Nintendo is a bit awkward: People need a handheld but may not buy 3DS

Nintendo is looking forward to the naked eye 3DS handheld - everyone needs a handheld, but now they find: people may need to handheld, but may not buy 3DS.

Nintendo CEO Iwatani is looking forward to the upcoming E3 Expo 2011 in early June.

On May 15, Nintendo Japan updated its official website to announce that the firmware update for the naked eye 3DS handheld will be postponed until June 7th. The update will add a variety of application functions such as "E-shop" and "web browser" to 3DS. Just three months ago, when the company launched the naked eye 3DS handheld, Iwata was also full of expectations: hope to set off a new round of sales frenzy like the Wii five years ago.

At first, everything did exactly what it wished: In 2 weeks, 3DS broke the record of sales of its predecessor NDS series in Japan with a sales volume of 584,000 units; the listed weeks in Europe and North America also broke previous records.

However, after one month in the market, the actual sales volume of 3DS and official expectations there is not a small gap. The company originally expected to sell at least 4 million 3DS at the end of the previous fiscal year, but as of April 30, the statistics showed that only 3.61 million units were sold.

3DS handheld hardware design flaws are the direct cause of some Nintendo 3DS users complained in some forums, when they put the latest 3DS in their pockets, the screen is extremely easy to be scratched, and believe that this is due to design flaws caused by the screen surface Leave a trace. This handheld's battery life has also been questioned. Nintendo explained: "Run 3DS games in a power-saving mode that turns off 3D effects and wireless communications and lowers screen brightness, and the battery life can be extended to over 8 hours."

The 3D feature that originally made Fans eager to try also encountered complaints. A website from the United Kingdom, MaxConsole, specifically collected tweets on Twitter about the symptoms of 3DS that caused users to experience eye fatigue and dizziness.

“3DS has participated in exhibitions held around the world. Thousands of players have experienced it and the symptoms of discomfort have hardly ever happened.” Nintendo UK Public Relations Manager Robert Saunders explained that some people are watching any 3D image (TV) , movies, etc.) will have a slight discomfort. "Our 3DS has a 3D adjustment slider, users can adjust the degree of 3D according to their own situation to achieve the best gaming experience." He said.

At the time of the announcement of the launch of the European version of the 3DS at the beginning of the year, Nintendo announced that the eShop, the 3DS online store, will be on-line at the same time. But soon, the company announced it "postponed to May." Now, it announces yet another delay until June.

The App Store also impacted Nintendo's traditional game business model.

Although Nintendo has a series of games that are very much in line with their own temperament, such as the popular Pokemon and Mario series, the self-produced, self-selling model leaves them with no relationship with third-party game developers. So intimate. According to VGC 2010 game data, Nintendo’s own games developed in the top 10 of NDS and Wii’s top-selling games in 2010 totaled 15 titles.

Third-party game developers often feel that they are "cold."

John Riccitiell, the global president of EA, a third-party vendor that supports 3DS, said in an interview with the European game media MCV that Apple itself does not make games. It supports third parties; Nintendo is more special, it is both hardware and games. "So it's difficult to have great third-party games on Nintendo's game platform." EA currently only sells two games for 3DS, and "My Garden," which was originally sold with 3DS, stopped development.

Cost is a barrier to the entry of small and medium-sized third parties into the 3DS platform.

Marvelous Entertainment, a publisher of games such as The Harvest Moon series and “Yong Cunzheng,” revealed that 3DS game development costs range from approximately 70 million yen (approximately US$860,000) to 150 million yen (approximately US$1.85 million). Between. This average development cost is below the PS3 and Xbox 360, but it is twice that of NDS. For games on the iOS platform, such investment is astronomical. The popular World of Angry Birds was initially used for only $100,000, but in March it reached a total of 100 million downloads since the end of 2009. The latest "Rio version" has more than 10 million downloads within 10 days of the game.

"If we develop a great game, the sales price is only 100 yen (about 1.24 US dollars), how much we need to sell to recover the cost? This figure is too crazy." 3DS project general manager Hidenoo Tree said. Nintendo pays more attention to the quality of the game than the price.

Fortunately, many diehards who recognize Nintendo culture are happy to buy it. "We are buying the first party" is their mentality. On April 21st, Nintendo's soul figure Miyamoto Shim was on the French website Gamesblog. In an interview with fr, Zheng solemnly announced: “I made a commitment and tried my best to try to meet the Super Mario 3DS version with players during the year.”

It sounds like, this company is saying: Hey, this is a naked eye 3D technology handheld, it supports online communication, you can also buy games online ... but now, it does not have much 3D games; usually you do not have to open 3D Functionality; Wait a few months and we will open an online store. In addition, a lobe with a higher D-pad cross key may damage your screen.

But let Nintendo not stop there.

In the Japanese market, the "old rival" Sony actually led and "killed" himself for the first time. The Japanese game magazine Enterbrain released a report saying that in the fiscal year 2010 that just ended, Sony PSP handhelds sold a total of 2.64 million units, ranking first in Japan's game consoles; PS3 consoles sold 1.4 million units. In contrast, the Nintendo NDS sold 2.52 million units, ranking behind the PSP; the Wii sold 1.39 million units, lagging behind the PS3 with a slight disadvantage.

Unlucky things keep happening. On April 24, in the United States, Apple started selling iPad2 through Toys R'Us. The toy store for kids is currently one of the Nintendo handhelds. The 3DS sells for $249.

“The tablet is an interesting 3C product that creates different gaming experiences, but the trend of this game is created by DS,” Iwata said. After all, NDS was the first to introduce a touch screen, “but compared to what we’re Never give up the arrow keys and control buttons when designing the game, because the keys help to develop more flexible games. But in reality the pure touch game is still very interesting and the market will continue to grow."

The market research company iSuppli predicts that 3DS will reach 11.6 million units worldwide this year. By 2015, 3DS' global sales volume will reach 70 million units. Competition between smartphones and tablet PCs will cause 3DS sales to fail to catch up with previous DS consoles. ; While the sales of NDS series consoles for the same period was 91 million units.

Nintendo has suffered a decline in performance for two consecutive years.

On April 25th, the company’s financial report showed that net profit for the fiscal year 2010 fell to 77.6 billion yen (approximately 947 million U.S. dollars) from 228.6 billion yen in the previous year, a drop of 66%. In addition, the company also revealed that its annual sales fell 29% to 1.014 trillion yen (about 12.4 billion US dollars).

Iwata concentrated his expectations on summer meetings on April 26 for investors and analysts. Iwata said: “We used to not market other Wii consoles with other companies. I feel very sorry now. The Wii's fate will now be different. I realize now that we can't rely too much on ourselves. When you see how Nintendo markets 3DS and future Wii consoles, you will understand what I mean."

Yes, they have to launch a new generation of Wii consoles.