Nintendo 3DS Message Board older than one year ago

Nintendo clearly understands the importance of the international economy's fragile supply and demand formula, as evidenced in statements made during a recent investor call. Italian plumbers and pocket monsters are, in the case of Nintendo games, highly sought after properties that are somewhat constrained in supply. The result of this, of course, is high demand for Nintendo's games -- such high demand, in most cases, that third-party game sales on Nintendo's consoles are outstripped by first-party.

Nintendo, however, hopes to appear mindful of stepping on toes. When asked about potential release dates for 3DS version of Super Mario and Mario Kart, Nintendo head Satoru Iwata noted, "We want the other companies to be successful." He continued, "In order to accomplish this goal, we would like to decide on the dates after we know the release plans of other companies' games so that we are able to consider how we can maximize the sales of our titles without affecting the sales of other companies in the short term."

It's also possible that Iwata is just blowing smoke to avoid answering specific questions about release dates for major franchises, though our mothers always told us not to expect the worst in people.

#gaijingames The adventures of Commander Video are served six ways in the new Bit.Trip Saga, the Nintendo 3DS compilation that will included every Bit.Trip game released by developer Gaijin Games. Not only do you get Bit. Trip Beat, you get Core, Void, Runner, Fate and Flux. More »

Aksys Games put stuff on sale last month and donated all the proceeds to earthquake relief for Japan. Now it's offering an even more generous charity initiative: it's selling a limited-edition shirt featuring cute BlazBlue characters and the word "hope," for $20. Not only do all the proceeds from sales go to relief efforts, but Aksys will match that contribution.

So, for your $20, $40 ends up going to help Japan, and you get an adorable t-shirt. Not bad! Don't think about it too hard -- according to the announcement, " They are limited in number, so if you want one, I suggest you buy one quickly when they go up."

#screengrab And it's got nothing to do with serving the public trust, protecting the innocent or upholding the law. More »

#singwhenyourewinning In 2009, EA Sports produced the single greatest soccer game - and maybe greatest sports game of all time - in FIFA 10. That kind of act is a tough one to follow, and it seems that, two years on, we're back to tiny little bullet-point updates. More »

#barrelroll There's a fancy, custom PSP for just about every game ever released on the system. It's a shame Nintendo doesn't follow suit. Especially when you see this fan mock-up of a tribute to the classic shooter. More »

New Zelda and Starfox footage! What's currently on and coming to Nintendo 3DS in this trailer from April 2011?

Have fun customizing your Miis on Nintendo 3DS.

Gaijin Games and publisher Aksys have revealed what those pseudo-cryptic Bit.Trip teasers were about: a retail collection of all six Bit.Trip games on 3DS, called Bit.Trip Saga.

Saga contains Bit.Trip Beat, Core, Void, Runner, Fate and Flux, all of which have been updated with 3D effects. Because staring at Bit.Trip Beat for 15 minutes didn't already effectively pull you into a trance state! The announcement offers no indication of how the motion-based controls in Beat will work, other than that they're "ultra-precise."

Dee Brown, Studio Head at Spider-Man: Edge of Time developer Beenox, gave us the origin story of the Quebec-based studio's name. Were any radioactive spills or gamma rays involved?

"When I was in high school, I was already thinking about creating my own games and starting my own development studio and I was already writing programs that I would publish on the internet. I was always using my real name at the time and everyone else was using a label or a comic hero name or something else.

"I was in a chemistry course one day and I was really bored, so I started thinking about my future game company. I was writing stuff in my book and I thought of a bunch of names but, for some reason, I really wanted an 'X' in my name. So I was writing a whole bunch of names with an X in them and eventually I wrote 'Beenox.'

"I thought to myself, 'That kinda sounds cool' so I kept it and started using it. I then incorporated the name and started googling and found it was free; it was available."

Beenox is currently working on Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which is slated to launch on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS and 3DS.

Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.

When Nintendo finally flips the switch on the 3DS eShop, it's got a pretty solid plan for enticing users into the service. During an investor briefing, president Satoru Iwata announced that Nintendo plans to offer a free downloadable version of Excitebike through the eShop, for a limited time starting at launch.

It won't just be Excitebike -- it'll be 3D Excitebike. This freebie will be 3DS owners' first experience with the "3D Classics" line, in which classic games are updated with new 3D effects. So when some anonymous racer knocks you off your bike, it'll be more ... exciting. Iwata didn't specify a region for this release, so there is a possibility that it might be restricted to Japan.

For Nintendo, 3.61 million just isn't enough. That's the number of 3DS systems sold since launch, and it's approximately 400K short of Nintendo's launch goal, says company head Satoru Iwata. Speaking to investors today in Osaka, Japan, Iwata specifically noted (in an official translation), "Nintendo 3DS started very well but, on the other hand, did not perform as expected after the second week."

Iwata cited the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year as a factor, but added, "I should not blame this situation just on the impact of the earthquake. There are other challenges that have shown up." Without being specific, he said that the company is "making efforts to get the popularity of Nintendo 3DS back on track for the upcoming summer season." (We're imagining a daily regimen of exercise for the dimension-heavy handheld.)

Nintendo has a followup earnings briefing scheduled for next Tuesday in Tokyo, so perhaps we'll find out more about the company's plans then.

#handwringing Nintendo's glasses-free 3DS portable gaming system isn't selling as well as the company expected because people don't understand how great the gadget is or how to properly use it, the president of the company theorizes. More »

#pokewhat The magazine scans reader David points us towards are ridiculously blurry and the images vague, but three things are certain: That spiky-haired character is holding a Pokéball, the game is on the 3DS, and that's Agate Village from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. More »

#huffingpaint Deza Egg is a Japanese after market game hardware customizer. So if you're not happy with the 3DS colors Nintendo is offering, Deza Egg can help. More »

#tehfuture It's April. Soon it will be May. And to fill out the rest of 2011, Nintendo is going to release games. Most of them have already been revealed, but here's a handy list of titles Nintendo plans out putting out in 2011. More »

Speaking at the 2011 National Association of Broadcasters conference, director James Cameron had a lot to say about 3D display technology. After announcing the founding of his own 3D tech company, the Cameron-Pace Group, Cameron talked about gaming's role in the industry's growth. In an interview with Yahoo, Cameron sung the praises of the 3DS, saying, "Video games are going to help propel the autostereoscopic (glasses-free) play because that's going to be the entry level for most people."

Cameron seems to think that the 3DS is a kind of gateway drug to harder 3D displays. He added, "These single-viewing devices that are engaging the person to play these video games will drive a lot of investment in autostereoscopic displays for that very reason." Wow, Mr. Cameron's just chock-full of good ideas! In fact, later in the interview, he said, "I'd love to do an MMORPG experience inside the Avatar universe and I would like to see it authored in 3D." Oh, no. Oh. No.

Nintendo's net income dropped to ¥77.6 billion ($946 million) for its fiscal year ending in March, marking the company's third year of profit declines. The figure is also well below the ¥200 billion ($2.13 billion) Nintendo estimated it would make at the conclusion of its previous fiscal year. If only Nintendo had some kind of distraction so investors wouldn't notice ... OMG, guyz, "Wii's successor" in 2012.

Looking forward, Nintendo expects to have net sales of ¥1.1 trillion over the next year, a slight increase from the ¥1.01 trillion reported this year, but still below the ¥1.4 trillion in 2010 -- they may just be post-decimal figures when talking trillions, but those are hundreds of billions. The company is planning on a net income of ¥110 billion yen ($1.3 billion) by next March, through "vigorously" marketing the 3DS, releasing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii and selling software from its "long-selling 'evergreen' titles."

Global unit sales life-to-date (March) of the Nintendo DS, 3DS and Wii hardware were 146.4 million units, 3.61 million units and 86.01 million units, respectively. Nintendo is expected to reveal a playable model of the "Wii's successor" at E3.

#watchthis Your first instinct may be to hate this. For the price-gouging, for the fact they can't seem to get even minor details right. But give it a few minutes and that's exactly the reason you'll grow to love it. More »

Since launch, the Nintendo 3DS has sold 3.61 million units. That and the fact the company's operating profits are down a whopping 52% due to a slide in sales of the DS and Wii are the highlights of Nintendo's latest financial report. More »

#praisebetonintendo Elk River, Minnesota Pastor Eric Dykstra has "no problem bribing people with crap in order to meet Christ," which is why hitting up The Crossing Church for Easter Sunday services could win you a Nintendo 3DS. More »

A leaked logo revealed the existence of a third Mario & Sonic Olympics game last week, and now Sega has confirmed it in a press release (having also sent out an official, much cleaner-looking version of the logo).

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is skipping DS and going only to Wii and 3DS. New Olympic events for the Wii version include soccer and equestrian challenges, along with a new slate of less realistic "Dream Events." The 3DS version has "over 50" events, none of which were named.

In addition to those, the title is a marathon on its own.

#rumor That is, according to "leaked" press release on a Czech website. The inevitable sequels to Mario and Sonic's last Olympic outing takes the two to the London Olympics via the Wii and the 3DS. More »

The June remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocraina of Time will include a "Boss Challenge" mode that will let players battle any bosses they've beaten, "continuously" according to a product listing for the game from Nintendo's European division. [via Giant Bomb] More »

#finewine The short answer: a lot. The long answer: a substantial amount, my dear, it really is quite noticeable. More »

Remember how finding a Wii after its launch was more difficult than finding ... um, a thing, like -- you know what? There actually isn't an analogy that's applicable, here. It was the hardest thing to find, ever. That was a rough period to be sure, but Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently explained to USA Today, "We learned significant lessons from the launch of Wii and we made sure to have not only ample supply [of 3DS] in the marketplace, but we staged supply so it would not sell out." He added, "That strategy is why you didn't see massive sellouts on Nintendo 3DS."

Fils-Aime explained that, even though the system sold almost 400,000 units in its first week on store shelves, it avoided sellouts largely because Nintendo "had product going direct to store and we also had product in retailers (distribution centers), so they could easily replenish when they had stores running low on inventory." The supply chain seems to be holding up pretty well -- way better than Nintendo's supply strategy for the Wii, which involved making secret wishes on falling stars that Wiis would just, like, appear.

#downloadables In a Nintendo Download populated by baby simulations, demos, and piano tutors, only one ancient robot has the power to make this week's downloadable Nintendo games not completely suck. More »

#screengrab Yep. An Akihabara retailer's in-store display for Senran Kagura is pretty much what one would expect: 3D norgs. As seen on Moeyo.com. More »