The next great leap in handheld gaming or the gimmicky, over-expensive distant cousin of the Virtual Boy? The debate on the Nintendo 3DS continues in light of this week’s announcement.
After months of rumours and online forum pondering, the full details of Nintendo’s European strategy for the Nintendo 3DS were finally revealed at a press event in Amsterdam this week. Actually, they weren’t – they were barely even half-revealed. With a release date (27 March) but no official lineup or even Irish pricing, suddenly online approval of the pricey handheld has taken a sharp downward shift.
First unveiled at the world’s biggest video games trade show, E3, in summer 2010, the Nintendo 3DS won over sceptics immediately. Boasting Wii-level graphics with its standout title, Kid Icarus: Rising, and the prospect of glasses-free 3D gameplay, the 3DS made the show’s other two major unveilings, Playstation Move and Microsoft Kinect, look positively old-hat in comparison.
The goodwill attributed from E3 didn’t last long however. In October 2010, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata began an ongoing campaign to lower gamers’ expectations. During an investor relations meeting Iwata was asked about the then-perceived but not confirmed high price point for the handheld. Citing a ‘number of factors’ for the system’s cost, Iwata mentioned one of which was gamers “reactions to the system’s E3 reveal”. Well, that’s the last time we get publicly excited about a new piece of technology!
Wave of negativity
In recent weeks, however, the chorus of negativity surrounding the 3DS has become deafening. Suddenly we were told that the handheld will only last for 3-5 hours on a full battery charge when using 3D, at least 60% less than the battery life of its predecessor the DS.
Next came the confirmation that all 3DS titles would be region-locked, meaning that unlike the DS, no American or Japanese titles (typically found for a lot cheaper online) will run on a European console. And though it hasn’t been fully announced yet, we can expect launch titles to range between £34.99-£39.99 – comparable to a full-price Xbox 360, Wii or Playstation 3 release. E3 2010 feels a long way away now.
In a lengthy press event compered by the affable Jonathan Ross, relatively dull announcements (Shaun the Sheep is heading to 3DS everybody) were followed by brief sparks of hope – Sky 3D capability was announced and one unique friend code will provide online gaming to each player, rather than the painstaking previous method that required a separate code for each game in previous years.
A 3D remake of the best game of all time? Oh, go on then
However, what we all wanted to hear about the 3DS were three things – when is it coming out, how much and what games can I buy on day one? After all, Japanese gamers found out all three answers at their own event a fortnight ago – February 26, ¥25,000, which is roughly €230 and 8 titles including Pro Evolution Soccer 3D, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle and Nintendogs + Cats. In contrast, yesterday European gamers discovered that the 3DS will reach our shores on March 27 and… well, that’s pretty much it, actually.
We don’t set the retail price. Someone call sell our product for whatever they want to. We don’t control that.
One of the biggest surprises of this week’s conference was that no price was disclosed, a worrying omission that pointed towards a higher price point than Nintendo were willing to admit. This was especially disconcerting after a simultaneous US press event announced an incredible US price tag of just $250 – would that mean the console would be priced at just €185 for us?
Speaking to Eurogamer, Nintendo’s David Yarnton espoused Nintendo’s thinking in not revealing any price: “We don’t set the retail price. Someone can sell our product for whatever they want to. We don’t control that. We’ve been talking to retailers and they’ve been told their cost prices now. They’ve established price and we’ve been told, looking online, that it’s anywhere from £220 to £229.”
Yep, £220-229, in other words, €260-€270, close to the price of a Playstation 3. If you pre-order a unit at that price – online retailers Play.com have seemingly misplaced their calculators because, as of this writing, changing the site’s currency from Sterling to Euro leads to a jump in price from £219.99 to the highway robbery of €307.99.
To their credit, Irish retailers Pixmania are currently taking pre-orders for the less wallet-draining price of €249. After a quick call-round to the leading retailers in Ireland, I discovered that currently neither Gamestop or Xtravision have an Irish price tag to confirm, though GAME will be stocking the handheld for €269.99 and HMV will price a little lower, at €259.99.
So if Nintendo were hesistant to release the unit price themselves, what is their expert solution to that surprisingly light battery life? Yarnton further explained to Eurogamer that “Actually, if you have the 3D, Wi-Fi and other functions off it’s longer than five hours,”, somewhat defeating the point of handheld’s unique selling point. Although it hasn’t been announced yet, we at JOE can already confirm that if you turn off the 3D, Wi-Fi, other functions and the actual handheld itself, you won’t lose any battery life whatsoever!
Launch lineup
As for the launch lineup, Nintendo were once again quite cryptic. Rather than reveal the games available on day one, Ninty said there would be 25-30 games available in the ‘launch window’, which apparently stretches to the summer. Somewhat more puzzling is that Nintendo are so light on first-party titles within this window, with just Pilotwings Resort, Steel Diver and Nintendogs + Cats confirmed. Interesting titles, sure, yet not quite the same must-have Nintendo launch titles we would’ve expected. AAA titles such as Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and Mario Kart 3DS’ releases are ‘to be confirmed’.
Such was our initial excitement over the announcement of the Nintendo 3DS, the past few weeks rumours and eventual announcement have been a bitter pill to swallow. In my Video Game Predictions of 2011, I posited that the explosion in mobile gaming from the App Store or on Android devices has left gamer’s expectations of handheld gaming and what represents value on a different plain compared to when the original DS was launched – after all, why play the eventual Tetris 3DS for £39.99 when you can pick it up for a couple of Euro on your phone?
There is a huge danger that the 3DS’ newfound ‘luxury’ status for hardware and software could be the same overly-optimistic strategy that caused the Playstation 3 to initially flop at launch – if Nintendo fans don’t rush out to purchase the new handheld en masse, ultimately Nintendo themselves may pay the price.
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