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Nintendo Reveals The Hideous $130 2DS, Will Cut Wii U Price To $299

Kid_Eternity

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Nintendo's denial continues; rather than shitting themselves over the rise of tablets and smartphones they should release their games on all profitable platforms. Otherwise they risk irrelevance within the next decade...



Nintendo wants to compete with cheap tablets more than ever, just not the way you think. The company will release a new version of the 3DS, the Nintendo 2DS — it has a tablet-esque form factor. As the name suggests, it is a 2D-only handheld console compatible with 3DS and DS games. At $129.99, the 2DS is $50 cheaper than its sibling. The company also announced a $50 price cut for the Wii U on September 20, ahead of the releases of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
 
They say it's for young kids and it's released same day as pokemon x nd y, so maybe its for that. It's all a bit baffling though.
 
Denial? Someone posted the numbers on the other thread which proves Nintendo are doing fine.

And tablets are shit for games at the minute. Hideous is a word I'd use to describe the fake on-screen controls that any of the potentially decent mobile games have. Touch screen just doesn't lend itself to complex gaming. Yet(?)

This will sell bucket loads and I actually prefer the look of it to the 3DS - 3D is a horrible gimmick.
 
Nintendo is sitting on an enormous pile of money. They can afford to have an off generation with both their consoles at the same time. As long as people keep on buying Mario and Zelda, the company will do just fine. Sometimes they can have a massive successes, NES, Wii or DS style. Sometimes they just do so-so and get by on their faithful fans (Gamecube I'm looking at you).
 
I had never heard the term "form factor" until today, when reading about this.

It just means "shape", doesn't it. So just say "shape" you pretentious wankers.

"tablet-esque form factor" FFS.
 
It doesn't even look like a fucking tablet. It looks more like the pretend laptop I bought for my 3 year old. :mad:
 
And tablets are shit for games at the minute. Hideous is a word I'd use to describe the fake on-screen controls that any of the potentially decent mobile games have. Touch screen just doesn't lend itself to complex gaming. Yet(?)

Completely agree. I was playing Sonic on my phone recently and its crap compared to the physical joypad I used to have on my megadrive. I lose the game because the controls aren't as responsive and I can't feel them. It's Rubbish.

That said, you can get cheapish iphone/ipad controllers for gaming can't you? I think I'd be more willing to invest in something like that than a new bit of hardware with its own platform which will run the risk of platform/format obsolescence and depreciation in value.

I know it sort of defeats the point to attach controller devices to touch screens, but it's probably cheaper in the long run as iOS and Android aren't going to disappear anytime soon. I'd wager that they'll be around a lot longer than whatever incarnation of console Nintendo keep coming up with. At least you can re-download the games.
 
It's not anti-Nintendo. It's anti anyone Apple are in competition with.


Like fuck it is; Nintendo are threatened by ALL smartphones and tablets not just Apple's, everyone's.

The shift in consumer buying and usage patterns has already begun and it's clearly pivoted toward mobile. Nintendo is the weakest of the three when it comes their console business' long term viability in the face of that. The other two have other businesses or ways of turning their boxes into all in one content providers. Nintendo has...er...a new crappy version of the DS, a Wii which is new but barely as powerful as a last gen Xbox...and a HUGE denial about mobile and publishing their content on other platforms that will kill them if they're not careful.
 
Completely agree. I was playing Sonic on my phone recently and its crap compared to the physical joypad I used to have on my megadrive. I lose the game because the controls aren't as responsive and I can't feel them. It's Rubbish.

That said, you can get cheapish iphone/ipad controllers for gaming can't you? I think I'd be more willing to invest in something like that than a new bit of hardware with its own platform which will run the risk of platform/format obsolescence and depreciation in value.

I know it sort of defeats the point to attach controller devices to touch screens, but it's probably cheaper in the long run as iOS and Android aren't going to disappear anytime soon. I'd wager that they'll be around a lot longer than whatever incarnation of console Nintendo keep coming up with. At least you can re-download the games.

Kid_Eternity actually posted a thread about IOS gaming where they were planning to release a semi-official joypad attachment. If that happens then I think it'll definitely work, but currently you have the possibility of making your game joypad aware, but hardly anyone does because hardly anyone has the attachments. And as a developer, you can't know which one they've got. So the game has to be developed to the lowest common denominator: the touch screen :(

Make them 'official' though, and you will have a set of constraints to work within and you might know that say 60% of the people buying your game are likely to have the adapter, so you can make the call to include the advanced input and only lose 40% of your potential audience, instead of anything up to what? 99%?

Standardisation is the key. Until that's nailed, touch screens are not there yet.
 
Kid_Eternity actually posted a thread about IOS gaming where they were planning to release a semi-official joypad attachment. If that happens then I think it'll definitely work, but currently you have the possibility of making your game joypad aware, but hardly anyone does because hardly anyone has the attachments. And as a developer, you can't know which one they've got. So the game has to be developed to the lowest common denominator: the touch screen :(

Make them 'official' though, and you will have a set of constraints to work within and you might know that say 60% of the people buying your game are likely to have the adapter, so you can make the call to include the advanced input and only lose 40% of your potential audience, instead of anything up to what? 99%?

Standardisation is the key. Until that's nailed, touch screens are not there yet.


If there are more touch screen devices than consoles who do you think companies will prioritise game releases for? People really have their head in the sand on this one. :D
 
As others have said anything requiring a fast response time like a platform game, shooter or driving game is suitable on a touch screen.

The biggest competition from tablets and phones is that people have limited disposal income to spend on toys, so may choose to make do if they aren't a hardcore gamer.

I bet one of those things survives being dropped a lot better then my note as well.
 
Like fuck it is; Nintendo are threatened by ALL smartphones and tablets not just Apple's, everyone's.

The shift in consumer buying and usage patterns has already begun and it's clearly pivoted toward mobile. Nintendo is the weakest of the three when it comes their console business' long term viability in the face of that. The other two have other businesses or ways of turning their boxes into all in one content providers. Nintendo has...er...a new crappy version of the DS, a Wii which is new but barely as powerful as a last gen Xbox...and a HUGE denial about mobile and publishing their content on other platforms that will kill them if they're not careful.

Kill them? lol. They've got some of the biggest selling games of the year, and they're (mostly) all made in-house. Animal Crossing on the 3DS has sold 5.5 million copies. That is almost all profit for Nintendo. The sales from the 2DS (which will be substantial) will be almost all profit. They're under no threat at all at the minute.

Oh, and btw. The biggest selling game on mobile platforms? Tetris. A Nintendo title.
 
to be honest most touchscreen games are mediocre. there are some good ones i'm sure but not a great many.

also playing conroller based games on a touchscreen suuuuuucks turn based games like jrpgs are a little less frustration but action games suck arse on a touch screen.

yeah you can get adapters and stuff but when you can just buy a ds i think most people into games will go that route not to mention the awesome back catalouge of nintendo games.

the problem is getting a physical d pad and buttons onto a phone/tablet without them the game interface is massivly inferiour and i'm guessing 75% of phone users won't want them on their phone. your stuck with wiered bluetooth combination gamepad and phone holder.

unless there is some real revolution in controllers i don't think the ds is all that threatened
 
That's why in a way Apple have always been the best bet for hardware developers. There's only one, or two viable form factors to design a controller case for - unlike with Android where you've got a gazillion different makes and models of phones and its not pontless trying to sustain any level of consistency.

I mean, look how well bedside ipod alarm clocks have done, or the market for cheap cases, or any number of peripherals you can plug into an iphone or ipad. They're so much more plentiful because of the standardization of iOS and the hardware which runs on it (rare docking connection point changes aside).

As Fez said, if Apple or someone were to release an official controller, it'd be a lot more encouraging to developers to create games which can be controlled by its buttons. The only reason I'm ever slightyly tempted to switch to iOS is because I know the market for peripherals is way better. And I'm not just talking games. I'd rather like an iphone bedside clock too :hmm:
 
If there are more touch screen devices than consoles who do you think companies will prioritise game releases for? People really have their head in the sand on this one. :D

There are also many more laptops than there are games consoles. Why then, can you only play Skylanders on a console?
Answer: Because consoles are designed for playing games on. Until touchscreen devices can offer responsive and accurate interfaces, they will be crap for playing most types of game.
 
If they'd had just made the 3DS games playable on the original DS this wouldn't have been a problem :mad:

*looks at redundant DS sitting under the bed* :(
 
Heh yeah it's pretty piss poor to promote the lack of the key feature of the 3DS as a big thing. It's great, it plays ALL your 3DS games except without 3D!! :D
 
actually i listened to a couple of game people talking about how it's actually a good babys first DS kids seems to break the hinged DSs

no hinge plus a smaller size and cheaper price means it better catered for younger users.

get the kids hooked young.
 
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