In the wee hours of the morning last Friday, Nintendo announced the New Nintendo 3DS during a Japan-only Nintendo Direct. The New Nintendo 3DS is very similar in design to past models, but there a significant amount of additions to the hardware that justify the title of "New". The most noticeable features of the New 3DS are the additions of a small analog nub referred to as the C-Stick, the ZL and ZR shoulder buttons, coloured face buttons and a volume slider located on the top screen. The other features of the New 3DS include built-in NFC functionality in the touch screen for use with Amiibo, facial tracking via the inner camera to improve the line of sight for the glasses-less 3D effect, the use of Micro SD cards instead of SD cards for storage and more processing power to improve download speeds and graphics capability. With the additional processing power, Nintendo has confirmed there will be exclusive games, such as an enhanced port of Xenoblade Chronicles, coming to the New 3DS. Sadly, these games will not be compatible with previous versions of the system. The New 3DS is currently set to release in both standard and XL versions on October 10th in Japan with no official announcement on worldwide release at this time.
The announcement of a brand new system, be it console or handheld, is suppose to bring excitement and joy for the next advancements in video game software and technology. When I saw the announcement for the New 3DS, I was stunned and not in a good way. In all honesty, I love Nintendo and the 3DS XL is one of the best designed handheld systems on the market today, but I do not understand Nintendo's incessant need to annualize the release of 3DS hardware especially when it alienates owners of previous versions. Video game handhelds are in a completely different beast than smartphones and tablets because people look for a dedicated system to take the quality gaming experiences on the go rather than a multipurpose machine where gaming is not much of a focus. Due to these opposing mindsets, there is no need to adapt the practice of updating hardware (no matter how minor) annually that is so prevalent in the smartphone and tablet market into Nintendo's handheld strategy.
Although I do fear Nintendo is looking at smartphones and tablets as influence more than they should, my main problem with the New 3DS stems from the exclusive games for the device. In no way has Nintendo officially confirmed if the New 3DS is their next generation handheld, which leaves the system feeling like it is caught between the current handheld generation and whatever Nintendo creates next. Considering the New 3DS sits amidst two handheld generations, it begs the question: why should someone buy a New 3DS when the next generation of handhelds is maybe two to three years away? The exclusive games seems like Nintendo's way to elicit people to ignore that question, yet the install-base of the New 3DS will never reach a point where it is more viable sales-wise to release large portable franchises like Pokemon exclusively on it. With that thought in mind, I do not see the New 3DS's exclusive games being more than Nintendo-published ports like Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, and experimental titles such as WarioWare. In my opinion, the whole exclusive games conundrum will cause more division between the 3DS consumer base than unity because there will be two groups of gamers with systems that are compatible in some ways and incompatible in others. Much like Nintendo's missteps with DSiWare during the DS era, it is a short-sighted move by Nintendo to coerce people into buying a New 3DS with exclusive games.
While the New Nintendo 3DS adds some highly requested features like a second analog stick and improved stereoscopic 3D, it is not needed at this point in time. The 3DS is the most successful console on the market today. There is no need to change up the formula or make significant changes to this system to ensure success other than continuing to release compelling software for the 3DS on a regular basis. Gamers would rather see a remake for Majora's Mask or a new 2D Metroid over a brand new 3DS with the processing power of the Wii. I may sound like a broken record, but Nintendo needs to focus on improving the sales of the Wii U over anything else. The poor sales of the Wii U is the main cause of Nintendo's current financial woes, so it is better to right that ship than meddle with the one that is raking in all the money. The final verdict on the New 3DS will have to wait until it reaches North American shores sometime in 2015. Right now, I am no where near convinced that the New 3DS is worth my hard-earned cash especially after buying a 3DS XL earlier in this year.
The announcement of a brand new system, be it console or handheld, is suppose to bring excitement and joy for the next advancements in video game software and technology. When I saw the announcement for the New 3DS, I was stunned and not in a good way. In all honesty, I love Nintendo and the 3DS XL is one of the best designed handheld systems on the market today, but I do not understand Nintendo's incessant need to annualize the release of 3DS hardware especially when it alienates owners of previous versions. Video game handhelds are in a completely different beast than smartphones and tablets because people look for a dedicated system to take the quality gaming experiences on the go rather than a multipurpose machine where gaming is not much of a focus. Due to these opposing mindsets, there is no need to adapt the practice of updating hardware (no matter how minor) annually that is so prevalent in the smartphone and tablet market into Nintendo's handheld strategy.
Although I do fear Nintendo is looking at smartphones and tablets as influence more than they should, my main problem with the New 3DS stems from the exclusive games for the device. In no way has Nintendo officially confirmed if the New 3DS is their next generation handheld, which leaves the system feeling like it is caught between the current handheld generation and whatever Nintendo creates next. Considering the New 3DS sits amidst two handheld generations, it begs the question: why should someone buy a New 3DS when the next generation of handhelds is maybe two to three years away? The exclusive games seems like Nintendo's way to elicit people to ignore that question, yet the install-base of the New 3DS will never reach a point where it is more viable sales-wise to release large portable franchises like Pokemon exclusively on it. With that thought in mind, I do not see the New 3DS's exclusive games being more than Nintendo-published ports like Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, and experimental titles such as WarioWare. In my opinion, the whole exclusive games conundrum will cause more division between the 3DS consumer base than unity because there will be two groups of gamers with systems that are compatible in some ways and incompatible in others. Much like Nintendo's missteps with DSiWare during the DS era, it is a short-sighted move by Nintendo to coerce people into buying a New 3DS with exclusive games.
While the New Nintendo 3DS adds some highly requested features like a second analog stick and improved stereoscopic 3D, it is not needed at this point in time. The 3DS is the most successful console on the market today. There is no need to change up the formula or make significant changes to this system to ensure success other than continuing to release compelling software for the 3DS on a regular basis. Gamers would rather see a remake for Majora's Mask or a new 2D Metroid over a brand new 3DS with the processing power of the Wii. I may sound like a broken record, but Nintendo needs to focus on improving the sales of the Wii U over anything else. The poor sales of the Wii U is the main cause of Nintendo's current financial woes, so it is better to right that ship than meddle with the one that is raking in all the money. The final verdict on the New 3DS will have to wait until it reaches North American shores sometime in 2015. Right now, I am no where near convinced that the New 3DS is worth my hard-earned cash especially after buying a 3DS XL earlier in this year.
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