The Pocket Gamer Report: Is Nintendo Barking up the Wrong Tree with the 3DS?

James Cameron's Avatar, what have you done?

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If nintendo sells millions of these (like we know they will), it will get 3d into millions of people's heads who don't go browsing online for videos and stats of $2000 tv's that do 3d. This could raise demand for 3d games on the consoles and 3d tv's to support them, leading to lower prices due to high demand, making 3d set's more affordable and ushering in a new era.

...Maybe.

This whole article is based on suppositions. All you know is that there will be 3D tech that does not require glasses. Nintendo would not make a big deal out of it and release a whole new platform if this were possible with the DSi. So you wasted your time writing this.

Are you sure it's a revision? It's been 6 years since the DS launched, it's about time we get a new one with 16x more processing power (doubled every 1,5 years)

Let's give it up for the next virtua boy, people!

News Report: Pocket Gamer is Skeptical... Again!

I remember a while ago, some guy had inverted the Wii's pointer sensing controls by putting the LED lights on the edges of his glasses and placed the remote in front of his TV. The effect was pretty interesting had you feeling like you could lean and look around corners. To some extent, this was true. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that fellow got picked up to work on Microsoft's Natal.

Now Nintendo is releasing another handheld upgrade that supposedly does the same thing as the hacked Wii head-tracking technique, without the need for glasses. Hey, awesome. Will I buy it? Probably not. Will I question it and mock it before I even see it? No, I'll leave that to the experts at Pocket Gamer. ;-)

The only thing I see here is Nintendo further saturating the market with their devices. It's a smart move that the physical game format remains the same as it allows those with money to upgrade without abandoning their library and I can guarantee all those perfectly good, 2-3 year old DS units will be given away to friends and family... further promoting the DS infestation of our culture.

Variety is a good thing. Apparently some people would prefer only one choice of car to drive, but I ain't one of them.

Yes. An unequivocal, resounding yes.

I posted in my blog last week that Nintendo seem to releasing more versions of the DS this year than good games. It's ridiculous - what difference does quality hardware make if they won't farking release software?

-sigh- They need to put brakes on the hardware and release some more decent games. I don't need more bells and whistles; I want more things to do with the hardware I already have.

If Nintendo is really going to go through with this, let's hope they've learned their lessons from the Virtual Boy debacle.

I wonder how many people here are mistaking the 3DS as hardware revision to the DS rather than being a next gen DS.

Emily Pritchard:
Yes. An unequivocal, resounding yes.

I posted in my blog last week that Nintendo seem to releasing more versions of the DS this year than good games. It's ridiculous - what difference does quality hardware make if they won't farking release software?

-sigh- They need to put brakes on the hardware and release some more decent games. I don't need more bells and whistles; I want more things to do with the hardware I already have.

There is a giant library for games for the DS that Nintendo doesn't really have to publish all that much software for their own device. I can find a plethora of great games for ~$40 and under. Oh and Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver *just* came out, and they are quite possibly the best Pokemon games I've ever played.

I feel this article didn't do enough research into the 3DS and is bashing it just because. I have no doubts that if Apple had done the same thing with the iPhone they would be slobbering all over the innovation. Never mind that the article completely glosses over analog controls (which are hopefully better than the PSP's) and other innovations that Nintendo doesn't even use in their consoles, and the article makes a GIANT assumption that the 3D technology will be lifted from an experimental game. I can't say that's not true, but the theory I hear the most is that the 3DS will feature polarized layers over the screens.

If PocketGamer existed 10 years ago, I bet they would be bashing the Gameboy Color for its backwards compatibility with the original Gameboy. "While people may have chuckled at the porky proportions of the Gameboy, this new device is an entirely different matter. It's rumored that the Gameboy Color will have a 256-color screen, though it appears that the Gameboy Color remains tied to the Gameboy cart format, so one has to wonder just how significant a technological step it can be."

Or was the GBC 128 colours? I don't remember, seeing as I held out for a long time, playing black and white games, all the way to the GBA.

Therumancer:
[Shrugs] I have a regular DS lite at this point, I'll be holding out until we see some major revisions to the system like the DS-2 they are supposed to be announcing before I go running out to buy a new version.

In general until carts start requiring a new handheld/format I don't see the point. Plus I mostly use my DS when I'm out and don't have a computer or full size console, I am less than interested in anything that is remotely tricky to use. Heck, as it is I find it irritating that both my DS and PSP have trouble being seen in direct sunlight/bright light. Meaning I can't use them effectively while say at the dog park and letting my Pug run free. :P

The whole 3d Format already doesn't impress me with the "head positioning" thing, not to mention the fact that my opinion of 3d movies has been fairly "meh" so far despite the huge crowd reaction. Maybe because I'm one of those people who gets headaches from it.

This is their new next-gen hardware. This was the rumored DS2.

We have seen nothing yet. Way too early to be this negative.

3D to me seems like the biggest waist of time in the world. I'd rather have a good game/film then then some stupid gimick.

Scrap it, this is just something new so the prices of games get jacked up and the qualty goes down cuz these less money to spend on writing.

article:
Perhaps the 3DS is the touchstone that will catapult 3D gaming into the consciousness of the general public, just as the Wii was the instrument which unleashed motion-based gaming on the world. We'll certainly have a clearer picture when the device is officially unveiled at the upcoming E3, but for the time being it might be prudent to keep your powder dry and take a long, hard look at Rittai Kakushie Attakoreda - because that's as good an indicator as any of what we can expect from this mysterious new handheld.

I don't know if the comparison to Rittai Kakushie Attakoreda is truely apt, that isn't the impression I got from info about the 3DS at all. Yes, the camera-controlled parallax would certainly be an option, but that's possible with or without the 3DS's features, as the DSi certainly proves. I think what people are going to get really excited about is the '3D-without-glasses' presentation, which will soon be coming to home television sets as well and that will certainly get people talking and coveting. I'm in line with the article, though, when it says that RKA-style parallax games will be better applied somewhere else - namely, I think the Natal platform is going to excel at this.

Pocket Gamer should get his head out of his pocket and realize that this is not a simple DS revision.
*sigh*
Not a good article.

More power to Nintendo if they want to jump on the 3D bandwagon as it is about to take off. You know someone was going to do it eventually. Hmm... the tracking technology really doesn't seem to fit with the portable idea at all. Unless they come up with a stand for a DS which would put it into the correct position for you instead of having to hold it yourself, they might avoid some problems in the future.

Towowo2:
I wonder how many people here are mistaking the 3DS as hardware revision to the DS rather than being a next gen DS.

Me too: The 3DS isn't a Revised DS, it's the next Handheld for Nintendo(At least that's what I read and thought). I also read that the 3DS isn't the official title, so I am still hoping for it to be Called the Gameboy Omega.

This article is SO badly misinformed as are most of the comments. You all need to just stop and think. And then think some more.

I think its still to early to start judging the thing since it seems all we know right now are rumors.

The_Quick_Brown_Fox:
This whole article is based on suppositions. All you know is that there will be 3D tech that does not require glasses. Nintendo would not make a big deal out of it and release a whole new platform if this were possible with the DSi. So you wasted your time writing this.

...approved, and...

The_Quick_Brown_Fox:
This article is SO badly misinformed as are most of the comments. You all need to just stop and think. And then think some more.

..double-approved!

I hope this tanks and fails horribly. Not because of any bias, but because I just can't stand the thought of 3d becoming popular, then hearing every retarded gamer complaining about how their favorite company doesn't make their game in 3d.

Oh yes, ask them to spend more money on a game that you won't buy because you think it's expensive already. Sheesh. No wonder corporates don't take us seriously.

Yes, a little 3d would be nice, but don't you dare start asking for it in every game.

I absolutely can not wait for this. pocket gamer is being way to hard on a system that havnt even seen in motion, let alone played.

"well this new ds could use technology like shown here on this dsi game, so lets assume that its going to and run it into the ground"

what bullshit. I feel insulted, that I, a consumer, know more about a product then a website dedicated to those types of products.

Not too much of a handheld gamer, haven't even picked one up in a couple of years, but this should be interesting to see how it pans out. What level will its graphics be at? PSP level? Higher? Curious, because 3D, no matter how glorious, will look atrocious if low-res/pixellated...

I bet the 3DS, is actually a DS with newer 3D graphics like a PSP

Madmanonfire:
Not a good article.

This is true of about 90% of PGRs on this site.

OT: ...wow. I honestly have no idea where to begin on this. That was probably one of worst PGRs I have seen to date. I think making a list, in order of your "arguments," would be a good place to start.

• The DSiXL and 3DS are not the same console. The 3DS IS an eighth-gen console, and it's rumored (confirmed?) to have the processing power of a GCN. It's as much of a revision as the GBA was a revision of the GB. You are also under the faulty assumption that the "camel's back" is strained; yes, because practically holding the handheld gaming market in a stranglehold is such a strenuous position to hold. (Actually, it is, but it's essentially printing piles of money. Hardly "strained," if you ask me).
• Format is not a good indicator of innovation. Despite the smaller size of carts when compared to disks, they're still much, much faster and render load times nearly nonexistent. Besides, you can still make advances to the whole cart format to increase memory and power: compare an NES cart to a DS cart. The same process works behind both, and yet the DS cart is unquestionably superior. This argument also fails to take in the rest of the hardware of the 3DS, most of which is still speculation, as anything that could be potentially revolutionary.
• ...I have no idea why you put this in. To say that we have "fervor" over 3D due completely due to Avatar is a horribly shoddy argument. Not to mention that you can game in 3D on PCs today and that this system has probably been in development since the first wave of DS's were released, or at least since the DSi. To say that Avatar caused this is, as stated, a horrible, horrible argument.
• Again, speculation as to the actual function of the hardware in the 3DS. One third-party title is not indicative of what the first-party can produce, and it's likely that Nintendo will use a different means of creating 3D. This is a case of a developer making the most use of the hardware to produce a game, not a tech demonstration.

This article would have been better suited to reporting on the actual device at E3. Posting this now, however, just does not fly and, unfortunately, manages to drag down the quality of your articles even further into the mud, IMO.

CrystalShadow:
snip

Well, the problem comes in when a company just doesn't want to try 3d in their games and they promptly get flak for it. It would be like saying a game with good gameplay and decent graphics is horrible because it doesn't have the shiniest textures.

I say people should stop being so critical of them already. Let 3d be an eventual process. Don't force it into gaming. You say it isn't expensive, I call bullcrap.

But of course, nobody will listen. And that's why gaming is suffering. I just don't trust 3d gaming right now and nothing you say can change that. Maybe when I see it being used effectively on a global scale, then I'll reconsider.

CrystalShadow:
snip

Well, that does shed a bit more light on the subject. If it's that easy to do it, then I guess there won't be much trouble with it.

But mark my words, something is bound to come up and cause turbulance with this. I'm just wondering what.