The App Report: 3DS Drops to $169, PlayStation Vita Should Worry
by Carlos Macias, posted on 28 July 2011 / 5,631 Views
Uh oh. It looks like Nintendo is in a bit of trouble.
In a surely embarrassing move for the Japanese mega-publisher, Nintendo announced today that it would be dropping the price of the 3DS hardware to $169.99 starting August 12 -- a whopping $80 off the original retail price -- a mere four months after launching in March.
Those, like me, who were foolish enough to fork over the $250 in March will be getting downloadable goodies in the form of 10 Virtual Console NES titles including The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. before they go up for general consumption by logging into the 3DS eShop by August 11. As an added bonus, early adopters will also get 10 free Game Boy Advance games (Yoshi's Island, Metroid Fusion, etc.) that Nintendo says are not planned for release at a later date.
So, yeah. Nintendo surely read my post about the 3DS sinking and decided to stop resting on its laurels and do something about its failing 3DS sales. Maybe. Of course, their misguided expectations in a smartphone-dominated world is not held solely by the big N.
Sony's not completely out of the woods itself. They're very much in the same boat. The company's upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld was marketing itself against the 3DS with an aggressive starting price point of $250 at E3, but now it'll just look like a more pricey alternative to Nintendo's portable. And, really, both companies are wrong to assume their only competition is each other.
As I've harped on the in the past, handheld gaming is quite different than when the DS and PSP launched in 2004 and 2005, respectively. We're in an age largely owned by the iPhone and Apple's successful App Store.
Both companies need to get on board and start making moves to align their strategies to coincide with what the customer expects. As I've pointed out before, it's not necessarily the hardware's price of entry that's an issue for potential buyers but the game delivery method itself.
Sony and Nintendo need to realize that they're no longer in an era where boxed-goods are the only sound business strategy like when Nintendo owned the market in the late '80s and '90s with the Game Boy. Home consoles are quite some time away from goind cloud- or download-only, but that's because you don't carry your discs with you.
Handhelds? Forget it. The most convenient way to have on-the-go experiences has proven to be by way of games that sit on your device's local memory. Call game apps disposable if you'd like, but the success of the App Store, and Nintendo's clear admission of the same with the heavy $80 3DS price drop, have changed the game-selling business completely.
Sure, there's a lot of dreck with the mostly open App ecosystem, but you still get interesting, full-fledged titles that makes you wonder why you would ever drop $40 on a game ever again. For $5 you can get magnificent experiences like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, a console-comparable Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and for a few bucks more you can download deep games like Dead Space iOS, Real Racing 2 HD and Infinity Blade. All games which have had a respectable amount of success even when selling at prices that are "candidly disposible," as Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said in the past.
The games mentioned are great experiences and even at sub-$10 prices are considered "premium buys." Most games on the App Store probably range in the $.99 and $1.99 price point that are "good enough" and serve enough entertainment for discerning customers who only care to have something to play and download on a whim's notice.
Can Nintendo hope to compete with that? Can Sony? There's no doubt Nintendo will release great software two or three times a year, but it will not be enough and customers have grown weary of physical game copies that they need to carry around, along with the single-use hardware, and still have to drop $40 for the privilege.
Sony may tread a little closer in competing with the iPhone considering its 3G-compatible portable and PlayStation Suite compatibility but, even then, wireless data options are only available as an option in the more expensive version of the PlayStation Vita. Sony may want to consider making the 3G antenna standard in all versions of the Vita, lest they want to go confronting the same dilemma Nintendo is currently facing.
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to start up a discussion in the comments, wherever your loyalties may lie.
[The App Report focuses on Carlos Macias' ramblings on everything iPhone gaming (and maybe other mobile things outside of Apple's influence). If it's related to an app or downloadable game and it isn't held together by a physical box, the topic of the week will have a place in this column. He does not own an iPhone (read: hates contracts) but acts as if he does as his iPod Touch serves the same purpose with front and rear-facing cameras and a microphone picking up the slack. He can be reached at carlos_macias@ymail.com for potential app coverage and other inquiries.]
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