Nintendo shares slump...
Hi Folks,
I see that Nintendo's share price has slumped after poor results and luke warm sales of the 3DS console.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14337301
Although I am not DS gamer, having used a DSi XL for a few weeks now (for ZXDS) I would say that this news does not surprise me. IMHO opinion there are simply too many "restrictions" associated with the DS for today's market. For exmaple:
Don't get me wrong, my DSi XL does exactly what I wanted from it i.e. run ZXDS and my own code.
Ah well... just my 5c.
Paddy
I see that Nintendo's share price has slumped after poor results and luke warm sales of the 3DS console.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14337301
Although I am not DS gamer, having used a DSi XL for a few weeks now (for ZXDS) I would say that this news does not surprise me. IMHO opinion there are simply too many "restrictions" associated with the DS for today's market. For exmaple:
- You cannot move images between the DS and PC easily. If they are altered on a PC or created off the DS then they are not supported.
- Multi-media support (music, film etc.) is poor.
- The browser is a joke.
- Nintendo should embrace the homebrew market - bring out their own "AceKard" equivalent so people can consolidate games on to one cartridge (legally).
- Lack of serious software for the DS. It is a great little games machine but why no serious applications? The DS form factor makes for a great little PDA type device.
- Make some form of simple development environment available so people can write their own games/utilities.
Don't get me wrong, my DSi XL does exactly what I wanted from it i.e. run ZXDS and my own code.
Ah well... just my 5c.
Paddy
Post edited by Paddy Coleman on
Comments
As someone who used to be a strong supporter of Nintendo since their Game & Watch series, I can only say I'm disappointed at how their European management has been driving their company to the ground.
The most important thing is that they have stopped customers using it for its full potential. By doing that they have lost the competition to those unlockable smartphones.
A second serious problem was that 3DS is marketed as an improved DS with 3D. My eyes can't handle 3D very well, so there's no point for me to upgrade.
I've bought 5 DS (for me and the rest of my family), but I have no plans buying the new upgrade. I don't support companies that try to reduce my rights as a consumer, even if I liked Nintendo very much. :cry:
I think Nintendo should realise that they cannot continue "promoting" their not-very-good management to their European counterparts.
Sack them.
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
Yes, the profit slump and drop in share price is worrying in the short term, but Nintendo don't think like that. Wii U will boost profits again, and it will remain one of the most profitable companies per employee in the world. And look at Sony's figures, it too made a huge loss in the last quarter.
That's probably a bad sign.
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
When your average man is only 10 years old it's definitely time to start worrying...
Seriously though, I agree Timmy. The DS in all flavours is seen as a child's entertainment toy. Look at the titles available and you'll see the majority are pegi rated +3(!) or +12. I think this is a serious underestimation of the formats capability by very lazy tie-in developers.
I can only think of 1 +18 rated title. GTA - Chinatown Wars. Are there any others?
The attempted DRM tiedown by the N'corporation has not helped matters. As Paddy mentioned, don't bother trying to display you PC generated images, or even editing your DS generated pictures PC-side and expect your Nintendo software to want to play. Forget using your DS with an additional memory card to try and access your MP3 format music - as it won't.
This is sounding like a format bash - and it is, I guess. But only to make the following point more forcefully.
Despite all the crapness - I LOVE my DSi XL.
Yes, I'm only using if for homebrew. Yes, I've gone NOWHERE NEAR the official gaming market - doesn't matter though. ALL of the drawbacks that I've listed above (and most by other thread contributors) have been addressed/circumvented by a very lively and healthy homebrew scene, that have developed their own killer apps, and have, in my opinion, recognised what a truly astounding piece of hardware the DS really is.
A missed opportunity only for the Nintendo Corp.
ZXDS is a standout amongst the crowning achievements of the Homebrew scene for me. To be able (as I did recently) to go on holiday with my Speccy games collection at hand was a real bonus.
G.
Oooh, I can have an image as my backdrop on the upper screen. Right, I will copy a picture of a Spectrum from my PC. Nope - it did not work.
Then... what a neat idea a built in browser. Tried it - so slow and keeps running out of memory. I know, I will pop an SD card in to give it some additional space. Nope - it did not work.
You get the picture here...
None of the above are probably important to the average "10 year old man in the street" but they were a shock to me. :smile:
Paddy
I just don't get 3D. Both my daughters (20 and 14 years) have 3DS. Once you get over the initial "wow" it gets used as a traditional DSi from what I can see. The new joystick is nice and the wider screen (not kind to ZXDS though) but that is about it. The 3DS could have been so much more - a serious multi-media web enabled device that happens to have 3D as well.
Paddy
But people don't buy Nintendo consoles for a multimedia experience. Their consoles are purely for games. And this is where they've gone wrong with the 3DS, there simply aren't any good quality games (not counting re-hashes).
In Japan, they've slashed the price of a 3DS by a third with Europe set to follow suit.
I understand that Rebelstar. My point is that Nintendo should have seen what was happening in the wider market and broadended the appeal of the console.
Paddy
If I was in charge I'd bundle an R4 card pre loaded with ZXDS :D
My 12-year old sons lost interest in the DS and PSP long ago. They used to love the PSP but always said it was too noisy. When the 3D DS came out, their reaction was "Meh...".
Not even the Xbox 360 or Wii-U can make them happy now. By my calculations I would need a 5000USD Gaming PC to make them happy. :o But since they know I can't afford it, they keep using their old Wii and XPS 410. :)
Like most here, after a simple purchase costing me less than ?2, plus a cheap microSD card I have my portable Spectrum and a few DS homebrew titiles to play with. I agree, Nintendo did miss a trick. They didn't have to fully embrace the pirate scene of course, but to enable a bit of modification by the user, some flexibility in terms of what will natively run on the console, and they would have had a much better console on their hands.
I bought mine, a DS Lite, second hand earlier this year. I have no interest in buying a 3DS, or a DSi. Maybe a DSXL one day, purely for the larger screen, but I find the screen I have fine for ZXDS.
The problem is that mobile phones now have the processing power, visual capability, interactivity to rival Nintendo. They are all more open to developers and creative freedom than Nintendo, even compared with Apple, who are as tight as a nat's chuff as far as openness goes.
What Nintendo should have done years ago, was give the DS calling capabilities, an developer framework and API, and an app store to publish the apps on. They should have saw this comming as soon as Apple opened their app store in 2008.
Also people don't want to buy game cards now when they can instantly download them on their phones at far less cost and effort than going out and paying aprox ?20+ for a game.
The 3D effects are also kind of "meh". You get as much 3D perception if you just close one eye when playing on a 2D system.
Sorry to be blunt, but that is a load of utter b*ll*cks. To back that up I've just tried it out on my 3DS and my daughters DSLite.
I think the 3DS will eventually catch on, but probably won't sell DS numbers. I believe it's sold more in it's short life span than the original DS did though. The games library whilst pretty strong is simply too small at the moment. Ironically, Street Fighter 4, PES 2011 and Ocarina are probably the best handheld games I've played!
I like the web browser too. It took me a little while to get used to but with the two screens it's as good to use as an iPhones browser.
I'm glad a few people have mentioned this. I was given a DS for xmas about 3 yrs ago and have hardly used it but not for want of trying, I just can't find any games that appeal to me despite sifting through racks and racks of them in various shops...Tiger Woods golf is the only one I've really come back to more than once.
I'd disagree, there are a lot of good games out there. Alright, it's never going to play host to gore and guts in huge numbers, but if you want solid gameplay in portable form then the DS has more to offer than the PSP.
I'm surprised that Nintendo will now be making a loss on each 3DS sold, it seems like bad strategy unless the sales pick up dramatically. Of course they still make a decent chunk on each cartridge sold, and the mark-up on a downloaded Virtual Console game vs. a downloaded ROM in an emulator is also considerable...
The DS has loads of great games!
I should have pointed out that I'm not a modern gamer anyway - I don't play games on any system apart from emulated versions on my DS and PC. Since the original PlayStation games, I've slipped further adrift from modern consoles. You're probably much better placed to comment, as I was just saying it how I thought I saw it.
Although it's obviously taken a back-seat to the Pandora now, I still drag it out from time to time.
I'll consider a 3DS when I can run pirated ROMs on it, and not before.
D.