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[[RM8]]

Thanks, Sony

20 free games, man, I like that. And 10 of them are GBA titles, including Mario vs. DK.

[unsilentwill]

Oh nice. Looks like I'm getting a 3DS, though a remake of Majora's Mask would make it certain.

[J. Kyle Pittman]

...there just isn't enough compelling software to get me to turn it on every day.

I feel that more and more, this particular expectation is becoming not only unrealistic, but impractical.

With my busy schedule, it is unusual for me to play any games every day, let alone for one specific system. There just aren't enough hours in the day to play that many games. As such, my personal expectations for game selection on a console-to-console basis are much lower than say, a college student or teenager. (and certainly lower than most under-twelves) When I purchase a console or a handheld, I no longer do so with the expectation that it will keep me entertained daily.

This is no excuse for the 3DS's fairly weak selection of games up to this point. But it does put things into perspective. I would imagine that many early adopters of a $250 handheld are in the same boat. (have more disposable income than time)

Yeah, I'm in the same boat myself, really; I'm using the expression "every day" loosely here. Most days I don't play any games at all, and if I turn on my 360, it's usually to watch Netflix. But in fact, I did play Pilotwings about an hour a day every day right after I got my 3DS. Then I finished every level, didn't feel like going back and getting 3 stars on everything, and put it down for a while. And I really haven't picked it up since except to play Ocarina of Time for a day or two.

[Gimym JIMBERT]

Majora makes more sense in 3D than oot imo, the superb falling moon beg for it.

[[RM8]]

I was really digging the weekly GB game, but now it's been two weeks without one of those. That made me buy Dark Void Zero, though, and I liked it a lot. But I was expecting some Megaman, Adventure Island or Avenging Spirit, since Japan already has those.

[phubans]

That made me buy Dark Void Zero, though, and I liked it a lot.

Did you find the Easter Egg I put in there?

[Richard Kain]

At the end of the day, this move by Nintendo will be a positive one for their company, and for the 3DS in particular. The market has always been overly sensitive towards expensive handheld gaming devices. Nintendo actually used this trend in all of their earlier handheld efforts to rocket the Gameboy line to success. (while more technically capable and expensive handheld systems fell into obscurity) Launching the 3DS at such a high price point ($250 USD) was always going to severely hamstring its adoption rate.

$170 is still a bit on the steep side. But its low enough, and the market has been conditioned by other devices to accept that price point. More importantly, it will still permit Nintendo to turn a profit off of the hardware. Even with their revenue projections drastically trimmed, they will still come out ahead on hardware sales.

The digital downloads are also a very good idea. The limited distribution of the 3DS so far means that Nintendo won't be giving up too much revenue in gifting those titles to the early adopters. It will also further encourage those adopters to buy things off of the eShop in the future. And it also throws open the floodgates of digital distribution for other systems in the Virtual Console, and for other companies who want to distribute their games on the eShop. Nintendo needs to step up their digital distribution game, and this is a sign that they are beginning to take it more seriously. Of all the console manufacturers, Nintendo is best positioned to push consoles and hardware that focus on digital distribution.

[BlueSweatshirt]

If Nintendo really wants to get anyone's attention, they need to start raising the eShop bar from ports to new original content.

There still isn't a single 3DS-exclusive game available on the eShop. The closest things to that are the Excitebike remake and the Pokemon app.

That said, I'm kind of sore that Nintendo lowered the price already, since that dashes any hope of me selling my 3DS for a reasonable return. That said, it might be valuable to some people to get those exclusive GBA games. I doubt it'll make a difference to most people, though.

[Gimym JIMBERT]

they need to cancel zelda wii and make it a full wii u game

[C.A. Silbereisen]

they need to cancel zelda wii and make it a full wii u game

[SirNiko]

I wonder when Nintendo forgot that people will buy their consoles for big console exclusives. Launch with a Mario, Zelda, or Metroid game and you will move units. Have a Pikmin, Star Fox, Kirby or Donkey Kong lined up to go in the next two months, and you'll move more units. Introduce one new AAA franchise (When is Nintendo going to get a first party FPS?) and the third party support will roll on in.

Let the third parties handle the music games, party games, rhythm games, because those are beneath Nintendo. Nintendo fans want more of Miyamoto's "Magical Garden" adventure titles, and for some reason Nintendo is consistantly behind on making those.

I bought an N64 on the first day just to play Super Mario 64. I bought an SNES for Super Mario World. There is no such game on the 3DS drawing me in to play it.

[Bood_War]

Luigi's Motherfuckin' Mansion 2 (granted, it's not a launch title).

[C.A. Silbereisen]

I bought an N64 on the first day just to play Super Mario 64. I bought an SNES for Super Mario World. There is no such game on the 3DS drawing me in to play it.

Yeah, plus even if there's a bit of a lull in terms of releases after the launch, one great launch title is usually enough to tide you over until more good games come out.

[Gimym JIMBERT]

first party fps = metroid PRIME

Actually nintendo casual are very strong and unmatch, try wii fit and knock off, it play like a core nintendo game really. More like NES and supernes strong, back to basic. But the core player approaching them must also go back to basic too, after year spending with wii fit mini game -(which many innovation are still underuse and not only for motion control) I can say I have a thumb level of agency in those game, i see no reason to call them mini game BUT the lack of level

Wii music is a stellar piece of software unheard anywhere very badly position, it so pack with care and little detail Im' not sure any 3rd party would come with that, etc... And most mini software are born from the desire of the designer to broke free of the mold (which also benefit great license like zelda SS). Actually most of them were not plan and was more like side project who blew away the market.

[SirNiko]

Metroid was born as a 2-d platformer, though. Other-M went back to those roots. Nintendo needs a new IP that lives and breathes FPS.

Of course, the Metroid Prime trilogy was phenomenal, but it's a spin off of Metroid. It's not a native FPS.

[Zecks]

luigis mansions 2 is nice, but the original was nothing truly special and this sequel feels so random for some reason.

fps is kinda dying and with my faith in 'tendo waning since who knows when a nintendo first party fps sounds more like a recipe for disaster than anything.

[Aloshi]

I would mind a lot less if those free GBA games were coming sooner than "by the end of the year."

[Gimym JIMBERT]

Metroid was born as a 2-d platformer, though. Other-M went back to those roots. Nintendo needs a new IP that lives and breathes FPS.

Of course, the Metroid Prime trilogy was phenomenal, but it's a spin off of Metroid. It's not a native FPS.

I don't get it, you shoot things it's first person what else you need? : P

[phubans]

I'm really tempted to pick this up with my next paycheck, but I really don't know if I'm going to use it. I really want to keep loving and supporting Nintendo, I do... They're the company that nurtured me into the indie game developer I am today... But... Ugh. I haven't touched my DS Lite after putting 200 hours into Dragon Quest IX, and that was almost a year ago. I got a Wii for Christmas and was excited at first, but once I beat the games I really wanted to play like New SMB and DKC Returns, I pretty much stopped playing it. I still have a couple games for it that I got with it that are still in their factory seal :/

I'm just more of a PC gamer now, and I have very little time for games as it is. With the awesome sales that Steam does, I have a backlog of games I haven't even touched yet; Portal 2, Oblivion GOTY, and the DLC for Fallout NV. I just started GTA IV but I only put about an hour into it... So as much as the idea of having a cool new toy that will eventually have a lot of kick-ass games is appealing to me, I don't think it's worth getting right now. I usually wait until consoles have been out for a year or two before buying, anyways, because by then they usually have a pretty solid library of titles available.

And it's not like the price is going to go back up, right?

[Glyph]

Well, this is great for people who already own one, even if it feels a bit alienating because of how steep and soon the drop is. But still, 20 free games? Don't mind if I do. (although I guess I could also be this excited about my hacked PSP or R4 card. Oh, the corruption)