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3DS Console Discussion


Dante

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Stating that something is expensive does not equate to "disliking" it, per se. That's misleading as it suggests such a percentage of people will hold out from buying it, which is obviously nonsense. It's certainly not inexpensive, so I guess I'd have to say that it's expensive. There's no way of getting around that. It's a new console after all. That won't stop me from buying it on day one. Too few people take the time to weigh things up.

 

Gamers can't have it both ways. They can't expect a console to offer something fresh and innovative with (crucially) significantly beefed up hardware AND fall in-line with an affordable-to-all ethos.

 

Not that my point is really aimed so much at that Japanese survey, as I genuinely don't think it's as damning to the 3DS' price as many outlets are reporting.

 

And don't even get me started on this embarrassingly contrived notion which is being reported everywhere that "it's only expensive because people liked it at E3". Give us non-ignorant people a break and let's try and move on from viral tabloidism.

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I am fairly positive that Nintendo could sell it (and still make a very comfortable profit) at a noticibly lower price. Noticeably lower enough anyway to change the general perception that the launch price is currently quite expensive.

 

I don't have strong evidence of this hardware cost wise I admit, but I don't see any reason why they'd have changed their business approach now. They certainly overpriced the Wii significantly, with the intention of making a large profit margin on old technology by heavily marketing its new features. It basically paid off for them, so I expect they want to take the same approach with 3DS (which I'm aware has far more impressive technology for its time than the Wii, but is likely still pretty conservative when it comes to hardware costs for the guts of the machine).

 

I do think too that in 2010, many people's attitude (at least where I'm from) to buying something "expensive" is different than it was in 2004 or 2006 due to being in a tighter financial situation. I think older gamers especially are less likely to buy something expensive now than in the past. This is probably going to give Nintendo difficulties in recapturing its "expanded audience" again.

 

At this price level so far it's mainly going to cater to hardcore gamers who'll pay any price for the system and those among the casual crowd who have a decent chunk of cash to spare.

 

If Nintendo really want massive sales at this kind of price point then they're going to need one hell of a marketing campaign. Considering that they can't actually show the 3D effect in most ads without some kind of Reggie-face-being-burnt-off gimmick, this is going to be seriously difficult.

 

I hope they've got strong plans lined up to get real 3D adverts in cinemas before virtually every family or teen oriented 3D movie in the near future. They really need to build hype as early as possible.

Edited by James McGeachie
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