Japan has already gotten its hands on the New Nintendo 3DS, but those of us in the west will have to wait until 2015. Speaking to investors today Nintendo president Satoru Iwata attempted to explain why the Japanese get the device this year, while the west has to wait until some unknown time in 2015. Here’s his explanation.
“Based on these observations, some might wonder if, apart from the domestic market, the sales of Nintendo 3DS will really be able to gain momentum in the overseas markets,” Iwata said.
“Iwata then noted that the 3DS is at a different “stage of popularization” in Japan than in the US and Europe. The handheld is nearing lifetime sales of 17 million in Japan, or about equal with the lifetime sales of the GameBoy Advance. As a result, Iwata said the 3DS’ addressable market has nearly been reached, and the launch of the New 3DS was necessary to grow sales once again.”
“To the contrary, neither of the cumulative sales figures of Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. nor Europe is more than that in Japan despite, based on the historical performance, bigger sales potential,” Iwata said. “In short, Nintendo 3DS is still at an earlier stage of popularization in these two markets. Also, the difference in market characteristics shows up in the software sales pace. In the Japanese market, both hardware and software tend to sell during a short period along with a quick spread of information on them. In the U.S. and Europe, on the other hand, highly acclaimed games are likely to be longtime sellers.”
Then why the $#&% is Australia already getting it?!
+1
Just a bullshit excuse.
Makes perfect sense when you think about it. I’m guessing the 3DS is near reaching it’s potential in AUS too.
I want it as much as the next guy in the UK, but ‘Bullshit excuse’ or not, you have no idea of Nintendo’s reasoning.
In other words “We don’t care about the customers, we care about the money” like all of the other companies. Nintendo is no better, despite many fanboys believing that Nintendo cares for them.
No. EA, Capcom, Ubishit and Microsoft are a lot worse from what you’re saying. Nintendo has the tendency to make strange ass decisions but none of them are nowhere near as terrible, selfish and deliberate as the companies I listed above and they have been doing it right under you people’s faces and noses for YEARS.
Nintendo has DLC, microtransactions, 2 versions needed for all of the content in both of them, they charge for backgrounds, they charge 50-60$ for 2D platformers without online, level editor and other things that would give the game more content, ergo they invest less and charge as much as MS and Sony
Nintendo was wisely priced DLCs as they were positively received by fans and reviews, the Microtransaction is only on Sub Wars on 3DS which is a test bed and you only have to pay $15 to get everything which is a decent full price for a past time games like that. Nintendo charges for backgrounds? 1. They’re merely $1-2 which is the same amount of money I can find in the streets and 2. Sony does the same shit and probably charges more for some themes so your point is invalid big time. NSMBU was a bit overpriced I agree to that but lack of online doesnt bother me because its a local co-op game. Hell, Rayman Origins and Legends don’t have online and you ain’t bitching about that game for the same thing I bet.
They invest less? I see them invest a lot more on video games to be video games than the other two jackasses who invest so called “games” to be overrated, overhyped, overpriced POS cash-in interactive movies who often lie to your face about what the games will be, what will it have and how much fun it could be when its all just to sucker money out of your ass because they have no idea, care or innovation catering to real gaming.
Woah, everything is wrong. They do not wisely price their DLC. 5$ for 3 levels in NSMB2? 10$ for a few characters? Fire Emblem…
They charge for backgrounds. You told me they are fair, and yet you are comparing them to a company you said is worse than Nintendo. The worst part is, Sony and MS have a huge number of free backgrounds. Nintendo doesn’t, it’s absurd that I’d have to pay it at all. I can put whatever background I want on my PC and IPhone.
Yes, it may not bother you, but it bothers me and many others. I’m 18, how many times do people have to say to you retarded fanboys, “We don’t play video games with our friends, we go do other things, not everyone has a friend 10 minutes from home” I’m angry at Rayman as well, but they have daily and weekly challenges and actually good looking levels, not that bullshit like Nintendo where they just have presets and they put them in a specific order and there you go, a level. That is why most of their levels look similar.
Yes, invest less. No online, no features on the Wii U, no features in games, VC N64, GC?, rarely orchestrated music, small games, most 2D platformers, 95% of their games don’t have voice actors… What do they invest , please tell me?
Learn a thing or two kid before trying to argue with me. Nobody ever could.
This proves you dont know shit. Its actually $2.50 for each pack of 3 levels in Coin Rush mode and there are five packs together bringing a total of $12.50 for 15 modes with varied difficulty and missions. So your stupid ass is telling me (without researching the fucking pricing first) that spending $12.50 for 15 levels with difficulty is terrible but you excuse like COD Map packs for $15 EACH for terribly assed map designs is okay? Simply put it like this: Fuck you and your misguided hypocrite ass. Do your homework first because I know damn well you don’t touch or look up any Nintendo game to know WTF you’re talking about.
Now as for Fire Emblem, its $50.50 total for all DLC packs which are $6 a pop that includes maps, characters and more story chapters that adds more replayability. Don’t even think that the game itself is gimped for DLC like Destiny is. The game outside of the DLC zone is already lenghtly and positively praised by gamers and reviewers. If your ass actually does the research, you’ll see how much content Nintendo adds to their DLC which isn’t aimed to be a cheap ass cash in stunts most 3rd parties pull off with little to no regard to what the fans want. Nintendo is currently the norm of DLCs done right even though stupid fucks like you who don’t research first, dont think so. Try again fool.
As for themes, you forget that Nintendo is a gaming company that focuses on games and with the themes that are integrated with the GUI for special changes and even musical themes, they can cheaply sell themes for more money they can invest to improve their offerings, online, systems and games. Sony may have free themes but they also charge for others so don’t even say that their themes are free so gamers can go nuts about it. I had the PS3 before and seen the marketplace. I agree but also disagree because your opinions are straight forwardly misguided due to the fact that you purely hate Nintendo, thinking they’re the worst company on earth that they should die or become the 3rd party’s bitch. No, they’re beyond far from that and I have clearly seen much worse like lets say..EA. :|
No voice acting in Nintendo games? Have you seen Super Mario Sunshine? Yeah, that’s exactly why Nintendo themselves don’t do much voice overs. Retro on the other hand, when they did VO with Metroid Prime 3, they did it right themselves because Nintendo trusts them to revive and innovate their franchises. No online with Wii U? WTF have you been on that? Wii/DS had online since before you were old enough to touch GTA games. Online matchmaking, leaderboards, voice/text chat, messenging, its got all the basics including Wii U/3DS. Not as hugely used like everywhere else but its there and don’t forget what went down with Swapnote. Some sick fuck was posting pornographic drawing or pictures for underage audiences to see. Yeah, that likely explains why Nintendo had to slightly gimp and moderate their online features because of assholes like that. 3rd parties are free to make games with such features however they want if they want to.
Yes, Wii U needs N64 and GC games NOW as well as improving their Nintendo Club prizes because its pathetic. Rarely orchestrated music? WTF cares if all of the games dont have this type of music. I get that you maybe into it because of Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack which is so beautiful I can’t deny at all but its not necessary for ALL of their games and do you realize how much money it costs to assemble an orchestra group and play a number of tunes for a video game? A lot. Aside from that, Nintendo is among the best in the business when it comes to soundtrack. They never disappoint me with their work.
Nintendo mostly make platformers? 1. What’s the problem with platformers? They’re one of the best genres of the industry and if you say there’s too many of those in the market, *looks at COD* look at how many fucking FPS games are out right now since COD4. Way too many shooters and you can’t ignore that fact bro. The market needs more variety and for the FPS genre to die..at least for a while, like another 15 years. Now back to Nintendo, they only have like 3-4 series that are platformers: Mario, Kirby, DK and maybe Metroid if they ever go back to making a good 2D or 2.5D game for the handheld. God I hope Dread is coming. Anyway, I can agree on the Mario part that there’s a bit too many games involving his name. Nintendo should go back to making one 3D Mario game for every home console to innovate its gameplay like Mario 64 and Galaxy did while making one 2D or 3D Mario game on their handhelds. Mario Party needs to retire because I’m tired of playing those games and sick of seeing new ones without online play which is disappointing. They should at least include online play for mini-games instead of the board games which would take forever to play. All Mario sports games should now be bundled into one game. Sluggers, Strikers, Golf and all that shit in one game WITH online play on Wii U will be great to reduce the clutterness of multiple Mario party games out right now and for people to STFU about Nintendo spamming Mario while they blindly pay $160 for COD and EA Sports games every year.
Ok 2,50$…. It’s still absurd. Those levels are made like happy wheels levels. That is the only thing I was wrong about, and here. I admit it, but you are wrong everywhere else. Fire emblem like you said requires a lot of money to buy every DLC there is. You can defend it as much as you want, but so can anyone else any game there is. I can say “DLC in Battlefield gets you more maps and more guns”….it’s subjective if you like the DLC or not, but it’s objective that Nintendo is still making pretty much the same thing with Hyrule Warriors, MK 8 where they put a bunch of babies on purpose so they can add meaningful characters later and charge you for that.
They charge for backgrounds so that they can implement other features? WHAT!? Do you realize how much money they have? Rhetorical question, of course you don’t.
My point is that they don’t invest in games, but you want to steer away from that in the worst way possible. “WTF cares if all of the games dont have this type of music. I get that you maybe into it because of Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack which is so beautiful I can’t deny at all but its not necessary for ALL of their games and do you realize how much money it costs to assemble an orchestra group and play a number of tunes for a video game”
I care and many others care. Voice acting happened in Sunshine, it was bad, it happened in Other M, it was bad….it happened in Kid Icaruse Uprising and it was great. So stop the damage control, son.
Online in games? Nintendoland, DK TF, NSMBU, 3D World, Yoshi’s wooly world….none of those games have online and all of them have multiplayer. Do you know when the Wii U came out? At the end of 2012, do you know when we got the first 1st party game with online mp in it? At the end of May 2014. Absurd? Yes. The only other game that I know will have online is SSB4. X will maybe have it, but it’s not Nintendo who’s developing the game.
Also I didn’t mention Amiibos aka physical DLC.
Saying $2.50 for a pack of 3 levels is absurd while also paying $20-40 maybe $50 for season passes from DRM services that could potentially suck or even $15 for a 5 map pack without a fuss only tells me one thing: YOU’RE FUCKING STUPIDLY HYPOCRITICAL!
That is one example of Nintendo. Season passes are usually 20$. I see you only responded to this one point I made. 15$ for 5 3D maps that you have to create new assets for is much better than 2,5$ for 3 levels that are made in 3 minutes. You’ll see how easy it is when Mario Maker comes out.
Yes because that’s the primary reason for having a company . Common sense goes a long way
Yes it does, but people like to defend Nintendo and say shit about others.
They HAVE to care about money. Nintendo is a company, after all
You don’t like to read comments, do you?
Seriously, I believe this reason is full of shit to the point you made. WTF is Australia..AUS-FUCKING-TRALIA gets the new 3DS before UK and Australia, next to UK and China combined, is fucking terrible with the gaming market.
So why, again, that region gets the system but not America who actually supports Nintendo more than all of the nations on Earth?
It’s precisely because they are bad with gaming market that they make the most agressive moves. I live in Brazil and I kinda miss this aggresivenes from Nintendo. I mean, its official distributor here is actually making a great job, but I want a better service.
Nintendo really needs to start opening up big time to attract more wprldwide audience. They need to sell themselves out there but not like Microsoft at all who are basically buying out the market and just fucking destroy it for profit.
In Australia everyone who wanted a 3ds would have gotten one for pokemon x and y
They’re not going to say it, but the real problem is most likely production issues.
Likely, they only had so many consoles they could make by the end of the year, so they decided to release them in Japan first (due to the above, use the growth strategy in a declining market) and they released it in Australia because they had some more consoles left over and there’s only 20 million people here; no production issues there.
because everyone here bought a wii u and smash bros 3ds it will sell
Yes… but when people get a whiff of something new, they won’t buy the old one anymore while they wait for the new one. A little silly… but they make silly moves in Kyoto sometimes
Very few people are aware of the new iteration.
I guess so… maybe the under 12 crowd doesn’t… or the parents that don’t game at all… but still, is there any way to quantify who knows and who doesn’t?
Not really. Just think about this: whenever you’re in a public place look around at all the people and try to guess how many of them game. Then think how many of them would actually buy a Nintendo console, let alone a handheld. Then think how many of them heard the news of a new iteration of the 3DS. The people who go on this blog and know about it are in the top 5% most knowledgeable of Nintendo news. Most people don’t hear about this stuff.
I know most people in general, but I think many people interested in video games would I don’t know… maybe you are right for the most part, but it doesn’t make it any better that the new tech is there and we can’t have it until after the holidays
So why did they stop selling 3DS in US? I’m from Brazil, been in US in sep/14 and all i could find was 3DS XL.
I was certain that the main reason was to sell the new 3DS… But after this… ow man
Sério? ‘0’ bem que eu queria ir pra aí, também :> pelo menos o 3ds é mais barato..
..
well, I didn’t know that they are stopping to sell them right now(the old one) ‘-‘, I think the best would be selling the new one now to follow the hype..
Since when US stop selling 3DS? Yes they stop the original model because of XL’s popularity and 2DS affordability but it’s still selling.
Desde quando pararam de vender o 3DS normal nos EUA?
Enfim, não tenho pressa para fazer o upgrade, por mim pode demorar o tempo que for necessário.
===============
Since when they did stopped selling the regular 3DS in the USA?
Anyway, I’m no hurry to upgrade, as for me they can take all the time they need.
Yea, it doesn’t make much sense. Should have launched at the same time worlwide.
Uh….Banjo Kazzoie and Conker back to nintendo. No Micro-Suavd
Iwata’s understanding of Western Gamers is wonderful as ever.
Indeed…
Our Lord expects it to sell about 2 Trillion units minus 1,823,509,000,000 units…
Translation: They want people to buy the old 3DS for holiday season before they eventually buy the new one…
Correct.
Iwata is actually pretty smart this time.
Nintendo wants us to buy up all the remaining 3ds systems before they give us the new ones! JK… maybe?
Yea, it’s actually screwed up what Iwata is doing. They want people to buy the old 3ds over this holiday, just so next year he can say, here’s the new 3ds! That is just morally wrong to intentionally screw people over like that. Bad business too. It really sounds like something Microsoft would do. I’m all for the new 3ds, I cant wait to get my hands on one. But they shouldnt be pushing thier old hardware on people this Christmas.
Its not like the new 3ds does anything highly amazing. Its a little messed up, but its not a new system like the wii, and wii u, or 3ds to DS,
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-KfkoQ0MqA]
This made me want a new Nintendo direct. I love his speech pattern It’s polite yet earnest.
so what I’m getting is they’re gonna release this after everyone has a 3ds and then alienate them all with the new release. cool.
He’s lying, its just a bullshit excuse. the reason why is because its holiday season and they are releasing all kinds of limited editions at this time in europe and US.
I would NEVER buy a limited edition old 3ds if there was a new one… it is just stupid.
yeah, I agree with you..
I really wish the 3DS XL version had face plates, I can’t even imagine returning to a normal sized 3DS.
If I have to wait until holiday season 2015 to enjoy good 3D on my 3DS games I’m going to be pissed off. This better come out in the Spring.
So what we will only get it once the 3DS starts doing shit out here? Back for like 1 day and already Iwata is fucking everything up. Anyone else notice that when Iwata was gone Nintendo was doing much better?
I don’t think ANY country can compete with Japan. The 3DS has pretty much met its limit in the U.S, at least, I don’t now about Europe.
People in the U.S get what they want when they want it, they don’t wait. Anyone from the U.S that wanted a 3DS definitely owns one by now.
No, the 3ds sales are still very strong in the U.S… The 3ds sales are stronger than Wii U sales in the U.S… And the Wii U is at about 20k a week here. So, i wouldn’t say the 3ds has reached it’s peak yet. It will probably sale another ten million units in the next 2-3 years. I feel confident the 3ds will come very close 100m in sales.
meh am not buying this
Aah, “Please understand.” How I’ve missed it…
But, are there any exclusive titles that will work only on the new 3DS? If not, then I don’t understand why it’s selling so good?
So far, I think it’s just the port of Xenoblade Chronicles from the Wii, but I’m sure there will be more as time goes on.
That’s pretty disappointing when you think about it. They’re continuing to sell Americans the outdated device simply because they haven’t sold enough of the outdated device to Americans.
Give us money please understand
Because we’re stupid & still don’t know Wii U is an HD upgrade, NOT a controller add-on. New 3DS would only confuse us Retail workers trying to explain to the consumer what it is.
Although…what if the name changes for us once we get it…? I mean Nintendo Has to know how simplified we need a system’s name to be, right? Seems like the only ones doing it right is Sony, lol.
You would think the holiday season would be the perfect time to release the new 3DS in other regions.
Problem with his theory is as time goes on, less people will buy 3ds’s because they know that the new 3ds is coming.
Then they should at least make the N3DS region-unlocked since Xenoblade is exclusive and people will want to import the console to play it, without having to buy another system to play the games they can get where they live.
I’ve heard that you can transfer data from the old 3DS to the New 3DS. Is this true?
Yes, it works similar to the Wii to Wii U transfer where, once you do it, you’re erasing everything on your original 3DS.
We have to wait us release to get this in Saudi Arabia.. come on Nintendo and separate our market.. We are in the same continent
snouts
It’s good, but it’s not right.
Having said that, a release leading up towards Christmas might jeapordise the Wii U, and Nintendo doesn’t want to compete against itself.
As long as it’s released shortly after the turn of the New Year, we shouldn’t fret. It would be backwards if the device was released mid-way, even towards the tail-end of next year.
All I hear out of Iwata’s mouth is blah blah fucking blah, excuses, blah blah blah!
PLEASE UNDERSTAND
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It needs a better Marketing strategy here in the states, calling it the “New Nintendo 3DS”, to the general public/parent that would be buying it, would not make them think its not just a “new” Nintendo 3ds that they already have and bought new before. As it stands (even if I hate that it is not here yet) It will not sale being called the “New Nintendo 3DS”
It was the same as with the Wii U, most consumers did not know the difference and need a better way of telling that it is the next step in the console, not just a redesign or an add on like thinking the Wii U was just a tablet for the Wii.
Maybe calling the “New Nintendo 3DS” something like “Nintendo 3DNext” would be enough, just something the average parent buying knows that it really is something different.
Maybe even renaming the Wii U to boost sales to, Wii2U or something…
If the New3ds has many non remakes that are good I would get it but if not I will just keep my 3ds and wait for the next gen handheld console.
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Why don’t you just make it REGION FREE SO WE COULD BUY IT FROM JAPAN!!!!! So you wouldn’t worry about those trivial stuffs.
The new 3DS looks like xbox because of the colored buttons.
Just saying.
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