Editor Roundtable: On The 3DS, 3D Gaming And More

Nintendo recently confirmed something that has been floating around for a few weeks: It’s working on a new handheld. The surprising bit was that it was going to be more than just a turbocharged DS. The new device, tentatively called the 3DS, will display three-dimensional images without requiring users to wear special glasses.

Naturally, that got the Game Informer staff talking. What was Nintendo thinking? Are we ready for a dedicated 3D handheld? Why reveal this when the DSi XL hasn’t even hit store shelves? We discussed some of those questions and concerns in an informal conversation, along with a few predictions and some good ol’ fashioned speculation.

What do you think? Are you excited about the 3DS?

Jeff Cork
It’s interesting to see Nintendo leapfrog past an HD solution for the Wii in favor of a 3D handheld. One of the reasons 3D technology has been successful in theaters is that it offers a spectacle that can’t easily be replicated at home. Games are an entirely different beast. Have any of you played a DS game and thought that it needed to be in 3D? Have you had that thought about a game on any system, for that matter? Nintendo has made a business out of surprising people, and if anyone can pull it off it’s them. At this point though, it feels like a solution in search of a problem.

Phil Kollar
As my opinion piece in the magazine last month might have suggested, I'm not  very hopeful for the future of 3D gaming, and what little I know about the Nintendo 3DS so far does little to change that. If they really have a way to do impressive-looking 3D without the need for glasses, that could be very exciting, but until we hear more about the actual technology behind the 3DS, I'm prepared to be underwhelmed. That said, after over five years of crazy success with the DS, it's definitely time for Nintendo to be launching a new handheld. Hopefully the tech powering it (aside from the 3D stuff) is exciting and worth the upgrade.

Matt Kato
While the 3DS might be nice to look at, I wonder what the gameplay experiences will really be like. I worry that gameplay uses of 3D will be restricted by the technology. Could you make title as gameplay rich as, Castlevania, for instance, that uses 3D and still keep its foundation intact? Or are we going to simply be staring at 3D DS images and tapping the touchscreen occasionally with a stylus?

Tim Turi
I always thought the standard DS Lite screens and even the bigger DSi displays were smaller than they needed to be. After my first experience with the DSi XL’s enormous screens yesterday (trust me, I’m getting one), I’m can’t imagine a 3D display working well on anything smaller. With that in mind, how will Nintendo implement 3D technology into a new handheld without making it big to the point of it hardly qualifying as a handheld? To answer the question, I’ve never seen 3D console gaming as being a necessary step for the industry in general, let alone handheld games. The best handheld games end up being the ones that embrace their play-on-the-go purpose. I want to play a game where I can snap open the DS and start playing right away, without having to worry about adjusting my eyes to various image depths. Doesn’t complicating the technology too much reduce the fun and accessibility of a portable system?

Bryan Vore
As far as Jeff's "solution in search of a problem" point, I'd argue that this is exactly what Nintendo has done over the past few years and made truckloads of money in the process. No one thought we needed two screens for a portable handheld. No one asked for motion controls. Most of all, no one wanted to mix exercise and gaming. All Nintendo needs to do is craft a "Wii Sports of 3D" that makes it clear how the mechanic works and people will buy it. Plus, a new console means another Mario Kart that will be in the top 20 sales chart for three years after it releases.

Matt Helgeson
I think the "no glasses" thing is huge. 3D gaming won't be a major aspect of the industry until that's a reality. And, while I agree with Jeff, there's really no current DS game I could see being made better by 3D, I sat around like an idiot and told anyone who would hear me that the DS seemed like a dumb idea when it was announced. Clearly, the PSP was the one offering "true" next-gen handheld gaming, right? And don't forget all my smug little comments about Wii Fit after that legendarily underwhelming E3 press conference. God, I'm such a SMART GUY. So, basically, at this point if Nintendo said they were releasing a handheld with four screens, 3D, a retinal scanner, and a weird Avatar fiber-optic ponytail that plugged directly into your butt, I'm just going to go ahead and assume they'll move 50 million units in the first three years.

Jeff Cork
Great points. I'm curious to see what kind of killer app Nintendo has in the works. Does everyone think that we've overcome a major technological hurdle with 3D games? People have been trying to bring 3D games to the market for decades, and I can't think of any that offered anything besides gimmicks. Rad Racer and the 3D Adventures of World Runner weren't any better with the extra dimension, and I'd argue that the Virtual Boy was a step backward. Sure, things might have popped out at players, but were the headaches worth it? I'd like to see some kind of gameplay that just wouldn't be possible on traditional displays. Give me that, and you've given me a reason to care.

Matt Bertz
It's the chicken and the egg argument. Publishers and developers aren't going to devote resources to create true 3D experiences until the built-in audience is there to buy it, and consumers aren't going to flock to 3D until the publishers and developers give them a reason to adopt the technology. It's going to take a trailblazing developer that does more than just tack on a stereoscopic view onto a pre-existing title to get people to jump on board.

Jeff Marchiafava
I can't recall any game that has used 3D to significantly enhance a gaming experience, and I'm sure the 3DS will have its share of gimmicky titles. But in terms of a killer app, if Nintendo can truly make a handheld gaming device that does 3D without the need for glasses, then I think the technology itself is the killer app. The Wii didn't really need a killer app -- millions of people were content to buy it for Wii Sports because the technology presented a fresh take on gaming. Not only would a 3d display without glasses be new for gaming, it's something most people haven't experienced in any entertainment medium. That alone will make the 3DS a success, if Nintendo can actually pull it off. Whether we'll get quality gaming experiences out of the tech depends on the ingenuity of developers, like Bertz pointed out.

Nick Ahrens
While lately Nintendo is known for marketing what are essentially gimmicks into mainstream successes, I'm curious to see how they will pull this off on the technical side. NEC has auto-stereoscopic 3D technology that can be shrunk down to 3.1 inches. I wish I could put money on them or someone similar making the displays. Most likely it will be some parallax 3D hybrid and Nintendo has experience with it from the Virtual Boy days, but NEC's solution would be much easier and portable friendly. Larger parallax 3D displays use multiple projectors working together. Getting that into a DS sized case may be tough but the rumors of it using cameras to help with the effect could make the difference.

Matt Kato
I don't think the question is whether or not Nintendo will make money on the 3DS ­ they will, and we all know that. It'll be whether Nintendo has really moved the ball forward or if it's just a bunch of smoke and mirrors to get people to buy it. People bought Wii Fit, but that doesn't make it a good experience.

Adam Biessener
I have a hard time visualizing a situation where this plays out any differently than the last two Nintendo hardware launches. I'd love to be proven wrong and see third parties brought into the fold for real, given access to the technology, and building truly novel experiences. That's been the pipe dream for years now, though, and quality third-party games for Wii and DS are still awfully thin on the ground.

Joe Juba
As a quick sidetrack to the conversation: One reason I'm apprehensive about the 3DS, as well as the industry's slow crawl toward 3D tech in general, is purely selfish. I get motion sickness when playing certain games, and I've noticed the same thing happening during the 3D movies I've been to recently.
Now, it's not a huge deal; I pop a pill before I got to the theater or play one of the offending games, and I'm fine. Maybe, with the relatively small size of the 3DS this wouldn't be a problem, but personally, I'm not looking forward to a future where I need to keep a Dramamine dispenser attached to my belt just to play games.

Adam Biessener
I think Joe brings up a great point in that accessibility is a huge issue with 3D. I have a friend who, while not quite blind in one eye, sees almost entirely out of his left. 3D is rough for him, and he almost always ends up with a blinding headache after seeing a stereoscopic film. And he's not even on the bad end of the scale. This doesn't affect me personally at all, but there will be those left behind in the transition and it certainly does suck for them.

Jeff Cork
Do you think this is a situation where people will be priced out of the transition, too? Nintendo has always tried to keep its products relatively inexpensive--even at the risk of delivering lower-end tech--and I can't imagine they'll switch up that strategy now. Would you spend $200 on a 3DS? Would anyone? It's impossible for me to say personally, considering I haven't seen it in action. At any rate, it really has to do more than let me pet a puppy in simulated 3D space for me to consider the investment.

Tim Turi
I'm flinching at the thought of a pricepoint even coming close to $200. I have a long history of upgrading Game Boys and DSs (GBA>GBA SP> GBA Micro, etc), and one reason I've done so is because of the affordable price point. If Nintendo decides to release a new iteration of a handheld incorporating a feature I don't think is necessary (See: DSi's camera & DSiWare), at a higher price point, I'm not likely going to upgrade to it. I don't see a lot of Nintendo fans biting on this 3DS right away if the price exceeds $200. What Nintendo may be able to do at that price is wrangle in new DS owners who fell in love with the Nintendo Wii but never felt the DS was a good fit for them.

Jeff Marchiafava
I agree that the higher Nintendo creeps up the price ladder the more it risks alienating the casual audience, but I don't see $200 as necessarily being a deal breaker. The DSi XL is already $190, and that's only $20 more than the DSi. It will definitely be hard for some gamers to justify spending that much on a handheld system, but if the technology is different enough from anything else on the market (unlike the PSPgo redesign, for instance), I think gamers will be interested. I've never been a fan of Nintendo constantly regurgitating its handheld line, but it's obviously paid off thus far, and the 3DS sounds like it's a significant enough hardware change to justify its place in Nintendo's lineup (assuming again that it actually works). I just wonder how it's going to affect DSi XL sales -- usually you want to wait until you release a system to announce its successor, don't you?

Matt Bertz
I don't think that Nintendo views all these different DS models as competitors that will hinder each other’s growth. They are more like alternative flavors of the same product with a variety of feature sets that may appeal to different consumer psychologies. Prego doesn't roll out one new flavor of pasta sauce at a time and worry about the arrabiatta stepping on the toes of the puttanesca — it offers dozens of choices at the grocery store. As Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out, embracing and exploiting the diversity of an audience’s desires is a common tool of marketers in many different fields, and Nintendo is simply employing this tactic to a greater degree than other console makers.