Four months after its North American release, there’s a lot of hooplah out there about Nintendo losing millions of dollars on the 3DS, the first hand-held which is capable of 3D graphics. But in the mix of all the dismal financial reports, it’s easy to lose track of the actual facts. Here’s a brief summary of why I believe the Nintendo 3DS isn’t selling, as well as some personal recommendations as to why this hand-held is actually a worthwhile investment.
3 Reasons why the Nintendo 3DS isn’t selling:
The PlayStation Vita represents new competition for the Nintendo 3Ds.
1) Lack of games. With a recent spate of cancellations, players are worried about investing money in a handheld for which virtually no games exist. I’ve written here about the cancellation of games like Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy and Mega Man Legends 3. The problem is, not a lot of games were released alongside the actual release of the handheld. The ‘big one’ is Ocarina of Time 3D, but the 3DS needs a lot more to go on than just one remastered title.
2) Competition from other hand-held devices. Apple has made huge strides recently when it comes to mobile gaming. They’ve released a ton of easy-to-download apps which sell for a far lesser price than your average 3DS game. Games on mobile devices tend to be simpler and more straight-forward, meaning that the learning curve is less steep for players new to gaming. And they are also highly addictive.
3) Confusion about 3D mechanics. Do you have full control over the level of 3D? In what ways does changing the 3D level alter the game? These are just some of the questions being asked of the hand-held’s technical capabilities. As players of this hand-held know, using the full 3D graphics requires a bit of ‘finesse’—you need to hold the 3DS a certain distance away from your face in order to see the graphics properly. It’s really not complicated, once you get the hang of it, but as long as questions about the system’s mechanics linger, sales are probably going to be less than stellar.
3 Reasons why the Nintendo 3DS is a worthwhile investment:
Now that’s dedication! A 3DS fan shows off a tattoo of an AR card.
1) The online store. Players can expand their game libraries with a touch of the stylus by logging on to the handheld’s virtual console. E3 also revealed several high-profile titles for the 3DS which are forthcoming, including Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion, StarFox and Kid Icarus. There are also multiple online campaigns, such as this one, to bring remastered titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask to the 3DS in the future.
2) The customizability. Players are given ample opportunity to make the 3DS reflect their individual gaming preferences. The 3D graphics are totally customizable with the use of an ingenious ‘slider’ to the right of the screen. The handheld’s cameras make it easy to capture and store photos, and the use of personal photos in the Face Raiders application is a fun, unique touch.
3) The graphics. Seriously, the 3D graphics are awesome. I think one of the failings in advertising the graphics capabilities of the 3DS is that the 3D effects cannot possibly be conveyed using two-dimensional illustrations. But the effects are definitely amazing. Another perk which I don’t think has been advertised enough is the Altered Reality card, which has a lot of potential. How cool would it be to actually fight with Pokemon using the AR technology in the future?
4) BONUS: The reduced price. Nintendo announced just this week that the price of the 3DS is being reduced to $169. Players who buy a 3DS and log onto the Nintendo eShop before August 12th also qualify for free games.
Conclusion
A lot has been written recently on the ‘fate’ of 3D-based media and whether it carries any sort of real longevity. Despite initial enthusiasm for 3D movies, for example, movie-goers have been less than enthusiastic about 3D shows since Avatar’s groundbreaking release. In my opinion, 3D televisions and movies have suffered from severe over-exposure, and the less than promising sales of the Nintendo 3DS are probably a result of this larger phenomenon. Likely the next few years will dictate the future of 3D entertainment, and whether the gaming industry will continue to embrace this promising, yet still somewhat mysterious, virtual technology.
Gamesfemme 
I definitely agree with everything you said here. I haven’t bought a 3DS yet, but I’ve played with one enough to know that I plan to get one. All I’ve been waiting on is an increase in games or a good bundle. About the bundle, if they’d done one for Ocarina of Time, I’d already own a 3DS. I mean, come on, it’s Zelda’s 25th anniversary year; they should have done something like that for such an awesome series. Hoping when Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance comes out it’ll get a bundle like Birth By Sleep did on PSP.
I still have to think about it, but I’m considering getting a 3DS before the price drop because there are a lot of downloadable games that it would be nice to have all in one place.
In any case, Nintendo really needs to play up the AR technology, better graphics, etc., over the 3D aspect. Most folks who haven’t used one think the 3DS is just a souped up DS, which is totally wrong.
I’m not going to lie, I’d rather have the Playstation Vita. I was a huge Playstation fan back in the day, and while I’d rather have the XBOX 360 to the other major platforms at this point, Playstation has the upper hand in my eyes when it comes to portable consoles.
I think that right now, the various systems offer sufficiently different gaming experiences that people can find the niche they fit into. Particularly the consoles have divided us into roughly three types of gamers: the xbox gamers, playstation gamers and nintendo gamers. The main thing that nintendo continues to offer with the 3DS is gameplay that appeals to classic gamers while the new PSP will offer improved graphics and newer game franchises. Both of these are great options, it’s just a matter of deciding which type of experience is most important to you. This may be tied to the age of the player to some extent. I prefer nintendo because it has the sorts of games I grew up with and continues to create variations of classic themes with new technology.
I own every current game system on the market, both console and handheld, including a 3DS, and I already plan to buy the Vita as soon as it launches. Honestly, I love all my systems for different reasons, and I imagine I’ll feel the same way about 3DS and Vita once their rivalry gets underway. I’m a neutral gamer that gives equal support to Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, but I admit that I do have a slight bit of added loyalty to Nintendo because I grew up on Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and what have you, on top of great consoles like the NES, SNES, N64, and various Game Boy platforms, and those exclusive brands ARE one of the reasons why I love my 3DS. Even if that weren’t the case though, I’d still love my 3DS because your incentives are bang on. The eShop is awesome (in my opinion, it has the makings to be even better than the Wii Shop), the 3D effects are incredible (especially eliminating glasses), and while most of the blockbusters coming to 3DS are in development, they ARE still happening. In fact, so far the 3DS has had more games announced for it than the Vita has.
I think some of the 3DS doomsaying can also be chalked up to people’s poor attention spans nowadays. The second a system has a noteworthy stumble, people declare it doomed, as they did with the Xbox 360, PS3 AND the Wii at varying points. I still remember everyone saying that the PSP would clobber the DS so badly that Nintendo would be forced to become a third-party developer back in 2004. That didn’t happen to say the least. Who is to say that the Vita won’t have defects, or a lack of software, or advertised technology that isn’t featured in the final product right away? The Vita may have an even worse launch than the 3DS in the end for all everyone knows, which will just make people’s attention revert back to the 3DS and declare the Vita doomed (which would be equally inaccurate, because systems need time to come into their own nowadays).
I also agree with Nintendo that while the App Store and such is a cool way for casual gamers and commuters to take addictive, bite-sized experiences on the go (and I’ve had some fun with it too as a core gamer), it’s not a direct threat to the 3DS or the Vita, since it doesn’t offer the same meaty game experience, and can often suffer from quantity over quality; Offering loads of games, but not doing a great job of making the worthwhile ones stand out beyond word of mouth, so your purchases are often a crapshoot. I think there’s a place for mobile gaming and iDevice gaming, but in the end, if you want a game system, you’ll buy a dedicated game system, not a mobile phone or a tablet. People don’t buy coffeemakers to tell them the time, they buy clocks, and it’s the same principle.
P.S.- onegirlgeek, I’m also very excited for Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance because I love that series, and I agree that there should be a bundle. I can see Square Enix doing it for Japan and not us though :(.