Topic: Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns 3DS Not Coming to Japan

[NWR_Neal]

The 3DS port of the next portable Harvest Moon game is oddly a western exclusive.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27605

The upcoming 3DS release of Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns is only coming to North America and Europe, a representative from Natsume told us.

The game, originally made for DS, came out in July 2010 in Japan. The DS version is coming over to North America on September 20, while the 3DS version, a 3D-enhanced port of the other version, is due out in October. The European release date for the game has not been announced.

Check out our impressions of the 3DS version from E3 2011, and look forward to our preview on the game coming soon.

[Ceric]

Why release the DS version at all then...  Get that Harvest Moon addict faction to the 3DS.

[Crimm]

Why release the DS version at all then...  Get that Harvest Moon addict faction to the 3DS.

The game began life on the DS, but they wanted to give people the opportunity to play the game on the system they're "most comfortable" with.

[Ceric]

I stand by my statement.

[MegaByte]

Why release the DS version at all then...  Get that Harvest Moon addict faction to the 3DS.

Why not? There's a huge DS install base, and Natsume doesn't gain much right now by encouraging 3DS uptake.

[NWR_insanolord]

The Harvest Moon series has a devoted following, but not enough to have any real impact on hardware sales, and a lot of its fans are more on the casual side of the spectrum and wouldn't be likely to pay $170 just to play it. Like Aaron says, it would hurt Natsume a lot more than it would help Nintendo to drop the DS version.

[leahsdad]

I think I heard once that there are currently far more 3DS's in North America than in Japan (not per capita or anything, just raw numbers).   Maybe this is the reason?

[TJ Spyke]

Not sure about right now, but before the price drop the 3DS was over 1 million in Japan but less than 800K in the US.

[Ceric]

Not sure about right now, but before the price drop the 3DS was over 1 million in Japan but less than 800K in the US.

Why release the DS version at all then...  Get that Harvest Moon addict faction to the 3DS.

Why not? There's a huge DS install base, and Natsume doesn't gain much right now by encouraging 3DS uptake.

Those arguments leads back to why in heck make a 3DS version at all?  That guarentees almost an insta-flop.  Its going to cost more for what will probably be no real gain.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't think there's that much additional development going into the 3DS version, and I'm going to buy the game for 3DS whereas I'd have been significantly less likely to do so if it were only coming to DS, so there may be something to their strategy.

[Crimm]

I've seen the 3DS version in person, and heard about what they did in the port. It's much the same game. They did upscale graphics a bit and added 3D. They made it take up the entire screen.

[TJ Spyke]

Do you think the improvements will be worth the extra $5 it will likely cost compared to the DS version?

[NWR_insanolord]

Do you think the improvements will be worth the extra $5 it will likely cost compared to the DS version?

Based on what Crimm said, probably not, but I'm still going to pay it because I have a serious problem.

[Ceric]

Do you think the improvements will be worth the extra $5 it will likely cost compared to the DS version?

Based on what Crimm said, probably not, but I'm still going to pay it because I have a serious problem.

Hey, this would be great for a comparison feature.

[Crimm]

If you want to play it on your 3DS - I'd say yes but only because it uses the entire screen.