Shareholder Chad
FORMER Nintendo Shareholder
That's interesting.
Humble opinion.
I think 3DS has been, at least, as big as a blunder for Nintendo as the WiiU was.
Sure, after the terrible launch and the price cut (that hurt them a lot financially as you correctly say) they managed to steer the wheel to some degree and the end-of-life hardware / software sales look somewhat decent (as opposed the WiiU).
Then again, putting in perspective three things makes it look worse:
Another thing to consider for why it would be considered "a gut-punch", is that apparently Nintendo when designing the 3DS operated under ther wrong assumption that they could somehow make an incremental upgrade that could cater to both their more experienced audience of players, as well as the new audience brought in with the DS.
- The growth trend of their handheld business since the original Gameboy, with every new console being more successful than its predecessor.
- Their leadership position in the handheld space, that was untouched even by Sony at its peak with the PSP.
- WiiU was competing with formidable direct competitors, expecially Sony with the PS4 got everything right. In comparison, the only direct competitor of 3DS was the PSVita (an even worse flop).
At the end, the 3DS design was sort of compromise bewtween the diverging expectations of these two groups and, as a result, it alienated a lot of players from both sides.
Although exactly the same reasoning could be applied to the WiiU, I think the 3DS launch was the first time they experienced this, and it could have been a sort of "wake up call".
Excellent points. One thing I want to mention is the difference between disappointment, failed expectations, and outright customer faith loss. This is subjective but most people I talk to did not feel "betrayed" by the Wii-U. They were betrayed by the 3DS. In Japanese culture, Honor is a big deal. I know American media likes to make light of it and make it out to be dramatic but its important to them. The Wii-U was a total miss. The 3DS was a betrayal of customer faith due to the launch and pivot. Instead of Nintendo doubling down on 3D and correcting that specific point of the 3DS they gave up and shoehorned 3D in for the rest of the generation after Super Mario 3D land. I can understand how some would think that was the correct move but I'd wager in context of Japanese culture it would have been better to "go down with the ship" and do their damn best to justify 3D. They sort of did this with the Wii-U. They kept at it even though the tablet gaming concept truely sucked.
Again, Lots of subjective talk here. I think opinions on this are very wide ranging.
doing my monthly mental health check in on the hardware thread users
I know you think that was probably funny but you can miss us with that. People are here communicating for a variety of reasons and most are capable of understanding internal changes as things develop and not letting it affect our day to day. Its okay to disappointed when hearing about delays or some kind of hardware addition/subtraction. It doesn't mean or hint anything as to the mental health outside the internet.