Nintendo unveils cheaper 2DS console in bid to secure portable gaming share

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  • Reply 41 of 59


    The 2DS is the solution to a problem nobody had: how can I make my 3DS games look even worse?

  • Reply 42 of 59
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    n057828 wrote: »
    Guys there is no true gaming console left but nintendo, Sony only came on board cos Nintendo didn't want shitty CDs for its games and stayed with cartridge. MS and xbox well is shit they have a loss if 8 billion dollars including the repairs it had to do and people still buy such rubbish? wtf I don't understand it I'm happy to know that it's a game system I plug into my tv and play but the offer two are just pcs now so yeah. As they say when you go mac you'll never go back well nintendo or the highway!

    Yah, Nintendo is the only left... console dinosaur. Sega and others from that era are pushing daisies long time, at least when it comes to hardware.

    While their exclusives don't hold much value for me - I'm in my '40 and don't care much for Mario and company - I hope they will stay around. I do fear, however, that they will not do too good with this new generation. Novelty of motion controllers has worn off, and without that, their Wii U is sadly underpowered, especially in CPU category. GPU is a bit better but still, taking Radeon 4650/4670 for starting point and then reducing texture-mapping units and lowering clock speed is hardly something to write home about. And then, up to 32 GB (Deluxe Set) storage and 2 GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz memory (is it only RAM or both RAM and video RAM?) will limit console's potential even further.

    Exclusives will do well, especially that most Nintendo games are cartoonish, highly stylised designs that shouldn't be as demanding on resources as games that try to be more photo realistic... but there are just that many Nintendo in-house titles. Everything else multiplatform, as soon as industry moves away from X360 and PS3, will be a hell on earth to port to Wii U and keep any resemblance of original title.

    They even failed to monetize on their headstart. Total Wii U sales are below 4 million since intro, and even worst - 160,000 Wii U consoles had been sold between April and June, which is pretty much nothing. Especially that it coincides with X1 and PS4 announcements - it is easy to see where consumers interest lies.
  • Reply 43 of 59


    Nintendo needs to follow what Sega did and give up the hardware to those who work in the hardware business.  Face it, the Nintendo we know isn't about hardware, it's about Mario and Luigi, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Pokemon, the list goes on and on....


     


    This hardware is hideous and won't help them in the hardware business.  It's not about price point.  It's the fact that we all have these phones and tables that come with us all the time and oh yeah, I can download a game, sometimes for free, sometimes not, but either way, heck of a lot cheaper then the $29.99+ they charge.


     


    Don't be stubborn Nintendo.  Put Mario on iOS and even at a premium price point, it'll sell like bonkers.  All of the people you sold NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Nintendo64, they all have iPhones and Androind phones now....Heck, even teenagers got them too.  A whole market waiting for you Nintendo.  Swallow your pride, and make the transition to what you know:  selling great games.

  • Reply 44 of 59
    I kind of like that system.

    We bought a 3DS last xmas for our daughter. She does not like the 3D-Display, it's always disabled.

    Just sent' it to repair the other day because of broken touch-screen (the touch recognition is way off and can't be recalibrated). Took her 8 Months of Nintendogs Frisbee hurling to achieve that ;-) You might think Nintendo would build sturdy devices....

    That said, the 2DS like the 3DSXL looks more sturdy than teh original 3DS. Might get one for our younger son...

    But then - the price tag is not THAT much lower than the 3DS...it is araound 155%u20AC in Germany for a "naked" 3DS. Comes with the cradle (that could be saved....) though.
  • Reply 45 of 59
    So basically they aren't selling enough 3DSXL systems at a cost of $199.99 or 3DS systems at $169.99 so they need to remove all the new tech and portability design to get the price lower to sell to the kiddies.Really?! This is what they spend their resources on...
    Maybe lower the price of their games and offer up titles sooner instead of later. Remember Hulu Plus coming soon (two years ago) Now Flipnote is postponed again. Youtube hasn't surfaced yet... How about a trade-in program? How about a second D-pad? How about a portable that works with Wii U? Apple is killing Nintendo and its only a matter of time until we see Mario on the iOS platform.
  • Reply 46 of 59
    connieconnie Posts: 101member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    I think it's a terrible decision to make something formerly semi-pocketable into something completely unpocketable.


     


    Particularly since this is designed specifically for children, given its low price, stronger construction, and lack of autostereoscopic 3D.


     


    Nintendo will be the only gaming hardware left in five years that isn't Apple, but this seems silly.



    I agree. And I do not think it would have been much more expensive for Nintendo to keep the previous form factor and just take the 3d functionality away. And whoever designed the device will hopefully never work for Apple.

  • Reply 47 of 59
    An earlier poster made a great point: it won't fit in the pocket. That alone kills this thing.

    Here's another point: why give it two cameras on the back (stereoscopic = 3D) when it can't playback 3D? They could have removed all the cameras and knocked the price down further or used the cost savings to make this one fold in half.

    This won't sell very well. It's too large.
  • Reply 48 of 59


    The thing is Nintendo isn't expecting the 2DS to sell 100 million devices.  It's meant as a supplement to their hugely successful 3DS platform.  It doesn't replace anything.  Just like the Game Boy micro didn't replace the Game Boy Advance, or like the Wii mini didn't replace the Wii.


     


    One other thing.  People have been saying Nintendo is doomed and it's days are numbered since the Nintendo 64 in 1996.  That's 17 years of predicting doom and yet Nintendo is still here, still creating hits and influencing the industry.  At this point all the predictions of doom pretty laughable.


     


    Finally, I think it's beyond odd to be discussing this on an Apple related rumor site.

  • Reply 49 of 59
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Marvin wrote: »
    You mean hold it cockhanded, although that has a double meaning. It'll probably be ok in real-world use, people can adapt pretty well to these sort of things.

    I don't know why they didn't just make a tablet - WiiTab. If developers want a dual screen experience, they can make one; if they want single screen, they use the larger display. Have a proprietary store and sell all games digitally.

    The tablet can replace the Wii-U and there would be no confusion about what products are what. If they want a pocket version, they have the WiiTab mini at 5" and the WiiTab at 7"-8". Both dockable to the TV with normal controllers. The tablets themselves would have controls like on the 2DS.

    This is actually great idea. Something in form factor of their own Wii U controller, probably with a bit of lower profile analogue stick(s), maybe like one on PSP (so they don't interfere much when putting or pulling tablet from bag, sleeve)... and with full tablet functionality.

    I'd like to see something like that. Heck maybe I'd even get one, even if I was never Nintendo fan.
  • Reply 50 of 59
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    yensid98 wrote: »
    The thing is Nintendo isn't expecting the 2DS to sell 100 million devices.  It's meant as a supplement to their hugely successful 3DS platform.  It doesn't replace anything.  Just like the Game Boy micro didn't replace the Game Boy Advance, or like the Wii mini didn't replace the Wii.

    One other thing.  People have been saying Nintendo is doomed and it's days are numbered since the Nintendo 64 in 1996.  That's 17 years of predicting doom and yet Nintendo is still here, still creating hits and influencing the industry.  At this point all the predictions of doom pretty laughable.

    Finally, I think it's beyond odd to be discussing this on an Apple related rumor site.

    Wii saved them, or at least their home consoles.

    Look at the trend:

    NES: 62 million sold
    Super NES: 49 million sold
    N64: 33 million sold
    GC: 22 million sold

    Has Wii flopped, I wonder if we would see another home console from Nintendo any time soon... if at all.

    But also... if Wii turns out to be that one trick Nintendo had in sleeve, and Wii U continues downspiraling trend? At some point they will give up.
  • Reply 51 of 59
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Nintendo... What happened?
    We used to have such good times, and now look at you. You're not half the bleep you used to be.
    I'm breaking up!
  • Reply 52 of 59
    misamisa Posts: 827member
    Nintendo is done. iOS 7 with built-in controller support plus a good snap-in controller (from Logitech, for example) will firmly cement iDevices as the handheld gaming platform of choice. There's no way they can compete. Smartest thing for Nintendo to do is bring their software over to the iOS ecosystem.

    Selling hundreds of millions of copies at $1.99-$4.99 is going to be far better than their current model.

    Nope, as we all repeatedly fail to learn, if it doesn't come in the box with the console, it will not be used or developed for. Microsoft is learning this the hard way, twice.

    What Apple needs to do, is either cross-licence an 'iPod 3DS' to get Nintendo's game library, which would effectively be a iPhone/iPod with the 3DS clamshell controls, or Nintendo needs to licence the iPod/iPhone/iOS and build their own. Nintendo and Apple are the only hardware innovators out there. PSP failed, PSP Vita failed. PS3 tried to be a media device and then got neutered, and has no backwards compatibility now, and the PS4 will have none. Microsoft failed with the Zune, the original Xbox, and even learned some expensive lessons with the Xbox360 RROD's.

    Would you REALLY want to trust Microsoft or Sony with Nintendo's IP? No way. Nintendo may not be winning the numbers game, but they're not flushing dump trucks full of money down the toilet either.

    nikon133 wrote: »
    Wii saved them, or at least their home consoles.

    Look at the trend:

    NES: 62 million sold
    Super NES: 49 million sold
    N64: 33 million sold
    GC: 22 million sold

    Has Wii flopped, I wonder if we would see another home console from Nintendo any time soon... if at all.

    But also... if Wii turns out to be that one trick Nintendo had in sleeve, and Wii U continues downspiraling trend? At some point they will give up.

    The "home console" itself is on the way out. The XBone and the PS4 are nothing more than stripped down BYO-KVM media PC's. They offer nothing special over the PC/Mac other than the locked-in DRM that Apple offers on the App Store.

    Nintendo is the only one that is actually doing any innovation, and look how Sony outright copied them, and Microsoft came up with something mildly better but nobody wants due to privacy concerns. Yes the entire motion controller thing was basically a flop except to young children and some adults who want to bowl/golf indoors.

    What we're going to see in about 2 years is "Steam" rolling over EA's Origin, Ubisoft's uPlay, and how many other PC game stores are out there because Origin and uPlay are extremely terrible walled garden stores that nobody wants to be a part of. 15 years from now EA will be gone, either bankrupt and it's IP's sold off, or it will break off the EA sports brand and let the rest become a publish-only house. No more development. Personally I'd like to see Maxis break off and be bought by Apple, since that's the only part of EA that ever produced Mac/PC games, and they innovate like Apple does.

    Moore's law is scheduled to hit the end when we get to 7nm process. we're currently on 22nm, so computer hardware, if we're lucky will get 6-8 more years before everything, PC, Mac, PS5, WiiU2 whatever are all the same power. We might really be looking at the second-to-last generation of game consoles.
  • Reply 53 of 59
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    misa wrote: »
    Nope, as we all repeatedly fail to learn, if it doesn't come in the box with the console, it will not be used or developed for. Microsoft is learning this the hard way, twice.

    What Apple needs to do, is either cross-licence an 'iPod 3DS' to get Nintendo's game library, which would effectively be a iPhone/iPod with the 3DS clamshell controls, or Nintendo needs to licence the iPod/iPhone/iOS and build their own. Nintendo and Apple are the only hardware innovators out there. PSP failed, PSP Vita failed. PS3 tried to be a media device and then got neutered, and has no backwards compatibility now, and the PS4 will have none. Microsoft failed with the Zune, the original Xbox, and even learned some expensive lessons with the Xbox360 RROD's.

    Would you REALLY want to trust Microsoft or Sony with Nintendo's IP? No way. Nintendo may not be winning the numbers game, but they're not flushing dump trucks full of money down the toilet either.

    Apple hasn't really shown any dedication to games. Games happen on Apple devices because of the nature of AppStore (easy to publish, digital-only etc)... but beside providing systems that can run games (and basically every modern smartphone can), I'm yet to see Apple's effort in promoting their platforms for gaming.

    So, yes - I would trust MS and Sony more than Apple - today, at least - as they have shown some real dedication to gaming. It wasn't perfect. They made mistakes. But they do take gaming serious. Apple just... let it happens.

    However, the only thing Nintendo should do (should they go software-only) is to go multiplatform. Binding their destiny to one platform - however successful it is at present - would be, in my opinion, repeating what they are doing right now.
    The "home console" itself is on the way out. The XBone and the PS4 are nothing more than stripped down BYO-KVM media PC's. They offer nothing special over the PC/Mac other than the locked-in DRM that Apple offers on the App Store.

    They offer standardised platforms that developers can learn without fear that everything will change in a year or two. They offer dedicated gaming networks. They offer strong gaming community. They offer, so far, solid measures to prevent games pirating. They offer gaming accessories. They offer quality exclusives that will draw gamers in the system and expand market for other developers... Otherwise, there was nothing special with X360 either - architecture was RISC instead of x86, but performance was in line with PC hardware, and graphics were directly ported from PC. It didn't sell too bad. Sure number of sold consoles is much lower than number of sold iOS devices, but every console is purchased for gaming, and as such potential candidate for any new game. This is not something developers and publishers can expect from iOS/Android owners; many of them don't care for games at all. Many of them will look only at $1 casual titles. And may games will not even be playable without standardised controllers.
    Nintendo is the only one that is actually doing any innovation, and look how Sony outright copied them, and Microsoft came up with something mildly better but nobody wants due to privacy concerns. Yes the entire motion controller thing was basically a flop except to young children and some adults who want to bowl/golf indoors.

    Meh. Nintendo did come out with, at the time, innovative controller scheme - but they also went retro with everything else. In order to create bigger, more "real", believable worlds, you need resources - not hands waving. Even latest WiiU comes with crippling storage limitation and low RAM, not to mention everything else. As such, console is basically dead-end for massive community-building open-world games, which are, again IMHO, much more innovative than hands waving.
    What we're going to see in about 2 years is "Steam" rolling over EA's Origin, Ubisoft's uPlay, and how many other PC game stores are out there because Origin and uPlay are extremely terrible walled garden stores that nobody wants to be a part of. 15 years from now EA will be gone, either bankrupt and it's IP's sold off, or it will break off the EA sports brand and let the rest become a publish-only house. No more development. Personally I'd like to see Maxis break off and be bought by Apple, since that's the only part of EA that ever produced Mac/PC games, and they innovate like Apple does.

    I don't think so. You have to select your smart-phone platform, and once you do, you stay with it. You cannot have both iOS and Android on our smartphone, no matter how much you'd like to run an app that exists on only one platform. However, on a PC you can have multiple gaming services - there is really no penalty in that. Granted Steam has potential to be the largest one, but as long as UbiSoft and EA have good titles under their services - and they do - they will stay around.
    Moore's law is scheduled to hit the end when we get to 7nm process. we're currently on 22nm, so computer hardware, if we're lucky will get 6-8 more years before everything, PC, Mac, PS5, WiiU2 whatever are all the same power. We might really be looking at the second-to-last generation of game consoles.
    Nintendo is the only one that is actually doing any innovation, and look how Sony outright copied them, and Microsoft came up with something mildly better but nobody wants due to privacy concerns. Yes the entire motion controller thing was basically a flop except to young children and some adults who want to bowl/golf indoors.
    [/quote]

    But it will not. Technology will shift elsewhere or focus on architecture optimization rather than further miniaturisation - probably both. "While physical limits to transistor scaling such as source to drain leakage, limited materials for gate metals, and limited material options for channel material have been reached, new avenues for continued scaling are open. The most promising of these approaches rely on using the spin state of electron spintronics, tunnel junctions, and advanced confinement of channel materials via nano-wire geometry. A comprehensive list of available device choices shows that a wide range of device options is open for continuing Moore's law into the next few decades. Spin-based logic and memory options are actively being developed in industrial labs as well as academic labs".
  • Reply 54 of 59
    There is money to be made with both mobile and nintendo. If the name becomes likes Levies as in jeans aka Andriod it will never make that much money. Nintendo hold the secret and won't let it go. Made it legend like you never die, what has Andriod Market BUT in the wrong direction.
  • Reply 55 of 59
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post


    Nintendo is done. iOS 7 with built-in controller support plus a good snap-in controller (from Logitech, for example) will firmly cement iDevices as the handheld gaming platform of choice. There's no way they can compete. Smartest thing for Nintendo to do is bring their software over to the iOS ecosystem.


     


    Selling hundreds of millions of copies at $1.99-$4.99 is going to be far better than their current model.



     


    Until that "good snap-in controller" materialises, that's pure speculation; and Nintendo have rarely prioritised profit over quality control.  Has there ever been a "snap-in" anything that beats a dedicated unit for quality of experience?


     


    Nintendo is a games company that has the complete gaming experience in its culture.  Buying into a generic platform where they have little control over that experience will likely be something they only do when pushed to the brink.  They can continue as a niche player for a long time before that happens.


     


    The only possible way I can see Nintendo getting into one of the other software marketplaces any time soon is if they make their own snap-in controller, and they're happy with the degree of autonomy that allows them.  Even that's doubtful, though it'd be a good contingency plan for them to be looking at.

  • Reply 56 of 59

    Originally Posted by n057828 View Post


    There is money to be made with both mobile and nintendo.


     


    Neither of those statements are in any way true, nor is there any way you could have come to that conclusion.

  • Reply 57 of 59
    Guys I'll tell you something out of all the games play on my 64g iphone and I have over 100 good games it clash of clans, pvz2 and poker. I mean I have mad games but wish to surf the net, youtube, ebay and things like this. I do go back to my game console wii u and ps3 but I do love spending a 30 time break to on the 3ds. They all make money and will do so. It's the way they make them not just how they look as in graphics etc. You can spend hours on the old Zelda or if they bring out Mario Sunshine same thing. The head of Nintendo said " We don't want people to trade in their games but later on reuse". What is that telling you. Quality and not just quantity and apple and nintendo will always give you that spring feeling. Both well priced, respect them both and enjoy Xmas for apple and nintendo will be good. By the way would you spend $100 a pop for a ps4 game heck no remember you can't play ps3 games on ps4 only if you buy it as a download on ps4 next year ahhhha
  • Reply 58 of 59

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Zozman View Post


    Might sound odd, Nintendo's target for this device is actually 5-6 year olds, 3DS is for 7 & older.


    Only reason i might get this thing, so i can play the new pokemon, i wish nintendo would just port their games to iOS, their ship is sinking.



     


    If that is their scheme then they really should be making iOS games. Because few parents these days are going to shell out money for some game thing when they can shove their iPhone in the kids hands. 


     


    Now I'm not talking all games. The old classic titles or versions of them for younger kids. Like the very first Mario Bros, Donkey Kong. 

  • Reply 59 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post

     

     

    If that is their scheme then they really should be making iOS games. Because few parents these days are going to shell out money for some game thing when they can shove their iPhone in the kids hands. 

     

    Now I'm not talking all games. The old classic titles or versions of them for younger kids. Like the very first Mario Bros, Donkey Kong. 


     

    I agree, the way i see it, the old titles like mario 1, 2, 3 & world, aren't making money for Nintendo right now, bring some old titles over to iOS, they can actually get money for games they dont sell anymore.

    if they want they can keep the newest titles for their own systems that's upto them.

    My 10 year old sister has an iPad & an iPod touch already! shes 10!, shes had an iPad for a few years already :p

    anyways, my point is, she has the device so all she needs is the games, would be amazingly rad after iOS7 brings controller support.

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