According to data released by Tokyo-based game magazine publisher Enterbrain (published in The Nikkei over the weekend), the Japanese market for video games grew 1.2 percent to US$4.6 billion in fiscal year 2012 (which ended on March 31, 2013).

Software sales for gaming consoles and handhelds contracted 1.2 percent to $2.8 billion in that time frame.

But hardware sales increased five percent to about $1.8 billion in Japan, thanks to the introduction of the Wii U (well, OK, if the report says so), a new 3DS, and Sony’s recent price cuts for their consoles.

What’s interesting is that while a 1.2 percent plus sounds pretty modest, the overall market for video games in Japan grew for the first time in five years. Enterbrain’s numbers for the first half of fiscal 2012 were already indicating such a trend.

And what’s even more interesting is that even though different data providers use different methods, it looks like the sizes of the video and social gaming markets in Japan are now very similar.

The latest report of note came from Yano Research in January, estimating the social gaming market in Japan was worth $4.3 billion in 2012. Even though that number is closer to $4 billion using today’s exchange rate, that market grew faster between 2011 and 2012 than the one for video games, making the difference not that big anymore.

There are so many things wrong with this, it’s hard to even know where to begin. I could, of course, begin with how the Ministry of Culture has already denied considering lifting the ban. But these rumors are sure to pop up again sooner or later, so instead let’s begin with the stupidest thing I have read so far this year, which comes to us courtesy of the Forbes article linked above:

If the ban is lifted, however, sales of new game consoles could skyrocket. Console manufacturers would be free to promote their items and sell them in every store. And since consumers would no longer have to pay black market prices, consoles would become even more desirable to own.

The assertion that gamers are currently paying “black market prices” for consoles and thus would relish the opportunity to buy legitimate versions is shockingly ignorant, and leads me to wonder if the author of this article has even bothered to look into the console market at all. First of all, game consoles are sold on the gray market in China, meaning they’re sold openly in retail stores and online. Secondly, they don’t cost much more than they do in the US or elsewhere, and the extra cost is often because they’re hacked, so it’s immediately offset by the far lower price of buying cheap pirated games for the system.

In fact, let’s do a little experiment. In the US, you can get a plain Xbox 360 console for $200, while in China it’s closer to $250. But the gray-market console in China is generally hacked to play pirated games, so when you want to add on one new game to play, the US price rises to $260, and the Chinese price rises to $251. Add another new game, and the American Xbox now costs over $300, while the Chinese one now costs $252. You get the idea: the consoles themselves cost slightly more, but Chinese console gamers actually pay far less overall than Western gamers who are buying legitimate games for their systems.

Moreover, legitimizing console sales in China would actually make them more expensive than they are in the US, because — like all other imported electronics — their prices would need to be raised to cover China’s import duties. Gray market imports, since they’re technically illegal and enter under the radar, are not taxed, but official imports would be, and thus China’s gamers would get a taste of what China’s Apple fans already know: everything electronic is more expensive in China. At the end of the day, Chinese gamers would see something like a 10 percent reduction in the cost of consoles themselves, but that’s not nearly enough to offset the 7500 percent rise in the price of a new game for the system. At the end of the day, most Chinese gamers who want to actually play games on their console would end up paying significantly more than what they’re paying now if console imports were legalized.

One of China’s many shops that sells game consoles. Look at all those customers demanding Western game consoles. Oh wait, there aren’t any customers. The guys in red work there.

Now that we’ve torn apart the section of that article that’s blatantly incorrect, let’s turn to the part of it that’s just logically flawed. Why would sales of new game consoles skyrocket? Although they are technically illegal, western game consoles are widely available in China right now, sold openly in thousands upon thousands of electronics stores across the country. Any Chinese gamer who wants a console probably already has one. And since the consoles available now are for the most part hacked, gamers have access to thousands of games for extremely low prices. Legitimizing console sales might lower the prices of consoles slightly (as discussed above), but that would be nothing compared to the price of games, which would jump from at most 5 RMB ($0.79) for a pirated game to at least 370 RMB ($60) for a new, legitimately imported game.

As much fun as it is to beat up Forbes, let me stop and break this thing down for you list-style:

Why No One Should Be Excited About the Console Ban Being Lifted

1. It probably won’t happen. The Ministry of Culture has already officially denied that it’s considering dropping the ban. But even if that’s a smokescreen and the China Daily’s tip is legit (which is by no means guaranteed), I am certain the Ministry of Culture considers lots of things it doesn’t ultimately do. And no one I have seen yet has been able to adequately answer the question of why China would choose to un-ban game consoles right now, when there’s still no domestic competitor to benefit from the move. (No, the CT510 doesn’t count).

2. Consoles and console games are already widely available. Anyone who wants to can buy a game console in China for more or less the same price as anywhere else. And, as an added bonus, the games are usually extremely cheap. Chinese gamers who are interested in console gaming already own consoles. If there is a demand for consoles in China, it does not seem to have outpaced the supply available on the gray market, so legalizing consoles isn’t likely to cause any kind of sales spike.

3. Legalizing consoles just makes them more expensive. China’s import duties would almost certainly raise the price of legitimate consoles to close to what they currently cost on the gray market. And the price of legitimately imported games for consoles would be much, much higher than what gamers currently pay for widely-available pirated game discs, so the overall cost of playing games on a game console would skyrocket.

4. Chinese gamers are not dying to get their hands on Western and Japanese consoles. In some circles, people seem to be under the impression that the only thing stopping Chinese gamers from buying XBoxes in droves is the tyrannical policies of the Chinese government. This is complete bullshit. Unlike my generation in the West, most Chinese gamers did not grow up with consoles in their homes. Their first introduction to the world of games was through a PC, not a Nintendo, and most Chinese gamers continue to prefer the PC platform. That’s not because they don’t have consoles, it’s because they actually prefer playing games on a PC. And, as I mentioned above, those who do want consoles likely already have them.

5. Chinese gamers prefer game genres that don’t really work on consoles. Look at the genres of games that are popular in China: MMORPGs, RTSs, and twitchy, highly-competitive multiplayer FPS games. These are all genres that don’t work very well on consoles. There is a reason there are no console versions of games like World of Warcraft, DOTA, and Starcraft (both hugely popular in China); they both play much better with a mouse and keyboard. And while there are some twitchy FPS games on consoles, Chinese gamers seem to prefer games like Counter-Strike, where the precision of a mouse and keyboard is virtually a requirement. This is not to say, of course, that there aren’t fans of more console-friendly game genres in China, but it’s important to remember that in general, the tastes of Chinese and Western gamers are often quite different.

6. The console game sales model doesn’t work in China. Most popular Chinese games are free-to-play or very cheap, instead relying on subscription tiers and in-game transactions to generate revenue. That’s because in general, game publishers have had a very hard time getting Chinese gamers to pay large up-front sums for games. But there are almost no console games out there that generate most of their revenue with subscriptions or in-game sales right now, and it’s very difficult to do free-to-play when most games require a disc. On-demand gaming may open the door to new sales models in the next generation of consoles, but right now the vast majority of console games (even the on-demand downloadable ones) require one big up-front payment, and that’s just not something many Chinese gamers are into. (If you look at the top ten tech companies in China by revenue, many of them are game publishers that operate primarily online subscription and in-game transaction-based games.)

7. Piracy is still a big problem. Even if legalized console imports somehow generated a huge sales spike (which they won’t), Microsoft and Nintendo couldn’t expect to make a whole lot of money on games. Sony’s Playstation 3 has been more difficult to hack, but the Xbox 360 and the Wii are thoroughly compromised, and getting your console hacked to play pirated games is easy. Sure, it might cost a few extra dollars if you don’t want to do it yourself, but it pays for itself instantly when you’re buying brand new games for less than one dollar per game.

8. Eedoo’s eBox iSec CT-510 may be a warning sign. Eedoo has done a lot of things wrong in the marketing of its not-a-game-console game console, but the strange and sudden pivot from an emphasis on games to an emphasis on health, apps, and other kinds of entertainment might have been a response to weak consumer demand for a traditional, gamer-demographic-focused game console. (The console was originally called the iSec and was targeted squarely at gamers, but just before release it was renamed the CT-510 and re-targeted at more of a family crowd). This shift could also have been the result of pushback from regulators, of course, but since this happened less than a year ago, if regulators wouldn’t let a Chinese company release a game console in China it seems unlikely they’re really about to let Western and Japanese companies have a go.

I could probably keep going, but I think my point is clear. China’s console market is not as big or as ready to explode with profit as some people seem to think. Time will tell whether or not any of this even matters, but if you’re the kind of person who buys stock in a console company on the basis of an anonymously-sourced report in the China Daily, well, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

My gaming fanatic colleague Charlie just sent me an email at midnight in his timezone (he’s in the US), so either it’s a drunken missive or it’s big news. Turns out it’s the latter. That’s because Chinese government sources have told the China Daily that “authorities are reviewing a decade-long ban on game consoles and considering the possibility of opening up the country’s video game hardware market.”

Banned since 2000 on the grounds of “the potential harm” to children, gaming consoles like the PS3, PSP, Wii, and XBox have nonetheless long been available in China via the so-called gray import market (along with a huge range of pirated games). But they cannot be sold in major electronics stores, and are instead sold by random vendors in large gadget malls all over the country.

An end to the gaming console ban would be a boost, in theory, to manufacturers such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. But that’s presuming Chinese consumers would be willing to pay around US$40 for games, which is a hefty amount equivalent to more than a day’s wages even for some of China’s urban middle classes. Plus, the pirated console games generally cost just 10 RMB ($1.60). Without a viable market for genuine games, the console industry might not even be sustainable in China, especially not at a time when iPads and Android tablets bring access to quality games on a fairly big screen for prices ranging from $1 to $10.

Recent estimates suggest that about 1.7 million grey-market consoles are sold in China each year.

An anonymous source within China’s Ministry of Culture told the paper:

We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market. However, since the ban was issued by seven ministries more than a decade ago, we will need approval from all parties to lift it.

China has a homegrown contender in this market in the shape of the don’t-call-it-a-games-console Eedoo CT-510, which has had a muted reception due to its $600 price tag.

Earlier signs of the ban ending emerged a few months ago when Sony’s Playstation 3 received its China safety certificate.

(Source: China Daily)

I like the spirit of honesty in the clip, he fumbles with opening it a few times confessing that it’s his first time doing so. But I really wish he wasn’t so ceremonial and formal here. Check out the video for yourself:

Boy, that was fun…

I don’t know. Maybe the Wii U is good enough to market itself, perhaps. Maybe smartphone gaming is just a fad, and everyone will go back to fiddling with wires behind their living room TV where they belong as soon as the Wii U drops.

This looks more like an Okuribito sequel than an unboxing. The suit and white gloves would be far more fitting for a funeral director than what should be a fun unboxing.

A vision of the Wii U’s future? What do you think?

Photo: pcmag.com

In a pre-E3 announcement, Nintendo (TYO:7974) has unveiled some new details about its upcoming Wii U game system. The company has been struggling of late, with mobile and social gaming companies eating their lunch as it has failed to really implement those particular elements into its console gaming.

The first thing that Nintendo announced was its new Gamepad controller, the name being a throwback to the old Famicom/NES. The controller can be used as an independent screen, on which gamers can continue to play even when the main TV is being used. The Gamepad can also be used as a fully independent infrared TV remote, which should come in handy as well.

And unlike the prototype that the company showed off at last years E3 conference, the Gamepad will have directional sticks instead of circular pads, which can also be clicked as buttons. There are also NFC capabilities as well as a gyroscope and accelerometer. Interestingly, Nintendo also is going to have a Wii U Pro controller, which is intended for longer and more intense gaming.

But perhaps even more interesting for Nintendo fans is the fact that the company is also implementing new social features into its Wii U system, with something called Miiverse (Mii + Universe). When you turn on your console, the first screen that you see will be tiles of the most played games as well as people’s Mii avatars crowded around them. You can see friends, as well as others in the same country or those who speak the same language as you. Gamers can update their status on a timeline and even share handwritten notes or screenshots from their games.

It’s going to be interesting to see exactly how Nintendo’s strategy plays out. Will its two screen system be a new and innovative gaming experience as the Wii was when it first appeared? Will users take to Nintendo’s new ‘social window’? Given the increased competition from companies in the mobile and social gaming space, Nintendo really can’t afford a miss with the Wii U console.

Check out the 30 minute video announcement from Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata below. I’ve skipped ahead to its overview of social features, which I thought was perhaps the most interesting, albeit a little bit cheesy.

These cards can no longer be sold legally in Japan (photo akibamap.com)

According to Nintendo (TYO:7974), Japanese authorities in Aichi prefecture have arrested a ‘majikon’ vendor for suspected video game piracy. Majikon are adaptors or cards that can be purchased so that users can play homebrew software or games on the Nintendo DS, or at least, that’s the defense of the sellers. The kits, such as Supercard or R4, are often used to download ROMs from the internet in order to play games for free.

IT Media reports that a 39-year-old Saitama man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly selling the devices to three people for a total of 7,200 yen (or about $91) [1]. Nintendo also noted that a man was arrested in February for modifying Wii consoles so that they could play copies of Wii games backed up on hard drives.

There’s no denying that the Nintendo has been plagued by piracy in recent years, and that such cards have no doubt hurt its business. But Nintendo has also been hurt by the rise of competing mobile gaming companies (Apple, GREE, DeNA) who do digital distribution in a way that has certainly eaten perhaps an even bigger portion of Nintendo’s lunch. Nintendo might do well to distance themselves from this sort of mess considering what happened to Sony after it pursued a hacker that jailbroke the PS3.

But ultimately both these problems for Nintendo are evidence that consumers want games that they can download instantly, in ways that may (see afore mentioned mobile gaming companies) or may not be legal (see majikon vendors).

Nintendo is moving towards a dual-distribution model for 3DS and Wii U games. But as Joystiq points out, new downloadable 3DS games will not be tied to an account but rather to tied to the memory card and hardware that downloaded it.

You can check them out over on his tumblr blog, or at his Ukiyo Nintendo Facebook group. I’m going to post just two below, and I’ll encourage you to click through to his sites to see the rest.

There seems to be lots of positive “shut-up-and-take-my-money” responses from people who would like to buy prints, t-shirts, or posters. And we’re happy to see that Jed is planning to put prints on sale on August 1 as part of a Kickstarter campaign. I hope he does well.

I can’t help but think that these pictures would make for a great social battle card game, along the lines of DeNA’s Rage of Bahamut or something like that. It’s a shame that Nintendo doesn’t do social… The game plays awesome in my imagination though.

For the upcoming Nintendo Wii U, the results of this particular survey do not bode well:

PS Vita at 2011 Tokyo Game Show

• Only 7.1 percent say they want to buy it
• 33.5 percent say they don’t want to buy but are interested
• 59.4 percent say they don’t want to buy it at all

For Sony’s recently released PS Vita, the responses are even worse:

• Only 7.8 percent say that they want to buy it
• 31.7 percent say they don’t want to buy but are interested
• 60.5 percent say they don’t want to buy it at all

Looking at the actual weekly sales figures [2] for Japan since the PS Vita was announced (see interactive chart below), you can see that the PS Vita is Japan is practically flatlined. Of course, it looks better if you change the scale of the graph. But in comparison to better selling consoles of the past like the Nintendo DS or the PSP in its prime, the Vita is (ironically) showing few signs of life so far.

It goes without saying that Sony and Nintendo no longer just have to worry about each other, as smartphone and tablet devices – with better digital distribution for consumers – have changed the game considerably in recent years.

Looking at console sales in Japan [1] over the past eight years or so (see interactive chart below), you can see that recent efforts by both Sony and Nintendo have failed to replicate their past successes. While the 3DS did achieve a decent sales bump thanks to a sharp price cut, it has likely passed its peak.

Sony’s PlayStation Vita will likely take the torch from the PSP, but again, I don’t foresee it bouncing back to the heights that the PSP once enjoyed.

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto trying the 3DS Louvre guide

The Louvre and Nintendo (TYO:7974) have teamed up an in somewhat surprising partnership to provide audio and visual guides to the famous museum’s many visitors. The guides will use Nintendo’s 3DS to assist with both navigation of the museum on an interactive map, as well as provide information about the many works of art housed there, like the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo.

As you can see in the promotional video below, vistors can view certain works in 3D (erm… just like you can in real life) and zoom in on tiny details thanks to the HD imagery. In total there are over 700 audio commentaries and photos.

There will be two tour options that you can choose from: 1) the ’Masterpieces“ tour, and 2) the ”Egypt for all the family" tour [1]. Each one will span 45 minutes. The guides will be available in seven languages, and will cost €5 (or about $6.50).

You can check out the clip below from Nintendo for a better idea of how it works. Personally, I used to be a big fan of the Nintendo DS, but I confess the only gaming that I do these days is the occasional bit of Infinity Blade on the iPad.

Perhaps I should send my DS to a museum?

PS Vita at 2011 Tokyo Game Show

Sony’s (NYSE:SNE) new PlayStation Vita is continuing to slide in the Japan sales rankings after a hot start that saw it sell 324,849 units in the first week. According to AndriaSang citing Media Create figures, the Vita only sold 42,648 units in its third week, falling further from the 72,479 units in its second week.

2012 should be a fascinating year to watch the console gaming space, not just in Japan, but around the world. The industry as a whole felt the initial impact of smartphone gaming in 2011, with many already declaring console gaming effectively dead. It’s not an especially outrageous prediction, considering the success of companies like Rovio, GREE (TYO:3632), or DeNA (TYO:2432).

You can check out sales figures for Japan for the last four weeks below. Note that the 3DS is still doing surprisingly well after its price cut, although it too has dropped off after the holidays. If you’d like to look further back, Serkan Toto has just published total figures for the year over on Techcrunch.

Japanese game-maker Capcom (TYO:9697) has just announced that its Monster Hunter 3G for Nintendo’s 3DS has shipped over one million units in Japan. The series has sold 20 million units in total since it originally launched in 2004.

The success of this latest title is likely one of the main reasons why the Nintendo 3DS has enjoyed a happy rebound, as the console will likely pass the four million mark earlier than anticipated after its disappointing start and subsequent price slash earlier this year.

Meanwhile back in the states…

And while Capcom appears to be pleasing its fans at home, some gaming fans abroad are getting their controllers all in a tangle over the recent release of Megaman X for iPhone. Capcom may have been trying to appeal to gamers’ nostalgia, but many seem to think that the less-than-stellar graphics and retro music are indications that the company just phoned this one in.

I’ll be giving it a look over the next few days and will return with my impressions soon. Personally I don’t mind the old-style game so much as I do the fact that there is no iPad version. You can see the trailer for the iPhone version below.

PS Vita at 2011 Tokyo Game Show

This past Saturday Sony’s PlayStation Vita went on sale in Japan, as the company hopes to close what has been a very difficult year on a high note. Reportedly there were early morning line-ups at various locations around Japan, and in some places people even began queuing the night before.

The Vita comes with a price tag of about 24,000 to 30,000 yen (or about $310 to $385), which is considerably higher than rival Nintendo’s 3DS after its 40 percent price cut, which has seen an improvement in sales thanks to the low price and an assortment of new games.

Andrew House of Sony Computer Entertainment told PC world today that Nintendo’s “handheld strategy has been far more focused around a younger family-and-kids audience than our devices have,” and I think this is an interesting contrast. For Sony, the hardcore gamer demographic is probably less likely to be impacted by the rise of smartphones than casual gaming, where we have seen titles like Angry Birds do so well.

For those of you who would like to get a peek at what a PS Vita looks like booting up for the first time, the always-excellent Brian Ashcraft has a demo video up that shows the entire process:

I used to be a die-hard Nintendo DS player. But the console just doesn’t do it for me anymore. What does it say that out of all the news from Nintendo’s big 3DS conference today, that perhaps most remarkable revelation is the addition of a single button?

While it wasn’t explicitly mentioned at the conference, the Slide Pad extendor-nubbin ended up disclosed on the Nintendo website. It won’t cost much, tagged at just 1500 yen (about $20) — which is good because it doesn’t look like much. For fans of the supported games – Monster Hunter Tri G, BioHard Revelations, etc – perhaps it might be exciting. But as I think back to the days when I was first wowed by the Nintendo DS, turning it into a Frankenstein console like this just doesn’t do it for me.

Just like last year, Nintendo put off its own conference snubbing the Tokyo Game Show that starts this week. The company did announce a number of solid titles to be released in November, but the event was one without any real climax. At least for me.

The 3DS will be getting Super Mario 3D Land, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Mario Kart 7. And the console will also get an update in November that will enable 3D video recording on the device. So perhaps I shouldn’t be down on Nintendo. But I can’t really shake this ‘Meh’ feeling…

Nevertheless, I am far more eager to pay a visit to Tokyo Game Show this week and check out all the companies (GREE, DeNA, Konami, etc) that are eating Nintendo’s lunch (see below).

Reuters

Hard times for Nintendo

When it went on sale in February, many expected that the Nintendo’s new 3DS console would inject new life into Japan’s gaming giant. But things didn’t work out that way. Some of you may recall back in early April we wrote about a sudden decline in the price of Nintendo’s then fairly new 3DS.

Yesterday the company announced an even bigger price cut, as the price of the 3DS plummets from the initial price of 25,000 yen to 15,000 yen in Japan effective August 11. Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata posted a public apology letter (PDF, Japanese):

Never in Nintendo’s history have we lowered prices to such an extent, less than half a year since the product launch. But we have judged that unless we move decisively now, there is a high possibility that we will not see many of our customers enjoying a Nintendo 3DS. (NYT translation)

Nintendo also posted it’s financial highlights for the past three months today, and it’s pretty shocking to see that even with the new 3DS console, the company still could not surpass its sales performance from the year before (see chart below). Certainly the March 11 earthquake didn’t help things either, but as I said, the 3DS was floundering weeks before that.

What’s astounding about the situation is Nintendo’s stubbornness to adjust to the situation. When you think gaming in Japan these days, many people would think of mobile gaming companies GREE and DeNA before they mention Nintendo. Speaking for us here at Penn Olson, that’s who we think of at least.

Are mobile gaming companies eating Nintendo’s lunch? Could Nintendo rebound if it developed software for platforms other than its own? iPhone anyone? It would at least stand a chance. But it doesn’t want to, recently asserting that its strategy “hasn’t changed and won’t change.”

It will be interesting to see if the company can return to gaming greatness with the upcoming Wii-U. I’m not quite willing to underestimate Nintendo innovation just yet, so I’m optimistic on that front. But as for portable consoles, it looks like the 3DS is Nintendo’s answer to Windows Vista. If it can’t come up with better hardware, then I really hope it can drop some games for iOS, Android, and other mobile platforms.

Super Mario would pose a much bigger threat to Angry Birds than those piggies ever could.

[Photo: SuperMarioLuigi.com]

That announcement triggered speculation that the company would further explore the smartphone market, expanding into Android and iOS gaming. Nintendo’s stock rose by nearly 5 percent according to Bloomberg. But soon after, spokesperson Yasuhiro Minagawa grounded all that talk by explaining that the company’s plan to develop for only its own hardware “hasn’t changed and won’t change.”

I’m not sure why Nintendo would want to strap themselves in to its current platforms when porting its current games to new ones would likely require relatively little additional effort. While the company is still doing relatively well, it should keep in mind what happened to its old rival Sega a decade ago, as it shifted operations to become a third-party software publisher.

It’s not only smartphones that Nintendo may be overlooking, but social gaming ought to be an option as well, as both Sega and Capcom have made forays into that space. If the success of GREE and DeNA are any indication, social and mobile are not platforms you want to ignore, especially in Japan.

Possible picture depicting the mysterious "Project Cafe," though origin unknown.

Nintendo today confirmed what had been rumored over the past few weeks, announcing it would soon be showing the world its next gaming console. The company stated that at E3 in Los Angeles on June 7th, it will reveal the capabilities of the new machine.

To whom it may concern,
Re: Wii’s successor system
April 25 2011

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

In addition, a Chinese newspaper is reporting that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn (the same company who manufactures iPhones and iPads) will exclusively assembling the new console.

Wii want more!

Consumers should expect more than a simple 3D upgrade, asNintendo’s president Satoru Iwata stated that adding 3D features would be difficult since 3D televisions are not as common as they need to be among the general public.

That raises the question, exactly how can Nintendo make a better console than they have with the Wii? It could ditch the Wii-motes for full Kinect-like motion control, which would make sense.

Personally I’d like to see Nintendo display the same elegant creativity that it showed when it released the Wii and the Nintendo DS years back. When the trend was more power and better graphics, Nintendo opted to focus on simplicity and pure fun.

If the company imbue 2011 technology with that same spirit, I would be very eager to see what these folks can come up with.

Nintendo

To go along with the declining sales there’s a corresponding decline in price according to price-aggregator website Kakaku.com (see below). One retailer today was seen selling the 3DS at a paltry 19800 yen.

Things could very well pick up for Nintendo as more 3DS titles are released, but from purely a consumer’s perspective it’s great to see how far the price has dropped since the console was released early this year.