A new Nintendo 3DS called “New Nintendo 3DS” and “New Nintendo 3DS LL” were announced in the Japanese Nintendo Direct this morning. The handheld includes a built in circle pad pro (looks kind of like a laptop nub) and includes ZL and ZR buttons, faster internals, NFC reader for Amiibo support, and if interpreted correctly enhanced 3D viewing (angle?). The price given at the end of the direct is 16000 ($154) yen for New 3DS and 18800 yen for New 3DS LL ($180). I swore up and down I wasn’t going to buy any new 3DS models, but I never thought they would upgrade the unit to run faster. Some of these changes indicate to me Nintendo is admitting they made some mistakes.
Your thoughts?
My chiefest concern has come up in the past when this discussion about alternate 3DS builds were spinning around with the release of the Circle Pad Pro; What is Nintendo’s angle with this? In my opinion this is going to go one of two ways:
1) Nintendo releases software that all but require a new system to play, splintering the market. If not officially, then the software is somehow hindered by playing on an original device IE performance is extremely poor, controls are difficult without the nub, or gameplay limited without utilizing amibos.
2) There is no third party support for this new 3DS, and what Nintendo does release is ho hum or nonexistent at all, rendering the new release moot. Not owning a Circle Pad Pro myself, I can only think of a handful of games that utilized the device.
Obviously I am not going to discount this as we have little to no information right now, but color me extremely pessimistic. Personally I thought Nintendo would have reserved some of these ideas and features for whatever their next hardware platform would be, not a 3DS iteration.
We will have to wait and see.
The Stinger thinks you think too much. The Stinger says their angle is $$$$.
Of course they want $$$, but in this day and age they make money on software more so than hardware. I think it’s good that they are breaking the traditional console lifecycle by iterating rather than building from scratch. The real key here will be marketing and how the transition is handled in terms of time and alienating existing hardware.
The Stinger thinks they make a killing on hardware in Japan, which is where this was announced. The Stinger also thinks this is a minimal upgrade, and that Nintendo does this with every console and handheld. The Stinger thinks there won’t be any transitioning because it’s still just a 3DS. The Stinger thinks it was more cost effective for Nintendo to make a few little improvements to their already existing product and reel in all those fan-boys that love the latest and greatest same old thing. Also the Stinger doesn’t care because it doesn’t have Sting.
– Love Sting
The Stinger forgot to mention that Nintendo does not have a big Holiday 2014 presence, other than the Smash Brothers which may or may not come out this year. The Stinger thinks they needed something “new” and fresh on the shelves for all those little fan-boys when November/December rolls around.
The Stinger totally just read elsewhere that the new Xenoblade game will only work with the “new” 3DS thanks to its faster CPU…
The Stinger thinks that if they start releasing new games that only work with the new 3DS that he’ll be pretty upset considering he just bought a 3DS XL like 2 months ago.
The Stinger is lonely…
-Sting
Dear Bee Ass,
You should enjoy your back catalog of almost 4 years and quit your bitching.
Regards,
Webmaster Bader
The Stinger wants to know if “Webmaster” is your in-ring persona?