3DS, Seriously

The Wii? Nintendo is okay with you not taking it seriously. I mean, your grandma might be playing that thing. Her idea of a crazy day is getting a 300 in Wii bowling. And the DS? Your little sister probably plays that thing. She probably puts a Hannah Montana sticker on her hot pink DS–mine does. None of these things paint a serious picture at all.

But the 3DS? Now that is a system that Nintendo wants you to take seriously. Speaking to Nikkei, Saturo Iwata said that Nintendo is working closely with third parties to enable the 3DS to “expand into elaborate games targeting serious gamers.” Succesful or not, it’s commendable for them to be so aggressive with third parties…we might buy Nintendo consoles for the Nintendo franchises, but it’s nice to have a something new every once in a while. Like maybe Persona 5.

So, then, things start to get confusing when Gamespot says “Iwata went on to suggest that the current DS and its software only caters to those who do not play games; something that he hoped to rectify with the 3DS in terms of advances in graphics and gameplay.”

How many times has Nintendo gone on record saying that they are not ignoring the hardcore/gamers with the Wii? No one’s playing that thing for the graphics, but not it seems as if they are saying that graphics are necessary. So is this Nintendo admitting something, that their current approach in the gaming market isn’t actually all-inclusive, that their approach has to be different for us “real gamers”? If so, it’s probably a good realization, and it makes me a little more faithful in what the Wii 2 might look like.