Nintendo 3DS
 

Nintendo held a conference today to announce some more details regarding their new handheld.

The most important being that it launches in Japan Feb 26th, and in Europe/States in March of 2011. The price has only been set for Japan, but with conversion works out to about 300 bucks.

Demo reel of some of the games


Some of the features of the 3DS





Two colors launching in

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Looks very neat. Since I just got an XL I think I'm going to wait until next Christmas. There may be a price drop/trade in offer available then.

I just hope a Pokemon game doesn't come out before that...I would be very tempted.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Well this is one of the reasons always assumed 3DS would come out next year, because we haven't got Pokemon Black/White yet, and I assume PokeMon Gray (or whatever they end up calling it) will be an 3d enhanced version of Black/White the year after

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

If it's just the third black/white game, that wouldn't be a killer app for me, could definitely wait to get that...I never bought Platinum either.

I am really surprised by how nice a lot of these 3DS games look though. And a GameBoy virtual console? That's a killer app.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I really don't want one of these, but did I see Monkey Ball in that video? :)

I'm curious if the device can finally render both screens in 3D, since they seemed hesitant to show the second screen, and when they did, it was 2D. Though, as usual, Nintendo really isn't trying to push the hardware boundaries, so hopefully the battery life is good.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

We've known since e3 that the 2nd screen wasn't 3D.

And yeah a lot of support, new and old.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Easily fits in your purse or men's carry-all.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

People actually play their hand-held game consoles on the go? I thought everyone just stayed home on the couch like me. :)

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I think Gekko means 3D graphics as in polygons?
But the DS already had that with some games.

Or if you really meant optical 3D, no the 3DS doesn't have 2 3D screens.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

More stuff

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I did mean 3D, as in polygons, not stereoscopic 3D. The DS couldn't render both screens as 3D, and I'm kind of curious if they changed that in the 3DS. The games you're thinking of actually just alternated rendering top/bottom, so you only saw every other frame.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I'll get one once it has been hacked. They put an SD card slot into the machine. Nintendo done fucked up now. That shit will be hacked in a a month at the most.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Nice attitude there.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Whatever half of those games were smaller less graphically intense versions of games you've already played. They're gonna release them at 40 to 50 dollars and be like "here is oot just smaller and mybe with a new quest" sure ill spend my money on a game I've already bought 10 imes now. Or let me spend my hard dearned dough on useless shovelware some more.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

The alternative would be, not to play the games you already bought like 10 times.

And I could be mistaken, but so far the only remakes are StarFox, Zelda, Street Fighter and Snake Eater.

Either way, I agree with Angrist.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I understand sly's point. There's a few games that I'd like to test out prior to dishing half a hundred, only to find out that games of 'flagship quality' are supposedly new 6 years after the fact. That goes for 1st and 3rd party offerings. I'm not slighting Nintendo....the game industry is what it is. But!, I don't feel obliged to bottleneck my gaming experience after paying X amount for the hardware+ the fact that ninty is going to release a 3ds with improved battery life/updated internal memory/etc. They always do that, and it's marketing strategy from before the consoles are released.
I don't respect that. Sure, attitude. I believe in supporting creative industries, but I'm also just a student who has been around the gaming industry long enough to recognize shoddy control schemes and dumbed down virtual worlds. There's nothing more self sodomizing than dishing out $ on a game that promises an experience that it can't deliver simply because exec's cap a budget at..."the kids will love it" levels. This isn't much of an issue to me really, because I don't play more than an hour's worth of gaming per week. But when I do game I don't pretend like it's okay to excuse the kind of crappy games that have constructed 90% of the titles for both the wii and ds. I've continually bought Nintendo consoles and I don't pirate their software, so I feel entitled to the opportunity of ensuring I'm not pissing away my money the way game industry bigwigs piss on the consumer by rehashing the past.
Theriously, the internet is different now than when amazon.com came to exist. Same goes for gaming. Industry has to adapt to a changing market(plus a crippled international economy). Want my business, better make your game not only polished from a finished product perspective, but also from the creative groundwork which offers something beyond the 'dynasty warriors' effect.


That said, the sleepmode 24/7 connect features are obviously part of Ninty's strategy of addressing piracy. I'll buy a 3ds, but probably after the first price drop. Or, possibly once the 3ds 2nd edition is released. $300+ for a handheld + game expenses requires that I 'demo' check a title before purchasing. Hopefully nintendo sets up an extensive demo dlc system.

As far as remakes go, I have yet to play MGS, SSFIV, and Starfox. For myself the term 'remake' applies more directly to the multi-faceted aspects of a game, not just the general concept/title. If a game was released 10 years ago and is being ported/remade for a new system...I'll buy it if it's up to my standards...
Piracy IMO hasn't stunted game development as much as the industry has wailed. Capcom and it's press about not releasing SSFIV on the PC due to the rate of piracy. Fuck that. It sold well on the PC. PC release date was July 09. SSFIV was released April 10 I believe. So I'm in the market for a fighting game. I love Street Fighter games. Will I put down 40 bucks cdn for a game copy that doesn't have the roster updates+ just because Capcom knew they could get more money out of a stand alone expansion pack? That noise is the reason why people will pirate a game.
I want to play SSFIV badly. I'll probably get it for the 3ds, but I wanted it for the PC for obvious reasons.

Piracy excuses are, for the most part, a bottom-line pout by the industry because they're pigeoned by bloated executive payrolls.
I love how the technology is now here to create worlds like in Just Cause 2. The potential is there. The development money needs to be rethought. It's like education funding. do you cut education funding or do you exercise 'preventative' measure by acknowledging the importance of education for overall societal functionality. The chicken or the egg, sure Nintendo.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

With the existence of the internet and the availability of resources about a given game - reviews, trailers, gameplay videos (and these are becoming -very- long now days), images, faqs, wikis, demos, etc, saying you bought a game without realizing it was bad is nonsensical.

I personally don't pirate things. I used to a long time ago, but then I realized several things:

1. I never got the same enjoyment out of a pirated item
2. In the case of a lot of software (maybe not so much games), there are free and open source alternatives. Actually there are a lot of free games out there.
3. It really is stealing. Either own up to it and admit your doing something wrong and continue to do it, or just stop. Trying to make it sound like you're a philosophical and moral rogue warrior is just silly.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

My time is important to me. I don't rely much on reviews for the feedback that I personally need. Of course I check the reviews out, i'm almost ocd when it comes to consumer reviewing. Free games mostly suck, relative to my gaming expectations.

There's a difference between watching/listening to a guy talk about a game experience(reviews, videos, etc) and actually feeling the game's mechanics for oneself. that's why PC games have been relatively good about offering demos of some quality. It doesn't mean I'll sacrifice the overall experience by playing a pirated game through to the end. It means if I'm satisfied with the 'demo-ing' then I will gladly drop the cash for the full deal. Just because console game dev is in its own little world of relying on ignorant parent spending for children doesn't mean squat when it comes to my gaming.
Money incentives for an honesty/dishonesty paradigm isn't something I'll subscribe to. I'll buy into that once the world turns inside out and game development departs from the hollywood B slump that the majority of titles are in.
Philosophical and moral rogue warrior? please



I love the idea of the 3ds being an ebook.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Well, see this pirating is generalized to the 3DS/DS, but I'm talking about in general.

Aside from the Wii, almost every console/handheld allows you in some fashion to test run games before you buy them. So no you won't be pissing away money if you do your research on it ahead of time.

And if you really want to be safe, there are rental sites like GameFly where you can try before you buy.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Meh and I respect the game industry, and all that jazz however, they're still terrible people.

The handheld market is by far the worst.

And yes, I'm pirating a tiny handheld game that could have been digitally distributed and trialed before I spent money on it and the price could have been lower due to direct distribution.

And to be honest if a game was good on the ds I usually bought it.

Both prof layton games, pokemon diamond, magical starsign, and pso portable or whatever were all bought.

Also I've been burned by too many video game reviews. Especially for the ds, as I usually read reviews before I even wasted time downloading the roms.

Yes I pirate (everything except 360 and ps3) and yeah it's pretty wrong to an extent. Just about as wrong as the price you have to pay for video games.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Here's the disconnect.

Video games are entertainment. They are not needed or necessary. No one is forcing you to play a game so there's no reason to pirate it. No matter what excuses you make.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

The disconnect is people think they're entitled to get everything digital for free. Everything else just spawns from there.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

^Mainly because digital downloads are not a tangible theft.




*I'd watch the whole thing, but if you wanna get to where I'm referencing, go to around 8:50

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

You're not stealing something physical, like when you would steal money. But if you're downloading games, you'll spend less money on new games. So in the end: yes you are stealing money. Maybe not the full price of every game, but at least part of it.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Lol you guys are funny. You defend companies who refuse to change when there's a better, less expensive way to distribute and sell their products.

The second the nes was emulated on a pc is the second that companies should have tried to chqnge the formula. The second that broadband went global is the second they should have started looking into serious digital distro.

Piracy illegal? Yeah maybe. Going to stop? Not really. Instead of increasing prices in tough economic times try to decrease them for fuck's sake.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

When I buy games, or think about games in general, I rarely think of the big publishers as "making them".

I think of the individual studios responsible for actually creating the game. Lets consider for a second that the leaders of every major publishing company is corrupt and evil (which I don't buy at all, only one I would put in that category is Bobby Kotick), do you really think that applies to the studios, which are really just small businesses?

Also, I really believe that the industry wishes it could go to a all digital distribution method. It would cut down on their production costs, and would probably increase sales since it would be easier for people to push a button and buy something. Why do you think Xbox Arcade, Steam, and Wii Ware exists? They want to use that technology.

But they can't. A -lot- of people don't want to buy their stuff that way. They want to have a real physical copy. Some people -can't- buy their stuff that way: either no internet or their connections are on slow DSL or dial up.

So, the obvious solution is to offer both, which a lot of companies do. But they can't sell the digital ones cheaper than the retail copies, because then retail stores would start refusing to sell their products since they are being undercut and having sales stolen from the digital market.

You can't just say everyone in the industry are "terrible people". For one, that just isn't true, unless you've gone around and met everyone in the video game industry. Being a business owner and wanting to profit doesn't make you a bad person.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Not surprising:

http://www.1up.com/news/3ds-prevent-...matic-firmware

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

What if you never configure your Wifi to get online at all? I would hate to be forced to always be connected.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

You aren't sticking to one point at all.

I don't think this conversation has ever been about digital distribution.

And are you saying that DD would stop content from being pirated? I'm not sure your point here to be honest.

At the end of the day, you pirate games. You are trying to justify why you do it, and none of the reasons work.

Like I said before, games aren't a necessity, if you don't like the way business is handled. Don't buy or play the games. To say this is wrong with the industry or I got burnt this way, does not justify pirating people's software.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Vamp, you should know that those measures won't stop piracy.

3ds will be cracked eventually.

Earl: fight the system man. Do whatever you can to fuck the system in her dirty whore parts. Piracy won't stop, so join us.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Neither will violent crimes.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Who says I'm not down with those too?

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I am SOOOO Buying a 3DS, I hope to see a heavy amount of online capabilities. Lineup is looking very strong thus far. :)

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Someone did notice that most of the launch games are either remakes, ports or sequels. Not much original stuff yet.
I'd love to dive into Miyamoto's next franchise.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

http://vgtribune.com/3ds-battery-sof...ls/#more-21498
Some details emerge.

Only 3-5 hours battery life for 3DS games. :( I was hoping for something more than 10...

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Nintendo seems to making a lot of mistakes with this, especially if the price turns out to be about 300 bucks as the Japanese counterpart.

That said, the games aren't looking bad:



Kid Icarus... skip to around 18 minute mark for game play





Resident Evil











[IMG]http://www.true-gaming.net/tgupload/images2/Dw9Br5zv18WK495ccY7La7Meq5rQ9ce1.jpg[/IMG

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

I don't worry too much about the price, because they can always drop it when it doesn't sell good enough.
But the battery life... 3-5 hours. :( It's tempting to wait for the newer model.

Kid Icarus looks good. :) They took elements of Star Fox, Sin & Punishment, Batallion Wars and Zelda.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Being cynic, the 3DS really does scream Nintendo just kind of building the first one so they can release an updated version with better battery life and cheaper price in a year.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

It could be a good long while before I get this, and it'll probably end up being the first handheld or console of which I don't own the original model.

Re: Nintendo 3DS
 

Hopefully the launch is a dissappointment so ninty will be forced to release their trickle line of superior hardware sooner. Plus the handheld isn't going to be region free? Lost my purchase.