That price is insane.

If this plays those SNES games on the eshop than I am going to grab this.

Any inferences to be drawn on whether this could mean Stars or a Gen 4 remake? I need another 3DS for evolving Pokémon and transferring items. This may work nice, especially if I can bundle it with a game or two.

Everything is weird, nothing makes sense anymore.

That being said, I have a 3-year old 3DSXL that is begging to be retired, and I might just be insane enough to bite for this one, considering I'd like to have Xenoblade Chronicles on a portable. No, not that Xenoblade Chronicles. No, not that portable.

But the reason I'm so miffed about my current 3DSXL is that the 3D slider broke and I'm too lazy to send it in to fix it, even though I personally LOVE the 3D feature, and would want to see games like Ever Oasis and Fire Emblem Echoes with it. So that's why the fact that this baby is 2D is not appealing to me at all.

Okay, but why though?

It looks like they went out of their way to make it look cheap to differentiate it.  Still, if the price was lower, it would make a nice replacement for the 2DS.

I guess this makes sense. Right now Nintendo's main 3DS offerings are the New 3DS XL ($199) and the 2DS ($79), with nothing really in between. They've never seemed interested in selling the New 3DS on its own in North America, and if they feel that way because they believe the market for a smaller 3DS isn't there anymore, this makes sense as their middle of the line product.

Lower the price of New 3DS XL then? It launched over two years ago.

I don't think this looks cheap. Is this really necessary in 2017? Who is this for? This is like the Gameboy Micro of the 3DS line.

I feel like the NES Classic Edition would have sold more and been more profitable for Nintendo. Not that those things are inherently related. Assuming there are only so many production lines available, I don't know how another thing that plays 3DS games even remotely makes sense.

I think that this is for people who can't use the 3D functions physically or those that want to upgrade their lone 2DS or for younger kinds so that the parents can purchase one of these and then the kid who had the 2/3DS can pass that down to the next in line.

Hey. HEY. You are NOT allowed to bring up that shit here. The grass hasn't even grown on the soil of the NES Classic's grave yet. DON'T SULLY IT'S BRIEF AND BRILLIANT EXISTENCE FOR THE REST OF US PURE, LOVING NINTENDO FANS THAT NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO PURCHASE ONE AND NOW FEEL THE PANG OF IT'S ABSENCE AS AN EVERLASTING STAIN UPON OUR LOVE OF THE COMPANY THAT FORGOT HOW TO PROPERLY MANAGE BUSINESS ANY FURTHER.

All both of them.

Why would Nintendo lower the price on something that they had no trouble selling at $199 this past year? The point, presumably, it to put out something for people who can't use (or don't care about) 3D and/or want something a little more affordable, but don't want to go all the way down to the 2DS.

As far as the NES Classic Edition is concerned, I did not see a single mention of it (or its earning impact) over the past couple of days, and Kimishima mentioned at the end of 2016 that some of the parts involved were not easy to get a hold of. At this point, I'm not convinced that this thing was really as profitable as everyone seems to think it was.

The 3DS was in limited stock for a while.  I wonder if production slowed down to make this.

Still, such a strange product.  I guess in NA the larger screen handhelds probably sell more.  But you'd think they'd lower the price of the 3DS XL and run this thing at a lower MSRP.

I guess we can take this as a sign that Nintendo has 3DS software plans for 2018?

I really like the design, very slick and clean.

Obviously not going to buy it, cause my 3DS XL still works, but still -- neat design.

I like the design, If I didn't already have a New 3DS XL, It would be on my list.

Man thats how the 3DS should have looked from the get go.

No built in PSP nub c-stick replacement?

LAME!

Because Nintendo already launched its not-a-successor-but-totally-a-successor. As much as it wants to claim 3DS and Switch are meant to coexist, it knows they can't. Nintendo seems genuinely surprised Switch is selling so well, and the last time it had two products vying for sales in a similar space, it kicked GBA to the curb. Rightfully so, that was the better move. And 3DS was aged technology the day it launched, and even Nintendo has had to make compromises making games on it.

I don't really buy the middle-of-the-line reasoning. When did Nintendo ever need one? And does it even need one for a sub-$200 product? There have been five variations of 3DS in the past six years. For those who don't want 3D, keep the slider off. That's what I do. Nintendo had a really clear plan for OG 2DS: target multiple child homes and children under 7 who Nintendo advised not to use 3D. Neither are the upgrade crowd, and if Nintendo really wants to target those last OG 3DS stragglers, a price drop functionally does the same thing without spending time, money, and effort on research and development, contracts on parts and labor, marketing, shipping etc. New 2DS XL doesn't even benefit from the same low price the OG 2DS had when it launched.

I rather like the design, and if the subset of a subset of a subset is interested, more power to them. I'm not going to buy this; I just find its existence baffling especially in 2017.

So they're calling it "XL", despite not having a regular New 2DS?

Nintendo is not going to kick the 3DS to the curb when they just moved over 30 million units of first-party 3DS software alone over the past fiscal year (nor should they). If there was evidence to suggest that continuing to support the 3DS was cutting into Switch sales, then you could argue that Nintendo should take the long view and retire the 3DS anyway, but I really don't see any. Moving away from the GBA so quickly made sense because the DS could play GBA games, and they both offered distinctly handheld-like gaming experiences with their software. In this case, you can only play Switch and 3DS games on their respective platforms, and they offer drastically different gameplay experiences with their software. No one is going to settle for a 3DS if they want to play full-fledged console games on Switch, and if someone wants to dive into a deep and excellent library of games like the 3DS can offer right now, the Switch is not a reasonable substitute yet. Nintendo can't continue to sell the Switch and 3DS in parallel long-term, but neglecting the 3DS market right now would be leaving easy money on the table for no real long-term gain.

The used game market is proof that $50 can matter to a lot of people. The New 2DS XL isn't going to light the sales charts on fire, but, like I said, I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't want to pay $199 for a New 3DS XL, but also don't want to go all the way down to the 2DS with its small screens, slate design, and missing features. When there's such a wide gap between your two main offerings and there's still a market for the high-end one at its current price, yes, I do think it makes sense to release something in the middle.

Research and development on what? It's not using new technology, and I seriously doubt Nintendo spent a lot of time and effort coming up with a slight variation of the same basic hardware design they've been using for years. Many of the parts it's using are likely the same, some are probably cheaper to produce or acquire at this point, and parts, labor, and shipping costs all still apply to manufacturing the New 3DS XL and 2DS. They were fairly hard to come by last winter, so it's not as if Nintendo has millions of existing units lining store shelves or sitting in the warehouses of their retailer partners. Ultimately, this is a Nintendo hardware refresh. I don't buy the argument that they're sacrificing a lot margin or spent a lot of extra time and money to bring this product to the market.

Maybe Nintendo hasn't announced it yet. I mean, this is the same company that just released a new 2DS model in 2017 nearly two months after launching hardware meant to replace it.

Or just accept that the fact that we live in a world that somehow struggles with the concept of small, medium, and large. Starbucks, for example, offers Short (English), Tall (English), Grande (Spanish), Venti Hot (Italian and English), Venti Cold (Italian and English), and Trenta (technically wrong Italian because "trenta" means "thirty" and the cup is 31 oz).

Nintendo didn't kill off GBA immediately. It phased out the handheld over the course of a year or so. And Nintendo is doing the same with 3DS because it saw the writing on the wall years ago. It can no longer support two platforms simultaneously especially with handheld games demanding similar development resources as console games. Over half of that 30 million was Pokémon alone and the rumored Stars is apparently a Switch title. Nintendo's first party output on 3DS is demonstrably weaker this year, highlighted by a Fire Emblem remake, Not-Pikmin, and Miitopia. Nintendo absolutely is neglecting the 3DS market because it has to.

Well, that's where we disagree. Without software anywhere near the level of a brand new Pokémon, I'm not sure the market for an aged $199.99 handheld is as rosy as you think it is.

But I do agree that $50 matters a lot to people. That's why I suggested dropping the price of New 3DS XL, and if the price is the most enticing thing about New 2DS XL, Nintendo didn't really need a redesign to get there. In fact, I think $20 matters to people, and if Nintendo insists on launching a New 2DS XL, $149.99 is still too high for it given the OG 2DS launched at $129.99.

Any research and development cost in yen or labor is more than nothing it would have spent on not developing this thing at all. New 2DS XL may very well use many of the same components as New 3DS XL, and if that's the case, that's even less reason to launch a new model instead of dropping the price of the current one.

The root of my confusion for New 2DS XL is that I don't understand why it exists. I haven't heard a compelling reason why either. There's nothing it does that wouldn't have been infinitiely easier with a price drop. If New 2DS XL was $99.99, I'd shut right the fuck up. Unfortunately, it isn't, and Nintendo doesn't even seem to understand the appeal of 2DS.

I would argue Nintendo will get more money from people buying this and the copious amounts of 3DS software available than a one-time purchase of the NES Classic.

I would argue there are more people left who want an NES Classic Edition than people who don't already own a 3DS and would specifically purchase New 2DS XL and copious amounts of new software.

There are also multiple similarly-priced competitors for playing 3DS games available on the market right now, where NES Classic has no (legal and legitimate) competition.


I like the 2DS XL design, but find the pricing borderline ludicrous. There is no moderately priced entry into the product line outside of the (clearly marketed at children) original 2DS console, and as someone who need to replace his handheld before playing again I find that hugely disappointing.


In Canada you can pay $110 for a 2DS with game included, $200 for a New 2DS XL, or $240 for New 3DS XL. Those are all of the options. The latter two don't come with chargers or games. Paying over $200 for a system that has been around since 2011 (yes, it's been improved since then... but how many games use those improvements?) is ludicrous.


Remember the Black Friday sale where they brought out a cheaper 3DS unit? I was so excited... of course, there was virtually no stock provided and I've never seen an in-stock non-XL unit since that date.

This. A week ago people found it inconceivable that Nintendo could produce NES Minis, SNES Minis and Switches at the same time. But now it's totally fine that Nintendo is producing SNES Minis, Switches and yet another 3DS variant all at the same time.

The Gen 4 remakes of Diamond Dust and Pearl Powder *will* happen for one simple reason:  money. 


Now will they be released for 3DS?  Switch?  Something else?  Good questions these.  My conjecture would be 3DS in October/November 2017 to coincide with Game Freak's near-annual release schedule.  Plus considering how long video games must be in development these days I am willing to bet Game Freak began developing Diamond Dust and Pearl Powder the day after ORAS were released (Nov 22, 2014).

I'm interested to see if these "people" are the same "people" thinking it's "totally fine" and how many there are. The reason 3DS stock has been so limited is probably because of preparing for this new 2DS system and having good amounts on shelves. I also doubt a one time $60 purchase in the NES Classic would rival the one time $100-whatever purchase of the New 2DS XL and the extra money made from software. There is no "what else will people buy" with the NES Classic. It's a one time purchase with no extra means for revenue in software. Can't say the same about the New 2DS XL.

In a perfect world, Nintendo wouldn't be stupid and quit producing the NES Classic, but when has Nintendo ever been truly 100% competent?

I almost feel like Nintendo are parodying themselves at this point.

I don't see why the regular NEW 3DS couldn't have filled in the $150 price point.

I'm pretty sure if they were going to do that they'd have announced it along side this. Plus, I do see their reasoning-- they want to highlight the fact it has extra-large screens as its selling point over the original 2DS, but still had to throw "New" in there to make sure folks are aware know it contains the New 3DS upgrades as well.

I'm not following your logic as not only were 3DSes/2DSes always going to still be manufactured along side the SNES minis and Switches anyhow. Also, I'm fairly certain the current 2DS is going to be discontinued for this, just the same way the NES Mini would be for the SNES Mini.

I wonder if the NES Classic Mini would have even existed if Nintendo knew how high 3DS sales would be during the holidays.

Nintendo probably sees better sales from the XL models. Plus, not needed the 3D makes it cheaper.

Yes, I meant to include "on the 3DS family of systems"

I'm less interested now that I've thought this through. I really like the design, but it probably won't work for my needs. I wanted a second 3DS for Pokémon, but it was also going to serve as back-up device (or more accurately, my current 3DS, which is showing signs of wear, would become the secondary device). I don't use the 3D much, but it is essential for a few games. If I get the 2DS, I'll still need to get another 3DS to stick in the back of my closet. Part of what I really like about the 3DS (and being almost all digital) is I can back up all my data and a back-up version of the console for posterity isn't cost prohibitive.