I've been a gamer since I was 3 or so, when my family picked up an NES at last. It came with a Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet game cart as well as two controllers, a Zapper and the Running Pad. We were a Nintendo family for a long time, seeing them all the way through the nutty decision that was the N64. After that point, I'd started working and could afford my own systems, where I bought and Xbox, eventually followed by the PS2 and GameCube (mainly to be a Smash Bros. device). It seems that lately, Nintendo has been going steadily crazier if only for the hell of it. They seem to think that unconventional decisions and bizarre marketing choices are what makes them... them.
It's just that... Nintendo's always been an odd company when it comes to video game decisions and it's mostly worked for them. No one could have expected the amazing success that the DS or the Wii would have when they were first announced and good for them for going down the path less travelled by. They just don't seem to know how to maintain such successes without seeming jaw droppingly nuts. Today's announcements of Wii U price drops and a new DS model are the perfect yin and yang examples of the house that Mario built.
On the one hand, lowering the price of the Wii U is a good idea. The abysmal sales, lack of software and poor messaging ("Isn't it just an new controller for my Wii?") are keeping the system from being more accepted and successful. Lowering the price will help, but it's still just 100 bucks shy of the flashy new PS4. It's the right move, but it might be a bit too late for the Wii's successor. The 2DS, however, just seems like an exercise in insanity.
Let's take a look at a 3DS. It's foldable, it's compact, it has an interesting feature in it's 3D screen that is possibly underutilized but still neat. So Nintendo has taken all of that into account and thrown all of it out the window. Now you have a solid square of plastic which won't fit into any carrying case designed for the 3DS (brilliant in terms of selling carrying cases), doesn't look terribly compact (I can't imagine fitting it into a pocket on anything I own) and lacks the feature that was the original systems show pony piece, the 3D screen. All of this obviously helps drop the price... but only by $40. If it were an even hundred ($99.99 MSRP, let's say), this system would be flying off the shelves come holiday. At $129.99 though, it still seems a bit much for what you're getting. Not that it matters, since the 3DS is the top selling console currently, but that may be because people are saving up for the big consoles this November.
All in all, it's a typical Nintendo move, it's just their cup of out-of-left-field*. And we're not even playing baseball. Besides, now we can look forward to a 2DS XL in the future... an even less portable handheld system. I know people will bring up iPads & tablets as being larger than the 2DS already, I know. But those are multi-use items that I can also read a newspaper/book on or check my email or watch a YouTube video. All the Nintendo tablet will do is play games... which is what Nintendo stuff always does. Maybe they aren't crazy after all. Maybe it's just Nintendo business as usual.
*See GameBoy Micro, Complete history of...
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