But what about those of us who never cared about the second circle pad?
I never saw it as a necessary addition at all. While I wouldn't have hated it if it were there from the beginning, I'm not necessarily happy about the idea of needing some tacky add-on just to play some games.
What the original topic said here was just speculation. Who is to say that Nintendo won't come out with a redesign that will incorporate the second pad and then make games to work only for that 3DS? I don't buy the redesigns. All of the DS redesigns were worthless to me, and I never needed them.
I don't want to think that after getting a $250 handheld console that I'd be required to upgrade to be able to play games made for that same line of systems. I saw earlier that this Monster Hunter game is not the only place they're interested in incorporating it, I also saw something about them wanting to do it with MGS as well.
I'm not much of a third party gamer, but I could just see the new KH requiring it. =/
"Very few, if any games will require it and even few will be games worth getting."
And there they admit it. What games it will require that will be worth getting might not be an opinion we all share.
(You never wanted a DS lite
Joking, of course.
)
You said it right there. That word. Which one? 'Speculation.' This is speculation based on history and business logic, as well as what's being seen in the future. Nintendo, as a business, would not commit commercial suicide by releasing a 3DSX anytime soon. Christmas sales would be horrible and, at best, their stocks wouldn't change.
But... Let's entertain the 'what if' situation just for a bit. Let's say Nintendo announces at the September event that a 3DSX would be released... i don't know... November? Let's go with that. So it launches in November, alongside MH3 and the peripheral. We'll go best case scenario here and say that Nintendo didn't lose a bunch of stock and no one is really
too mad at them. Can we assume that 25-30% of games will require a second stick now? Maybe... But let's look a bit closer.
There are currently just over 5 million 3DS' in the world. Come november, even if a 3DSX was announced in a few days, that number will probably rise to at least 6 million. Do you honestly think that a developer would make a game that 6 million people can't play? Sure, a few people will buy the peripheral... And the 3DSX will get some sales... but the userbase is worse than a launch. No sane developer would hinder themselves that much, and they are likely to make the second pad optional. Not even MH3 requires it, and it's the game the add-on is being built for! It's being shown
right now that devs won't make a game with a small userbase, and that's not likely to change any time within the next year. So can we now assume that it will take a year or so before games start requiring it? Once again, maybe... But let's have an even closer look.
Imagine you're an informed gamer who is shopping for a 3DS. Nintendo won't stop selling the normal 3DS, at the worst until stocks run out, so you see two 3DS' for sale. One's the 3DS that we all know an love. Due to the redesign, it would have gotten a price drop. Say $150? Next to it you see the 3DSX. You've read up a lot about it online, and you know that it doesn't have too much enhancement, just a slightly longer battery life, better screen protection and the circle pad 2. It costs $200. So what are you going to do? You may or may not care about having the CP2, but $50 is a lot more... Especially in this economy. Heck, $20 would be. I'm not sure which one you would pick, but to many people the normal 3DS would just plain look like a better deal. So that means that for every 1 3DSX sold, at LEAST 1 3DS would be sold. By the time the 3DSX reached 1 million, the 3DS would be at 8 or 9. So does that mean we will start to see more exclusivity 2-3 years after the launch of the redesign? Maybe sales would pick up after Nintendo makes several exclusive games? Let's look down just a biiit more...
What Nintendo would have gone through pretty tough financial times pushing this 3DSX. Not only would they take a loss by dropping the price of the remaining 3DS units, as well as spend millions in marketing AGAIN, they would barely be making a profit from the new design. Adding a stronger battery and a second plastic circle would increase the costs by $10-15, and the amount of profit they would have to let stores have would be a slightly larger amount. Theres no way they could make a profit from the redesign alone; they would be stuck in the same situation as developers. While they might be able to push one team onto the job, most of the games would not force the redesign/addon. They simply would not be able to afford it. What does this mean? No more looking closely, I have the answer right here:
The 3DSX, or whatever the redesign would be called, would be about as forced as the DSI... While it can play certain games with extra features, very few games have them, let alone use them as a requirement. Risks costs money, and alienating the majority of the fanbase is one cost that
no developer can afford, whether they have luck left to heaven or not.
