Guys, Nintendo isn't doomed anymore like we all definitely said! A number of game industry pundits, including Michael Pachter and Jesse Divnich, have declared the 3DS to be in safe waters, with the system having cleared its initial bumpy start.
"It's very successful, but ran into a headwind given its relatively high price -- which I incorrectly thought was the right price - and lack of third party software support," said Pachter. "Now that we are seeing more first party titles at a lower price point, sales have increased. It's definitely turned the corner. I was surprised that it sold so few at the $249 price point, and its sales to date are exactly what I originally forecast at that price."
Divnich added: "With the strong rebound in 3DS sales, I think Nintendo is clear of the woods for now. Going forward, however, we will closely be paying attention to software attach rates. Selling hardware is great, but it is only the first step. The health of any hardware is directly correlated to the amount of software consumers buy."
Screen Digest's Piers Harding-Rolls said that in 2012, Nintendo will need to make serious competitive strides and not grow too complacent. Good advice for anybody, really.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 01.05.2012 | 
At least the news is news.... neither good or bad. The 3DS was a mess, the slidepad makes it an even bigger mess, and proof it was rushed or at the very least poorly thought out.Supporting this thing only says "Nintendo, thank you for releasing this incomplete device with it's weak battery and very iffy 3D. Please keep doing just as mediocre a job in the future, and we the sheeple will lap it up unreservedly."
Okay, so maybe not "unreservedly", but it's still got more defenders than it deserves..
Always.
Nintendo: Doomed since 1889.
Are you basically saying that the majority of the people who defended the 3DS in any way were sheep?
Because it's not only petty and insulting, it's pretty much unfounded as well.
There were many arguments for and against the 3DS, some more sensible than others. Lumping them all together is pretty fallacious.
And, here's a radical image: some people like the 3DS as it is. I know, right? It's like they have an opinion all of their own!
We all know that the world will end in December of this year.
Ergo, Nintendo is in fact totally doomed (just like the rest of us).
What say ye to that, Sterling!?
Your generalizations make me lol.
What eShop do you belong to? The GBC games range from 3-5 bucks. I'm guessing you mean the 3d classics which are technically re-made GBC games.
For now, he said. FOR NOW. I don't think it's safe to stop predicting doom. It's too much fun anyhow.
My love for it will only grow as we get more software like Kid Icarus and LM2...
And for the record, I always thought that the 3DS would succeed, personally.... at its core 3DS is a DS, and DS is always a safe bet.
I also never would have called $249 the "right price" for a portable system.
Such incredible insight. What would we do without it?
I also always knew that pachter was/is not good at predicting things.
Hunter
and yet the most rabid and unnecessarily over-protective comments about any franchise or game has always been, in my experience, Nintendo fans. Many of whom I've encountered will declare unflappable praise for something, usually a Nintendo console or Nintendo peripheral, long before it even arrives. The blind acceptance of a thing, however bad, is a sheep-like behavior. I get it, some people like it, but then some people are compromising and easily satisfied. Good for them. Some of us are a little less forgiving and require something more thought out for the money; Better battery life, a better launch library, a better market place, a better interface that doesn't require a cumbersome attachment, a better 3D that doesn't fizzle when one peers at the bezel or hold the system at anything but and exact angle (more or less), and an overall better experience for our hard earned money.
I speak purely from experience, and I'm no more generalizing the aforementioned sheeple than I am crocodiles by saying crocodiles will kill and eat you if given the opportunity.
We all know it was too high, but a lot of people would (and some did) bite.
Well hindsight is 20/20, and all that.
"...in my experience, Nintendo fans."
Anecdotal evidence is not a strong foundation for any claim.
Here's a counter point on the same basis: I have been participation in the gaming community for more than 20 years, and find that all fan bases are the same. They all have reasonable as well as unreasonable members, and the unreasonable ones go to the same extremes.
There is absolutely no difference between them.
And yet, I would not paint the entire fan base of a product with the same brush. The fringe is crazy, but they do not represent the whole thing. Doing such a thing would be hypocritical and self-defeating, as I am part of some of those groups.
So no, blanket statements hold no weight, no matter how you try to justify them.
And no, they don't become stronger when you compare them to other blanket statements.
A fallacy is no less illogical because there are other ones around.
Uhh.. what about the Gamecube? Or the Virtual Boy? Hell, the N64 didn't do as well as anticipated. At the time (before the Gamecube days...) it was seen as something of a disappointment, as Nintendo lost the dominant position it had enjoyed since the release of the Famicom/NES. Still, by comparison with the Gamecube, the N64 had glory days indeed.
Playstation - 102 million, N64 - 34 million
Playstation 2 - 156 million, GC - 22 million
However, I will admit that, besides the arguably "mobile" Virtual Boy, Nintendo has always delivered on portable consoles.
Jim likes to beat dead horses.
NINTENDO haters are pitiful, because they're missing out on great games for no reason.
That being said, I am very much excited for Luigi's Mansion 2.
Personal experience is hardly "anecdotal". I hit my thumb once with a hammer, and it hurt... anecdotal? By your reasoning sure. The really confusing part of your rebuttal, however, is that you call my input anecdotal, then proceed to do likewise, and base it on the assumption (or at least implied assumption) that I've only encountered "the fringe".
I'm not a Nintendo hater, not even a 3DS hater, but I probably am an anus, BrainWasherAttendent.
Nether the GameCube nor the N64 were "failures". That was simply the general perception when their hardware sales are compared to their competitors', kind of like with the PSP, but this doesn't paint the whole picture.
From Nintendo's perspective, they did fine, at least where revenue is concerned. Nether of them generated a loss. In fact, Nintendo's previous quarterly revenue record was achieved thanks to the GameCube and it's games.
If you want to talk about failures, you need to see the Virtual Boy (already mentioned), the N64DD, Satelaview and GameBoy Micro.
Other than that, pretty much every other Nintendo hardware product has done well for the company so far.
Nintendo Entertainment System 1983 61.91 million
Super Nintendo Entertainment System 1990 49.10 million
Nintendo 64 1996 32.93 million
Nintendo GameCube 2001 21.74 million
Wii 2006 89.36 million
Sure, Nintendo's first party games were still doing well, but you can't depend entirely on first party games forever. Third party games did terrible on the system, and it consistently lagged both the Xbox and the PS2 in terms of both software and hardware sales. I don't know how you don't consider that a failure, when Nintendo's other products did so well.
I mean.. the Gamecube is the lowest selling home console Nintendo ever made.. by a fair margin. It sold one third what the NES sold despite being released decades later with a much larger gaming audience (total console sales of around 200 million). The only major systems the Gamecube actually outsold are considered out and out failures themselves (although a few have hipster cred): Dreamcast, Turbografx 16, Game Gear, Sega CD, etc.
Emphasis: "In fact, we shouldn't continue this business if our only target is to outsell GameCube."
Also, hilarious comment from almost 6 year old news post: "i know im getting a wii but if the wii dosnt sell well in america or japan or any were nintendo will be doomed"
DOOMED! DOOOOOMMEEEDD!!!
I still say $250 would have been a perfectly sufficient price if the launch lineup had been as strong as it needed to be. Ocarina Of Time 3D at launch, coupled with a stronger lineup of eShop titles and an eShop, would probably have moved a fair amount of systems.
Of course, it didn't help that you could get a PS3 for the same price, and a Wii for less. Nintendo didn't price relative to their competitors and their own product line, and that bit them on the ass for a while.
But I like my 3DS.
"I don't know how you don't consider that a failure."
Because "success" and "failure" are not binary states based exclusively on hardware sales.
First, define "failure".
Did they fail to surpass the sales from their predecessors and competitors? Yes.
Did they fail to turn a profit? No.
Did it fail to attract 3rd party support? Yes.
Did it fail to support 1st party software sales? No.
Again, the GameCube generated pure profit for Nintendo, more than the N64, a piece of hardware that outsold it. Some of the games on both those systems were among the company best sellers at the time.
Sure, sales were on decline from previous generations, but revenue was on the rise. That's the part people often forget when measuring the success of these platforms: they made the maker money, lot's of it.
By all accounts this would be considered a success, except it's not for some weird reason.
As for the Iwata quote, some context: He's talking about Blue Ocean Markets.
The Wii was designed to be more inclusive, for people who don't play games. The GameCube was designed specifically for people who do. There are more people who don't play games than those that do.
Conclusion: If a piece of hardware designed for a much larger audience sells the same that one for a smaller audience, then it will be considered a failure by the maker.
He is not, and has never, called the GameCube a failure.
So why should I?
Good discussions. I've also been in the gaming community for 20 years, and haven't really noticed a dichotomy between fanboys: that is, until this generation.
As a result, I take issue with this statement:
"There is absolutely no difference between them."
This generation, there has been an increasingly large amount of Nintendo fanboys who only own Wiis, who have been spouting off nonsense about other consoles with very little (if any) experience in other markets.
If you're a 360 fanboy, at least you can relate with a lot of multi-platform titles, mostly also made for the PS3. Sony - vice versa. But Nintendo? Their 3rd party support is now tenuous at best (although it started off very strong with NMH, Zack and Wiki, etc): a lot of the experiences you are getting are from one very insulated ecosystem. Also - trying to act like an authority on online play only owning a Wii? Forget about it.
If you want to call this simply "fringe" - that's fine.
Then I submit that the Nintendo "fringe" is in fact the worst, and generally seems to be the least knowledgeable on market trends.
"Personal experience is hardly "anecdotal"."
That's exactly what "personal experience" is, anecdotal.
I can't corroborate you hit your hand.
I can't corroborate you hit it with a hammer.
I can't corroborate it hurt you.
I can't corroborate that everyone that hits his/her hand with a hammer feels pain.
The entire "personal experience" could be a fabrication, which is why we don't use them as the foundation of an argument.
"The really confusing part of your rebuttal, however, is that you call my input anecdotal, then proceed to do likewise..."
I'm demonstrating the fallacy. You use an anecdote to prove your point, so I counter it with another one to disprove it.
Anecdotal evidence is flimsy because it only takes another, opposite anecdote to disprove it, turning it into a case of "your word against mine".
I'm not saying my argument is right and your's is wrong. I'm saying your argument is weak and no better than mine.
They are both pretty worthless.
"This generation, there has been an increasingly large amount of Nintendo fanboys who only own Wiis, who have been spouting off nonsense about other consoles with very little (if any) experience in other markets."
I'll have to disagree.
While it is true that there is a large amount of Wii-only owners, I don't think these are the kind of people who would behave in this matter or become so attached in this way.
Instead, I posit that "hardcore" Nintendo people naturally gravitated towards the Wii, where they continued their normal behavior, while being joined by "new", Wii-only "hardcore".
The same happened to the Microsoft and Sony "hardcore" fanbase when it transferred from the Xbox to the 360, and from the PS2 to PS3, respectively.
This has existed since the SNES/Genesis. It is simply more notorious today due to the internet.
The Sony and Microsoft fringe are no less guilty from spouting nonsense.
It has always been this way, and always will be. This phenomena is not exclusive to video games.
It certainly lowers your perspective in regards to many facets if you're solely invested in the Wii's ecosystem. Games wise, Nintendo has always been pretty much first party reliant, and that hasn't really changed since the N64 (at least I felt like their undisputed reign of third party support ended with the SNES - the lack of Square and Capcom games on the 64 cemented it).
I will grant you this, though: the effect is probably more diluted and harder to perceive among PS3 and 360 owners, due to the migration that occurs between those systems, probably more focused in specific games (Call of Duty Vs. Battlefield) rather than the consoles themselves.
But brand loyalty is definitively there, and equally as strong and misguided.
Agreed :D - good discussion. It's why I come to Dtoid every day.
So what I say was invalid because you were not there to experience them firsthand? This could be applied to generally everything else in this world, you know. Maybe my parent's don't exist, you've never experience them firsthand, you can only take my word for it. Okay, let's cast aside logic.
I've had the personal experience that hitting my thumb was painful. My thumb isn't your thumb, so by your reasoning the pain may or may not exist simply because we do not share thumbs for you to have experienced the exact thing that I did when it happened to me? A soldier that can say war is hell is basing that solely on anecdotal experience, and so the traumatizing experience of war is ergo invalidated solely by virtue of the lack of personal corroboration.
A tree falling in the woods makes no sound if there's nobody around to hear it, if I understand you correctly.
Touche, my friend... touche.