Nintendo Chief: Consumers Don't Understand 3DS Yet

gabbo529 writes "Nintendo's latest financial results reveal that initial sales for their portable 3D gaming system have been underwhelming at best. What's the reason? Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata says consumers have yet to fully understand the console's 3D capabilities, even when trying it out. Others think it might have something to do with the console's high price ($250) and the lack of big-name titles available (Mario and Zelda are not yet out)."

3d is underwhelming

[wimmi]

And the 3D-effects are underwhelming at most.

Not really worth half the money of an iPad-like which impresses much more.

Here's some free advice...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Any time you claim that "consumers don't understand..." or "consumers need to be educated about..." you Have A Problem.

Most of the time, you are just engaged in the corporate equivalent of teenage whining about being misunderstood. Sorry. Your product is not, in fact, a special flower, misunderstood by the uncaring public. They just don't like it very much.

On occasion, you have in fact created something so new, unique, or ahead-of-its-time that its utility is not yet well understood. Unfortunately for you, while this is more likely to ensure you a spot in history, it also usually means that you are the sucker who did the R&D and then ran out of money while waiting for customers to wake up; and, when they eventually did, somebody else was far better situated to fulfill the demand. Sorry.

Frankly, I'm going to suggest that the 3DS falls into option #1. The public understands "3D" perfectly well(in specialized theaters we've had some degree of it for what, 50 years?); but has also learned by experience that 90% of "3D" is gimmicky crap that costs more and frequently delivers less.

Well, he coudl hardly say...

[asdf7890]

Well, he could hardly say "people understand the product well enough to make a well informed choice not to buy the thing" or "people just don't care as much about this gimmick as we hoped they would" could he? One of which is closer to the truth in most cases.

Re:3d is underwhelming

[Anonymous Coward]

I've yet to see anyone who tries the 3ds and ISN'T immediately impressed with it.

Well I wasn't. The eyestrain was virtually instant and I didn't appreciate having to hold the device in a precise manner either to benefit from the 3D. The eyestrain was so bad I had to slide the 3D virtually to off which at that point means the feature may as well not be there at all. It's not like many games used it in any compelling way so it's no great loss to disable it. And once the 3D is out of the way what are you left with?

The 3DS is too expensive, the 3D is a gimmick, the launch titles are mediocre, the battery life is poor. It feels like a handheld which launched 3 or 4 years ago and is coming to the end of its life, not one which is just started. Maybe a "lite" variant will address the most glaring issues in the hardware and a price cut would help too but at the moment the 3DS can be summed up thusly - meh.

I think they've got that backwards

[davidbrit2]

It's Nintendo that doesn't understand the 3DS. You've built a device with about a 5-degree usable viewing angle, and you've put motion control in the blasted thing. I know Nintendo has a long history of throwing a bunch of shit at the wall and quickly abandoning whatever doesn't stick, but really?

Re:3d is underwhelming

[Moryath]

Ok really, when did Nintendo start hiring a Sony guy for their marketing?