It's no secret that Nintendo hasn't been doing very well as of late. The 3DS hasn't been selling at all at the pace that Nintendo had anticipated that it would, though they shoulder most of the blame with the system's lackluster selection of launch titles. They've even gone so far as to drop the price of the system a full eighty dollars ($169.99 down from 249.99) in an attempt to raise more interest. Now it seems that Nintendo's investors are urging them to begin developing titles for competing consoles and platforms. There are some out there that predict that Nintendo is on the verge of transitioning into a strictly software business and completely drop the hardware side of it.
As a friend of mine says, if this is the future of gaming then I simply will no longer be a gamer. A future in which Nintendo doesn't offer a dedicated handheld and develops only for other consoles like (god forbid) iOS and Android is one that I hope never comes to fruition. A completely touch screen oriented platform like iOS simply isn't viable when it comes to more than just casual gaming, developers attempts at imitating physical controls like analog sticks on a touch screen is just laughable. That would essentially kill off gaming as we know it.
According to this article Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, shares those sentiments. Stating that Nintendo would only produce titles for their owns platforms as long as he's the one in charge. While many may think that it is, the 3DS certainly isn't out of it yet.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Will the recent 3DS price drop encourage an increase in sales and cast aside these thoughts? Answer in the poll below:
I think you meant "hasn't been doing very well" in that first sentence haha.
ReplyDeleteI haven't followed the news over there for awhile, so I didn't know things were so bad. Do they have some better titles lined up for the future at least?
Yeah, I did. Thanks for pointing that out. lol
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely some hope in the coming months, with multiple games coming out from Nintendo including a new Mario Kart and the latest Mario platformer.
I'm not sure if a couple new mario games are gonna be enough. To be honest, Nintendo's big demographic was the more casual gamers. Yes they have created more hardcore games in the past, but in general, their games have a lighthearted and easier feel to them then games developed by/for other consoles and handhelds. The touch-screen gaming aspect is killing this market, because it is a cheaper way to hit this demographic. My only thought is that nintendo has to do something in order to seperate it from the pack of casual iOS and Android games, and give an experience that caters to a wholly new audience.
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