36 replies to this topic

[Reversal]

I know that this is too early to ask this questioh but when do you guys think that Nintendo will talk about/announce their next handheld system? I want to know everyone's thoughts on this.

Edited by Reversal, 12 January 2014 - 08:31 PM.

[Guy Fieri]

I think the 3DS will have a 6 or 7 year run (around the same time or possibly less than the DS), so at latest, I think the console would be released in anywhere between 2017 and 2019. As for the time it's announced, I'd guess a year before or the same year as the dates I'm guessing.

[Zinix]

I think the 3DS will have a 6 or 7 year run (around the same time or possibly less than the DS), so at latest, I think the console would be released in anywhere between 2017 and 2019. As for the time it's announced, I'd guess a year before or the same year as the dates I'm guessing.

The 3DS will not last like the DS did. The only reason why the DS last as longer as it did was because smartphones and apple didn't exist/ weren't mainstreamed as they are now. In reality, the 3DS has a 240p screen, graphics are that aging very fast, etc.  Nintendo can't keep having these long generations with their tech is clearly inferior to whats on the marketplace. 

[TheDoctor_13]

Late 2015 or more likely 2016 we might hear something.

[Raiden]

As long as it's selling like it is  and has no signs of slowing down in 4-5 years from now. People say Tablets and Smartphones but seems by the way 3DS sells there is a genuine market for it and given sales Nintendo only one who can provide a very different experience. I don't have a smartphone and likely never will(can't afford the monthly and rarely use my tablet anyhow) I would never game on one of those as handhelds are dedicated and to me the experience can't be beat. Nintendo handhelds are thier own market. Not the same as phones because of what they offer. Unlike consoles visuals on a handheld matter much less. 90% of what's out there DS can run as it's mostly 2d games. Tablets for many is replace every 15 months like a phone. Suprisingly 3DS is outpacing DS. I'm sure it won't out sell it since at one point Wii outpaced PS2. Ended up 60mill short. Unlike tablets and phones every 3ds owner has it for games. Most talet and phone owners are not playing games and the ones that do are playing candy crush even if it can showcase soe impressive 3D engine...most don't care. It's not the PC or Console market where that matters much much much more.

[lucario23]

The 3DS will not last like the DS did. The only reason why the DS last as longer as it did was because smartphones and apple didn't exist/ weren't mainstreamed as they are now. In reality, the 3DS has a 240p screen, graphics are that aging very fast, etc. Nintendo can't keep having these long generations with their tech is clearly inferior to whats on the marketplace.

You know it's funny. Every time the smartphone argument gets brought up Nintendo just proves them wrong. I think the 3DS will last at least as long as the DS because the DS created a genuine market for games where the Wii was more of a gimmick. The 3DS is selling like hot cakes because this market wants the next gen of the DS stuff. I'd say 2018 will be around the time we get a new console. We got the 3DS in 2011 so that's a 7 year lifespan. The Library is all you need to look at to know the 3DS has a lot of life in it. The second wave of games were just released this past year. We've got at least 2 more big waves of games before the 3DS shows age and 3 before we get to its successor.

[Zinix]

You know it's funny. Every time the smartphone argument gets brought up Nintendo just proves them wrong. I think the 3DS will last at least as long as the DS because the DS created a genuine market for games where the Wii was more of a gimmick. The 3DS is selling like hot cakes because this market wants the next gen of the DS stuff. I'd say 2018 will be around the time we get a new console. We got the 3DS in 2011 so that's a 7 year lifespan. The Library is all you need to look at to know the 3DS has a lot of life in it. The second wave of games were just released this past year. We've got at least 2 more big waves of games before the 3DS shows age and 3 before we get to its successor.

Pleease. lol. Smartphones take up a large amount of the handheld market than Sony does. At this point you could even say Nintendo is going head to head with Smartphones. You have one side that is constantly advancing and upgrading every two years and you have another side that has tech that is from at least 2008 and aren't even selling the main focus point anymore (3D). The 00s is a different era than the 10s. Nintendo had no competition until maybe when Sony arrived on the scene, but while the PSP was a success, it still couldn't stop the juggernaut that is the DS. 

 

The 3DS is carrying on what was considered revolutionary in 2004-2005. Its 2014 now, touch pens are obsolete. Using your finger to swipe and move stuff around is more modern. Nintendo could of done great things with Pushmo and Mario if they went with finger touching instead of the stupid pen.  The 3DS does have a library, but you can support a system for so long until the audience gets sick of the aging tech and gimmick that isn't even used anymore. 

 

Nintendo can't afford to stay supporting a handheld till 2018. Its simply ludicrous, they aren't the only ones in the market anymore.  

[Auzzie Wingman]

I think they will announce their next handheld very soon.

 

It will be something silly like a Wii U add-on or yet another Pikachu pedometer.

[Raiden]

Nintendo is rich and won't stop support anytime soon and there is a reason they use resistive. After all capacitive works so well for Sony and they are so well off as a company.

Using older tech and spinning it for decades has worked for them and all along people have narrow mindedly said how they can't do what they do because it's not the most advanced and that argument is more antiquated than Mickey Rooney.

 

Nintendo is always doing it wrong people say and they been doing it wrog since 1982 and somehow do very well for always doing the wrong thing. The ones people always claim are doing it right are in financial hurt or just flat bleeding money.

[TheDoctor_13]

The 3DS is carrying on what was considered revolutionary in 2004-2005. Its 2014 now, touch pens are obsolete. Using your finger to swipe and move stuff around is more modern. Nintendo could of done great things with Pushmo and Mario if they went with finger touching instead of the stupid pen.  The 3DS does have a library, but you can support a system for so long until the audience gets sick of the aging tech and gimmick that isn't even used anymore. 

So then how come the S-Pen is so popular right now? And the reason why Note users look down upon other phones? Because the pen will always be more acurate. I know I'm compaing apps vs games here, but the point remains the same. Pushmo controlled by fingers? That seems like a gimmich. Even as smartphone games get more advanced, their still kinda gimicky and not as put together as Pokemon, or Zelda. And if finger controll is so popular, wheres the Vita's popularity?

[Auzzie Wingman]

The Vita's popularity has nothing to do with finger controls. It has everything to do with affordability.

 

There are a lot of people who want to play the Vita, but the pricing for it is too high for them. For what it is, the Vita is a nice, powerful piece of machinery.

[Raiden]

^ Vita is the same price as 3ds XL 3g model doesn't exist anymore. Just the Wifi

[Auzzie Wingman]

You're not factoring in memory cards or game purchases, or cheaper 3DS models into that.

[Raiden]

Touche. I think I paid 40$ for an 8GB when I got mine. I will say using the touch in gameplay is often for something resisitive would have been better esp the symbols in Dragons Crown. The capacitive seems nicer navigating menus. The rear touch is pretty much useless to me as I never use it.

[grahamf]

Nintendo is rich an The ones people always claim are doing it right are in financial hurt or just flat bleeding money.

THIS.

 

Both Microsoft and Sony are losing money on their consoles and depending on selling games and accessories to make up the difference.

The Vita, while more powerful than the 3DS, simply is not as popular.

And on the smartphone side, only Apple is definitely making a profit. Samsung takes up 90% of Android sales while the rest have razor-thin profits, if they aren't hemorrhaging money.

 

No matter what you think about Nintendo, it's clear that they are in no hurry to change their strategy (and have plenty of time to do so if someday they realize they have to)

[Mewbot]

Once the 3DS has 80 - 100 million sold.

[Tricky Sonic]

I don't think we will hear anything until around 2016 - with a launch around the 2017/2018 holiday season. Nintendo already admitted it's being worked on and that its not part of the DS family. So it could be sooner, but why bother when the 3DS is currently their main cash cow?

[TheUltimateWaddleDee]

Didn't Steamworld Dig and Gunman Clive sell much more on 3DS than Smartphones/Tablets? When games are on both platforms, they've done better on the 3DS. The 3DS uses a resistive screen with a stylus because it is more accurate than a capacitive screen. That was one of the larger complaints about the Vita version of Virtue's Last Reward.

As for when I think there will be a new handheld, probably from 2016-2017.

[BrosBeforeGardenTools]

Before the end of the world.

[Azure-Edge]

I'm going to go out on this one and say no sooner than 2017. People bring up smart phones all the time but by that same logic then home consoles are being destroyed too since phones sell more. Fact of the matter is people who game on their smart phones are not necessarily people who ever gamed on handhelds. There's the smartphone/tablet gamers (moms, old people, small children, etc.) and then there are handheld gamers (usually varying again from kids to people in their late twenties). 

 

All that aside I don't think we'll be seeing the 3DS go anywhere at least for the time being on account of a few reasons.

 

1) It's taking names and kicking ass right now. People don't like to admit it but the 3DS has been the hottest thing for a while now and it doesn't look to be stopping any time soon. For the past few months it was the highest selling gaming device in America, beating out both the PS3 and 360. In America, that's quite the achievement. In Japan, it's pretty much the 3DS dominating everything with the Vita occasionally popping out its head to say hello. The 3DS is the Japanese system of choice and there is very little indication of that changing.

 

2) The Wii U is currently bombing; it's slowly recovering but it's still in dire straits all the same with a very uncertain future. This goes hand in hand with the above part. Nintendo NEEDS a good source of income, especially if they're going to turn the Wii U's fortunes around. The 3DS is providing their income and doing it well which means there is very little incentive for them to replace it at least until the Wii U has begun to bring in money. 

 

3) Japanese developers, and this might just be the biggest part. Anyone who knows anything about handhelds knows that in Japan they are king, unlike consoles. Handhelds resonate with the Japanese audience and have only grown in popularity every since HD consoles came in to being. If anything handhelds have become more and more relevant to the industry. Need proof? Think about this, a handheld Resident Evil was better received and more loved by fans than a console Resident Evil that was given a FAR bigger budget. This happened to the point that the handheld game was ported to consoles and console gamers rejoiced. Yeah, console gamers were ecstatic about a handheld port. Think about that for a second.

 

Handhelds have also resonated with many Japanese developers who prefer affordable non-HD game development which gives them the freedom to try new things. Ever wonder why The World Ends With You was on the DS instead of the PS3? That's why. In fact many new beloved series from Japanese developers have now begun on handhelds such as Professor Layton. I have no doubt that as time goes on, more and more Japanese developers are going to be looking to handhelds as their preferred platforms for main ideas (Just look at Bravely Default. Two generations ago that would have been a console game on the PS2.) It's not just cheap budget games either. Monster Hunter is the biggest game series in all of Japan and it is known predominantly as a handheld game.

 

So what does all this have to do with the 3DS you ask? Well because the 3DS is most likely the last 'non-HD' handheld but it has the power of at least the Gamecube if not more in certain areas. This means that for a lot of devs, the 3DS' visual fidelity is a nice sweet spot. They can design really interesting characters and worlds while not having to put in the budget needed for HD development. They can create games with the visual flare of Resident Evil Revelations or the simplicity of Bravely Default. The 3DS also supports modern features developers like such as the e-shop and online gaming. This means that for the budget conservative developer, the 3DS offers a lot of the perks of modern gaming without demanding the mandatory high fidelity graphics. This goes for Nintendo as well who, as we've seen, is stumbling with HD development at the moment. 

 

You add all of these things up, and it makes me think the 3DS will have decently long life cycle. At least as much as the DS.