The 3DS is approaching its 2 year anniversary on March 27. In anticipation, I felt that I should speak on the state of the hand held 2 years later.
When the 3DS first started it showed promise of a hand held that can truly show off great games. After the launch time period 3DS had a huge hurdle, the high price and lack of compelling games created a perception that showed Nintendo was going to have an uphill battle. We all know content is what drives hardware sales and the 3DS had its fare share of post launch issues. Something changed within Nintendo, a few months after, they decided to lower the price and give gamer's what they wanted the most, games. Nintendo has given us some of the best games seen on a portable. Games like Super Mario Land, Zelda Ocarina of time, Starfox, Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil Revelations, Kid Icarus, Heroes of Ruin, Kingdom Hearts, Code of Princess and many others have showcased that Nintendo is definitely a leader in handhelds for a reason. Fast forward to 2013 and the 3DS is off to a fantastic start. For a hand held device competing with phones, tablets and the PSVita you can tell 3DS is truly flourishing. In the last 2 months and the last 2 Nintendo direct's, yes 2(Including Japan'a briefing on Thursday, February 21st ). Nintendo has managed to showcase some truly incredible games. They have also provided a list of games coming in the first 3 quarters and beyond. Please read below.
Note- Many of these games are out already.
Nintendo 3DS
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
The Croods: Prehistoric Party!
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D
Monster High Skultimate Roller Maze
Naruto Powerful Shippuden
Brain Age: Concentration Training
Fire Emblem Awakening
Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins - April 21, (Entirely different game w/missions set 2 years before the Wii U version)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon
Mario and Luigi Dream Team
Mario Golf World Tour
Animal Crossing New Leaf
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Disney Infiniti
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Project X Zone
Japan
Tomodachi Collection
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission
Ghost World Watch
Super Robot Wars UX
Monster Hunter 4
This impressive lineup is just the beginning of what Nintendo has shown us. There are still reports of many Japanese games being converted for american audiences and E3 is going to be another great time to showcase more games. I personally would like to see Nintendo bring to america Ex Troopers (The game has caught my attention since last year). What do you gamers think about Nintendo in 2013?
Gamesbeat caught up with Blackley to extract some wisdom about Microsoft’s journey in games, what he thinks Sharma should do, and where gaming can go next. Part of his message is hopeful, but Blackley sees a lot of peril on the road that Microsoft is following. And it makes him worry about the future of gaming.
Sarah Bond's "Xbox everywhere" strategy and controversial "This is an Xbox" campaign have been blamed for alienating Xbox employees and failing to deliver results, with multiple sources telling they're relieved by her departure.
This adds more clarity to the situation. She was in charge of marketing so I 100% do. Believe this was her. The fact that she pissed off a lot of ppl with this campaign was interesting. The kicker she kicked you out if you questioned her moves. Sounds like a Satya move to me.
Ok when it comes to the marketing of the Xbox maybe not get rid of where Xbox is at but advertise the console, bundle 1 month of GP and have "xbox everywhere" as a side thing or just a minor thing. It's too late for Series consoles but do this with their next console. If GP is 30$ this needs to justified ASAP put all of ABK. Remake remaster popular games and put those out on the service. Have a handful of AAA games come day one even. Perma exclusivety is dead however they can be timed. The would at least give ppl a somewhat of a reason to invest. Satya will not allow permanent exclusives again.
Do I still think Xbox is dead? Depends, how much will Satya not get involved and let Asha and Matt figure something out. The more I think about it, I think Satya only really gets involved if the financials aren't lookin so hot. I think Xbox going multiplat was a result of wanting make their money back from ABK and of course raise their unreasonable and near unrealistic margins.
Anyway, things did get interesting and adds nuance just how Xbox is ran.
I’ve read that article they put out on this and it just sounds like a massive hit piece on her. They’ve basically thrown her under the bus.
I highly doubt all of this was just her idea, especially the multiplatform stuff.
Ever since the Zenimax and Activision deal all eyes have been on the Xbox department. There’s no way she’d have acted alone with decisions as big as these, Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella would have been all over this aswell, especially with them both being higher than her.
When they brought her in I thought to myself she’d be used as a scape goat and here we are.
It’s the exact same thing they did when Don Mattrick left “oh it wasn’t our idea, it was all Don, our new leader Phil Spencer is a gamer and will turn things around”.
Exactly, they always have to pin it on someone. Everything was Don Mattrick's fault before. Now everything is Sarah Bond's fault.
People act like these companies don't have focus groups, board meetings, focus testing, etc for these ideas before they hit.
They'd rather blame her rather than the product they asked her to market. How else was she going to market playing your xbox games on any device? Has anyone stopped to think that the marketing was bad because the product itself was bad?
But I don't feel sorry for her, she knew the kind of people she was working with
Would it still be a hit piece if it was actually true? If she really was behind the whole everything is an xbox... then I say they took the chance and it didnt pay off. Most companies let people go over bad decisions like that.
That's just it darth72, it more than likely isn't the truth because we know she didn't have control over everything at Xbox. That would be Phil Spencer, who has Don Mattrick's old position.
And to be fair, even he can't be blamed for everything since it's highly unlikely all this goes on without Nadella's blessing at some point
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard returns the series to its horror roots, and on the Nintendo Switch 2, you can take those frights everywhere.
It's amazing just how much this system managed to turn itself around. From "doomed flop" to roaring success. Hopefully the Wii U can do a similar turn-around from its January sales. Honestly I think Nintendo will be fine this year. They did things without a great deal of planning and their new platforms' initial performance suffered a bit, but in the long run I think they will be just fine.
Yea 3DS has an amazing line up this year. Makes me wonder what Nintednos gonna have in 2014. Cause they're using some big guns already.