3DS sales in NA still struggling

While I am glad i'm going to be getting a half-ton of free crap from Nintendo, I do find this a tad worrisome. We all remember me, right? The guy who's been chanting the company line all the way through this topic? Yeah well that Nintendo link is making me nervous- it looks like Nintendo is afraid of Vita; Big N lists their awesome new hardware 250.00 at E3, Sony prices their 'console in a handheld' at the same price(not counting 3g model here). Now as PSV-day approaches, Nintento risks the ire of their most loyal players by dropping the price of their 4 MONTH OLD system by a whopping seventy bucks. While ten NES games and ten GBA games will be cool to have, they wouldn't be worth 70.00 bucks.El_Zo1212o

I just find it humorously ironic that shortly after this topic was posted, Nintendo then makes the move that it does. Clearly, if no one thought that the 3DS was struggling before, this has to kill that notion. The Wii, at the same price, went years without a price drop, even when you had some people saying that it was overpriced. That just comes to show how bad it had to be for the 3DS for Nintendo to drop its price $80 in a third of a year's time after its launch.

And yet, even though the price of the system is far more appealing and the fact that the system will be seeing some games down the line that actually have some mainstream appeal, such as Mario Kart, I still don't think this solves ALL of the 3DS' problems. Even at $250, the system wasn't the most expensive system out there, and it was still finding itself being outsold by just about every other system in the market. I think Nintendo needs to re-express the 3DS' actual appeal to consumers, and I think that starts with Nintendo actually re-examining the system's potential appeal themselves. I've always thought it felt like Nintendo made and pushed the 3DS not as the next step in following the DS' footsteps in terms of mainstream draw and gaming creativity, but as a device that was heavily tech driven and focused on just being a leap in the visuals department. I think that has also been reflected on the games so far, and that's why I think Nintendo has to rethink about what the 3DS really can do and really drive their intentions home.

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"] I'm not talking value based on cost- i'm talking about value for use- example: I DL'd Excitebike 3D because it was free- according to my game log I've played it for a grand total of 7 minutes. This is acceptable because it was free. Nintendo is going to compensate me because they hadn't thought out their plan close enough before release, so they're going to give me a bunch of games that I will likely stop playing immediately as the nostaligia wears off and will never touch again. Some of the GBA games look promising, I'll grant you, like Metroid: Fusion(and I fervently hope Metroid: Zero Mission will be there, too). And if they stay exclusive to "Ambassadors", then I'll say that's fair, but a handful of NES games, while free, still doesn't cut muster with me. And way to ignore the main focus of my above post.KBFloYd

no need to argue with derek...we are on the same side...lets not let this 3ds thing turn us into cannabals..

lol

:P

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"]While I am glad i'm going to be getting a half-ton of free crap from Nintendo, I do find this a tad worrisome. We all remember me, right? The guy who's been chanting the company line all the way through this topic? Yeah well that Nintendo link is making me nervous- it looks like Nintendo is afraid of Vita; Big N lists their awesome new hardware 250.00 at E3, Sony prices their 'console in a handheld' at the same price(not counting 3g model here). Now as PSV-day approaches, Nintento risks the ire of their most loyal players by dropping the price of their 4 MONTH OLD system by a whopping seventy bucks. While ten NES games and ten GBA games will be cool to have, they wouldn't be worth 70.00 bucks.darth-pyschosis

To you those games don't seem worth it

But to some of us we don't play games for nostalgia, we play games for fun and play good games.

Giving me Super Mario Bros 3, Legend of Zelda, Metroid Fusion and Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island is very good to me. That's worth the $80 IMO for me. It isn't for you, but i'm going to get countless hours out of those games of pure fun

I suggest you wait and see, there may well end up being 1 out of those 20 games that you love worth $80. You never know.

Off topic: I still think PSV sounds like a ******** trasmitted disease.

Person 1: "Hey I got a PSV the other day."

Person 2: "Really? I'm sorry to hear that bro."

Lol. There's never any reason to argue with Derek. I didn't ignore your main focus, I just didn't have anything to say about it. I agree with some of it, although I don't really think Vita is going to be that much of a competitor to the 3DS (not saying it won't do good though). I think the 3DSs main enemy is casuals flocking to cheap and crappy phone/tablet games and of course the original DS which people still buy. I also got screwed over and over paid for the 3DS but it bothers me less as I've really enjoyed it, even if I've been mostly playing DSi games. I'm happy with the 20 free games and still think that's more generous than they had to be. Most tech companies (apple being one of the worst) release over priced products and then immediately drop the price or replace it right away and they don't anyone anything. But we are all "ambassadors" apparently so we should all get along.AlmightyDerek

I think Nintendo and the 3DS will be fine ... though we really can't say much until after the Holiday season. As long as Nintendo provides good content and has a strong, well made marketing push towards the 3DS, all should turn out well in the Holiday season.

[QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]Lol. There's never any reason to argue with Derek. I didn't ignore your main focus, I just didn't have anything to say about it. I agree with some of it, although I don't really think Vita is going to be that much of a competitor to the 3DS (not saying it won't do good though). I think the 3DSs main enemy is casuals flocking to cheap and crappy phone/tablet games and of course the original DS which people still buy. I also got screwed over and over paid for the 3DS but it bothers me less as I've really enjoyed it, even if I've been mostly playing DSi games. I'm happy with the 20 free games and still think that's more generous than they had to be. Most tech companies (apple being one of the worst) release over priced products and then immediately drop the price or replace it right away and they don't anyone anything. But we are all "ambassadors" apparently so we should all get along.El_Zo1212o

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"][QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]Lol. There's never any reason to argue with Derek. I didn't ignore your main focus, I just didn't have anything to say about it. I agree with some of it, although I don't really think Vita is going to be that much of a competitor to the 3DS (not saying it won't do good though). I think the 3DSs main enemy is casuals flocking to cheap and crappy phone/tablet games and of course the original DS which people still buy. I also got screwed over and over paid for the 3DS but it bothers me less as I've really enjoyed it, even if I've been mostly playing DSi games. I'm happy with the 20 free games and still think that's more generous than they had to be. Most tech companies (apple being one of the worst) release over priced products and then immediately drop the price or replace it right away and they don't anyone anything. But we are all "ambassadors" apparently so we should all get along.AlmightyDerek

[QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"] I can feel my rage meter being depleted(as long as D.P. doesn't recharge it). I have spent most of this topic saying, "no, you're all crazy, everythings fine." Until it wasn't. Am I wrong to be upset about this? I had faith that Nintendo had nothing to worry about and a price drop would be a ridiculous move. Except they did hit the panic button. Four months into the system's lifespan and I'm out 80 bucks. Yeah some of the games will be awesome, but how many will I play all the way through even once? Does anyone know when Virtual Boy got it's first price drop?El_Zo1212o

No I wouldn't say you are wrong, you certainly have a right to feel used. I'm personally just happy that with the price drop the system should start selling much better therefore bringing in more games. It's really better in the long run that the system has a large userbase. I've always been a Nintendo gamer and even this gen when I decided to go multiplatform (I own everything but a PSP) I still prefer the Wii and DS/3DS. But I knew going in that Nintendo was gouging us loyal early adopters. I figured they'd drop the price before Christmas to get a more mainstream audience, although I didn't think they'd lower it that much. So I'm not shocked, I'm glad I got it early and got to show it off to people who didn't even know it existed. Also It would also feel wrong to me if Nintendo games were coming out and I couldn't play them. The wasted money sucks, but that's the price you pay for getting a system early sometimes, and I'm just happy I got something out of it. Also Warioland was great as was Panic Bomber (I loved the soundtrack). I hope they port a few of those games to the 3DS, preferably with more than red colors.AlmightyDerek

[QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]No I wouldn't say you are wrong, you certainly have a right to feel used. I'm personally just happy that with the price drop the system should start selling much better therefore bringing in more games. It's really better in the long run that the system has a large userbase. I've always been a Nintendo gamer and even this gen when I decided to go multiplatform (I own everything but a PSP) I still prefer the Wii and DS/3DS. But I knew going in that Nintendo was gouging us loyal early adopters. I figured they'd drop the price before Christmas to get a more mainstream audience, although I didn't think they'd lower it that much. So I'm not shocked, I'm glad I got it early and got to show it off to people who didn't even know it existed. Also It would also feel wrong to me if Nintendo games were coming out and I couldn't play them. The wasted money sucks, but that's the price you pay for getting a system early sometimes, and I'm just happy I got something out of it. Also Warioland was great as was Panic Bomber (I loved the soundtrack). I hope they port a few of those games to the 3DS, preferably with more than red colors.El_Zo1212o

[QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]Lol. There's never any reason to argue with Derek. I didn't ignore your main focus, I just didn't have anything to say about it. I agree with some of it, although I don't really think Vita is going to be that much of a competitor to the 3DS (not saying it won't do good though). I think the 3DSs main enemy is casuals flocking to cheap and crappy phone/tablet games and of course the original DS which people still buy. I also got screwed over and over paid for the 3DS but it bothers me less as I've really enjoyed it, even if I've been mostly playing DSi games. I'm happy with the 20 free games and still think that's more generous than they had to be. Most tech companies (apple being one of the worst) release over priced products and then immediately drop the price or replace it right away and they don't anyone anything. But we are all "ambassadors" apparently so we should all get along.El_Zo1212o

The whole time I was saying "What will they do to fix this" and you were saying I was yelling "doom!" when I wasn't. I just wanted to discuss what they would do to fix it, be it a redesign, a price drop, more casual evergreen software (like Brain Age 3?) But you insisted that I was doing something else other than I was, even after my repeated attempts to clarify the meaning of my statements.

It was just they needed to do something to fix lagging sales. I'm sorry you didn't do the math and discover that 800k units in 3 major continents in 4 months was bad. (Like GameCube and PSP bad?) I'm sorry I didn't make it more clear that I wasn't trying to aggrevate you, but I simply couldn't find any better way to commiunicate my message.

You aren't out of $80 if you think the system is worth $250. I think it is for me, since I've more than got my money out of it since release. If you haven't, then I guess I'd see why you feel cheated out of $80.

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"][QUOTE="AlmightyDerek"]No I wouldn't say you are wrong, you certainly have a right to feel used. I'm personally just happy that with the price drop the system should start selling much better therefore bringing in more games. It's really better in the long run that the system has a large userbase. I've always been a Nintendo gamer and even this gen when I decided to go multiplatform (I own everything but a PSP) I still prefer the Wii and DS/3DS. But I knew going in that Nintendo was gouging us loyal early adopters. I figured they'd drop the price before Christmas to get a more mainstream audience, although I didn't think they'd lower it that much. So I'm not shocked, I'm glad I got it early and got to show it off to people who didn't even know it existed. Also It would also feel wrong to me if Nintendo games were coming out and I couldn't play them. The wasted money sucks, but that's the price you pay for getting a system early sometimes, and I'm just happy I got something out of it. Also Warioland was great as was Panic Bomber (I loved the soundtrack). I hope they port a few of those games to the 3DS, preferably with more than red colors.AlmightyDerek

It's not like they shouldn't be worried. Each MS and Nintendo have a product they want to sell, price drops shouldn't make them look weak. They have the strength and humility to admit they need a price change to make their device more attractive to consumers.