardware jumps really don't give you anything that much new anymore like say SNES to N64.Just getting by with just Mario 64 for several months won't get you by anymore, especially when you got under $200 consoles with several $20 or less games with only slightly worse graphics. I know people with PS2 still as a main console, it's going to be a worse issue with people sticking with PS3 when PS4 hits.