I'm confused. If the 3DS sold 4 million in the same timeframe the DS sold 5 million, and that without holiday sales to boost it, why is Nintendo freaking out? That's 80% of the DS sales. A bunch more will be sold to unknowing parents in November. Maybe I don't understand the market, but that doesn't sound like a huge flop.

It's amazing how you can be king for a few years and your empire crumbles at a moments notice due to wrong choices. I think the WiiU should have hit shelves around the same time Microsoft dropped Kinect. They were content sleeping at the money tree for too long and I think they're in the sh*t if this isn't a success as this price cut is effecting their share price. They're are panicking too early, they need more content, better hardware design and a nicer price, it should still be a success.

@thebigJ_A: the 3DS only sold 710,000 units in the quarter

I'm confused. If the 3DS sold 4 million in the same timeframe the DS sold 5 million, and that without holiday sales to boost it, why is Nintendo freaking out? That's 80% of the DS sales. A bunch more will be sold to unknowing parents in November. Maybe I don't understand the market, but that doesn't sound like a huge flop.

@Marokai:

it sold 710,000 units in the entire quarter. Which means it has slowed dramatically from the first couple weeks in sales. Which is not good at all for any system.

I find it crazy that Nintendo didn't at least wait until going through a holiday season before cutting the price.

If this makes Vita pricing go down, I will be a happy bunny.

@Marokai:

it sold 710,000 units in the entire quarter. Which means it has slowed dramatically from the first couple weeks in sales. Which is not good at all for any system.

While I agree the 3DS is pretty useless as is, there's no reason for it to be gathering dust. It is, after all, still a DS. Have you played Radiant Historia, Monster Tale, Okamiden, or Dragon Quest IX yet, Patrick? No? Then you've got some gaming to do, buddy!

"At $169.99, the 3DS is now an incredible value to both gamers and consumers,"

The casual gaming scene is both helping the games industry and killing it at the same time. As a student studying games design, I know that I could potentially put out a title for iPhone or Android and out of no where turn some decent cash - but at the same time, the kind of games I like to play are high budget of decent gameplay length (20 or more hours). I fear these games may slowly disappear from the industry unless people become aware of what's going on.

I would totally buy a 3DS If Nintendo made a 2d Metroid with 3d graphics like New Super Mario Bros.  WHY WONT THEY MAKE IT!! It makes no sense whatsoever.

People aren't tired of Zelda and Mario, Nintendo just isn't making new games with them at the right times. It's kind of like they are repeating the mistakes of the Gamecube.

Man, a lot of people are really dismissive of smartphone gaming in this thread.  Lots of points to address on that score, but I'll settle for just one; namely the suggestion that the App Store doesn't have, and won't get, games of depth and quality to rival "proper handhelds". Remember, the iPhone is only 4 years old.  The App Store is only 3 years old.  The iPad is not even 18 months old.
 
Are there proper portable games on the App Store?  Oh fuck yes.  Without even looking at the platform exclusives, just look at the stuff that came from other systems:
 
World of Goo 
Plants Vs. Zombies 
Geometry Wars
Peggle 
GTA: Chinatown Wars 
Secret of Monkey Island special editions
Sid Meier's Pirates 
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 
Final Fantasy I - III 
Back to the Future adventure games 
Tales of Monkey Island
 
That's just from the top of my head, and of course next week finally sees Final Fantasy Tactics coming to iOS too.  One of the best games on PSP, it'll be one of the best games on iPhone.  Machinarium is coming as well.  The list is much longer than this, there are masses of games from "real" systems now on the App Store.  There are masses of games that could be ported too, if publishers had the will to do it. Ultimately, the only thing as players we need to worry about is games.  The hardware is just a medium to play those games on.  Ports of great games to iOS shows that they can exist on smartphones and tablets.  Getting all sniffy about them not being real consoles is missing the point.  It's a device that plays real games, the quality and scope of which are improving all the time. 
 
It's not the hardware that's going to put Nintendo on the ropes, its the pricing.  There is now an equally capable device in people's pockets where the games don't cost $30 a pop, and which frequently go on sale.  Phoenix Wright is one of the DS's most beloved games, and that is where I first played it.  I recommended it to everyone that would listen.  Got it again on iPhone for one dollar in a sale. Handheld consoles were the one area of gaming where there was no mechanism for cheap, discounted, or sale-price games to regularly compete.  PC gamers have Steam sales.  Console gamers got platinum hits repressings, which were viable thanks to the fact that discs are cheap as hell to make unlike cartridges or UMDs.  App Store changed that.  Even Sony has a flawed yet viable digital store to be able to reduce the price of their games for those that buy them that way.   
 
Nintendo is sticking with a business model that involves trying to sell handheld games at a price that competes with home console titles. Well, good luck with that.  The world has changed, and they need to adapt to it.

@YukoAsho said:

"At $169.99, the 3DS is now an incredible value to both gamers and consumers,"

Another stupid premise is that smartphone gaming is going to overtake anything. The fact is that, for every success story, there are more failures than in dedicated games. Yeah, it costs less to make the games, but unless you've already got a position in gaming, your app is going to be in a race to the bottom. Most iOS games barely break even, something people don't realize because the averages are skewed due to Angry Birds' unbelievable success. Fact is, most people buying these devices could give two shits less about video games. Maybe they'll buy Tetris or AB or a Breakout clone, but that's about it. Keep telling yourself that this is going to replace proper handheld games.

Obviously you haven't seen the App Store or Android Marketplace. Both are filled to the brim with games. I think you've also missed the fact that Sony's two handhelds are both 'droids and one is specifically a phone, while MS's first real phone OS in years is centered around a two pronged attack on gaming and social networking. Sony and MS are capitulating to the reality which you're blinding yourself to. Angry Birds is just the most well known gaming app but there are hundreds and thousands of reasonably successful and easily profitable examples in both phone stores.

"The fact is that, for every success story, there are more failures than in dedicated games."

That's not a fact, that's just some window dressing parading as a factoid.

The reason why smartphone games are so popular is because people already own the console. Most people playing games aren't hardcore gamers, and they aren't going to spend an extra $170 to get better controls and 3D.

wow... what's gonna happen to the VITA now?

Okay so in my amazing country I have the choice to use, say, the appstore and get a fun little game for 1-5usd including Final Fantasy 1-3 and other really neat portable titles.

If I want a 3DS game I'd have to pay 50-80usd.

No.

I got my 3DS on launch day (as I do with every Nintendo console release) and I've been burned ever since.  The main problem is that the selection of games is pitiful (and has been since I bought it).  Now, I'm getting even more burned by this price drop just five months after the launch.  I haven't even switched the 3DS on in around three months.  I'd say this is Nintendo "£$$ing it up but they did the same thing with the Wii (crappy selection of female orientated games with the odd Mario Galaxy or Metroid thrown in) and I haven't turned that on since Christmas.  For God sake Nintendo, PUT SOME GOOD GAMES OUT FOR YOUR CONSOLES, I'VE GOT NOTHING TO PLAY!!!!

Consoles aren't a big part of the market anymore?
No shit, we've been with this current generation for way too long (6+ years?) and its time for new stuff.
Games are great but there's always a lack of space, RAM or cpu for devs to play around with.
 
It hurts to see ideas turn into games, which could have been an even better experience on a new console, its bleeding time!
 
Nintendo just needs to shut the fuck up and learn its place, I'm a diehard N-girl, got a freakin Zelda tattoo but I'm sick of them and their attitude.
In this age we need demo's, we need a working online multiplayer and a working shop.
I don't care for little apps or small games, I just want to be able to have the same info available for the shop as my xbox/ps3 provides me.
Get with the bloody times and release some damn games.
 
Just the thought of Nintendo releasing a 'normal' console (which could always be extended with extra stuff like some GC games did) with current or better gen graphics made people lose their shit pre-E3.
Start listening to consumers, cus we're losing the magic of gaming with all these grey and simple games on nowadays consoles, and Nintendo's swingathon and needlessly forced controls aren't helping either. 

I wonder if Jeff ever found his 3DS?

Yup, till more 3DS's are out there, don't expect publishers signing up to develop for it. They had to make this move, with the dry launch lineup it should never have been so expensive in the first place 
 
I will buy it next year, till then I wait on the Aliens DS game

Aside from having a 3 in front of DS, many consumers still believe it's still a regular DS. I had to tell a friends mom that the screens, hardware, and the quality of game have been "upgraded."

The problem with handhelds like the 3DS and Vita is that they've become so powerful, and demanding more and more expensive assets, 3D engines etc than developers are less likely to focus on that system.

If making a 40$ vita game with gorgeous graphics and full voice cast costs as much to make as a 60$ console game, but won't sell nearly as well, what's the point? That's why iOS has been so attractive, it's cheap as dirt to make games for, the turnout is quick (Riccitello says a game every 90 days, that's a wet-dream for a publisher in this day and age), and the potential market is much farther reaching than any dedicated handheld could hope for. It's also exciting because people are more likely to take risks when the stakes are low like that.

Even at that price, I'm still not interested.

Sad. It still hurts my eyes and ears to read and hear that the iPad is a dominating platform for gaming. There has yet to be a game on that platform that took me for a ride and gave me what I needed from a virtual experience. Infinity Blade was great, but it felt small and obsolete after a day or two playing with it.

People need to start understand that the Casual Gamer is now an existing title. iPad is a casual platform, and until it shines towards the hardcore, that's all it is. The Games on that market are so low budget and pointless (unless of course were talking about great titles like Bejeweled, Puzzle Agent, and Puzzle Quest 2) that I nearly stopped playing games with it and started using it as an expensive Kindle and Word Processor.

I do not feel that gaming in general has any thing going against it, if anything, this casual uproar will be able to fund companies with enough cash to allow longer development phases instead of forcing a game out every year to meet its budget. Time will tell, but I remember when people began to think the Gameboy Color would ruin the gaming world, but it only made it strong.

@boylie: I'm not convinced that the number of casual games being released really hurts us "core" gamers in the long run, any more than the variety of genres in the movie, TV or book industries hurt their industries. When you really look at it, the video game industry is still a young one compared to the others, meaning there's plenty of room to grow. More choice = more gamers = more variety in the long run, which is healthy for the industry. Plus, the rise in popularity of indie games is a positive sign.

It's also a better situation if a large publisher like EA can spread its risk over a variety of types of games. That way, one or two failures of expensive "blockbuster" games doesn't threaten its long-term business.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'll be playing Farmville anytime soon, but I'm not going to be watching a romantic comedy tonight, either. :)

I think this is a sign of Nintendo missing the boat on cheap iOS style games. It really is. They'll lose this fight and learn for the next one.

As a poor college student, I couldn't afford to drop $250 on a 3DS. Now that it's only $170, I can afford to get one. That $80 means a lot to me. So Nintendo may lose for now, but I win, and that means Nintendo ultimately wins, provided they give me some killer content.

The casual gaming scene is both helping the games industry and killing it at the same time. As a student studying games design, I know that I could potentially put out a title for iPhone or Android and out of no where turn some decent cash - but at the same time, the kind of games I like to play are high budget of decent gameplay length (20 or more hours). I fear these games may slowly disappear from the industry unless people become aware of what's going on.

I always find the time to read Patrick's pieces. Good work, my man.

C'mon nintendo, what were you thinking? Look, I'm an average gamer; I own multiple consoles and one happens to be an original DS before they started tacking on bells and whistles. HIstory dictates that the good will between you and I has long since dried up (in no small part due to the Wii). In addition to that, I not only have no interest in 3d technology at the moment, but when it was first introduced I was against it. For me it's just a gimmick to pad on the price tag of electronics and movies. 
 
You're asking me to swallow a $250 grain of salt in addition to any new $40 games that come along when all I really wanted from the get-go of the Ds was an army of affordable yet engaging games, all because you're Nintendo and gamers are supposed to love you for that. Just like gamers were supposed to love Duke Nukem just because he was Duke. I'm sorry, but memory lane doesn't allocate my entertainment budget, cost to benefit factoring does. You survived the Virtual Boy, you can survive this too.

theres a copy of a pokemon game right by that DS how could it not be getting used all the time!?

I think Nintendo might learn and eventually adapt to iOS style of games on future mobile devices, not individual consoles they put out. I just see the future turning this way.

Nintendo is the new Sega. Its only a matter of time before they are software only.

Sluggish hardware sales have prompted publishers to start quietly pushing content back, in fact.  Sega  had planned to release both  Crush 3D  and  Shinobi  in September, then suddenly announced both would be pushed back several months, with Crush 3D not arriving until 2012. 

@boylie said:

Ugh, I hate that the industry is going in the casual direction. I hate it even more that consumers gave them a reason to.

Hey man, I'm doing my best, but I don't have access to infinite money. Sorry to disappoint.

I didn't realize Bulletstorm was such a lose for the company until a few days ago. I understand why they push these iOS games so hard, they're ridiculously profitable! OH EM GEE!

You know with the price cut being so massive I was like Oh shit I need to go get one of these now!  Until I stopped to realize theres well...nothing to play on it.   Street fighter and  DOA yeah... but I have DOA and Street Fighter on my consoles that I can play with arcade sticks.... 
 
wheres the good games?  

Good to see a price drop, but still needs games.

put a fire emblem out on it and ill buy it

I'm not buying any gaming device without two analog sticks. Period.

I do not think Nintendo is super in trouble here but it is a sign that people have got tired of their approach to gaming.
Making gaming more approachable is a great goal and it did work for a time but it is Casual Gaming is also Throw Away Gaming.
 
People do not want to spend a lot of money or put much effort into a Casual Game. This is why the Tablets and Mobiles and even facebook have this market and it is not going to go anywhere else any time soon.
You can buy apps for text to nothing, have your 5 minutes of fun and be done with it.
 
Nintendo have been the most vocal about those games and about it destroying gaming because for them it is. That was their marketplace and it is hurting them the most.
Sony and Microsoft have that core gaming industry and also have no provided for the casual gaming but it is not their focus.
Core gamers play their consoles not on the Nintendo platforms.
 
Nintendo ruled the handheld because of that concept but again the Mobile has that now. Jeff is 100% right when he says he does not want games to look and play as good as on his home console because he would rather see it on a big lush screen!
 
Nintendo's Wii U is a reaction to this change and for me a rushed and bad reaction that could really hurt them.
They have tried to take what they have, try and throw in the HD and created some tablet gaming controller hybrid to try and claw something back.
 
They will create innovative games 1st party and initial sales (because it is something new) will not be bad at all but it wont do very well. I am pretty sure on that front.
 
IF you want to do well in the casual gaming front for the home now you need to have a device that is NOT just for that purpose. The 360 and PS3 play media through online and DVD and PS3 does well because of Blu Ray too boot.
 
Their throw away games through their new motion controllers allows people to have that 5 minutes of fun but also sit down and watch a TV show or Movie in the afternoon, talk to their friends online and have that online aspect too.
 
Nintendo is still not clued up on that area as well.
 
I think this price drop makes the 3DS more appealing but I do not think it will work for them either.
 
 Something Nintendo are not doing enough of and something they should be doing more of is getting those hardcore games on their consoles.
I have a pretty strong feeling that some of those more hardcore games for the Wii U will be the ones that sell the best.
 
I do not think they have ever done anything super wrong to be fair. I think Nintendo's only failings have been to underestimate the online space, underestimate the media space and not have a great 3rd party game line up.
 
I love the mario games, I love the Zelda games and they are normally very well polished games BUT I am also sick of seeing new Nintendo Hardware or seasons and seeing the same games over and over just looking different, using a new controller but still the same thing.
 
Nothing wrong with that alone but It is just about all they have, and with how things are now - It just does not work any more.

I have to wonder what the big three are thinking in general when it comes to software prices. Clearly games under $20 sell far more readily than the $40-$60 nonsense we're dealing with today. The wild successes of iOS and Steam should be indicative enough of that. Then again, game prices have always been utter shit, no matter what the console generation.

I was going to go into a lengthy and highly developed exposition of my opinions on casual gaming, Nintendo, smartphones(/dumbtablets?) as a platform, and the future of the "core gamer" (that still feels like a buzzword), but then I realized that I'm on the 8th page and no one's going to read this anyways. Long story short: anyone who has looked through Nintendo's launch titles already knows why 3DS sales are so bad out of the gate. There are already established players in the handheld games market with better selection and even a certain degree of content suited for people looking for a more in-depth experience than Angry Birds. Nintendo's appeal to the core gamer was either a pretense, a bluff, or a plan enacted too slowly, and they ended up with a crappy launch because of it. They made games for no one, and no one bought them.

An incredible value...with one joystick.

I think this is a sign of Nintendo missing the boat on cheap iOS style games. It really is. They'll lose this fight and learn for the next one.

@MadExponent said:

I think this is a sign of Nintendo missing the boat on cheap iOS style games. It really is. They'll lose this fight and learn for the next one.

you want shit quality games? k guy. 

I think the true problem here is............ 3DS has no games! They could drop the price down to $100 but there are no games to back that up.

@MadExponent said:

I think this is a sign of Nintendo missing the boat on cheap iOS style games. It really is. They'll lose this fight and learn for the next one.

I don't think that's what they're missing at all. Just look at the the state of affairs on wii and ds shops. SHOVELWARE! Fuck, I've never seen garbage piles so high. Sure the games are cheap, but it seems Nintendo is content with allowing everything to have it's go. Devs charge as much or as little as they want (much like the phone games & apps marketplace).

Clearly they can make money on it, but it might already be too late with this system. Previous digital shops by Nintendo have left a sour taste in everyone's mouth (Except Jeff's, I think he finds reading their bullocks print ups delicious). That might be part of the reason people are disinterested with 3DS: More of the same from Nintendo.

There are other handheld markets out there with far more interesting things going on. (Android, iPad, iPhone, w/e crazy thing Sony comes up with next, etc..). Nintendo has too much competition, more than they're used to, and good competition at that. Apple and Google have been going at it for a while. Nintendo can't rest on their laurels and stick to their tried and true methods anymore, because it's clearly affecting them.

Personally, I think Nintendo needs to tighten it's seemingly loose grip on quality assurance when it comes to digital games. Apple and Google marketplaces can get away without having to worry about quality of the games and apps that are for sale in their marketplace because their product is the phone/operating system and that's their top priority. Sure, they make apps, but that's not why people go to them. It's because they make great smart phones.

The 3DS doesn't offer much outside of the realm of gaming. Sure it's sort of like a web-browser / palm pilot too, but those things went out of style with the first generation of smart phones. Nintendo makes games (some amazing ones at that). However, I can't help but feel as though the $40 price for a hand-held game isn't going to sell in this day and age when people buy games for so cheap on their phones. These people need to carry their phone around to keep in contact with other people. Nintendo is a little naive to think that any of these people are going to carry their 3DS around with them too. Some people will, but most won't.

All you need to do is compare Nintendo's digital marketplaces to XBLA or PSN or Steam. The games that come out for $15 in comparison to games that come at "Full Price" (I'll say $40 and up). You're getting your money's worth with the $15 most of the time, no doubt. Microsoft, Sony, and Valve have the digital gaming markets in a way that makes sense. Cheap games, Lots of Sales, and Quality games on offer.

The other problem I see is that there doesn't seem to be much interest in developing games for the DS, Wii, or 3DS from big name companies. I think publishers see the cluster fuck that happened with DS shop and couldn't figure out a way to market their products, and have decided that it isn't worth their efforts.

TL;DR - Phone market's have home court advantage in portable gaming and offer more than just games. It's a hard sell on people who don't carry their 3DS around all the time (if they have one). Nintendo needs to tighten it's grip on the quality assurance of the 3DS digital shop if they are to make money and compete with other portable game markets. They also need to be more active with advertising programs within their shop and offer compelling sales there. Lowering the price of the 3DS has made the handheld a more compelling sale, but it's still very hard to sell a system when there are no games readily available.